British Airways is in trouble. As usual, one is tempted to say, thanks to irresponsible unions which dominate British life and have destroyed its economy with brutal efficiency. The unions already tried to get additional days off for their members over Christmas and New Year, but failed due to their own cheating ways they have with their ‘polls’.

As the Christmas bid for additional holidays failed, they decided that Easter would be a second best to take time out not to work, and here we are, in the middle of another strike aimed at bankrupting their employer. Well done, is all I can say to that, you’ll succeed in deleting British Airways from the skies.

As the strike is by cabin crew members, I am in full support of them, as you may imagine. BA’s cabin crew already earn about double of what Virgin’s employees are earning, so strike action seems desperately needed. And cabin crew members are so short on days off. Just imagine the stress, flying long distance for a few hours, and then having to wait for five days (at full pay) for the return trip. They are understandably desperate for a few days off work.

I think it is high time to help them on their way to more free time. We just should stop using British Airways altogether. There are too many average air carriers anyhow; it would just be good for the industry. And the now BA employees would get the much needed rest they so crave. Is there a more noble deed than helping others achieve their dreams?

For years, the ABBA principle has already been in place thanks to the unions. Don’t you know the ABBA principle? It just means ‘anything but British Airways’. It applies for anybody who wants to reach their destination when and where they planned for, as BA is unable to provide that part of their ticketing deals at just about any time, strike or no strike.

What do the strikers achieve? Well, they will accumulate further losses in a company already teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. They managed over the years and now to completely devalue the brand British Airways, which used to be a leading airline of the world and has become, thanks to irresponsible employees, a has been. Nobody in their right mind would trust their scheduling to BA anymore.

For whom will BA fly in the future? Obviously, it would only be interesting to fly for people who are looking for an excuse not to turn up at work, as strikes are such a convenient excuse. Those interested in that would be members of other unions, whose main aim is not working, but earning a lot of money for it. Welcome to the Tube in the skies!

The most unstable nation in the world is Comoros and on 25 March 2008 they were invaded – again. Africa has just had its most recent one day war. Within hours the rebel leader was on the run – and, rumour has it, desperately trying to escape in a dinghy – dressed as a woman.

First, though, where exactly is Comoros? The once French colony is a group of three islands in the Indian Ocean, situated between the mainland of Tanzania and the large island of Madagascar.

image source

Its culture is a hybrid of African, Arab and French influences and it boasts of the most pristine – and empty – beaches in the world. Tourism should have taken off in the Comoros years ago, certainly after its independence from France in 1975. However, there has it seems, always been trouble in paradise. Almost twenty coups, declarations of secession as each of the three islands has taken its turn to revolt and the influence of a certain French mercenary, Bob Denard has turned these in to the islands of renegades and revolts. Denard, now dead, was rumoured to be the inspiration for Frederick Forsyth’s “The Dogs Of War”. No wonder in the past that they were a haven for pirates. One would not be surprised to bump in to Captain Jack here!

About a year ago Colonel Mohamed Bacar, regional leader of Anjouan, the second largest of the islands, went ahead with an election that had been postponed officially. He then proceeded to declare himself the winner. This has been to the great annoyance of the President, Ahmed Sambi, whose plane was not even allowed to land on Anjouan during the elections. So, for the past few weeks his troops have been massing on the smallest of the islands, Moheli, in preparation for an invasion.

The three hundred thousand or so inhabitants of Anjouan knew it was coming. In fact they have been “love bombed” consistently during March of 2008. Hundreds of thousands of leaflets were dropped on them, telling them to stay at home on 25 March.

So when the strangely named National Development Army, together with over thirteen hundred soldiers from the African Union invaded, most people had not gone to work, the children had not gone to school and the leader of the army, Major Ahmed Sidi was able to declare control of the island by lunch time. There were some shots, a few explosions but no one was either dead or injured.

Taking power, of course is one thing. As occidental experiences in Baghdad have shown, holding on to it is entirely another. Where the island go from here is, realistically, anyone’s guess but at least no one was killed here.

Injured pride, however, is another thing. The ousted Colonel Bacar was last seen, it seems, in drag and in a dinghy, licking his wounds somewhere in the Indian Ocean. And no doubt, thinking about a come back some time in the near future.

