Monthly Archives: February 2017

Sedition or Free Speech?

Common Sense, Ethical Behavior, World Politics

The dictionary defines “sedition” as:

“Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch”.

The left, still reeling from their anointed Presidential Candidate managing to pull defeat from the almost sure jaws of victory in November, are becoming more and more bizarre in their behavior.  Not content to simply criticize every decision that Donald Trump has made, including his choice of ties, I suppose, they have gone on a vocal rampage almost beyond understanding.  IMPEACH HIM!  They scream!  HE’S A DICTATOR!  They yell!  How could this possibly have happened?  Our country is doomed!  What can we do?  Grown men are crying and women are flexing their muscles and making ominous threats.

The latest of these is from Rosa Brooks, pictured above.  She’s a former Special Coordinator for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy, running a new Pentagon office dedicated to those issues during the Obama administration  (Right next to the Office of Transgender Surgery Procurement, I’ll bet).   Ms. Brooks is now back at Georgetown University, poisoning the minds of her students against any conservative ideas, and writing columns for the various liberal newspapers like the Los Angeles and New York Times.  One of her latest missives suggests that if President Trump can’t be successfully impeached, the United States Military should be encouraged to stage a coup to remove him from office!

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Engines Are Insurance……

Aviation Safety, Common Sense

What follows will be a bit technical for non aviation oriented people.  Large airplane pilots and airline flight dispatchers will understand completely.  With that said, stick with me.  The implications contained in this information are crystal clear to anyone.

I spent a long career as a pilot for a major international airline (which one? read my bio on the “About the Captain” tab).  I flew every type of 3 and 4 engined Boeing  jet which was produced from 1963 onward with the exception of the B-777.  I also flew the Lockheed L-1011, which had 3 engines.  At the end of my career I flew the 2 engined Boeing 757 and 767, all that was left of our international fleet after years of downsizing of the airline.  I flew them on international over water routes for just over a year, and was never comfortable for a minute of that time out of sight of land. Why?  Let me explain.

Pilots have long realized that engines are like insurance policies.  The more you have, the less you have to worry about.  However, there is a fiscal downside to the equation.  More engines equal greater fuel burn, and so higher operational cost.  The OPEC created oil crisis in 1973 led to the first major spike in fuel prices since WW-II.  We all felt it at the gas station when we filled up our cars (if gasoline was available at any price).  The airlines were particularly hard hit, since fuel costs are the single largest item on the balance sheet. Aircraft manufactures had already anticipated this problem, designing the B-727 with three engines for shorter routes and the “Wide Bodied” B-747, DC-10 and L-1011 for longer flights, including international over water operations.  The 4 engined B-707 and DC-8 variants were still predominant until they could be replaced by the much more costly 3 and 4 engined wide-bodied aircraft.  The sagging world wide economies of the last quarter of the 20th century created a demand for more fuel efficient airliners.  The only way that could be accomplished was to reduce weight and/or the number of engines.  That gave birth to wide bodied 2 engine aircraft, such as the Boeing 757, 767 and 777 as well as the numerous models produce by the European consortium Airbus.

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Two Events………

Common Sense, Ethical Behavior

I would postulate that there have only been two events in the last one hundred years which have unquestionably threatened our country and our way of life to it’s very core.  The first was the attack by the naval forces of the Empire of Japan on our naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.  The second was the attack on the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon by 19 Muslim men on September 11, 2001.  In both these attacks, religion played an important role.

In the case of the Japanese, they revered Hirohito, their Emperor, as a living god.  To die in service of the Emperor was considered a great honor by believers in the Shinto religion, the predominant religion of that country.  The 9/11 hijackers were Sunni Muslims, which is the largest sect of that religion.  Nearly 90 percent of Muslims worldwide are Sunnis.  Death in the service of Allah, the Muslim’s god, and his Prophet Muhammad, is also considered a privilege, and insures entrance to “paradise”.

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The Pretend Game.

Common Sense, Ethical Behavior

Let’s pretend. Back in the day, it was a game all children played.  You could let your imagination soar and be anything or anywhere your youthful mind could take you.  A pirate, a cowboy, a doctor or nurse, an astronaut, anything was possible in a childhood fantasy.  Actors and actresses learned to do this as adults, being paid ever increasing sums to pretend to be something they were not.  But then, something weird and sinister happened

Somewhere along the way, this phenomena has crept into our everyday lives.  Parents pretend that all children are the same.  Everyone gets a trophy for participating.  There is absolutely no difference between boys and girls.  In fact, you can let them choose what sex they want to be.  Boys will be girls and girls will be boys.  Let’s pretend!

The problem is, that’s just not true.  The chromosomes provided by the male at the moment of conception determine the sex of the child.  So, XX = female and XY = male.  Now, we can pretend that’s not the case.  We can pretend that it’s possible to be a male trapped in a female’s body or vice versa.  But that doesn’t change the biological reality. Plastic surgery and hormone therapy can change  the way an individual appears, but not who they really are genetically.  XX still equals female and XY equals male.  The so-called “transformations” are wondrous indeed.  A male can be made to appear to be a beautiful female, and a female can be altered to appear to be a very masculine male, but the X’s and Y’s are still there, immutable and unchanged.

So what’s the problem?  He thinks he’s a she and she thinks she’s a he.  Live and let live! Different strokes for different folks, right?  Unfortunately, the LGBT community, emboldened by the left, has determined that the general population must not only accept that they exist as part of the population, but must also embrace that lifestyle as an alternate “normal”.  Girls must be allowed to join the Boy Scouts and presumably boys must be allowed to join the Girl Scouts!

So, for a very tiny portion of our population, we must all be required to turn our worlds upside down.  Nope, won’t go there.  You have a right to live your lifestyle, but you don’t have a right to forcibly impose it on me or my family.  Period.  It is my great hope that the tide is turning.  Political correctness run amok will no longer be the norm.  Common sense will no longer be denigrated.  Tolerance, yes. But forced blind acceptance of every bizarre fad or lifestyle to come down the pike?  No way.  You can continue with your “pretend game”, but don’t expect the rest of us to join in.