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Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

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Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#211
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is none of your business. I live in Germany, where everything is regulated by well meaning people. Going so far to regulate what you ought to say or to watch. It is hellish. I don't recognize the country any more in which I was born and raised.

> Going so far to regulate what you ought to say or to watch. Native born German. Calling BS on that crap. I recommend reading up on "freedom from" vs. "freedom to". Explains quite a lot of differences between the European tradition of ensuring people are "free from" an potentially oppressive state vs. the US tradition of "freedom to". In each "freedom of speech" index I know, Germany fares better than the US, or Bri…

No one actually believes their BS and I doubt you actually do either.

They use so many bullshit and mental gymnastics to "score" Germany well despite their appalling "free speech" laws. I think it's very fair to say anyone appealing to either of these index's isn't even attempting to argue in good faith.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#212
post #69
post #63

I recently moved to the St. Louis area for a software job at Boeing. I'm actually in a nice quiet neighborhood in St. Charles right under the flight path for planes landing at Lambert Field. The fireworks last night were insane. All around me folks were setting off commercial grade fireworks bursting hundreds of feet in the air. The house was shaking, my dogs were freaking out, one of them had a seizure. The air was…

> one of them had a seizure It's insane to me how much dogs are supposedly loved by such a large chunk of the pop, and yet people proceed to go apeshit with fireworks fully knowing how badly this affects them.

I mean I think most people would agree it's completely irresponsible and borderline absuive to own a dog and stay in nearly any city in the USA during the 4th.

People rightfully blame the owners it's not like this is a surprise for them.....

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this reflects an aspect of American culture that you can’t just erase. Yeah, and that’s the problem. A whole country full of people belligerent enough to say “fuck you” to anyone who tells them “hey you probably shouldn’t blow your hand off”. What a wonderful place.

I'm fine with idiots blowing their own hands off, I just worry about wildfires.

It's still bad for emergency services if everyone does it on the same day.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#214
post #63

I recently moved to the St. Louis area for a software job at Boeing. I'm actually in a nice quiet neighborhood in St. Charles right under the flight path for planes landing at Lambert Field. The fireworks last night were insane. All around me folks were setting off commercial grade fireworks bursting hundreds of feet in the air. The house was shaking, my dogs were freaking out, one of them had a seizure. The air was…

My opinion about how people use fireworks changed when I adopted a dog from a shelter and discovered how deeply traumatizing booms are to her. From chatting with other dog owners this seems to be common. If my neighbors could see the extent fireworks affect the same friendly, silly pup their children love greeting everyday, they would probably think twice about how they use them. We can manage the night of the 4th by…

You certainly have a higher opinion of neighbors than I do. As far as any action that negatively intrudes on others, it seems the most likely responses are either that they are allowed to do what they want and you need to deal with it, or to do it even more now that they know it bothers you as punishment for you daring to ask.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this reflects an aspect of American culture that you can’t just erase. Yeah, and that’s the problem. A whole country full of people belligerent enough to say “fuck you” to anyone who tells them “hey you probably shouldn’t blow your hand off”. What a wonderful place.

I'm fine with idiots blowing their own hands off, I just worry about wildfires.

that is until you can't have a hospital bed due to those idiots.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#216
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is none of your business. I live in Germany, where everything is regulated by well meaning people. Going so far to regulate what you ought to say or to watch. It is hellish. I don't recognize the country any more in which I was born and raised.

> Going so far to regulate what you ought to say or to watch. Native born German. Calling BS on that crap. I recommend reading up on "freedom from" vs. "freedom to". Explains quite a lot of differences between the European tradition of ensuring people are "free from" an potentially oppressive state vs. the US tradition of "freedom to". In each "freedom of speech" index I know, Germany fares better than the US, or Bri…

In Germany you will get arrested if you publicly talk about Gaza and Israel

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fireworks on holidays were also a huge part of Chinese culture, but they've been banned now in cities and the ban seems to be mostly effective. China even has the same issue as the US, where they aren't banned at the national level so you can still drive two hours and buy them legally. And whatever your stereotypes, China has plenty of scofflaws who aren't going to give something up just because the government tells…

China's a police state where the government has absolute power and isn't limited even slightly by the constitution, with a disarmed population, it's completely incomparable.

So is the USA. It's comparable.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given American policing culture, I really don't buy that the police can't show up and start arresting you for public endangerment. They may not want to, but that is different

If they did this people like me would start setting off fireworks in protest.

If you set off a firework in front of a cop to protest fireworks being illegal, that would be illegal and you'd go to jail

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And hence why lots of people don’t want to live in dense cities, and then we end up with NIMBYs who want strict housing codes so they don’t have to live near people who set off fireworks. Living in a city shouldn’t have to mean tolerating lawlessness.

Plenty of places people can move without others around. I might feel a bit of empathy for someone living surrounded by farmland and having a city built up around them, but that is incredibly rare and even in that case that only makes their property far more valuable to sell and move to another cheap rural area. If someone moves into an expanding suburb or right on the edge of a city and complains about the city expan…

Then if you move out of the city, people become even more adamant that they shouldn't be considerate of their neighbors and you end up with the same problem.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40-50 years ago, fireworks were largely unregulated across the US and were a major part of the 4th of July cultural experience. Dangerous, slightly reckless, and incredibly fun. I have fond memories of this as a child. It is a big part of American culture, like turkey on Thanksgiving. Every country has rules that exist but which are culturally unenforceable. Today, fireworks are outlawed in much of the US because saf…

> this reflects an aspect of American culture that you can’t just erase. Yeah, and that’s the problem. A whole country full of people belligerent enough to say “fuck you” to anyone who tells them “hey you probably shouldn’t blow your hand off”. What a wonderful place.

It's funny because I read the parent comment and thought that was actually kinda cool.

Lots of things we do are really stupid from a purely productivity, health or safety perspective.

American's were probably wrong to oppose alcohol prohibition. They probably should ban motorbikes. Fireworks should be largely banned to members of the public. Pizza should be illegal. Etc..

Part of what makes a country a place you'd want to live is the fact they don't create an excess of rules and regulations to optimise for what's best on paper, but allow people to do stupid things and allow them to live the life they want to live and take the risks they want to take where risks are not too excessive.

Commercial fireworks are dangerous, but not that dangerous. It's inadvisable that someone would use them without proper safety training, and it probably makes sense to have some rules around selling them to try to limit use, but in reality this just isn't a big problem.

Obviously people who live on flight paths should be more careful.

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