Weather happens, but customer service ...

Hamilton's airport isn't exactly a busy place. Although Westjet did run a lot of flights out of there for a while citing Toronto's massive landing fees, most flights eventually migrated to Pearson although there are still a few WJ planes every day from Munro. For the most part, the white elephant airport has been running on charter flights. The facility is known for very quick check-ins, easy security checks and being able to walk right up to the plane to fly.

Such wasn't the case Monday night when the first storm of the winter season kicked in. A Sunwing flight from the Dominican Republic made a stop in Hamilton before reaching Calgary. It got stuck on the tarmac for eight hours. The airline says the weather made it difficult to attach the ramp to the plane meaning passengers had no recourse. The situation was only resolved when someone called 911. They finally got to sleep at a nearby hotel before flying onward. As compensation, the airline is offering $150 a head.

Maybe it's me, but I was on a flight that was delayed for one hour because someone who checked baggage never showed up at the gate - which made sense. I can't imagine being on a plane that long - no food, no other attempts to comfort the passengers. Not to mention no ventilation.

Friendly skies this is not. I realize charter airlines have a different mandate than commercial operations, but one would still expect a level of service that is comfortable even during an emergency. Friends of mine have flown SW and have had no complaints - but I'd think twice the next time I'm headed to the Caribbean.

Canada's F-35 -- the $46 billion dollar boondoggle

Later today, the Amsterdam based accounting firm Kynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG ™) will issue a report regarding the proposed procurement of 65 Lockheed-Martin F-35-A Lightning II fighter jets for the Canadian Air Force.   If media previews are to be believed, the program will be way higher than the $9 billion originally claimed by PMS and Co.   Higher than the $30 billion suggested some time ago by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.   (And who knows how much the Auditor General, Canada's top accountant, will say it is when he files his findings in an upcoming quarterly report).

KPMG will say that the actual cost of the jets, including maintenance over a projected 36 year life cycle will, in fact, be anywhere from $40 to $46 billion.   At an original sale price of $75,000,000 per pop, plus about $9 billion in maintenance costs the government originally claimed, we're looking at a boondoggle that is 3.5 to 4 times originally budgeted.    Worse, the Canadian share of maintenance contracts will be only $9 billion, most of the rest will likely go to the States.    Keep in mind the $75 mill was the original price -- current estimates are actually about $150,000,000 off the shelf; which jumps to about $250,000,000 with weapons systems attached plus adaptations for Canada's very harsh climate both winter and summer.

Military contracts gone out of control has been the bane of too many governments both left and right.   One thinks of relatively "minor" infractions over the years such as the feds providing infrastructure money for building overpasses for highways that were originally decades away from being built (the roads often later tolled despite commitments from the provinces not to do so, were later fast-tracked due to safety issues on arterial roads, inclement micro-climates, or both).

But this goes way beyond that.   The Air Force is our first line of military defence -- not just against hostile régimes such as North Korea (which finally has succeeded in launching a three stage rocket, putting the Canadian and American West Coasts firmly in the Kim dynasty's sights) -- but also against the current and equally ominous threat of terrorists who are fighting for some kind of "nation" but actually neither have a country nor can have something taken away from them that which they have already renounced.

Of course, this branch of the military, perhaps even more so than the other two (Army and Navy) needs to have the best possible equipment.    We as civilians should demand nothing less for our courageous men and women.

But as on the civilian side of all matters fiscal, we need to also insist not just on value for money (a single engine fighter jet is a cockamamie idea for the obvious reason) but also that midstream and back-ended costs are properly calculated and budgeted for.   In the present circumstance, it also requires the manufacturer warranty any unexpected repairs and for an extended period, for all or most of the anticipated life cycle.   If the plane is sold more or less as is, then it becomes a bill of goods.

The fact that the purchase decision for this particular plane was made almost totally untendered (by the previous Liberals who started the ball rolling, unfortunately) is bad enough.   But the Con government couldn't just blame things entirely on their predecessors    Despite growing evidence that the maintenance costs were much higher than claimed, indeed were getting more and more expensive as time went on, the executive kept sticking to the lower figure.

If the government misrepresented the truth in Parliament then they are in contempt of the national legislature.   In that case, Harper has to have the guts to say "I'm sorry."   Two simple words.    If Michael McCain of Maple Leaf Foods ™ could do so on tainted meat products, then the PM has a duty to do so on something far more grave than that -- nothing should be more important to the duties of our head of government than national security.    I'm not talking about going public the launch codes for our non-nuclear (which all of them are) missiles.   That of course, should be a closely guarded secret.   I'm talking about transparency of the kind that ensures we have the confidence that what we are buying for the military is the best equipment at the best price.

