Funny (political, religious) pictures
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
figmentPez
Staff member
GasBandit
Staff member
Those are retractable anti-traffic pylons. They are raised when a street is closed to motor traffic due to pedestrian crowds, to, say, stop vehicles from plowing into said crowds.
My guess: Those are the barriers that stop people from driving into crowds of pedestrians, a recent strategy by terrorists.
*edit* damn, ninja'd
Well, OK. I know what they are, they're extremely common around here - and they were long before the recent "drive into a shopping street" type of terrorism. They're not designed to stop anything, really, and a truck will drive straight through them. The anti-truck pylons look different.
Those pillars can be lowered into the street and raised to stop vehicles from passing
edit: ninja'd (dammit)
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm sure you're well aware of the difference between a people car and a truck. Yes, I've seen a regular car balanced on one of these, and I'm very sure it was a total loss. A 40ton truck hardly even slows down with these. Also, the ones shown in the picture aren't the ones shown in that video - they're the bigger, aluminum kind for blocking shopping street and city center traffic during pedestrian hours.
Anyway, that's not really important. I didn't link one wit hte other because those pylons don't really scream "terrorist stopper" to me. The concrete flower beds you find all over the world in front of US embassies (and they're the exact same all over the world), do.
Funny thing is, while I blame SW (and the US government for having overbooking legal) for the initial situation, what exactly are you supposed to do when somebody is sitting in a seat, and refuse to move? When in the course of physically removing him, there's an injury... isn't it really REALLY hard to prevent that?
As I said, the initial situation is from a practice that while legal, is abhorrent, but when you're bumped, how is it OK to not get off the plane, and to flail and fight those who are trying to remove you? I'm just wondering what else could have happened once overbooking == true happened?
Oh, and a video about overbooking:
Explains why it happens. I particularly like the very last question posed in the video, though I disagree with the potential conclusions of it.
As I said, the initial situation is from a practice that while legal, is abhorrent, but when you're bumped, how is it OK to not get off the plane, and to flail and fight those who are trying to remove you? I'm just wondering what else could have happened once overbooking == true happened?
Oh, and a video about overbooking:
Explains why it happens. I particularly like the very last question posed in the video, though I disagree with the potential conclusions of it.
I think overbooking is fine, the airlines just should have to keep going higher and higher until someone takes the offer. If that means you're paying out $10k to get someone off your plane, then that's your problem. I've been on plenty of overbooked flights and every time, someone has taken the money eventually.
If they overbooked the flight how is the person who's boarding pass was scanned and made their way to their seat the one who needs to leave? It's assigned seating.
Now granted this could be answered in the video you posted, I'm at work so I can't watch.
I said above quite clearly that I find the practice abhorrent, and thus am not defending the legality of it (I in fact am in favor of making it illegal for all venues, be they seats in transportation, events, or hotel rooms, rental cars, etc), but I'm asking: What was the airline supposed to do once they decide a person gets bumped, and they refuse to move? They called security (which seems correct) and then they had a problem with the guy.
What else could they have done once he was bumped?
I agree that maybe just announcing a "bidding" until somebody volunteers to leave is an idea, but that's prior to the "decision" to bump a particular person. I'm not sure what the airline did wrong here (once the initial practice of overbooking happened I mean).
You get my props for word of the day with "debacle." I don't think any word I've seen so far describes it as well. It even edges out "clusterfuck" IMO.
Well done.
