A recent dust up on an airplane perfectly sums up life in this modern time. None of it is pretty. A flight attendant with Jet Blue got into an argument with a customer and ended up with a suitcase upside his head.

He issued an expletive– laced diatribe over the intercom, grabbed a couple of beers from the cooler, activated the emergency slide on the plane’s fuselage, and disappeared. A while later he was arrested by a SWAT team at his home.

Anyone who has flown since 9/11 knows the airline industry is a mess. A runaway bureaucracy before the attacks, the friendly skies are now dominated by idiotic, ineffective rules designed to make us feel safe, enforced by people who aren’t fit to work at fast food restaurants.

No fly lists featuring thousands of unexplained entries forbid little kids and grandmothers from boarding a plane. There is no recourse for anyone mistakenly placed on the list, yet dangerous people are routinely allowed to fly. Eighty–year–olds on walkers are required to remove their shoes because it’s the rule and the check in lines are as long as an ex–wife’s memory.

This makes passengers surly. This and the me first attitude that has been popular since the early 80s. No one thinks rules apply to them anymore. Everyone wants to bicker and complain about stupid regulations that shouldn’t be enforced because they are a special case.

Whether it is the minimum wage security guy, the unconcerned airline desk jockey, or the burnt out flight attendant, everyone associated with flying these days is cocked and ready to make the customer do something because it’s a rule. To say these people are looking to abuse their power is a massive understatement.

After the customer with self esteem issues deemed the rules beneath her, the attendant “ordered her to sit down; she defied him.” This triggered his explosion. That would normally have ended things, but the airplane police saw an opportunity to make a show of force like this guy was Bin Laden.

And of course our national news services picked the story up and ran it non–stop on TV, triggering support groups for the guy, political debates blaming either Cons or Libs for the real problem, and tons of Twitter and My Space entries.

All of this was big time stuff until three days later, when a viral You Tube video showed a different woman attacking a McDonalds’ drive through because they wouldn’t serve her McNuggets at 6 a.m. Then the whole process repeated itself.

This is what passes for news these days. Anything on video demands wall to wall coverage, whether it be Balloon Boy, Mel Gibson, or Brett Favre. All frivolous stories are beat to death; every possible angle covered by someone who hopes you forget what he said so he can reverse positions tomorrow. Important news is ignored because the ratings would be low. The public is so uninformed it is shameful.

At some point, our descendants will consider current behavior and vehemently deny we were their ancestors. Or mankind will continue on this ridiculous path and the monkeys will overthrow us out of sheer embarrassment.