Right up front let me say I'm all for this bill.

Some important members of the House - that'd be the U.S. House of Representatives - introduced a bill that would ban cell phone use on airplanes during flight.  The oh so nicely titled HANG UP Act, "would ensure that financially strapped airlines don't drive us towards this noisome disruption in search of further revenue,? in the words of Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon.  Amen, Brother Pete. 

As he put it, ?The public doesn't want to be subjected to people talking on their cell phones on an already over-packed airplane.?  I couldn't agree more.  The European Union may have just announced it will let airline passengers talk on their phones during flights, but frankly they're in a different league than us Americans when it comes to mobile culture and etiquette. 

The last time I flew, the dude in front of me was playing pinball on his laptop with the volume turned way up.  40-year old grown-up, not a kid who didn't know better.  It was driving me insane until a flight attended kindly asked him to spare us all his blips and bleeps (got headphones, dude?).  That was bad enough, but imagine the horror of the person crammed in next to you yapping into their RAZR all the way from LA to New York?  With no recourse to ask them to please stop, I'm trying fend off a migraine, because it's within their Bill of Passenger's Rights?  Seriously?

Air travel is horrible as it is.  Ticket prices are high, timeliness and reliability are a joke, and the poor flight attendants who bear the brunt of our frustrations with their employers have started becoming a bit less cheerful as of late (at least in my experience).  Can't hardly blame 'em.  While I'd be into some pay-per-flight WiFi to help pass the time while airborne, the last thing we want is an overcrowded plane full of people yelling into their Bluetooths.

Even if you think I'm way off base on this one, I'm not.  Trust me.  You don't want this.