U.S. Issues Electronics Ban For Passengers Flying From 8 Countries

Al Jazeera- The United States is barring passengers on flights originating in eight Muslim-majority countries from carrying any electronic device bigger than a mobile phone, the Department of Homeland Security said. 

Senior US officials told reporters that nine airlines from countries in the Middle East and North Africa had been given 96 hours, beginning at 7:00 GMT on Tuesday, to ban the devices from the cabin.

Laptops, e-readers, cameras, tablets, printers, electronic games and portable DVD players are affected by the ban – which applies to direct flights to the US – but they may still be stowed in the hold in checked baggage.

Absolutely brilliant. This is way more effective than an outright travel ban, and here’s why: first, it dilutes the racist, xenophobic tenor of an outright travel ban, but it accomplishes the same goal. Airlines are doing away with seat-back screens because everybody is watching their own movies on laptops/tablets. Nobody can survive a 14-hour flight without movies. Thus, if you ban electronics on flights from the Middle East, you stop terrorists from blowing up planes/logging on to Facebook AND you discourage normal, unwanted TV-loving tourists from coming to America. It’s basically saying, you can come here but you’ll have to endure 14 hours of reading a BOOK! LOL good luck nerds!

In all seriousness though, it sucks that air travel has come to this. I remember going through airport security before 9/11. Toilet kit filled with sunscreen, jug of soda in your hand, shoes on, high five the TSA agent, all the while cracking jokes about bombs. It was a mild formality, like stretching before men’s league basketball; we all knew it wouldn’t do any good but I guess it made us feel safer. I’d imagine these countries will hit us with a reciprocal electronics ban, and pretty soon we’ll all be staying home. Get your travel in now, kids. The world is closing.

PS- if you ever get the chance to fly in a private plane, it’s the greatest experience on earth. You drive up to the plane and you just… walk on. No security, no boarding pass, no checking bags. And to be clear, I’m not talking the “jet”/schoolbus that Dave took to Houston with the models; I’m talking leather seats, mahogany toilet, sashimi platters, and an extra seat in the cockpit so you can watch the landing. Probably a polarizing endnote, but thought I’d share.