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A woman who was escorted off an Amtrak train by police this weekend after she allegedly refused to stop talking loudly on her cell-phone has the Internet cheering her fate. Civilians and quiet-car champions are supporting her ejection for violating policy at high volume during the 16-hour journey. It doesn't help her cause that she became belligerent when confronted about it by one of her fellow passengers.

God forbid you interrupt these idiots' conversation by asking them to be quiet. I can understand taking a quick call in an emergency, but for sixteen hours?

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Amtrak created quiet cars in 2001 when a group of passengers who rode the Philadelphia to D.C. route every morning asked if they could reserve a car where cell-phone loudmouths weren't welcome. Ever since, the rare havens of quiet have become a battlefield between silence-loving rule-followers and rebellious cell-phone addicts. Gawker suggested, not without a dose of sincerity, that the cops who removed Beard from the train were heroes, and that Beard should be charged with "unspeakable crimes against humanity and sentenced to life on some distant planet where there are no reception bars, ever."

Or, y'know, just take her phone away.

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According to a very scientific reader poll at The Huffington Post, 77 percent of people were happy the woman was hauled off the train. And CNN personality Anderson Cooper blasted the woman on his "ridiculist" last night, asking "What could someone possibly talk about for 16 hours?" He even compared being stuck on the train with a person who would do such a thing to the "fifth circle of hell." The Internet is full of tales of innocent people's quiet-car journeys being marred by loud passengers who ignore the rules. An Israeli blogger with a PhD in conflict resolution wrote a lengthy post about the best way to get a fellow passenger to shut up without starting World War III. "Always assume the transgressor is ignorant, not arrogant. This way you won't feel wronged and can communicate your message with less contempt and hostility," he suggests.

And if that doesn't work, you can tell them STFU.

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Meanwhile writer Christopher Buckley, a self-described quiet car Nazi, wonders why there would be any confusion as to the correct behavior in that part of the train: "The Quiet Car does not hide its light under a bushel. Prominent and explicit signs hang from the ceiling at five-foot intervals. They declare, unequivocally, that NO CELL PHONES ARE PERMITTED and that conversation must be kept to a minimum and in hushed tones."

So it's not like she didn't know.

Holy shit, America has trains?

And people ride them?

Yeah. People who can't afford to fly, but don't want to take the bus.

Speaking as one who makes fairly frequent use of Boston's subway system(or underground) and more than once has had to put up with his share of loudmouths who seem to be permanently glued to their cell phones, I'd say this woman got exactly what she deserved.

The woman felt she was being disrespected. Yes, people were being mean and disrespectful when they asked to follow the same rules that apply to everyone else.

I am willing to bet that this is the same kind of person who cannot STFU during movies, who yap to their friends in the library, and generally ruin everything ever with loud, obnoxious commentary that no one cares about. They are legion, and I want to jam their goddamned cell phones up their ass. There is a special hell for these people.

It's the sixteen hours I can't get over.

1) How did she still have a voice after talking that long?

2) How did her fellow passengers not rise up and beat her to death with her own phone after, say, four or five hours?

3) Failing that, why did they not just grab her phone and throw it out the window? She wants it that bad, she can get off and go get it.

Politicians everywhere want to know her secret for talking so long.

Some people just aren't blunt enough. They're too polite. This is where AS comes in handy. You know, in checking that rude people are aware they're being rude and not just pricks.

You know, I'd be tempted after 16 hours to take her cell phone off her myself and stamp on it or something. I can imagine it now...

Me: Excuse me ma'am, could you be quiet?
Stupid Lady: Can't you see I'm on the phone?
Me: Can you see that sign? It means you're not supposed to be on the phone.
Stupid Lady: It's optional.
Me: No, it's not.
Stupid Lady: Yes, but this is important!
Me: I was just checking...

And then I take the phone right out of her hand and stamp on it.

And I wouldn't wait 16 hours to do it either.

People are just too NICE.

I can't drive. And I don't know how to walk then swim then walk some more to Boston.

Why was she even IN the quiet car if she wanted to talk the whole train trip? I can't imagine the logic. "Oh, no one else is talking in here so I'll be able to hear my conversation!"

Ironically I bet that IS the logic of a lot of these rude, annoying people.

I'll take that bet.

Must have been some sort of Greek to be so rude!

Banhammer in 5,4,3,2....