Proud to Fly American

Apparently, there’s some feel-good story circulating that tells of how ordinary people supported soldiers on leave by giving up their seats on flights out of BWI to the traveling soldiers. Hmm. Here’s the story, according to Snopes:

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control. Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions in the Starbucks line or just saying “Welcome Home.” In addition to all the flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another flight. They weren’t getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got on the PA and said this, “Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we’re trying to get them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers to know that we respect what you’re doing, we are here for you and we love you.”

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heart-felt applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it happen.

Sounds nice and patriotic, but let’s zoom back into the announcement from United, shall we?

“Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we’re trying to get them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers to know that we respect what you’re doing, we are here for you and we love you.

Let’s separate the United “we” from the American people “we” for a moment, and translate that shall incensed blogger “we”?

We, a failing corporation in a failing industry now offer some shoddy customer service; as we, said failing corporation, have overbooked the flight to maximize our corporate revenue at the expense of the convenience of our customers, now ask you to give up your tickets to our customers because we American citizens all want to support our troops, right?

What a cynical, manipulative bunch of hooey.

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Who Is That Again?

In his column entitled Tiffany Trips Up: CBS’s problems are bigger than “Reagan.”, John Fund quotes some member of Congress to flying buttress his argument against CBS, specifically the ill-conceived The Real Beverly Hillbillies:

Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia suggested that, instead, Mr. Moonves program a reality show that relocated network executives to “the sticks,” where they would have to find a job. Mr. Moonves admitted the “phenomenal” opposition to the show left him “pretty surprised.”

Doesn’t Fund mean the old, out-of-touch, slow-drawling former member of the KKK pork-hauler Robert Byrd?

Come on, as a conservative, you’re supposed to bury this seizure, not to quote him as a relevant thinker.

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Re-Elect This Fellow, Stat!

In Arizona, a county rented some space for a court, and when it couldn’t come to an agreement with the land owner for a lease, it opened up a can of eminent domain and took it over.

“This means municipalities can identify a space they want and force a landlord to lease it to them,” said Mike Freret vice president of development for Orsett/Columbia Ltd. “It may mean that if the space they want already has a business owner in it, they could boot them out.”

Tom Irvine, who represented the county, said that’s exactly what it means.

Finally, the tyrants are feeling comfortable to explicitly state their belief that The State grants property rights. Soon, the Bill of Rights will also be recognized as retractable fiats issued by the Elect(ed).

Most important right, and it’s only in the Constitution indirectly. That oversight will cost us and our children.

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Who Will Teach Them Right From Wrong?

Here’s a sordid story. In New Mexico, a twelve year old (misnomered in the story as a teen) puts some change in the school soda machine and gets two sodas. Woo! He’s a hero to his fellow students. When a teacher sees him, teacher says stop that. Student continues. Teacher disciplines student with two days of in-school, whatever that means. And suddenly Rio Rancho, which has nothing to do in the long autumn evenings until cable television reaches their hamlet, talks and talks about this.

Here’s the school district’s story:

Rio Rancho Public Schools issued a written statement: “On Monday a teacher observed Mason manipulating the soft drink machine at the school. The teacher advised Mason that getting two sodas for the price of one is the equivalent to stealing. When the teacher observed Mason doing the same thing again on Tuesday, she wrote him up.”

That sounds about right to me. Young Mason is taking something for which he did not pay, and worse, he’s doing it repeatedly and showing his friends how to do it. When the teacher said stop, young Mason did not stop. So discipline follows.

But witness poor Mason’s trauma:

The boy said the teacher called him a thief and accused him of trying to teach other students how to steal. He was written up, given a two-day in-school suspension and the incident will appear on his permanent school record.

“It makes me feel very sad that I’m going to be thought as a thief later on in my life,” Mason Kisner said. “Heck, I might not get in a good college or get a good job because on my permanent record it will say that when I was a kid, I stole.”

Someone should explain to young Mason that he’s being taught a lesson here, and that he should not game the system or steal or commit fraud, because it’s wrong and because it will eventually carry a longer sentence than two days of in-school suspension (do you suppose that means hanging him by his wrists in the main hallway?).

That someone probably won’t be Mason’s father, who’s too eager to jump into the tantrum:

“I’m flabbergasted, bewildered, dumbfounded. I can’t think of another word to describe how I feel about this incident,” said Edward Kisner, the boy’s father. “What kind of character is this showing Mason?”

. . . .

