# To call you stupid is an insult to stupid people everywhere **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 21, 2002, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962 "2002-08-21T18:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/1 "2002-08-21T18:00:51Z")
[Man arrested in flight for lighting batteries](http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/21/flight.arrest/index.html) > [@](#): > > A man aboard an American Airlines flight was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly tried to light a couple of batteries with a cigarette lighter during the flight, authorities said. > > Flight 781 – carrying 114 people from Chicago to San Francisco – was diverted to Salt Lake City after flight attendants noticed the passenger “trying to warm up a couple AA-batteries” with his lighter, said George Dougherty, an FBI special agent in Salt Lake City. By all that I don’t hold holy, how irretrievably stupid can a person get? This man is a risk to the genetic pool and I hope he hasn’t already polluted it. With all that has happened in the last year, you might think every man, woman and child would know better. But obviously you would be wrong. Bah! Don’t divert the plane. Jettison the jackass and his batteries. It would have done the world a favor. ---
**Author:** ![Kamandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5daacb/32.png) [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/2 "2002-08-21T18:08:58Z")
Don’t call me stupid! ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/3 "2002-08-21T18:18:52Z")
Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not “every man for himself,” and the London Underground is not a political movement. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/4 "2002-08-21T18:20:34Z")
Probably not the smartest thing for the guy to do, but I’m not going to share in the blanket condemnation. Even though the article repeatedly implies that what he did was a prank, I don’t think it was. All the guy was trying to do was eke out a few more minutes of life out of his batteries. He was wrong for two reasons: 1.)warming batteries only works if the batteries are extremely cold - these were probably at room temperature and the lighter isn’t going to help him. 2.)He should of realized that people are extremely paranoid post 9-11, and holding a lighter to _anything_ isn’t going to win you friends on an airplane. Not exactly a Rhodes Scholar, but not an idiotic prankster trying to have a laugh at everyone’s expense. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/5 "2002-08-21T18:23:09Z")
I’m sure we’ll be reading about him getting a Darwin award any day now. At least one can only hope. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/6 "2002-08-21T18:37:40Z")
**Beeblebrox** , whether it was a prank or not is immaterial to this idiot’s level of stupidity. As you note, “holding a lighter to anything isn’t going to win you friends on an airplane.” Regardless of the reason, it’s irresponsible behavior, and I’m going to exercise my right to engage in hyperbole in describing the utter depths of this man’s lack of intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/7 "2002-08-21T18:42:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by D\_Odds \* > \*\* > Bah! Don’t divert the plane. Jettison the jackass and his batteries. It would have done the world a favor. \*\* A favor? Not for the part of the world he landed on. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/8 "2002-08-21T18:43:59Z")
Next thing you know, you people’ll be throwing pennies off the top of the Empire State Building, just to make holes in the taxicabs’ roofs. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/9 "2002-08-21T20:41:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by D\_Odds \* > \*\*Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not “every man for himself,” and the London Underground is not a political movement. \*\* 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-call-you-stupid-is-an-insult-to-stupid-people-everywhere/124962/10 "2002-08-22T00:38:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beeblebrox \* > **He was wrong for two reasons: 1.)warming batteries only works if the batteries are extremely cold - these were probably at room temperature and the lighter isn’t going to help him. 2.)He should of realized that people are extremely paranoid post 9-11, and holding a lighter to _anything_ isn’t going to win you friends on an airplane.** 1. You should **never** stick a lighted flame near a battery, no matter where you are. I may be talking out of my arse here, but … isn’t there a danger of the damn thing exploding? Or at least spewing noxious fumes all over the cabin. That’s what the Girl Guides always used to tell us when dinning it into our teenage brains that throwing dead batteries on the campfire was A Very Bad Thing. I don’t know if this was necessarily a post-S-11-panic thing at all. At least, that’s not how I read it. The idiot just broke a basic law of common sense.