Really?

The first thing this story reminded me of was of a Gary Larson cartoon:

The 38-year-old co-pilot at the helm of the All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight hit the wrong button while trying to push the unlock door button to let the captain back into the cockpit after he stepped out to use the restroom.

But instead of pressing unlock, the co-pilot hit the rudder trim controls — a mistake that tipped the Boeing 737-700 more than 130 degrees to the left and sent it plunging 6,234 feet in 30 seconds, all while flying at a height of 41,000 feet.

Maybe there's not more to the story--737 captains would know for sure--but it certainly is a bit disconcerting, for several reasons.

One is obvious--that simply mis-hitting a button could crash a plane. The second is bit more conspiratorial: this is not the first time a plane has fallen out of control shortly after a captain has left the cockpit to take a break. Two incidents come to mind, Egypt Air 990 and this one, where the first officer was merely adjusting his seat after the captain left the cockpit and in doing so sent the plane into a dive. That was also a 737. After regaining control the crew blamed an 'air pocket'.

So are these just freak occurrences that have always happened but are now getting more press in the 24/7 news cycle or is training or skill really that bad?

Asylum, Again

Like so many embarrassing stories out of the United States this one comes not from the mainstream media but from a blog--Pajamas Media (with a hat tip to another blog), which details two Bangladeshi men caught illegally entering the country in Arizona. One big problem--both admitted to being part of a terror group:

Two Bangladeshis who were caught by Customs and Border Protection illegally crossing the border in June 2010 admitted under questioning that they were members of a designated terrorist organization that signed on to a fatwa by Osama bin Laden pledging to wage war against Americans.

But amazingly, after one of the men requested asylum, he was released on bond. And now one Homeland Security official tells me, concerning the released terror operative, “We don’t have the slightest idea where he is now.”

Requested asylum? That triggered an old memory cell regarding a notorious terrorist from the past:

ON SEPTEMBER 1, 1992, Ramzi Yousef arrived at JFK airport. He presented an Iraqi passport without a U.S. visa, was briefly detained (and fingerprinted) for illegal entry, and granted asylum pending a hearing. Yousef went to stay at the apartment of Musab Yasin, an Iraqi living in Jersey City. So too did Abdul Rahman Yasin, Musab's younger brother, who arrived in America from Iraq soon after Yousef. (Musab had an unlisted telephone number under an Israeli-sounding alias, Josie Hadas.)

Obviously Ramzi never showed up for his hearing. He left the country right after his World Trade Center bomb failed to topple one tower into the other and kill perhaps 200,000, was granted access to an airliner under his real name and a real passport and took refuge in Pakistan. And here we are, almost 20 years later, allowing someone else with terrorist ties to claim asylum. The difference is this time, with 9/11 in the rearview mirror, we did it despite knowing he had ties whereas with Yousef he wasn't on any lists and didn't confess to being affiliated with a terrorist organization before being released.

When border security/illegal immigration is added to the picture it's no wonder this story never made big headlines. Remember, Obama was threatening to sue Governor Brewer last year.

Look Around, CNN

This not-too-subtle bash on GOP political candidates, disguised as a hit piece on bad candidates at large, is nothing new for CNN. The writer mentions an indefensible black politico--Marion Berry--to set up the hit on Newt Gingrich, Jan Brewer, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, who were the only others mentioned in the piece. We're not grotesquely stupid, CNN.

A more fair and balanced journalistic outlet might have mentioned the guy who thought Guam was going to tip over if we put more troops there. Or the guy who tweeted nekkid pictures of himself to underage girls. Or the guy who said that if the bill didn't pass unemployment would go over 8 percent. Or the woman who said she took fire in Tuzla.

Or this woman--the governor of North Carolina:

“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.”

Keep hope alive, governor. You see CNN, there are plenty of bad politicians out there and they don't all have the R next to their names. And plenty of voters who put them in office.

Said Morgan Freeman to Piers Morgan

Morgan Freeman is certainly making some news for himself with this segment, which presumably most have seen..



