"Oh, did I mention that the passengers were Muslim? They were Muslim" Idiots at Airtran--they should be profiling Norwegians...

Why do you hate Christians?

2 = racist

I think we live in America. You know, that country that was attacked by Muslims not too long ago. While this incident is unfortunate, it's not unexpected and it's not out of the realm of possibility that Muslims will try to attack us again. But I guess there's no reason to be vigilant.

I could have sworn that when you won this contest, you said you were going to keep your politics out of your posts. Guess not.

BITCH SPREAD THE BUTT

SO ELIE CAN BUST A NUTT!!

How do you know what the passengers were talking about? The post you linked to only paraphrases a vague comment by someone who may or may not have been among them. Pretty weak basis for a statement of fact like "AirTran removed passengers from a flight because they were talking about which seats were 'safest.'"

7, are you a Cooley 1L? Your complaint sounds oddly like a hearsay objection. Really? That's what you're going with on this one?

5 years from now, Kashmir Hill's future husband will get up the nerve to ask her why she's so gapingly loose. Her response? "I worked with Elie Mystal for a year at a law blog."

Elie Mystal, having converted religions, sits in tent in an Arabian desert, his huge black rod dangling between his legs as his harem of Kashmir Hill, David Lat and that other girl who used to write here wait for him in the bedroom tent.

4 = racist

11 = biggest racist

8: i have long forgotten the rules of hearsay, but not those of common sense. good lawyers shouldn't rely on one-sided factual statements and neither should good bloggers.

13, I don't know why Elie chose this site over the hundreds he could have cited but the facts are the same in every story I have read. To phrase this another way, what exactly is your point? Airtran really did kick them off the plane for discussing the safest seat.

Airtran racially profiled an innocent Muslim family and then refused to rebook them after they missed their first flight to their vacation in Florida. How about we recognize this for what it is - an unfortunate event in a cautious and often uninformed world. That "we got attacked by Muslims" does not mean that Muslims should be treated like second class citizens in this country. Have some respect.

-not Muslim

They weren't talking about what seat was safest, they were talking about what seats would be safest if a bomb was on the plane. Tell muslims to stop being facisnated with blowing themselves and innocent civilians up with bombs and we won't have a problem and they won't get kicked off of airplanes.

15-
I'm pretty sure anyone in a post 9/11 world who is overheard discussing which seats on a plane are "safe" should be considered suspect regardless of race. These people may have been Muslim, but they were fucking IDIOTS to have such a conversation on board a plane. Get real.

It is profoundly dumb for any group of people to discuss loudly the safety of an airplane in a crash or otherwise while boarding. I don't care what religion you are. That you are easily identified Muslim makes you even more stupid, because like it or not, people are on their guard.

Southwest can kick off drunks, and AirTran can kick off stupid people.

Last I checked, the people who most frequently strap bombs to themselves and do other crazy suicidal/homicidal shit targeting Western civilians are... MUSLIM. This is the world in which we live. I have no problem offending political correctness to double-check somebody who is not employed by the airline yet feels the need to publicly discuss airplane disaster

5-

Yes, we were attacked by extremist terrorists of Muslim faith.

Oh yeah, and in 1995 there was an attack on an Oklahoma City Federal building by Timothy McVeigh (the deadliest domestic act of terrorism prior to 9/11). Oh, and then there was the 2001 anthrax attacks allegedly perpetrated by scientist Bruce Ivins, killing 5 and injuring dozens.

...I suppose we should start scrutinizing white males... maybe those with irish backgrounds and those of Roman Catholic faith. They seem to be bad eggs as well.

20- get your head out of your ass.

20: Who blew himself in Pakistan yesterday? In Iraq yesterday? On Israeli busses? In London in 2005? In Madrid in 2004? You mention some exceptions that merely prove the rule - the crazy terrorists are Muslim

18 -

I agree, you are TOTALLY right. It *is* profoundly dumb for a terrorist to be loudly discussing where it's safest on a plane. Here must be the plan as the terrorist family conceived:

Step 1) Spend 2+ years planning a terrorist attack (the time 9/11 took to develop).
Step 2) Board plane.
Step 3) Alert my presence to everyone (including air marshalls on board) by loudly talking about my terrorist plot so that people could stop me.
Step 4) Get black bagged and eat cock sandwiches at Gitmo for the rest of my life.

D'oh!

Really the bigger story is that they weren't allowed to board the plane again even after the FBI cleared them (and the FBI even asked AirTrang to let them onto the next plane but the family was refused)

Bravo 15!

