I hate to admit it, but having your own guns and training your kids about and with them might actually be a better strategy, whether you need the guns around or not.

So what? The kid’s friend got it from another kid, who most likely... got it from their household.

I’m not well versed on the Austin issue, but from what I understand, the city council passed a regulation that specifically targeted TNCs, including requiring the fingerprint background check, which full-time drivers for taxis and livery drivers were already doing. Uber and Lyft petitioned and got a public vote on the…

The only European cities I’ve been to with decent cabs are London (although they are extraordinarily expensive) and to some degree Barcelona (although I only used a couple). Elsewhere (Rome, Paris, Madrid, Athens), they were rude, late, dirty, and extortionate.

I used to attempt to use the Discount Cab app here in Phoenix to hail cabs. What a fucking piece of trash. It wouldn’t save credit cards. They charged MORE to use the app than to call on the phone. There was no GPS, you had to manually enter your address. Waits were still “15-30 minutes” with no actual ETA. It crashed…

Austin wanted to require fingerprint based background checks, whereas Uber and Lyft oppsoed the fingerprint requirement. Arizona does not require a fingerprint to do background checks That’s the difference, as far as I understand. Also, here it’s a state law, not a city ordinance. Here, it was more about lowering…

Medallions exist in Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago as well. Other cities have different ways of limiting competition, such as limited licensing or prohibitive vehicle requirements. Artificially restricted supply is the norm, not the rule.

Guess what? Here in Arizona, we changed the laws to bring Uber into the fold, instead of trying to protect a small, shitty, rent-seeking taxi industry. I’m a liberal democrat, but that’s the one thing recently the Republican state government has done that I wholeheartedly support.

I didn’t say you had to be tweeting while driving. I’m just giving suggestions to anyone who might be reading this, about how to handle the check in process.

I’ll agree with you that JetBlue is nicer than most other airlines, Southwest and American combined. But they are a much, much smaller airline, focused exclusively on travel along the East Coast with a few thin routes across the country. Out west, they aren’t even an option unless you’re going to New York. Likewise,…

They’re easy enough for me to avoid. I don’t even think they fly out of BOS. They fly out of an airport in NH that they deceptively renamed “Manchester Boston Regional Airport” when SW started flying out of there.

Or, just fly on an airline that doesn’t over-book (like JetBlue).

See, if ‘The Computer’ makes the choices, the desk agent doesn’t have to explain to somebody why they were booted off a flight. Maybe there is a function to do just that, but I doubt it.

In fact, I’d urge you to always check in the day before you fly (all airlines offer check in up to 24 hours in advance). You’ll be treated with better seats, and (as the article above describes) much better priority if something does go wrong, than you would if you’re one of the last to check in.

But anything to make life easy for United employees and not customers, I guess.

Keep in mind, I don’t think the person in the operations center at United planning these employee movements was thinking “lets get our employees on the plane even if we have to bodyslam a customer to do it”.

I never check-in early. If you check in online hours before you plan to be at the airport and then don’t make it to the airport on time, it’s my understanding that the airline has no obligation to get you on another flight.

Also, I question the legality of involving public safety officers to get involved in a business decision without due process.

His shows aren’t supposed to be travel guides like Rick Steves’ shows are. Of course they show stuff that average tourists don’t have access to - that’s why they are interesting to watch!

US Border and Customs won’t let you back in without a passport. If you travel outside our borders from what I understand, you need a passport full stop