All I can say are the following points:a) The airlines screamed for deregulation in the 70s, and thought that by getting the Feds out, it would be the answer to their prayers. In the aftermath of several near-failures (the USAir/United failed merger, as well as the gobbling up of TWA assets) toward the supposed goal of increased competition and thus improved service for passengers, I seriously question deregulation of any industry with government oversight.
b) the idea of hubs-and-spokes was good to a degree, but no airport was designed for 8 flights taking off and landing every minute of the 11 hour window from 8a to 7p. 3-4 flights a minute maybe, 1-2 flights a minute spread out over a longer period, sure. Just because everyone wants to fly during business hours to claim it as a work day rather than dorking about like it really is... Now you have a system in place that depends on perfect weather every day, at all hours, and without that, you get massive pileups that airlines are not even required to ameliorate for passengers caught up in the system.. Any more, with the developments in hush-technology for jets, my attitude gets to "you live near an airport, there is a certain level of noise that comes with it. They have done what they can to limit the noise, they can fly 18 hours a day."
c) Stews with tasers don't really scare me. I would encourage them to use them on the small children that Mommie and Daddie don't feel need to be told to "SHUT UP!!!" like the 5 inbred weasels that were on a flight from Chicago with me this summer. Little kids can be cute, they can even say the cutest things. However, there is genuine, and contrived cute... and 5 little carpet-climbers all trying to impress Mom and Dad with their preciousness... I think Mom and Dad should have bought a TV after the second kid... also had me say loud enough for the Dad to hear as I walked past the little pack harrassing another passenger while the parents watched, "it's a *$^%*@ shame you can't beat kids in public anymore".
d) due to the safety concerns, I now no longer get to stick my head into the cockpit after patiently waiting until all the other passengers are off and talk with the pilots. I got to see a demo of the Regional Jet's CRT tests while sitting on the ground in Chicago waiting for the connection to MSP. That is gone, because every pilot is probably wondering what kind of kook wants to see the cockpit, especially one of those "flight-sim kooks"
feh... time for me to get back to other stuff...
TD