~A Muslim (a good looking one at that)

22 - Anybody who blew himself has to have pretty impressive flexibility.

I'd not heard about Melissa Brooks Batten's murder before this post. What a senseless act - my heart goes out to her family. It is a reminder that while things are slow here at biglaw, attorneys might choose to seek out pro bono work assisting domestic violence victims. Admittedly, the legal process doesn't seem to have had any value for Ms. Batten, but perhaps it will work for others.

20-

There is a slight difference between an attack killing 5, an attack killing 168, and an attack killing 2,974.

26- bending over a stinky mat five times a day really conditions those lower back muscles

The blog and the comments have gone downhill.

29---Leave the yoga loving folks alone! Unless, of course, you are talking about the mat your whore of a mother carrys around to turn tricks on.

Speaking fo which, do YOU really know who your daddy is? Its Maury time! Go ahead, tell us how your ears match yoru father's ears, and how you both have black hair. Personally, i suggest you try and find the one with the hump on his back. Its dead on.

~haha, its too easy to abuse you, 29, hahahaha!

28 -

That is a fair point, but misdirects one from the relevant temporal comparison.

Just the same, there is a *slight* difference between how white Irish Catholic males were treated 5 years after Oklahoma City and Muslims were treated post 9/11.

Both attacks were the worst attacks in our nation's history when they happened, and unprecedented in their magnitude at the time. The response and suspicion should arguably be the same.

You guys forget Timothy McVeigh? And what about all the homes that we accidentally bomb in Iraq and Afghanistan... We're all terrorists, we terrorize them for their oil and they terrorize us to leave them alone... Sadly it will never end.

32, you've forgotten that the two instances are not equal for another reason. While vile, the OK City attack was the work of a specific group of otherwise unaffiliated individuals. No decades long campaign of terror by culturaly similar individuals/groups had occured before OK City.

From the Beruit Marine baracks, to the African embassy bombings, to the first WTC attacks, to the USS Cole . . . 9/11 was by no means an isolated occurance.

Once again Elie falls for the Muslim righteous indignation scam. Hook, line, and sinker.

We live in a country where the President himself is Muslim, for Allah's sake!

Debbie Downer and his list of reasons not to go to law school have a higher chance of affecting any of us than terrorists do. I say down with terrorists and down with Debbie Downer

http://www.youngtexaslawyer.com/2009/01/05/avoid-debbie-downer/

34 - We are attacked because we support a murderous regime called the Israeli government. Here, I make a general distinction between the psycho government and the (fine) Israeli Jewish people, who, if you read/watch news organs outside of the U.S., are tired of the silly tactics of their government.

Oh, and the vast majority of Israeli Jews are also tired of the psycho Orthodox "settler" community, who don't fight, have a million kids, and live off the dole.

Israel is a stinking corpse, and the current Gaza massacres are just more of the reeking odor.

It's good that these things happen, because they expose Israel and Jews.

38, 39 - Your retarded cognitive abilities not surprisingly closely reflect those of the animals that strap bombs on their backs at the urging of their fanatical religious leaders. Get a life. Bombing military targets is much different from killing civilians. That untargeted innocent civilians happen to die (in relatively small numbers) from these attacks is unfortunate, but what is even more unfortunate is that they know the attack is coming yet do nothing. Maybe they should stop letting the terrorists shack up with them.

They're fighting for their freedom.

If a filthy Israeli tried to subjugate and control me I would do everything I could to blow his head off. As Patrick Henry said, give me freedom or give me death.

You filthy Jews have made enemies of *every* group of people who had the misfortune of living with you. When will you animals just go away?

I don't think I would call what any arab country offers "freedom." As an American non-jew, if I had the misfortunate of being forced to live in the middle east, I would choose Israel any day. The Islam religion itself is a religion of slavery.

OUR BORDERS are WIDE OPEN and countless muslim terrorists are pouring across. The LaRaza/MALDEF/AILA crowd is doing everything in their power to make sure these individuals are not deported.

So yeah, people are going to be concerned about muslims on planes. It's as simple as that. Until we deport all illegal aliens and make sure that people enter this country only AFTER a serious background check, people are going to be concerned about arabs on planes.

BLAME the ACLU and LARAZA!

I don't think I would call what any arab country offers "freedom." As an American non-jew, if I had the misfortune of being forced to live in the middle east, I would choose Israel any day. The Islam religion itself is a religion of slavery.

