It Takes The Cake

I may sound like a broken record but I have another airline story to write about today. The skies are getting more weird with every flight and this incident is more odd than the one in which the passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight, blood dripping from his face,  because he refused to leave when the airline said it needed his seat for airline personnel flying to work. This one can be called, the incident that takes the cake!

A family heading to birthday celebrations in Las Vegas were kicked off a Jet Blue flight after an argument over a birthday cake they had brought onto the plane. Cameron Burke, his wife and two children were in their seats  at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Burke initially stored the cake in the overhead bin, but he said he moved it down when asked to do so by a flight attendant. All flyers are allowed to bring onboard one carry on and one personal item, including cakes, within the size limits. Burke said he and his family were asked to leave the plane after a second attendant told him off, and Burke questioned whether the attendant had been drinking.

Telling the flight attendant she was drunk , even in jest, was not a good move. But one wonders why the cake caused so much distress for the flight crew. "She said I was being noncompliance," Burke said.. “I then remarked to her, ‘Miss, have you been drinking?’ Because her behavior was irrational and she stormed off." Hmmm The irrationality was just beginning because the crew called police to arrest Burke. I guess there is a law about unauthorized cake stowing in New York? Police acted irrationally too. They kicked everybody off the plane (Maybe they were accessories to illegal cake stowing?)

Jet Blue confirmed the incident but said the removal was justified because the passengers' "behavior demonstrated a risk for additional escalation in air." The airline also said that the Burke's cursed and shouted at the crew and "refused to speak with a team leader about the situation." There is yet no confirmation of that or that all parts of the story told by Burke and the airline are correct. But the stupidity of it all is astounding.

I wonder where common sense is in the skies today. It would have been smart for the airline to not harass the Burke family about the cake, and Burke should have complied to the airline request without smarmy remarks. Burke sees dollars in his future, despite having his money refunded after being kicked off.  The  rest of the passengers reboarded the Cake plane (without cakes, I presume) and the Burkes were able to take a flight from Newark to Las Vegas the following day, but Burke claims he did nothing wrong and plans to sue Jet Blue with the help of National Action Network, a not-for-profit civil rights organization.“ I want the flight attendant fired, she has no business serving the public,” Burke said. “I hope Jet Blue will retrain their staff and recreate the culture I once loved.” 
Culture he once loved?

Wow! Maybe someone should test Burke's sanity. for claiming that kind of airline culture has ever existed.

Pop Music Fizzles for me

I know I am out of touch with pop culture. My age insists it is so, and I am glad. I find most of it not only confusing and uninteresting  but crass, crude and lacking in substance. The worst of it for me is popular music. I left the pop music audience many years ago. If I am assaulted by pop music on the street, in an elevator or anywhere outside my home, since I won't play it there, my reaction is usually "that is awful noise". Gee, I wish they would bring back the Beatles.

A good example of a reason for my flight from modern music is the headline I saw at an online newspaper today. It said "Drake to headline....." The guy must be a singer because he had a microphone in his hand in the accompanying photo and it looked like he was crooning (we oldies call singing crooning because they used to do that in ancient times). Anyway, I am unfamiliar with Drake and a multitude of other pop singers today. The only thing that interests me about Drake is that he seems to have lost or forgotten his last name. Maybe he is one of those one name performers or maybe his mom told him to stop embarrassing her with his singing. "Don't use the family name, Drake"...or something.

There are a lot of one name singers I only know by their name because I don't listen to them sing. Maybe I would like them if I did, but I am uninterested in listening to anyone with less than to word in their name. Some of the one namers I have never heard sing, but know of the media swooning over them and speaking their one name are: Bork, 50 Cent (Huh?),  Beck, Mario, Coolio (maybe his parents were drunk when they name him), Flea (I'd rather scratch than listen to him), Xzbit (how do you pronounce that one?) Nelly, Shakia and on and on.

There are some one names I know because they have been persistent in their careers. Beyonce' is a good example. I don't want to hear her sing after listening to a filth monologue that declared her hate for police, whites and anything not related to the "black experience'. It's odd how she and other black performers express so much hatred for other races and yet are popular with young people who are members of the races they hate. I once saw an interview with Beyonce' and was startled at how inarticulate and uneducated she sounded. yet she is a beacon of modern culture, someone who leads.

