The Stupidest Stuff

Ok, it’s been a long time since my last post. So much stupid stuff has been going on it’s hard to decide what to talk about… but now, the first failure of the current administration’s war on “man made disasters” seems to be a good place to start.

In a NYTimes article it says:

“When a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, embassy officials did not revoke the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010. Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.”

Ok, a series of errors here; namely the guy’s DAD calls the American embassy to report him, officials not revoking his visa—but flagging it to be denied to be renewed, adding them to the list of people with terrorist connections but NOT the no-fly list… (editorial note: maybe that’s because the list is to full of 3 year old kids.) But the most important one that should have flagged him is this…

Dude boarded a trans atlantic flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan and checked NO bags. Good Lord, people!

Then Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, (editorial note: a woman going after the hottie look of Cher’s Morticia Adams, Yet blending it with the Rosie O’Donnell Bull Dyke meets Old Beaver … (Subsequent editors note: The beaver reference was a reference to Jerry Mather’s teeth… not Rosie’s taste in fine dining.)… Give it up lady and just dye that grey patch with some Just for Men.) ….. at any rate…during an interview on “This Week” on ABC says “The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days”… are you serious woman?

A Nigerian fingered by his own father as a radical get on a inter-continental Trans-Atlantic flight— with no baggage, after being on a list of people with terrorist connections, and having his Visa flagged as non-renewable manages to get past who knows how much security at the airport in the Netherlands with both a BOMB strapped to him and some way to LIGHT the thing and the only thing that stopped him were passengers… and that’s a success??? If that were GW, the left would be having a field day—congressional hearings and screaming for impeachment… That’s just stupid!.

In a article at MSNBC, entitled Airline removes life vests to save weight, fuel the Canadian Airline, Jazz, has decided to remove Life Vests from it’s aircraft. This in itself isn’t stupid– though if a plane ever goes down in the water they might wish they hadn’t done so.

What is stupid is their logic. They claim that the life vests add weight to the aircraft (Editorial Note: We’re not disputing they do… read on.) and By removing the 50 life vests from the airplane they will save 55 pounds… this saving fuel says Manon Stuart, Jazz spokeswoman. Ummm…. sweetheart, that’s not going to save much fuel at all, I’d bet people are carrying 55 pounds of stuff in their pockets when they get on, not counting carry on bags… just stuff in their front and back pockets like keys, change, cellphones, etc! You guys run your company how you want, but don’t go skimping on safety features and billing it off as being Green or saving fuel… that’s a crock of crap.

If you want to save weight, how about mid-flight jettisoning people who are drunk and beligerant. Maybe expand that policy to those that smell bad– heck, give the people that won’t shutup while I sleep the boot out the cargobay hatch at 30,000 feet. Another thing that would save weight is to remove the auxilary landing gear wire harnesses… but, good God woman– what are you thinking when you consider getting rid of a safety device!!!

This is no huge concern for me personally, planes in the states have not had life vests for as long as they remember. They always say “in the event of a water landing your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device”. Well, I always think… any chance we can follow the Mississippi river down from Minnesota to Louisiana? Seriously, most times planes are flying over GROUND… anyone ever thought about that??? How about next time you ask if, “In the event of a crash, can the pilot aim for water?”

Alison Duquette, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said “if you are an airline and you fly an airplane over a body of water, you have to have a life preserver or an approved floatation means.” She went on to say a seat cushion would satisfy that requirement but she was not aware of any U.S. airline getting rid of life vests on their airplanes to help with weight issues… I want to know what airline actually HAS them none I’ve flown on do. And if they do… where do they put them?

Jazz, congratulations… you’ve made it onto the stupideststuff!