{"id":246,"date":"2013-07-17T16:29:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godscomic\/?p=246"},"modified":"2013-07-17T16:29:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:29:00","slug":"the-joys-of-modern-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html","title":{"rendered":"The joys of modern flight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am writing this week\u2019s column while sitting in a window seat of a CRJ 200 shuttle, leaving for Iowa for a Promise Keepers event then back to Albuquerque for a feature film I am in and then to Nashville.<\/p>\n<p>The CRJ by the way was designed for shorter flights that save the airlines money on fuel and service a smaller volume of passengers. In other words it\u2019s caca.<\/p>\n<p>As I survey my surroundings of this all too familiar traveling option that I have grown accustomed too by the mere fact that I have no options since the Star Trek transporter technology still seems to be years away.<\/p>\n<p>At this moment I am gobbling up a bag of peanuts that they actually offered free of charge! Apparently they based the volume of how many peanuts per bag on the Biblical story of the widow\u2019s mite.<\/p>\n<p>When I first arrived at the check in I was asked for credit card to pay for checking my bags. One wonders how they do this with a straight face.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cWelcome sir we are happy you chose American and hope you have a pleasant flight\u2026Oh wait a minute..you\u2019re bringing clothing? We didn\u2019t anticipate this but yes, we have received clearance to tote your personal effects along with you on your getaway but I am sure you can understand this is going to cost you. <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps in the future when you know you are going to travel you can ship your toiletries and wardrobe ahead in a packing crate so it will be there when you arrive. It would be cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The seats on these shuttles are a miracle of modern technology. While other companies still go by that archaic concept of providing seats that fit humans, the airlines simply realized with a smaller plane it would be reasonable to take one seat, put an armrest down the middle of it and voila, you have two!<\/p>\n<p>They also have this little gag they play with the English language where they offer the \u201crecline\u201d option on your seat. To \u201crecline\u201d in airline seat terminology refers to the difference between initially being bent forward and \u201creclining\u201d into what the military refers to as attention.<\/p>\n<p>In other words if airlines manufactured a rocking chair it would consist of a three legged stool with its feet set in concrete.<\/p>\n<p>Part of my adventure also consisted of the consistency of the airlines inconsistency. My departure flight was delayed and arrived late thus causing me to be the ubiquitous \u201crunning man\u201d one always sees at airports and makes us happy inside when we know its not us.<br \/>\nIt was I this time and after literally running 2 terminals I made it just in time to find out they gave my seat away.<\/p>\n<p>They had a window available, which I took though I\u2019m an aisle man. Now I\u2019m trapped in the Yoga \u201cdecaying zebra\u201d position and hope soon to regain feeling in at least one leg so I can hop\/hobble down the jet way in order to get out of this Marquis De Sade devised travel experience.<\/p>\n<p>Yes the life of a traveling comedian, it just doesn\u2019t get better than this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am writing this week\u2019s column while sitting in a window seat of a CRJ 200 shuttle, leaving for Iowa for a Promise Keepers event then back to Albuquerque for a feature film I am in and then to Nashville. The CRJ by the way was designed for shorter flights that save the airlines money&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","tag-modern-flight-travel-nightmares-poor-business-models"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The joys of modern flight - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The joys of modern flight - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am writing this week\u2019s column while sitting in a window seat of a CRJ 200 shuttle, leaving for Iowa for a Promise Keepers event then back to Albuquerque for a feature film I am in and then to Nashville. The CRJ by the way was designed for shorter flights that save the airlines money&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-17T20:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The joys of modern flight - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The joys of modern flight - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"I am writing this week\u2019s column while sitting in a window seat of a CRJ 200 shuttle, leaving for Iowa for a Promise Keepers event then back to Albuquerque for a feature film I am in and then to Nashville. The CRJ by the way was designed for shorter flights that save the airlines money&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2013-07-17T20:29:00+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html","name":"The joys of modern flight - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-17T20:29:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-17T20:29:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/07\/the-joys-of-modern-flight.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The joys of modern flight"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}