    The first amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This is what gives the newspapers the right to report on just about everything going on in the United States The Utica area in the past has had many news publications. Many of these publications were around all at the same time, some of them were also very big.
    Newspapers have a goal said Rondi Stronach of the Utica Observer Dispatch, the goal is “to have publication that is informative, reliable and a complete product every day with integrity.” This isn’t what it always has been in newspapers over the years though. They would have stories on bad things like what a muckraker would report on, but “now they report on what’s important, both bad and good” said Rondi.
    “There was a newspaper that used to be read internationally that was published in the utica area”, said Robert Stronach, who works in Public Relations at St. Elizabeth’s, “It was called the The Saturday Globe” He said it was the first news publication to have color and illustrations, which is why it was so successful. Eventually though it would die out and go out of business because many other news publications would get the technology that would allow them to have color and illustrations. Mr. Stronach also talked about how the Observer Dispatch used to be two different newspapers one was the “Observer” and the other was called the “Dispatch”. He also stated that there was a publication that worked with the Observer Dispatch, it was the “Daily Press”. The Daily Press would come out with the morning paper and the Observer Dispatch would come out with the evening issue. Mr. Stronach talked about how there were many different publication in Utica before he was even alive. Most of those publications would merge and go out of business or move out of the area. Though there was one news publication that did stay in the area and that was the Utica Observer Dispatch.
    Robert and Rondi Stronach both talked about the quality of the paper over the years. Mr. Stronach said he thinks that the only time when the paper had the most errors in it what when everything there got computerized and there was a big change in responsibility. The printers used to proofread everything and when the technology was updated they were laid off and the reporters had to do the proof reading. Though now that everyone has adapted and is used to it everything should be back to the same quality. Rondi said that the only time she feels other than the technology upgrade was when a lot of the big business left of closed down around the same time was when some of the stories were based on bad and not needed  information.
    Robert Stronach talked about when he used to work for many different news publications like the Albany Times Union, where he worked a little with Bill Kennedy, who wrote many popular books, Mr. Stronach also worked for the Daily Press, the Observer Dispatch, and has written many stories for some smaller publications when they asked him. He enjoyed his the period of time when he was the business editor where he got fan mail for the stories he wrote on different business, and major people in the big businesses.
    The newspaper is a valuable and informative publication that should be read and supported. The history of the news publications of the area is something that anyone who will or is in journalism should look into. A newspaper is almost like a watch dog, it looks for what needs to be told to the public and they tell it.

The potential target could be an IRS office located in that building. At this point, two people have been escorted to the hospital and one person unaccounted for.

This is supposedly the site of the pilot: http://www.embeddedart.com/ It has now been taken offline with this message posted “This website has been taken offline due to the sensitive nature of the events that transpired in Texas this morning and in compliance with a request from the FBI. Regards, T35 Hosting”

—

Would you like to earn money by writing articles? Click this link: http://www.triond.com/rw/37023

Image via Wikipedia

Okay, the facts in this whole quagmire are this: Kevin Smith buys two tickets when he flies southwest because he can afford it and he doesn’t like being around other people. He fits in the southwest airline seat with both arm rests down and his seatbelt on without an extender. His complaint was not that he was told to buy two seats but that he was treated extremely rudely and was pulled from his seat, while another much larger man was left on the plane. After that, he was treated with incredible amounts of disrespect, as he had been prior to the flight.

Thin people resent fat people and that is an issue. If any other minority was treated so heinously, there would be an uproar from the community. This is an issue. 

This entire situation is filled with examples of thin peoples resentment of fat people and I’ll break it down from the top of the situation.

1. Kevin Smith was allowed to purchase a ticket for the flight. When he was being rushed in by the flight attendant, a man treats him with obvious frustration and asks if he paid for the flight. He had. He was not using miles or anything, he bought a ticket and was then let on the plane. Now, the man probably resented his being late, not fat, but it was not Kevin Smith’s fault. He was on time but was told to wait until he was called. He repeatedly tried to talk to someone and was ignored.

2. Once on the plane he put his seatbelt on and lowered the arm rests. He fit in the seat. The flight attendant told him that there was a safety issue. Now, I ask, if there was a safety issue because of his weight, how on earth would buying two tickets resolve that issue? They escorted him off the plane and then made him wait for fifteen minutes before anybody was willing to even address the situation. That is resentment. If you piss off a paying customer and then expect him to wait around, you are deliberately trying to enrage him.

3. South west then offered him a voucher for the seat, not a refund, that way he would be forced to fly on their shitty ass airline again and would be forced to give them more money. Why should he have to pay them for the privilege of being insulted by their staff?

