OT: Don't want to pay extra? Then push away from the table sooner than later!

[Art]

EG,

Are you so smarting from the discovery that you are a screaming liberal, that you have to bring in left and right to each discussion from here on? I realize it is easy and generally correct to blame the left for most of this country's ills -- including forest fires which, if the right was allowed to properly maintain a forest and remove the undergrowth as we've tried and been refused by left wing power groups that believe racking up a leaf is an affront to nature -- but, honestly, step back and try to debate each idea on the merits of it and not your political leanings.

And, yes, the forest fire thing was an unfair button pusher .

[The Evil Genius]

Art,

What in the hell are you talking about? You lost me on your hate spew there. Perhaps you need to take off the white robe and talk a little clearer.

[The Evil Genius]

Just kidding

I was just noting that people tend to agree, liberal or conservative, when their rights are being taken away. As you have Art with the liberals who want to protect the rights of the disabled (or the large, obese, etc.).

[Zen-like Todd]

So what, kids who are too short can't ride certain rides at the amusement parks. Big deal.

As long as there is a valid reason behind discriminating based on a certain characteristic, it doesnt bother me. I don't really dig how the term discrimination gets bandied about nowadays (this is just a general rant). Universities discriminate. If you are an idiot, you don't get into an Ivy League school. That's discrimination, and its not a bad thing.

Airplanes have weight and volume constraints. The bigger you are, the more you cost the airline to ship. Oh well, such are the laws of physics.

If I was larger, stronger, and more coordinated, I'd be in the NFL. I should sue them for discrimination, apparently.

[Kilmer17]

The problem is the rule itself, it's the enforcement of the rule.

They have not posted any tangible rules in which to follow, leaving the decision at the discretion of the gate agents.

[Art]

TCO,

I think your thoughts are strong but perhaps a little over the top. The airlines are not a private business. They are a governmentally supported industry. If we were talking about a completely private industry, I'd probably tend to agree that despite being born taller than most, I have no ability to complain, other than with where my dollar goes, about an airline policy that doesn't account for me.

But, as the airlines do take money from me as a taxpayer, then the issue changes. As it is impossible to help being born taller than most, the equity here is a bit different than the equity you are discussing. While I'm loathe to cry discrimination in most things, the fact is, that as long as airlines take government money, they are going to have a problem enforcing "larger person" rules when it comes to taller folks because they can't categorize based on a genetic trait anymore than they could based upon a religious or ethnic trait. As a taller person who has long been irritated by movie theater seating (though not now as it rocks) and other less accomodating venues, I can say that the first time Southwest tries to charge extra because I was born and grew into a 6-5 male, then, they'll have problems.

Now, we all know the intent of the policy is to charge fat wide bodies so, it's unlikely I'll ever be so targeted, but, the policy's wording is such that it is problematic on its face.

[Om]

"R.O.U.S.'s? Riders Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist."

[Ryman of the North]

OK I WAS GOING TO LET IT SLIDE BUT HERE IS MY TAKE!

At 6-4 and 290 my *** fits easily however the width of my shoulders generally takes up the seat im in as well as about half of the next if i ask for an aisle seat and get it no prob but when the friggin tards put me in the middle seat i probablyfeel less pity for my seatmates i dont think that paying extra should be that big a deal but lets be real here who here would rather be squished a little bit thgan stunk out of your seat lets institute a hygiene tax!

and no naked supermodels should never be charged!

[PCS]

"But in the meantime, rest well. Dream of large women."

[Art]

EG,

Most people of all political beliefs agree that discrimination based upon a genetic or religious trait is improper. It is not a liberal that is attempting to protect my rights. Certain beliefs are without political leaning. It is wrong to discriminate on the basis of the traits a person is born with or the traits a person acquires through a religious selection.

All people fight for this. The difference between the liberal and the conservative tends to be that the liberal likewise fights for characteristics that are not born to a person or part of a religious belief system. Liberals will fight for the overweight here, where, they should be teaching the overweight to eat less. Liberals will fight for the homosexual as some type of genetic minority deserving of special rights. Liberals will defend the right of a long-hair to work at a place of business that requires short hair.

The problem with liberals is they have taken the fight for people's rights to mean that anything a person desires is a right where conservatives tend to believe how a person is born or how a person prays is worth protecting, but choices that lead to inconvenience are not as worthwhile.

So, as much as you'd like to believe it is not so, conservatives are equally as concerned with basic human rights as liberals. We just don't believe in making all human weakness a basic right.