The Denver Post reports that yet another drunken airline passenger has been sent to federal court on charges

stemming from an incident in which they caused problems on an airplane in flight. We've heard of drunk passengers groping flight attendants, publicly masturbating and even having all-out brawls on airplanes, but somehow we have another first:

Prosecutors say Ezra James Wallace, 29, took photographs of one of the girls despite her objections and even though she covered her face with her hands. He also bound the hands of both girls with athletic tape...

Wallace later told FBI investigators that he had drank about a half-pint of vodka before to the incident...

In a written statement, Wallace admitted to taping both girls' hands and said, "It was all in good fun."

He also stated he was "drunk and blurry" and that it was hard to remember details.

He said that his son has never been in trouble before and that he is not an alcoholic — he just "drinks more than he should." 

This past summer, SAFER called for marijuana lounges in airports nationwide after federal prosecutors expressed concern over the growing number of alcohol-related incident taking place on commercial flights. Government officials shrugged off the suggestion then, and it appears they are going to just keep their heads buried firmly in the sand and continue to do so.

"Twisted behavior against juveniles on airplanes won't be tolerated," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said in a statement. 

So, let's follow this logic: Twisted behavior on airplanes will not be tolerated. Twisted behavior on airplanes is virtually always associated with alcohol use by passengers. Twisted behavior on airplanes has never been associated with marijuana use. The government continues to have a policy in which marijuana use by passengers will not be tolerated, but alcohol use by passengers will be both tolerated and promoted.

Hopefully the U.S. Attorney has a small child who can explain to their daddy how truly ass-backwards the government's line of reasoning is in this situation. 

In a recent column about the upcoming election that appeared in the Greeley Tribune, the author refers to SAFER's "Cindy McCain: Drug Dealer" campaign and, in particular, its URL -- www.DrugDealerCindy.com -- as an example of a Web site name that sticks.

There are plenty lame-sounding Web sites devoted to campaigns or issues, many of them seemingly because Web designers either weren't creative, or the Internet is simply running out of names.

Other sites probably could have gone with other names, but chose ones that would stick in voter's minds, like DrugDealerCindy.com. The site is a project of the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, which lobbies for the legalization of marijuana. The group calls Cindy McCain a drug dealer because her family owns a beer distributorship -- "As the head of (Hensley & Co.), Cindy makes millions of dollars dealing a drug far more harmful than marijuana: Alcohol."

 

There are those who would argue alcohol is not a narcotic in the traditional sense, but the Web site name is hard to forget.

As for that last statement, perhaps the author should check a dictionary for the definition of "narcotic" (note alcohol is mentioned and marijuana is not):

1. any of a class of substances that blunt the senses, as opium, morphine, belladonna, and alcohol, that in large quantities produce euphoria, stupor, or coma, that when used constantly can cause habituation or addiction, and that are used in medicine to relieve pain, cause sedation, and induce sleep.