Music is supposed to reflect the culture and civilization from which it comes. God help us if that is so. No wonder it is often said that music should be listened to and not analyzed. Anyone my age trying to analyze modern pop music has my best wishes, but when they take rest breaks I recommend they spin a few Beatle records to bring back their sanity.

The Diversity and Inclusion Hate Campaign

In reading the newspaper this morning I noted  a big bold headline about an MTV awards show that said, "MTV Awards celebrate inclusion and diversity". I don't watch that TV channel and know  or care nothing about the people they honored at the ceremony. But I do know about the idiotic "diversity and inclusion" policy of the left.  The term demands nothing short of complete uniformity in accepting radical, left-wing ideas about multiculturalism, and despite the “inclusion” part, its focus on forced levels of “diversity” inherently demands nothing short of the exclusion and mistreatment of white people to do it. This is the latest left wing bigotry campaign, cloaked in the lie that it promotes fairness.

I suspect the political correctness that Obama and his minions promoted has run its course, given that people see it for what it is- hate and bigotry against whatever is the majority preference. To replace political correctness, this diversity/inclusion nonsense has slowly been inching its way to the top of the left list of how to discriminate in the name of fairness. It rules every American university with an iron hand, demonizing anything or anyone who is not a member of a minority group. Diversity and inclusion has even managed to infiltrate the once conservative corporate world with stunning effectiveness. The nation's leading financial institutions, from Goldman Sachs to JPMorgan Chase, have "diversity and inclusion offices" in order to avoid being targeted by the diversity crowd with the favorite brand of the left- "racism".

The media loves the diversity spiel and anyone who questions why someone is better or more deserving simply because his or her skin color is not white is the mantra that the media.It is becoming mainstream. The D and I campaign is really a rebranding of the stale and vacuous political correctness war we have suffered the past decade or so. Most institutions couldn't get away with having an official office of "political correctness," a direct and obvious assault on the principles of intellectual freedom and the free exchange of ideas. But few peole dare to challenge such a nice sounding religion as "diversity and inclusion". Few institutions will challenge the hate of D and I because it's not good business and they will be scorned publicly if they do.

The, "White people are oppressors and we must destroy them" campaign of diversity and inclusion advocates promotes an entitlement based on race that produces great tension among the demonized white person constituency it seeks to wipe out. It also marginalizes minorities who oppose it and want to be judged on merit, not skin color.

Here's what D and I really is. "Diversity" means the ideologically motivated desire to increase the number of minorities at a given institution by accepting, hiring and promoting based on race. White is evil and non white is Godly in the eyes of the diversity haters.  And "inclusion" means ensuring that no white person is allowed to complain about it. I just did....so go ahead and attack me for preferring fairness, equality and ethical behavior toward all.

May Day Is Protest Day

Another May Day has passed. In most of the world May Day is a patriotic display, the nation celebrates itself and there is unity. But in Western Europe and the United States May Day was never a holiday of celebration and unity. The disenchanted there have transformed May Day into their own holiday of dissent, often dissent for dissent purposes. It is Protest Day for them that accomplishes nothing but dividing the nations where the protests are held. Many of them don't know what they are protesting, most are uninformed about the issues they protest, but all of them seem to love being a trendy protester who will change the nation to their often bizarre vision of what they see as a just one.

The liberal areas of this country are where the protests are largest and most violent. The left never protests without creating a scene, a tantrum and sometimes a violent one. It's their way of getting attention for their cause, given that the cause is usually so stupid and off that the only way anyone not a lunatic would notice is by a massive street protest that shuts down a part of the city.

The one in Portland today turned violent when "anarchists" allegedly not associated with the protest threw Molotov cocktails, stones, broke store front windows of businesses and burned a police car. After the protest was shut down by police the leftist protest leader reacted as any 5 year old would (That is often the mentality) by blaming the chaos on "outside agitators",  but he also said the anarchists were really right in seeking "justice'. A left wing protest always seems to have professional anarchist protesters attached to the protest march. They dress in all black, usually in in Ninja outfits, wear masks to cover their identity to make it harder for police surveillance cameras to identify them when they turn violent, carry bats or other weapons and smash as many store windows and cars as they can.