4. The woman refused to acknowledge the fact that the issue was his size by treating him as if he were stupid. She would not answer his questions directly and refused to admit that it was about his being fat.

5. On his flight home, which was not a packed flight, the flight attendant told a young woman that she needed to buy two seats the next time she flew. She deliberately insulted her. She was being malicious. The woman was sitting in the same isle as Kevin Smith with an empty seat between them. No one was complaining about discomfort or anything. The attendant just resented the woman for being overweight. Period.

6. The comments have been outlandish:

sheizerboy says “No one is safe, to many fat people in the US something needs to be done, like not letting them eat”

brain says “That fat fucker needs to buy his own plane, not just another seat. Fatty, Fatty, fatty.”

Raven Says “Planes have weight limits. You have a plane full of people who are to lazy to put the work in to be normal size, the plane is going to have problems. There is a safety concern if you have a plane full of overweight ppl…The way around this is for the ppl who need 2 seats, should fly first class. The seats are bigger.”

I’d like to point out that Southwest doesn’t have first class, and that if it was a weight concern, buying two tickets wouldn’t change that.

Rick says “I would hate to be the guy next to him! Specially since a lot of the people who are that fat smell horrible!”

Cynical says “Answer = charge people a fee per unit over a certain BMI. That way it’s not like they’re saying you can’t fly. You can, it would just cost you $2,763 more than the average person to go one-way from LA to vegas.”

These comments clearly demonstrate our nations resentment for overweight people. The policy of SouthWest Airlines is clearly an extension of that.

It may be expected that this most forward thinking of councils will tackle other fire hazards now speedily and without delay. High on its agenda are the halt of any gas supplies, the removal of all electric wiring, and the outlawing of any furniture inside buildings as you might trip over them when fleeing a fire. As a further step, the removal of all organic material from houses is envisaged.

The Council is quite right in shelving secondary concerns as unimportant; who cares for the removal of snow and ice from the roads? People just don’t have to leave their houses to be safe. Not on the agenda of priorities are also quite rightly the levelling of pavements and the removal of potholes from roads. Complaints by residents that council cars and vehicles are constantly blocking emergency exits and accesses of houses and estates have been brushed aside as irrelevant, as fires never break out when someone of near divine powers is near a building.

A quango with a Doormat Finder General will probably be put in place to trace rogue doormats and police will be advised to reply to 999 calls only when dealing with doormat incidents. It may be conjectured that unobserved doormats left outside to do as they please are also responsible for vandalism, hooliganism, and ganging up on residents. And you really never know when a terrorist might not hide under a doormat.

Doormats on the run may now be shot and hunted by everyone, and caught doormats will face the ultimate punishment without trial: They will be exiled to a landfill.

As a taxpayer I always note with relief when government agencies and employees make it their prime concern to safeguard my interests and spend money so responsibly. After successfully extirpating all terrorism from this world, Britain tackles the next almost insurmountable threat. But clouds might be gathering at the horizon of a happy doormat free world.

The RSPCA might yet define doormats as the habitat of rare vermin, and there is the question of racism. And then there is a further question of health and safety, as removing the doormat from the entrance makes people bring in the dirt. Probably everybody will be compelled to build detox showering cubicles inside entrance doors at their own cost.

I have to thank the Thurrock Gazette for this treasure. Guys, you made my day!

Related articles

Me Council, Me No Know No English

Health and Safety and the Culture of Greed

Cover via Amazon

Salinger yearned for success but after reaching his goal it quickly paled on him. He told editors of the Saturday Review that he was sick of seeing his photograph on the dust jacket of “Catchers” and demanded they take it off. He ordered his agent to burn his fan mail. He built a six foot fence around his place and refused to speak to the public or the press. Newspaper reporters and Journalists considered it sporting for years to go to his house in New Hampshire and try to get a glimpse of him.

Jerome David Salinger was born in Manhattan to a Jewish father and a Irish mother. He was the second of two children. He attended the Mcburney School but flunked out after two years. He tried a couple of weeks at New York University, then traveled with his father to learn the ham business, decided that wasn’t for him, and went through a couple of terms at Ursinus College in Collegeville Pa.

