Alpha Dog of the Week: Steven Slater

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - Steven Slater
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As the last day's post topics will confirm, your Cogitamus buddies have jumped on the magnificent bandwagon of bravado that is this story.  And we're not alone--other than a tiny chorus of naysayers ("He lost his temper, and that's just sooo unprofessional", etc. etc.), Americans have for the most part been overwhelmingly supportive of Steven Slater, the Jet Blue flight attendant who embodied the Take-this-job-and-shove-it fantasies that more and more of us are entertaining in our bowed heads these days as stressed-out, underpaid nose meets demanding, understaffed grindstone.

I, for one, have often wondered where the inflatable emergency exit slide was located. Hasn't everyone?

Comments

[Lisa Simeone]

Brilliant, brilliant.

But please, my head is spinning -- I went from atheist to worshiping three different gods in two days: Steven Slater, Bitchy Waitress, and Harold Meyerson. (Okay, okay, I already adored Stephen Colbert before this. So that makes four.)

[Crissa]

They tell you where the slide is on every flight. o-o

[litbrit]

Crissa--ha!

Lisa, I loved the whole segment, but I think my favorite bit was the airline safety card with instructions on how to assume crash position while extending an arm with your iPhone so as to capture the incident.

And oh my, the Samuel Jackson in-flight swearing guide...

[Lisa Simeone]

This is just so fucked:

JetBlue spokesman Mateo Lleras said Slater had been removed from duty pending an investigation. Prosecutors said no criminal allegations had been made against the passenger.

Why the hell isn't she being charged??

[litbrit]

That really is...well, just wrong. She interfered with/ignored a flight attendant's instructions to remain seated, and her actions led to him getting whacked in the head with her goddamned suitcase. So yes, she should be charged. If that suitcase had hit another passenger in the head, I imagine there would be no question about whether her "poor choices" were wrong--definitely they're actionable, and probably criminal, too. I've read about people getting taken off a plane in handcuffs for unruly drunken behavior, for swearing at a flight attendant, for attempting to smoke a cigarette in the bathroom, and for using a cell phone when the flight attendants said not to. So what gives? Who is this hands-off woman whose arrogance pushed Slater over the edge?