SAFER, the Denver based pot advocacy group, issued a well publicized press release calling for pot smoking lounges in airports, saying that it is safer than allowing innebriated customers to cause problems on the airplane.

As air travel gets worse, people are getting drunker, which is starting to cause more problems.  And since it is impossible to imagine a stoned person starting a fight, it actually seems like quite a reasonable solution.  Only one problem, says the FAA, as far as they know, it is still illegal.

In a move with massive policy and political implications, the European Parliament announced today that they are going through with their threat to mandate that any airline that flies to an airport in the EU must buy pollution credits.

It is a measure that forces European environmental policy on foreign companies like Delta or Air India.  Obviously, American representitives are complaining about the policy, which will require the companies to pay for their pollution.

With the global economic systems completely integrated, and the issues related to global warming being global, the EU is no longer standing around while the US farts hot air (or CO2 *chuckle), and they are using their new European Common Market to throw their weight around.

I would find it ammusing, if it weren’t so frustrating, that the US representitives were saying that the new regulations are probably illegal under international agreements, when for years the US has instituted tariffs on things like Brazilian ethanol and subsidies on corn for the benefit of American farmers; things that are widely considered illegal under international agreements and the WTO.