The part that jumped out was this line:

"Screw the country, we're gonna do whatever we can to get this black man outa here"

Meanwhile another black man, Herman Cain, came out of Florida as a Tea Party favorite to run for president. He just won the straw poll down there. He holds no animosity towards the respected actor, but just wondering--would Freeman have supported Cain if he was the GOP nominee against Hillary in 2008? What if Cain is their nominee this time?

Freeman went on to tell Morgan that Obama needs to start "bloodying some noses", a strategy with which Morgan seemed to agree. Is it any wonder Obama just told the CBC crowd to get their marching shoes on and fight? By the way, just imagine some white actor telling Bill O'Reilly that Sarah Palin (target of constant ridicule from the moonbats and hustlers from orgs like the CBC and NAACP), needs to start bloodying some noses and get the Tea Party on the streets to fight. The POTUS might even fly to Tuscon and do another speech.

Side Tracks

Those Evil Little Inhalers

News is hitting the wires today about the coming forced change in asthma inhalers at the end of the year, and of course some are blaming Obama:

Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly? Well, it seems that the Obama administration would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer.

But Obama is only a part of the problem. He didn't create the Montreal Protocol agreement in 1987, which banned CFCs, still used to power some inhalers. All CFCs were supposed to be phased out by now but they loosened the ban to allow for a more gradual reduction for inhalers, but according to the site Weekly Standard linked, sufferers will now need to get a prescription and pay more for their life-saving plastic pumps:

Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives as part of the federal government's latest attempt to protect the Earth's atmosphere.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday patients who use the epinephrine inhalers to treat mild asthma will need to switch by Dec. 31 to other types that do not contain chlorofluorocarbons, an aerosol substance once found in a variety of spray products.

Does anyone know exactly how these little pumps emit CFCs? What's the science? Are there little exhaust ports or does it just seep out? Or is it exhaled? Calling Al Gore...

Speaking of Gore, here's an oldy from the 90s talking about his use of the politics of fear to hector Bush 41:

In somber tones, Gore reminded his colleagues of previous fears about "the ozone hole over Antarctica," and insisted that our nation faces "not only a long-term, critical threat to the global environment, but also an immediate, acute emergency threat." He raved about "blind rabbits and blind salmon in the areas under the edge of the ozone hole in the Southern hemisphere," and claimed that there would be "an additional 300,000 deaths from skin cancer in the United States as a result of ozone depletion over the next few decades." He also linked ozone depletion to "extra cases of cataracts and blindness due to cataracts," and to "damage to the human immune system...."

Such an effective campaign. Arrrg, the ozone hole! Yet despite the ban scientists say the level of ozone in the Arctic was at an all-time low this past winter. The reason? Inhalers. No, actually, unusually cold air aloft:

"The Montreal Protocol actually works, and the amount of ozone-depleting gases is on the way down, but quite slowly," said Geir Braathen, a senior scientist with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which co-ordinates ozone data globally.

"In the meantime, we have some winters that get much colder than before and also the cold periods last longer, into the spring," he told BBC News. "So it's really a combination of the gases still there and low temperatures and then sunshine, and then you get ozone loss."

OK. CFCs are down 10 percent since Montreal (at some level in the atmosphere wherever they measure it) but they just recorded the lowest drop of ozone ever over the Arctic, explained by colder than normal temperatures aloft they can't really explain. Meanwhile the Antarctic ozone hole just keeps forming year after year. And here on the surface of the earth in temperate climes, where ozone levels have not threatened anyone lately, asthmatics are asked to do their patriotic duty by paying more for their evil little inhalers. It sure sounds like a racket, but we're always open to scientific rebuttals.

Walking into Walls, Thowing Up on Leaders, and Other Things

Obama today in a group photo shot taken with world leaders, making the rounds.. My, what an embarrassing picture, waving like a bitter, clinging hick...

Here's one possible response..

Or maybe that would that be considered mean-spirited. What would Reasonable Man say? Is Reasonable Man still reasonable if he makes more than 200K, or does that mean he is officially not amongst "the people" anymore? And what happened to the reality-based community?

MORE 9/21/11

Wow, that was quick!