I am not sure what they protest because people from the far left protest everything these days. It seems to be a way for some people to have fun an feel "revolutionary" at the same time. My guess the May Day protest were a "I hate Trump let's impeach him" protest, because it's is the year of hate protest against Donald Trump. Protesters rarely approve of democratic elections when their candidate loses. Instead, they demand a recount, say the election was rigged and finally, when their complaints are so baseless that they are ignored, they seek to have the winner removed any way possible and replaced with the leftist that lost or the next best leftist because...well..the left is smugly certain their way is the only way and that they know the best way to govern. Democracy be damned!

Elsewhere in many other liberal cities in the U.S. and dozens of smaller communities, the protesters marched for immigrants (illegal immigrants), for workers (because many of the protesters don't work themselves, preferring to let the tax paying workers they claim to represent, pay for their ":free stuff"), for women and for the rest of the  amorphous crowd that leftists claim to represent. Instead of the May Day celebration in civilized countries that is a day traditionally reserved for the cause of laborers around the world., these clowns protest their gripe of the day.

I think May Day here is the ultimate useless protest day. The protesters march and curse the system that allows them to protest because protesting here has become an end in itself. Everyone know those protests are meaningless, that it's a waste of time and it's an inconvenience to people caught in the middle of the protest mayhem. But when you have nothing constructive to do, protest. It's trendy, fun and you get to pretend you are better than everyone else.

How sad it is to impugn real protest with that garbage. The victim at May Day is the legitimate protester who has real causes that society would benefit from hearing, but who is lost in the mindless mass protests of the leftist protester. We should protest that.

United Air Says It Has Reformed

Remember that You tube video of the passenger who was bodily dragged from his seat, bloodied and screaming, because he refused to vacate the flight for United employees who were being sent to another city? We might have to send him a thank you note. It galvanized attention on how awful it is for the airline passenger today. As Rodney Dangerfield used to say, we "don't get no respect". Well, now United says it is giving us some respect. They just released new customer service policies that might give us peace of mind that no more passengers will be dragged off or abused in another of the many ways we passengers feel we have been. There is a web site for you to check to visit every lodged airline complaint. https://www.airlinecomplaints.org/  It's revealing.

According to United there will be 10 new customer service plies that are more warm and fuzzy than abusive. The top five are:

1) United will not ask law enforcement officers to remove customers from flights unless it is a matter of safety and security.
2) United will no longer require passengers who are already seated on the plane to "voluntarily" give up their seat un less there is a security or safety issue with the passenger.
3) United will increase passenger compensation amounts when the passenger voluntarily gives up a seat before boarding. The new policy gives a passenger as much as $10,000 if he or she gives up a seat. Wow! United can drag me off the plane for $10,000
4 )United will create a team to "proactively identify and provide gate agents with creative solutions" such as using nearby airports, other airlines or ground transportation to get customers and crews to their final destinations.

That's nice, a good start. But what about addressing some more often seen problems on United or any flight for that matter? I have five suggestions for the airlines to address to motivate them to make passengers feel human.
1) enforce the carry-on limit rules that are ignored- that means the man with two large suitcases, a computer, a oversized roll carry-on and a smelly pastrami sandwich will have to check in the bags or walk to his destination
2) more democratic boarding procedures- Why do kids get boarded first? Whenever the airlines make the announcement for "families with children" to board first the family of 20 heads for the plan and fills most of the over head space. If a child has to board, let one adult accompany him, not the entire city from which the kid comes.
3) normal seat sizes- I know smaller seats means more seats to sell, but the fat guy on my left and the woman with bad breath on my right are killing me.
4) hidden charges-  It's bad enough you have to rent a blanket when the airline AC goes nuts an freezes everyone. But the rumors of pay toilets better not be true.
5) reseating- When the airline changes craft and reseats passengers, the odds are the guy with the bad knee will be reseated in a middle seat. Ether reseat in another aisle seat or let him fly free.
Sigh...I wonder when the next train arrives.

Earth Day Hysterics

April is the time of year when things are green, birds and nature gives us melodious sounds that delight our ears. But it's also the month when a group of odd creatures in nature emerge with weird ideas they swear are sacred truths, this despite no evidence to support their phantasmal notions. Yes, April brings for the Earth day nuts that never stop growing. I do enjoy hearing their  claims of "climate change' that humans are engineering and that we are all o going to soon die because some of us drive SUV's. Some of man's greatest, most creative fiction emerges from the mouths of Earth Day attendees.

