The thing is, the Dick Fuld that emerges from New York magazine's profile is a man who is arrogant, self-impressed, impulsive, and not a little douchy. However, Fuld clearly does not consider himself to be a criminal. In his mind, he was pursuing a perfectly legal, legitimate and responsible line of investment, and is absolutely dumbfounded at the fact that the government didn't swoop in to bail him out.

I'm not going to defend Fuld -- at best, he was criminally stupid and at worst, he was just plain criminal -- however, I have to admit that he has a reasonable point. If his actions, and those of his compatriots were, in fact, illegal, then why didn't government regulators step in a long time ago?

While we ponder that question, it might be worthwhile to take a peek at the so-called "Tarmac Task Force." A federal group given the responsibility for developing rules to govern airline ground delays, the task force was heavily skewed toward the airline industry. In fact, of 36 seats on the committee, 34 were held by air travel representatives or their "allies."

As one might expect, the group pretty much defined impotence, managing to spend ten months and thousands of dollars to develop a list of four recommendations that they hope airlines will voluntarily accept. These suggestions -- that airlines provide snacks to passengers, offer a lounge to international travelers, keep the airplane bathrooms working, and update passengers every fifteen minutes -- do absolutely nothing to combat the central problem of interminable delays on the tarmac. However, as the government seems to consider this a legitimate response to the problem, there is little that can be done.

Needless to say, I am counting the minutes until Jet Blue faces its next lawsuit. I can already predict its defense: in the absence of any hard-and-fast laws, the interminable, involuntary detention of passengers on a runway isn't kidnapping, but rather the cost of doing business.