Tuesday, September 12, 2006

On the Road Again

You guess it - I'm on the road again. Back to sunny San Diego.

Since my flight out here was on none other than 9/11, my husband was a little worried and asked me a question that I've spent a bit of time studying on - "Have you even seen any air marshalls?"

My answer - I am pretty sure I have.

Based on the complaints of air marshalls in Dallas, my understanding is that they are required to wear suits. Don't even get me started as to why, when that sticks out a heck of a lot more than a guy in jeans/t-shirt and carrying a duffle bag, but this is our government at work. I have to say, as a writer, I spend a lot of time studying people. Not just looking - studying. And unless I'm frantically trying to get my blog to post while they're boarding the plane (like yesterday), I usually have some time in the airport to indulge my people studying.

This is why I think I've pegged the air marshalls - they have on suits, like all the other traveling businessmen, and they have those damned Bluetooth earpieces, but there's two huge differences:

1. The AM's aren't yelling into their earpieces puffing themselves up with their own importance and making sure everyone within a country mile can hear their entire conversation. (Like we want to).

2. The AM's don't pause from yelling to glance around and see who's looking at them thinking they're important. The AM's study, they don't glance, and when they use the phones it has that whole MIB feel to it. All they need is the sunglasses.

Which leads me to my next question - why do businessmen have to yell into their phones like self-important asses???? I absolutely hate these men. If my husband was one of these men, I'd kill him - divorce wouldn't be enough. No one is that important if they're flying commercial.

So have I seen an Air Marshall - I think so. They're the well-dressed, observant men who know how to talk on the phone at a civilized level. The rest of you should take lessons from them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The suit-wearing air marshals are about to be a thing of the past, if they aren't already. After one of the guys did an expose on ABC News, it apparently put a lot of pressure on whoever's in charge of the air marshal program. It wasn't just the suits that was making them stand out. They also got special treatment, for lack of a better description, at the security check-ins, and apparently even had to show their badges out where everybody and his brother could see them. Oh, and they had to stay in certain hotels, some of which even used the fact AMs stayed there as a part of their advertising! Bloody stupid. Anyway, the rules have now been changed. *g*

No more suits, more discreet check-ins, they can stay wherever the heck they like.

BUT the guy who blew the whistle on this stupidity is under investigation by his bosses. What a bunch of idiots.

Er, not that I have any opinions on the subject or anything. *g*

Jana DeLeon said...

Jeeze, Tori, what a mess! I sincerely hope they fix this. By singling this people out it only makes things more dangerous - especially for those trying to protect the rest of us. I hope the guy who blew the whistle gets off.

Anonymous said...

That was the whistle-blowers whole point. He said not only was it putting the air marshals in danger, it was endangering the very passengers they were supposed to protect.

I'm just constantly amazed at the lack of common sense these days.

 
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