Dan Savage On Joy Behar

Dan Savage, comedian Alec Mapa, and actress Raven Symone joined Joy Behar last night to discuss that Southwest pilot, gay pride, and New York marriage. Sharp-eyed viewers will note the NYC Digital Activists' banner in the clip of NYC Pride. At the 6:15 mark.

Near Collision At JFK

Spirit Airlines: $5 To Print Boarding Passes

But only if their clerk prints them for you at the airport.

Low-fare carrier Spirit Airlines drew gasps last year when it became the first U.S. airline to charge passengers for bringing carry-on bags aboard. On Tuesday, the proponent of fees for nearly everything airborne unveiled another U.S. first: Passengers who have boarding passes printed by a Spirit check-in agent will be charged $5 each for each nonstop flight. The Miramar, Fla., carrier said fliers can avoid forking over a five spot by checking in online and printing their own boarding passes. The new fee, which started Tuesday, applies to all flights booked for travel on or after Nov. 1.

Spirit also charges $20-$35 to use the overhead bin for a carry-on.

American Airlines - It Gets Better

Spirit Airlines On Weinergate

Copyranter notes: "Spirit once again tries to prove that, creatively, it's better to be fast than good."

Another Icelandic Volcano

President Obama cut his visit to Ireland short to avoid the ash cloud from yet another Icelandic volcano.

Iceland's airports were closed Sunday and trans-Atlantic flights were being diverted around that country's airspace. Last year it was the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and now it is a volcano with another unpronounceable name, the Grimsvotn volcano, which is spewing ashes into the atmosphere. At this time the air travel disruption is only impacting flights over Iceland, but the disruption could expand at any time.

Scanned And Felt Up

Coming home from San Francisco last night I finally had my first trip through one of them there full body scanners, after which I got the complete junk inspection from an elderly TSA agent who looked startlingly like Morgan Freeman. The agent was as pleasant as can be, considering, and I was surprised at how nonchalant I felt while being felt up by a septuagenarian in the middle of a busy airport. The whole thing is a ridiculous and probably ineffective exercise, to be sure, but I really can't see the point of cursing out the miserable agents, as the woman behind me did at great length. Complain to the people who can actually make changes, folks.

ARGENTINA: Cyndi Lauper Calms Airport

Due to flight delays and cancellations, things were getting quite tense at the Buenos Aires airport. Enter Cyndi Lauper, who commandeered a microphone and performed Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

(Source)

Expedia & Orbitz Drop American Airlines

The Venn Diagram Of Junk Touchers

In-Flight Gay Wedding Rap

From SAS Airlines' in-flight gay wedding.

(Tipped by JMG reader James)

HomoQuotable - Will Coxhead

"I'm absolutely gutted that a couple of people in the gay community have ruined this for everyone else. I'm proud to be gay, proud to be an Air New Zealander and extremely proud of my role in the safety video. Obviously there are some people in the gay community that can be a little precious and need to lighten up. If anything this particular scene shows a bit of light hearted humour about the situation." - Will Coxhead (above left), flight attendant for Air New Zealand, who has removed a scene from their comical in-flight safety video in which Coxhead is rebuffed when he invites a kiss from an All Blacks rugby star.

When the clip was released back in August, I noted the grimace on the face of the rugby player, but most of you felt the moment was playful and inoffensive.

Tweet Of The Day - Fake TSA

Runner-up: "TSA Advisory: Children who opt-out of scans will be told Santa is dead."

A Message From Transport Canada

(Via - AmericaBlog)

No No No No No No NO!

Former JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater fancies himself a rapper. Here's a snippet of his single, I'm Steven Slater, Bitches. Make it stop, please.

Porno Pete LaBarbera: Gay TSA Agents Totally Want To Touch Your Junk

Writing from his dildo-strewn basement dungeon in the suburbs of Chicago, Porno Pete LaBarbera is freaking out over Janet Napolitano's assurance that all airport security pat-downs will be done by agents of the same gender as the passenger. Because that's exactly what all those queer TSA agents are hoping for!

“But what about homosexual TSA agents?” AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera responded. “Isn’t it just as inappropriate for a ‘gay’ male TSA agent to pat down male travelers as it is for a normal, heterosexual male TSA agent to pat down female travelers? “The reality is, most traveling men would not want Barney Frank to pat them down at the airport security checkpoint,” LaBarbera said. “Neither would it be fair to assign Ellen DeGeneres to pat down female travelers. (In the same vein, the Army should no more force normal male soldiers to shower and bunk with homosexual male soldiers than it would force females soldiers to bunk and shower with their male counterparts.)” [snip] “To allow homosexual agents to conduct same-gender pat-downs is tantamount to a new form of discrimination that must be recognized and prevented.”

According to Porno Pete, the answer is "common sense, healthy, discrimination" essentially barring gay people from working for the TSA.

Inevitable T-Shirt Sloganeering

It's the new "Don't tase me, bro!"

No More Flying With Toner

Homeland Security announced today that effective immediately you can no longer bring toner or ink cartridges weighing more than one pound onto your plane. Not that anybody was actually doing that.

The ban, announced today by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, also covers other cargo deemed high-risk. The changes follow the discovery of bombs concealed in ink cartridges on a U.S.-bound flight from the Middle East. The bombs, which contained PETN, are believed to be part of a Yemen-based plot. "These security measures reflect our commitment to using current intelligence to stay ahead of adversaries," Napolitano said, according to Bloomberg.

What are they going to do when they find the first iPhone bomb?

Tweet Of The Day - Google

Nice promo, but it also gives me a chance to bitch that all three times I've tried to use in-flight WiFi have been a failure. Two of the times the signal died forever within thirty minutes of my payment going through. The third time I was able to stay online, but the connection was maddeningly slow and useless for blogging.

Welcome Back Flash Mob

Yet another cornball cheesy corporate cash-in on a years past its due date meme. Agreed? Well, fuck you. It's been a shitty week and this made my grinchy heart hurt.

(Tipped by JMG reader Jerry)