One day I will have to calculate how many times I’ve gone Trans-Atlantic. I have been going Trans-Atlantic for 35 years now. That is not the same thing as going “postal” but I guess there is some correlation. How many times can you go to oxygen deprived altitudes of 30,000 to 42,000 ft before you feel the psychotic affects?
On the Europe to Lagos flight, for that matter, I would have to work out how many times I have gone Trans-Alps, or Trans-Mediterranean, or Trans-Sahara. I have been on this flight with Lufthansa, KLM, Swiss Air and British Airways for 25 years now. In fact on this flight I was watching the lay of the Alps and I noticed that we were off track. I can recognize the Matterhorn (remember Rudi from Banner in the Sky), I know where to find Mont Blanc (remember Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), I can easily recognize Geneva and Lake Lucerne, and so I know when we are off track. On this flight we were definitely off our normal track.
I figured we were skirting the Western side of Switzerland and heading for Southern France instead of flying over central Switzerland toward Northern Italy and crossing the city of Genova. I did a quick mental calculation and decided we would cross the French coast near Montpellier. I waited until I could for sure make out the tidal salt water inland waterways of the coast between Montpellier and Marseille before I officially asked the flight attendant “Do you know why we are so far west of our normal track?”
She stared at me like I was a Muslim terrorists (kind of like “where in the hell is this question going”) and then slowly leaned close to me and quietly whispered, like she didn’t want the others to hear, “I don’t know.”
I then asked her to ask the Captain because, after all, he should know.
She hesitantly and reluctantly agreed and only a few minutes later came back to say, “The Captain said he decided to avoid Tunisia and cross Algeria instead.”
About then the lack of oxygen at 36,000 feet took over, along with the three glasses of business class French champagne and two glasses of amazingly earthy, with a black pepper finish, Chilean red wine, I decided to ask, “Why… because of the tear-gas or the bullets?”
I could have said, “Why… because of the power cuts to the air navigation system or because the air traffic controllers couldn’t make their shift through the riots clogged streets?” Both of which are legitimate reasons for international air traffic rerouting, and I know because I have suffered both scenarios, but instead I decided to play the pundit blogger game. Make the normal sound abnormal because we can then strike at the loudest or most “blogged” or most ‘twittered” fear travelling the social network. If I played by the rules for this inflammatory style of reactionary blogging I would be able to say we avoided Tunisia because of “the severe threat to public safety.” I will call this the “cross-hair” effect.
Don’t, however, get this effect mixed up with the “butterfly” effect. (Sensitive dependence on initial conditions.) These politicians and reactionary bloggists are not smart enough to either determine initial conditions or decide on any particular strategy that can or may influence a chosen or preferred outcome. They depend purely on “outcomes” to launch second grade (I mean “grade school” not a “level of quality”) attacks that make their weak-minded or politically prejudiced readers believe that either their statements or the statement of those who they support affected the outcome.
These stand-by-the-sidelines-and-wait-for-the-results-so-we-can-have-our-comeuppance reactionary bullies, Republican or Democrats it makes no difference, trick the not-so-smart Americans into believing that if they say it first and if they can decidedly “lay blame” or simply “point the finger” with resolution, then it must be true and they must be right… at least mostly politically right.
The actual event, being a congress woman getting her brains scrambled or a nine year old girl, a victim of random violence as random as dust being driven by Brownian Motion, getting murdered (perhaps she should be chosen as the official 100,000th American gunshot victim of the past year just like the kid from Bosnia being randomly nominated as the SIX BILLIONTH child of the earth) gets totally lost in the fray.
Representative who beat Tea Party rival ‘gravely wounded’ in shopping mall bloodbath that leaves at least six dead
By David Usborne in New York
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Gabrielle Giffords, a Congresswoman from Arizona, who was shot during a political meeting yesterday
A Democratic Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, who had been the target of often incendiary rhetoric from the Tea Party, was gravely wounded in a Tucson hospital last night after she was shot in the head at a political gathering in her constituency in Tucson, Arizona.
The cross-hair effect says that if “I point my scope at you… you must be wrong or wicked or simply a perceived threat” and therefore you must be taken out of the equation with my righteousness. That reaction is somewhere along the lines of “blame the victim” except that the concept is betting on the notion that their twitter or blog or political campaign may actually be seen to be foreshadowing an unlikely random event, like winning the $20,000,000 jackpot on a personal favorite numerical sequence of the 649 lottery that you have used for 20 years, as if they had intellectually predicted a foreseeable outcome.
The proof of their falsehood is simple. Who could have predicted that an innocent precocious nine year old future diplomat would have been shot dead by the 14th bullet of a of a $439 Glock that carried a high capacity 33 bullet clip that President Clinton had banned in 1994. In that President Obama had neglected to renew the time limited law that banned the killer clip for the gun that would have normally only carried a 10 bullet clip, I could almost say that Obama murdered Cristina – except that I am not a reactionary bloggists. I don’t lay blame on victims. In this case the real victims end up getting buried in the rhetoric that somehow blames Sarah Palin for the tragedy.
Now don’t get me wrong. I think Sarah is a bullfrog in a culvert. She has discovered that when she croaks in a resonating pipe more of her web-toed supporters hear her racket but whatever the reactionary press may lead you to think she is still croaking deep below the mainstream of the American highway. Only her politically prejudiced followers think they are filtering out a message but the rest of us only hear bullfrogs. With true freedom of speech, however, as long as she is safe, dependable and reliable and carries a gun that prevents unintentional firing she is free to speak her mind.
If you are looking for a handgun with the ultimate in self defense and reliability, look no further than this Glock® 36 Pistol. With your safety in mind, this Glock® 36 Pistol has the “Safe Action” trigger system that uses a partially tensioned firing pin lock and a drop safety to prevent unintentional firing and the simple finger on trigger, safety off, finger off the trigger, safety on psychology. Designed to last, this Glock® 36 Pistol has all parts coated in tenifer to give your firearm the additional hardness and longevity you want in a handgun. Safe, dependable and reliable, this Glock® 36 Pistol is a favorite among law enforcement agencies and is sure to be your favorite too.
In other words, you can point it where ever you like. As long as you don’t pull the trigger the gun is safe.
Ok I almost forgot my point. The flight attendant retorted, “Actually he said there is turbulence over Tunisia.”