“I’m very disappointed I haven’t gotten a phone call from the school rescinding Mason’s suspension at this point,” said Edward Kisner. “You know, when you say you’re wrong, it’s not a sign of weakness.”

Obviously, he has no idea of character, but probably a good grasp of weakness.

(Link seen on Fark.)

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It Takes An NGO

Buried in this Washington Post story about the now-canceled program by which Army units could disburse seized Iraqi funds to solve immediate problems, we have this nugget of wisdom from some flack who’s never worked an honest day in his life:

“Soldiers are not development workers. There is industry skill, a body of knowledge that goes with it. You can’t just say ‘There’s a pothole over there and get it filled’ and fix a country,” said Dominic Nutt, a spokesman for Christian Aid, a British humanitarian group.

Oh, indeed, I am sure there’s some spreadsheet-writing, wining-and-dining-bureaucrats, and tooling-around-in-dark-SUVs one must do before directing someone to fill the potholes.

Perhaps the appropriately named Nutt is a fan of such Top-From-The-Outside solutions that have been so effective in, well, in NGO theory. But those who fix the potholes do more for the people of the country than those who Fix The Country.

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Wisconsin Law Enforcement Officials Speak

Here’s what Wisconsin’s law officials have to say about the concealed carry law winding through that state’s legislature:

    “I don’t like it,” Ozaukee County Sheriff Maury Straub said Wednesday. “Proponents say it’s for citizen safety. As sheriff, I know of very few people who have had to protect their lives or the lives of others by deadly force.

    How many people who were unarmed do you know of who died when someone attacked them? I don’t remember Ozaukee County being that safe. Straub’s words could quite easily indicate that he doesn’t know of any because those people have not had the right to defend themselves outside of their homes. Also, keep in mind deadly force implied that the goblins got killed instead of just winged. Maybe the Ozaukee residents are good at shooting out kneecaps.

    “It will give people a lot of false securities. Even though people can shoot at a paper target and take a class to learn gun safety, the bad guys are going to assume their victim has a gun and will be more aggressive and more violent,” said [Hartford Police Lt. Tom] Horvath, saying he was speaking only for himself and not the department.

    What’s good for Britain is good for us, hey, loot? Of course, maybe if the goblins feared for their own lives, they’d perhaps think of another line of work.

    Said Cedarburg Police Chief Tom Frank: “My initial reaction is, I’m not in favor of it because of the many situations in which police officers have contact with angry citizens.

    “In many of those cases, citizens who have been arrested for various offenses have acted in a violent manner toward a police officer,” Frank said.

    “I’m just fearful that with some people now carrying concealed weapons, the violence toward police officers could become a greater problem,” he said.

    Frank has a valid concern. However, he’s weighing the safety of a few citizens (the police) against the majority of the citizens. Police would be safer, too, if they kept the general population sedated. Quick, someone legislate manditory downers for all!

Go read Boots and Sabers. Owen’s in Milwaukee, so he’s got a pony in this fight and he’s keeping us up to date.

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A Herd, Not A Pack

The most important things to remember about this story about the attorney gunned down outside the courthouse:

Dramatic television footage showed Curry, 53, of Simi Valley, trying to hide behind a tree as the man police identified as Strier fired several times.

Strier, a heavyset man with graying hair and glasses, calmly walked by stunned reporters before an off-duty sheriff’s reserve officer tackled him.

The media, defenders of Truth but not, apparently, an individual physically threatened man, filmed and watched this happen without coming to the poor shootee’s aid and then let the shooter walk by them before being tackled, not shot, by an off-duty sheriff’s reserve officer, someone who was not a full-time law enforcement officer.

So keep that in mind, when the media picture the mass of Americans as defenseless sheep, they’re projecting.

(Link seen on Ravenwood’s Universe.)

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More On Box Cutters on Planes

Addendum to my box cutters post:

You know all the box cutters found individually on planes throughout the country? Your paranoia shidoshi has a surprisingly simple explanation. Call it Occam’s Boxcutter if you will. Is it terrorists doing dry runs to see what they can successfully smuggle? Is it an underground of students out to humiliate the TSA?

Or is it simply honest Americans that suddenly discover that they have put their boxcutters in their pockets and suddenly find themselves committing a felony at 42,000 feet?

Believe you me, I would wipe my fingerprints off of it and put it in the seat beside me, too.