Cover of The Catcher in the Rye

In 1941 he reached his goal of aspiring writer with, ” Slight Rebellion Off Madison” It was the forerunner of “The Catcher in the Rye” and fame that followed him the rest of his life. Salinger was drafted in WW11 and served in the Counter Intelligence Corps. It was his job to interview Nazi deserters and sympathizers. He also saw action in the “Battle of the Bulge” Afterwards he moved back to New York and never stopped writing. He was married three times and had a son and daughter. His last wife was Colleen O’Neil who accepted his life of seclusion. She survives, and as Salinger desired, there was no service and it was asked that his code of privacy be respected.

If you would like to post your articles on triond and earn money click the link below.

http://www.triond.com/rw/6239

http://socyberty.com/people/charles-and-emma-darwin-the-marriage-of-science-and-religion/

http://bookstove.com/non-fiction/the-sweet-potato-queens-cook-book/

http://bookstove.com/book-talk/toni-morrison/

http://bookstove.com/classics/harriet-beecher-stowe-and-slavery/

http://bookstove.com/book-talk/vladimir-nabokovs-lolita-is-it-pornography/

On November 5, 2009, Army Major Nidal Malik Hassan opened fire on a theater and a processing center at Fort Hood, Texas. He murdered thirteen and wounded thirty other people before being shot by police. He shouted, “Allahu Akbar!”-God is Great- in Arabic.

Now, his former supervisors at Walter Reed Army Hospital are under fire. I say it is past time. Rather than promote this person to get him out of their hair, they should have had him court-martialed for sedition. Major Hassan was an Army Psychiatrist. He was known for browbeating returning soldiers placed in his care for killing Muslims, telling them they were wrong, encouraging Muslim soldiers to be conscientious objectors, telling them Allah would turn his back on them for killing other Muslims. The man even presented a slideshow to his colleagues at Walter Reed about Islam, and how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were merely an excuse for our government to kill Muslims. He even cited passages from the Koran, twisting them to suit his own sick point of view. Instead of having him court-martialed for sedition, his supervisors had him promoted and transferred to Fort Hood. What is wrong with this picture?

What is wrong with this picture is that his supervisors had not the guts or spine to begin proceedings to have this man court-martialed. They were so afraid of being vilified for not being politically correct, or for being insensitive to him because he is a Muslim that they did the worst thing they possibly could. They did not stop him before he could commit such a heinous act. As far as this commentator is concerned, Mr. Hassan’s supervisors at Walter Reed Army Hospital deserve to be court-martialed along with him. Sometimes, inaction should be punishable as an act of complicity and/or duplicity in a crime. This is one of those times.

The Government was aware of his email correspondence with radical Imam al-Awlaki. There were between 10 and 20 emails speaking of his desire for martyrdom, that he hoped to meet al-Awlaki in Heaven and share non-alcoholic wine. More than one group of people with the power to stop this freak were aware of his earnest desire to become a martyr for Allah. His business cards even stated that he was a soldier of Allah, for crying out loud. They also gave his credentials as a psychiatrist and his rank in our United States Army. The guy was a terrorist waiting to happen. His supervisors thought they were ridding themselves of the problem; they apparently did not care that their problem was everyone’s problem. This commentator believes they deserve harsh penalties, to include court-martial and dishonorable discharge for dropping the ball and playing such a large hand in the deaths of 13 soldiers and the wounding of 30 more soldiers. Terror should be the last thing our uniformed men and women, and their families, should ever have to worry about while on military installations in the United States. It’s too bad Major Hassan’s supervisors at Walter Reed Army Hospital didn’t think so.

As for the Government officials who knew of his contact with the radical Islam Imam in Yemen, they deserve punishment as sure as Hassan’s supervisors. They knew he was in contact with this person in Yemen, they knew what was contained in the emails before the attack on Fort Hood, Texas. They have just as many lives on their heads and hands as those at Walter Reed Army Hospital, and Nidal Hassan. This is a great shame on our government. Where are their spines?

With hundreds of sea lions and pups on the Galapagos, it’s amazing that mother sea lions can recognize their pups from the hundreds of others by their unique sounds. The Galapagos consist of 13 main islands, six smaller islands and 107 rocks and islets, or rocky landforms. The wonder of the islands for visitors is the natural beauty and sheer numbers of plants and animals that exist on these islands. After visiting Ecuador a short flight takes you 600 miles off the coast to Baltra Island. The best way to view the Galapagos is on a small cruise ship that can whisk you from island to island.

