Cellphones in Flight? This Means War!

Everybody's Business Cellphones in Flight? This Means War!

By BEN STEIN The New York Times March 26, 2006

JOHN BELL HOOD may well have been the most destructive American of all time. He was a Confederate general of undisputed courage and daring, but dazzlingly little strategic or tactical wisdom. ("All lion and no fox," said Robert E. Lee about this horrifyingly misguided soul when it was really too late to do much about it.)

Among his many other misdeeds, he ordered the assault on virtually impregnable Union positions in Franklin, Tenn., in November 1864. That led to far more casualties than Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg and accomplished absolutely zero for his side, because the Union was about to evacuate its positions anyway. It led, in a way, to the absolute dissolution of the Army of Tennessee, an irretrievable disaster for the "lost cause."

(By the way, he's "the gallant Hood of Texas" referred to in the fourth stanza of "The Yellow Rose of Texas," added as the Civil War was ending - if anyone remembers that song.)

This comes to mind because I believe that an award in General Hood's honor should be created for the most disastrous government decision of the year, or of the decade. Now, some may say the award should go to George W. Bush for deciding to invade Iraq, but the jury is still out on that, and in any event, at the time it seemed a good idea to people much smarter than I am.

But there is a decision pending within the bowels of the federal government that may be the single most incomprehensibly wrongheaded decision of the century. It's small when compared with Iraq, but it's still maddening. It involves allowing passengers to talk on their cellphones while they are in flight.

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Monty Solomon
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