And that should settle the question. What’s the point (absent a safety problem of interference with flight systems) of prohibiting people from doing with a cell phone what they already do with an in-flight phone?
The cost has to do with the fact that the phones are only provided by one company. Guess who is lobbying against cell phone use in planes?
Given that the guy next to me is **already **yakking on the phone, what do I care if it’s an in-flight phone or a cell phone?
At $4 a minute, it is unlikely he will be doing it for 5 hours straight.
But whatever minutes he uses are going right into some rip-off artist’s pocket.
On the CTA (Chicago’s public transportation system) radio playing has long been disallowed and one can be fined. (In more recent times, with headphnes, it is tolerated as long as you aren’t booming so loudly that everybody else has to hear it, also). Yet the CTA is now trying to make it more conveninet for people to use their radios (in the form of cell phones) throughout the system. Ironic. I guess it’s not ok to annoy other riders if they can hear what loudly comes out of the radio but it’s just fine to annoy them if they have to put up with the loud tones that go into the radio.
Now we’re talking! I think I may open up a flash card business.
So if you’re on the CTA, and someone calls you on your cellphone to tell you your house is on fire, your husband or wife is in an accident, or your missing child has been found, you should go to jail?
This is a ridiculous arguement. For you are focusing on the extreme example rather than the norm. That is not the way in which you make laws.
Fine, let them go about their business. Nobody is stopping them. But allow them to do so in their own private offices and homes rather than shouting in public and subjecting everybody else in the society around them to a one sided, somewhat self-centered conversation. We need to remember that we do actually live in a community and aren’t the only people in the world.
If you’re willing to pay a fine for exercising your rights to freedom of speech.
Prisons are full of people who were the exception to the rule of “reasonable application.” I seem to recall a pregnant woman being thrown to the ground and handcuffed in a case of “no cell phone usage.”
Big difference between a church or private owner making a rule and the Government doing it. Especially if, as we see, it favors some monopolistic business overcharging for the same thing that is prohibited.
What did people do before they had airplanes?
You have a right to that opinion – just don’t use the force of law to suppress those who disagree.
So it would be okay to outlaw ANYTHING in public?
Freedom of speech isn’t absolute. Ever hear of laws against “disturbing the peace” or “inciting a riot”?
And she’s in jail now?
Big deal. If it is needed to preserve decency and order in a society, it is needed.
The matter of business competition is distinct from what I am discussing here. While I might agree with you on this matter, one could just as reasonably argue that it would be legitimate to merely ban all such communications on airlines, save for emergencies. Airlines are a “private owner”, afterall.
They survived just fine. And didn’t have to complain about how their intrinsic rights were somehow being suppressed by an inability to fly.
No one is “suppressing” people. Merely suggesting that if one desires to use their cell phone radios in public, they ought to maintain a certain decorum and that, perhaps, in certain circumstances it is best to refrain from useage entirely. Truly, are Americans going to somehow be tyranically oppressed merely because we have to wait a few minutes to make a phone call?
Oh, come on! Enough about “freedom” (more like libertarianisms) and “laws”! This really is a matter of simple manners. And if people are so inconsiderate as to violate worthwhile societal codes to keep peace, well then is it any surprize that we may have to resort to making restrictive laws for such “petty offenses” to keep some semblance of order? What these people really need aren’t laws so much as mothers who can teach them how to behave.
Actually, I find my cell phone makes things much less hectic. I can talk to my wife on the way home from work to catch up on the day and plan our next moves. Otherwise, I’d get hit with a million things walking in the door which used to raise my blood pressure instantly.
theTaxCollector said:
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dead set against portable radio (which is what a cell phone is) usage. I’m a ham, afterall! However, I’m merely calling for some common sense moderation.
Why don’t we try that (common sense ) before immediately jumping to the force of government to infringe on people’s rights? What’s wrong with a little sign in the plane asking people to be courteous?
I agree!
Again, we aren’t talking about “infringement of rights”, but the longstanding tradition of legitimate “nuissance laws”.
That’s great! I have no problem with such at all and would advocate it as a good first step. However, what if people don’t willingly comply? How does one enforce it? That’s when a law is needed in order to penalize, instruct, and bring people into conformity, if necessary.
Nothing at all. Indeed, I earlier noted that what is really needed isn’t so much laws as mommies teaching manners. Perhaps parents and teachers also could help people learn to read such things, first?