Subscribe by EmailAcronym of the Week – HANGUP
August 2, 2008 by Mark O'Neill | 6 commentsBy Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Normally my eyes would totally pass by this story as the debate has been going on for ages but the acronym is worth a post in itself.
Just as the US airlines are preparing to let people finally use cellphones on planes, Congress is preparing to be the usual spoilsports and pass a law preventing people from doing just that. But to add to their fun, they need a cool sounding name for their bill. They can’t call it the “let’s stop people using their cellphones on planes so we can be all smug about it” bill. No, that would be too boring. So they decided on the “HANGUP” bill and HANGUP stands for “Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace” (rocking eh?).
So you can rest assured that your hard worked for tax dollars are going towards cool sounding acronyms! You can all sit around the dinner table and when your children say to you “Mom…Dad…..what’s Congress doing today?”, you can reply “they’re working on the HANGUP bill!”. Yeah baby!
I mean, how do they come up with names like this? Does Nancy Pelosi have a sweat shop behind that big American flag in the chamber with people feverishly working out words to go with letters that she gives them? Does she go behind the flag and shout “OK people we now have a BALONEY bill! Think of words that can go with the word BALONEY! If you don’t have anything in 30 minutes, you’re all deported back to wherever you came from! Chop! Chop!”
Seriously, HANGUP? Come on, enough with the stupid acronyms and let’s pass some serious laws for a change. We don’t need this HANGUP law – or do you really want a law banning cellphone use on planes?
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I sure don’t want to spend hours on a plane with people gabbing on their cell phones all over it. For the moment there typically is not a large amount of noise on the plane. However, people talking on cell phones are typically kinda loud.
On the other hand I’m not going to endorse the federal government making the decision…
Definitely. Although I much rather have no cell phone noise on my plane ride, it is not the government’s decision; the power should rest in the hands of the individual airlines. Whenever I ride shuttles they always make an announcement to please not use cell phones, but that, if you must, to keep it brief and try to be quiet. I find this very reasonable and it’s something that’s in the hands of the right party, the company who owns the shuttle.
I agree about not wanting to be trapped in a small space while one or more people around me shout into their phones. This is one gov. rule I think should not be lifted.
YES, I do… listening to some stupid teenager talking on the phone for three hours is not exactly my idea of a nice flight.
I agree that etiquette should rule when it comes to cell phone use. But I don’t agree that it’s the government’s job to enforce etiquette.
Actually I do want a law banning this, and no it cannot be left to the airlines because the 1% business travelers will force the 99% other travelers to suck it up and deal with their chatter.
Cell phones should also be banned in cars without a headset, and probably forbidden in a lot of other places as well.