I looked at the Earth Day web site today and here is their  policy statement  "Climate change is caused by humans. Yet, ironically, humans are the only ones who have the power to do something about it and make a real difference. The time for real action and progress is now!" Really? Am I supposed to accept the drivel about humans being all powerful over nature, that we change nature by living our lives in ordinary ways? Anyway the site goes on to list its propaganda citing "facts" about climate change. Those facts are largely invented nonsense attributed to scientists who don't really endorse them, promoted to hysterical Earth Day worshippers who believe nothing except the almighty power of humans to control, and yes, change climate.

After a few minutes on that cite my brain was being "polluted" with "bad air" words from the environmental nuts who would like us al to live in caves. I had to exit and did. My problem with Earth day and other events that promote foolishness in the name of "saving the planet' is that they distract us from real earth issues. All sensible people are concerned about maintaining a clean environment. We want to enjoy clean air, land, and water and we like to think that future generations will live in an even better environment. These were the original objectives of Earth Day, but now it is the province of crazy or uninformed people out for a good time one day year. Most know little about what they speak. Earth Day, a great and innocent idea when it started in 1970, has now been kidnapped by the global warming nuts.

the Nongovernemntal International Panel On Climate Change shows rationale people that debate rages in the scientific community about the causes and consequences of climate change, and even debate whether there is any climate change at all. Scientists today cannot even agree on whether warming or cooling lies ahead, let alone the degree to which we affect it. Yet, Earth day and Climate change advocates repeat over and over  that ‘the science is settled.’ We know with certainty, they claim, that our carbon dioxide emissions will cause a planetary emergency unless we radically change our ways.

The truth is that many climate change protesters have little to do with science and everything to do with promoting a political or economic agenda Hey! Maybe those global warmers will come to their senses if the atmosphere heats up a little. Gee, I love global warming.....

Income Taxes Are Due

The final day to submit Federal Income taxes in the U.S. has passed.  But wait!  Many Americans need not worry, for in this age of fewer and fewer people required to pay any income tax at all (the "fleece the rich" left wing mentality has excused "the poor" and many others from any responsibility to pay income taxes). People here are taxed based on their income. If you don't work or your wage receipts are low you are excused and in most cases even given a check to "help you" because you don't pay taxes. The relative tax burdens borne by different income groups changes over time, due both to economic conditions and the constantly shifting provisions of tax law. But it used to be that most Americans, even the poor, were required to pay something, sometimes just a few dollars, in order to make them aware that government spending exists because citizens pay taxes. When all citizens pay taxes politicians have all eyes watching how the revenue from taxes is spent.

In a PEW research last year 64% of Americans say they thought that they paid "about the right amount" in income taxes. I suspect the 54% that said that, pay little or no income taxes at all. In America the wealthy are the ones who pay most of the income taxes in this country, this despite the dishonest portrayal of the wealth by the Democratic party leftist and by the socialists who love to spend money as long as its other people's money. In 2014 for example, people with incomes above $250,000 per year paid just over half (51.6%) of all individual income taxes collected, though they accounted for only 2.7% of all returns filed. It makes a lie of the Obama types who claim the rich don't pay enough.

On the other hand, the ones who scream "unfair" the most are paying little taxes at all. In 2014, people with incomes of less than $50,000 accounted for 62.3% of all individual income tax returns filed, but they paid just 5.7% of total taxes collected. Here's what makes those of us who pay taxes upset. The U.S. tax system as a whole is progressive. The top 0.1% of families pay the equivalent of 39.2%  of all income taxes and the bottom 20% of the population  have negative tax rates (that is, they get more money back from the government than they pay in taxes).  That is not a fair taxation system because it punishes those who produce wealth and rewards those who do not.

Everyone in the U.S. seems dissatisfied to some degree with the income tax. Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction today because they are arbitrary and unequally applied. Yet, there never is the political will to abolish it for other more equal and understandable forms of taxation. The wealthy are cheated in the income tax assessment, but the wealthy cheat other Americans in low rates for other kinds of things (dividend and capital gains for example) on which Americans pay taxes.  Maybe we should all just spend what we have before they take it in taxes.