General Tours provide planned itineraries with all the details and arrangements handled. One of the most visited of the islands is Bartolome Island. The landscapes are brilliant reds,orange, green and black volcanic formations. Trails allow visitors to photograph formations and wild life without disturbing their habitat. The summit trail is a series of wooden paths that make it easy to navigate the steep ascent to the top. The landscape is moon like with its lack of vegetation and of course, its flaming colors. When you reach the top you’re treated to the most beautiful and sweeping panoramic vista in the Galapagos. Several islands surrounded by turquoise water can be seen from this vantage point, as well as the famous Pinnacle Rock.

Image via Wikipedia

Other Galapagos Islands include the James Island which is made up of huge areas of black volcanic rock. Here you will see crabs scurrying along the beach. They are many colored and climb over anything in their pathway. The Fernandina Island which is the youngest of the islands at 700,000 years old, still has an active volcano that erupts every few years. The lava fields are home to hundreds of marine iguanas. A colony of sea lions also call this area home.

Image via Wikipedia

The Isabela Island is on the north western tip with imposing coastal cliffs. The rocky shore line is the perfect feeding ground for for manta rays, pelicans and fur seals. Santa Cruz Island has the Highlands National Park Tortoise Reserve. These massive tortoise weigh up to 660 pounds, and can well be 100 years old. The reserve began by rescuing the remaining 16 turtles on the island of Espanola in the 1970s. It has now restored the population to over 1,000.

North Seymour Island is made up of small trees, bushy vegetation, and scruffy cactus. Bird sightings here are plentiful. The blue footed boobies are the most famous of the birds in the Galapagos and they are frequently sighted here on North Seymour Island. The name “booby” which means fool or clown comes from the Spanish, so named because they are clumsy on land.

A trip to these islands can be fascinating and educational, full of awe and wonder. A learning experience about the challenges wild and marine life are facing today. Whether a small sea lion pup or a giant tortoise each is reliant on us to protect their environment and habitats.

http://socyberty.com/issues/afghanistan-and-the-military/

http://socyberty.com/christianity/religions-of-the-world/

http://newsflavor.com/world/usa-canada/massacred-soldiers-mourned/

http://socyberty.com/religion/polygamy-and-the-latter-day-saints/

http://socyberty.com/religion/warren-jeffs-and-the-latter-day-saints/

The Powell family in happier times

If past is prologue then Susan Powell is in desperate trouble. A failing marriage, a sudden and baffling disappearance, a diffident alibi from a distant and uncooperative husband, all ingredients of past cases that came to no good end.

Relatives of the 28 year old maintain that she is not the sort to simply flee an unrewarding relationship, abandoning her young children, her job and her friends, and fail even to let her parents know where she is. Yet she has been missing for two weeks now, and no one has heard from her.

Susan’s husband Joshua was the last person to see her, as she was getting ready for bed in the couple’s West Valley City, Utah home. According to him, he had the sudden idea to take the kids camping, though it was after midnight with temperatures below freezing.

The missing woman’s father, Charles Cox, doesn’t buy that story: “The idea that she was sleeping or getting ready for bed at 12:30 AM and [her husband] said ‘I’m leaving with the boys to go camping’…I don’t think so. No way.” Susan would not have allowed him to take the boys, ages 1 and 4, out in that kind of weather, Cox maintained.

Susan did not show up for work at a Wells Fargo bank the following Monday, December 7. Joshua also neither showed up or called in to his job that day. When police arrived at the home, their first impression was that the entire family was missing. They did find Susan’s purse, cell phone and automobile, all items she presumably would have taken if she had simply decided to leave home for awhile.

When Joshua did return home, neighbors report, he did not seem alarmed that his wife was missing, telling one that the police would take care of it. He had a dubious explanation for missing work Monday- he told a local news reporter that he had lost track of time and thought it was Sunday when he returned from the camping trip. As to the spontaneity of the trip, Joshua told the CBS affiliate: “Lots of times I just go camping with my boys. Just overnight. We do s’mores and stuff.”

Recently, Joshua left Utah for Washington state, to the consternation of those still searching for his wife. He stated that he merely wanted to spend the holidays with his relatives. Susan’s parents also live in Washington, and Joshua showed up at a candlelight vigil they held for their daughter. Reportedly, Joshua and Susan’s parents did not speak to each other.

Though the authorities have not placed any restrictions on Joshua Powell’s movements, they have labeled him a ‘person of interest’ in Susan’s disappearance. They have also called him ‘uncooperative’ in the investigation, and claimed an interview with him left them with more questions than answers.

If there is evidence of foul play, police have not yet found it. Yet this investigation is hardly finished and authorities will certainly have more questions for Joshua Powell.