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Remember, B. Holden Wants Not To Close Loopholes, But To Determine Who Passes Through Them

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, oddly enough, entitles this story “Small firms will pay piper if big companies get tax break”.

Stop the O’Learying presses, wouldja? So someone has to make up the difference when the state passes out millions of dollars to Ford, Chrysler, Boeing, or any of the other dozen or so companies that employ a couple of thousand people whenever one of those companies rattles its cup among the various states when contemplating whether to move or not?

Lord, love a duck, I know I am an English major, but this sort of thing just seems obvious to me. It’s about time a journalist catches up.

Of course, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will forget this concern the next time that one of these companies decides it can get a better handout from Kentucky and will run breathless stories about the negotiating and the threats of layoffs, and you, taxpayer, will be forgotten.

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Quote of the Day

From a Tech Central Station article about the rather forward CEO of Ryanair, Mike O’Leary, we have this nugget of wisdom about portfolio allocation:

I don’t want to get stuck like those dot com f—-ing goons that lost everything because they failed to realize their paper wealth.

Diversify from those options, kiddies. Not that I’ll have that trouble, of course, since I’ve put all my money in liquor, canned goods, can openers, and firearms. That’s all the portfolio diversification you need.

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Sportswriter Blames Schwarzenegger for California Wildfires

Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes in his Tipsheet column:


LIFT WEIGHTS, RUN FOR OFFICE

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got a warm reception when he presented medals at the 39th annual Mr. Olympia contest. He’s huge with the flex-and-pose crowd.

“Finally, I feel at home again,” he told a crowd of 6,000 in Las Vegas. “This is a terrific sport, and if it wouldn’t have been for bodybuilding, I wouldn’t have any of this. It’s a great foundation.”

Added Mr. Olympia founder Joe Weider, “Finally it’s beginning to dawn on the world that bodybuilders are smart. They develop determination. They don’t give up. They don’t lose. If they ever apply that to any profession . . . they can be a great success.”

Meanwhile, back in California, the southern half of the state was ablaze with brush fires.

Gordo, Non Sequitur does not play third line center for the Montreal Canadiens. You cannot even blame Schwarzenegger, or say he hasn’t done enough to stop the fires because he’s not even office yet.

I understand you media types, even you sportswriters, want to blame current Republican officeholders for unrelated problems that preceded their terms of office, but come on. Maybe you should go back to your normal job, which is blaming the current state of the Blues on the Brendan Shanahan tampering charge from 1991. Damn that Larry Pleau! How could he?

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Michael Kinsley Says, “Because I Said So”

In an editorial in the Washington Post, Michael Kinsley’s latest piece bears the headline “One Reason Not to Like Bush” and he starts with a lead of:

Conservatives wonder why so many liberals don’t just disagree with President Bush’s policies, but seem to dislike him personally. The story of stem cell research may help to explain.

He offer some blah blah blah about Bush opposing fetus stem cell research and how Bush pretends to think it’s immoral, but:

None of this matters if you believe that a microscopic embryo is a human being with the same human rights as you and me. George W. Bush claims to believe that, and you have to believe something like that to justify your opposition to stem cell research. But Bush cannot possibly believe that embryos are full human beings, or he would surely oppose modern fertility procedures that create and destroy many embryos for each baby they bring into the world. Bush does not oppose modern fertility treatments. He even praised them in his anti-stem cell speech.

Got that? Kinsley starts putting beliefs into Bush’s head to make his point. Lookie der, lookie der, Bush cannot adhere to his principles because he has not specifically addressed this particular permutation! HYPOCRITE!

Finally, after some blah blah blah about Bush being a hypocrite and moral poser and not a very good one at that (undoubtedly, Kinsley would probably intimate, like you and me, wink-wink-nudge-nudge-say-no-more!), Kinsley finishes with:

This is not a policy disagreement. Or rather, it is not only a policy disagreement. If the president is not a complete moron — and he probably is not — he is a hardened cynic, staging moral anguish he does not feel, pandering to people he cannot possibly agree with and sacrificing the future of many American citizens for short-term political advantage.

Is that a good enough reason to dislike him personally?

Actually, if I were falling for the straw man Kinsley’s hung in effigy, I might still think it was a policy disagreement if I left out every impure motive he so applied so dilligently to the policy discussion.

As it stands, I can only summon forth a “Poor form, Peter” and continue to disregard Michael Kinsley as a serious thinker. Is it good enough reason to dislike him personally? But, Mr. Toohey, I don’t think of you.

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