QUESTION: Would you pay extra to fly an Arab-free airplane?

I went to law school with Atif at the University of Illinois (he graduated in 2007). I was in a few study groups with him, sat next to him in a few classes, and saw him at a few social events. He never expressed any extremist views, though he was religious and sometimes wore a funny white hat. In early 2006, he told me he was getting married.

I say this because I think you should know a few really basic facts about the guy before you toss him in with the terrorists. Maybe some fuckwad will read this and think twice before making one of the above comments in the future.

The 9/11 terrorists came on student visas. Atif's background is irrelevant.

Google "sudden jihad syndrome"

Who called Atif a terrorist?

41--Elie, is that you?

48 - i think 16 did

Come on, get serious people. Muslims all over the world have repeatedly empowered violent lunatics to lead them and use their resources to kill others.

Islam is a religion of xenophobia, discrimination, hatred and violence - that it doesn't have to be is irrelevant, the fact is, that is the way it is practiced by the majority of Muslims around the world.

The idea that we should not be suspicious of a people responsible for the huge majority of terrorist attacks, for empowering and supporting many of the world's most oppressive and violent regimes, and who continue to not only espouse utter nonsense about their "oppression" but to murder Jews daily in an attempt to gain control of the entire middle east, is absurd.

Funny how the protesters of late in support of so-called peace in Gaza were not protesting the rockets and homicide bombers Hamas and other Muslin terrorists were sending before Israel acted to put a stop to it - that's because they DON'T WANT PEACE, they want to eliminate Israel and kill all the Jews - like posters 39 and 41.

The Israelis have been trying to make peace for decades, but the Muslim invaders will accept nothing less than total domination and murder of all "infidels." If you don't accept it and act to stop it, you'll soon be watching your daughters get stoned to death for daring to show an ankle.

51 - Well said. You never see those with bleeding hearts for the Palestinian's ever condemn the bombings and the rockets, they just call Israel a terrorist when the retaliate in defense.

51 -- I think you mean "the Palestinians"

53, which countries invaded Israel during the Yom Kippur War? Which countries invaded Israel during the 1948 war? Which country launched Scud missiles against Israel during the first Persian Gulf War, even though Israel wasn't even a combatant or a member of the coalition against that country? What do all those countries have in common?

53 -- I think you mean 52. Does a typo make the point any less relevant? Get a life.

Mistal - leave. Go. Bye.

Mistal - leave. Go. Bye.

A lot of crazy people out there, most of them blogging about this topic. Fact is, they cleared airport screening and then they cleared an FBI screening after they were taken off the plane. "Muslims" are currently and will be for a long time even at this rate, responsible for far less deaths historically than "Christians." Israel is a land built on stolen and occupied territory, hence the invasions. Suicide bombing and rocket fire are bad, so is collective punishment, bombing/raiding civilian infrastructure/institutions and torture. Don't spread hate, whatever religion or ideology.

58 - I would say racially profile historical Christians as well as Muslims, but since they've been dead for a long long time I think that would just be a waste of time. Since Muslims are the ones that do the vast majority of deadly terrorism in this modern age, I think the rationale and prudent approach is to target them.

And Israel belonged to the jews many times in the past and it was stolen from them by the Muslims, so what makes the Palestinians the rightful owners? Just because they were the last one to attach their name to it before the current regime?

Israel is a place where both Jews and Muslims can peacefully coexist under the rule of law. If the Palestinians took control it would be just another terrorist state in the region. But maybe you would like that.

Mistal - leave. Go. Bye.

Mistal - leave. Go. Bye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev6ojm62qwA

Ah yes, 58, because terrorist attacks are completely equivalent to responses by victims to those attacks. If someone tries to rape you or mug you, and you fight back, you should be arrested. Are you a high school principal with a "zero tolerance" policy for violence by any chance?

If the Israelis stop what they're doing, you think the Palestinians will stop the daily rocket attacks? Of course not. Hamas told us so.
If the Palestinians stop attacking Israel, will Israel stop its blockade actions? Yes. How do we know this? Because other Arabs (Egypt and Jordan) made peace with Israel and now they're getting along just fine.
So one side is the aggressor and one side is the victim fighting back. But let's blame the victim, guys.

Did Elie Mystal leave Debevoise because he failed to become admitted as a lawyer in New York?

Did Elie Mystal leave Debevoise because he failed to become admitted as a lawyer in New York?