I'm not the only one who's suggested this but we need to start all over, albeit on a fast track process, and have bureaucrats from a non-military department go through the potential bidders and pick what is truly the best one -- just as we did for the Navy procurement program recently.

This is one hell of a Christmas present.   In this case, we get stuck with a huge lump of coal -- pretty much all the coal mines in the country's production for several years worth.   If no one's minding the store on this file, who knows what big surprise lies ahead next?

Who'll clean up Hamilton Airport now?

Just when we thought that it couldn't get much worse for public health in Hamilton, indeed across the country -- yup, it's gotten worse.

In December of last year, I was writing about how the leachate run-off from the fire training facility at Munro Airport (YHM) had high levels of PFOS, the former active ingredient in Scotchgard ™.   At least twenty times the legal limit for the chemical in "safe drinking water."   I also noted how the runoff was ending up in a creek which skirts through the southern rural part of the city, through a popular lake for sunbathing, and eventually to the Welland River.    So concerned is city hall that they agreed with the current private operator of the airport to study how to get rid of the mess on site.   And who knows what's happened at other airports with similar facilities?

Now it got even more interesting this week.   Pursuant to a §22 petition, the Auditor General of Canada has said he will investigate why the Con government hasn't set guidelines for how to clean up PFOS runoff.   The reason for the concern?   A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) which suggests that exposure to the chemical decreases the immunity offered by vaccinations.   (Unfortunately, I can't offer a link since the article is behind a firewall -- stupid doctors who think civilians can't understand the truth; of course we can handle the truth!)

 In other words, PFOS makes those vaccines next to useless.   (Maybe this is something Jenna McCarthy should be looking at -- that it was stain retardant that caused her kid's autism, not vaccines!)   There are also demands that the feds impose safe levels of PFOS contaminantion in the food supply -- the same as for mercury and other nasties in fish.

I laugh at times when I read the provincial guides to limits on catches and how much is safe to eat.   For instance, it's legal to catch up to 50 perch a day, per capita, in the lower Great Lakes; but the safe limit for consumption is eight per month (only four for expectant and nursing mothers).    Mercury levels are way down compared to forty years ago; due to major conservation efforts, but increases in safe consumption limits have been incremental at best.   My guess is that the fish and wildlife services don't want to take chances.

What level is truly safe for this one?   PFOS has a half life of five years.  A simple half life calculator shows a half-life of that long means that it will decay to imperceptible levels after, say, one hundred eighty one years.   No wonder 3M ™ changed the formula for one of their top selling products.

Frankly, I wouldn't swim in Lake Niapenco anymore -- let alone eat the fish that run through it.   And if I was swimming in that stuff every year when I was younger, will it affect the immune systems of any kids I may have down the road?   What about the people downstream who use it as a water source?   I said it before and I'll say again, people in rural areas have the right to safe water as much as we "city slickers".

Since the feds ran the airport when all the contamination happened then they should bear the full costs of cleanup.   They also need to step up for public health and safety and set real guidelines -- and more importantly, enforce them prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law.   Voluntary measures just don't work, just look at the Maple Leaf ™ scandal a few years back.    Nightmares like this won't go away overnight but it would be helpful if someone took responsibility.

More problems with Ornge

This week it was learned that there could be a nasty side effect (no pun intended) to the scandals that have plagued Ornge, the air ambulance service.   Hamilton could lose on staff air traffic control.   Why?

It seems that the company that was contracted to do air ambulance services, and ended up being a petty cash fund for its senior executives at our expense, was supposed to use Hamilton's aerodrome, John Munro International Airport (YHM), for their operations in Southwestern Ontario.    In a nutshell, Ornge had pledged back in the fall of 2010 to move their operations there.   This would have increased the number of takeoffs and landings at YHM more than threefold.  And for an airport that has been struggling ever since Westjet moved its Ottawa and Montréal flights to Toronto's Pearson, it would have been a huge financial boom, with the city coffers getting a big royalty boost.

Instead, the number of flights has dropped steadily, from 3000 per month four years ago (and that's all aircraft -- commercial, private planes and helicopters) to only 1791 in February of this year.   Last month, it was 536.

Ornge was supposed to start flying out of Hamilton a year ago.    It hasn't yet (whether this is due to organizational issues with the flight equipment or with management, who knows), and it has paid more than $600,000 in rent to a hangar that has sat completely empty.    Is something wrong with this picture?

Perhaps it would have been better to have made the airport a non-profit corporation as was suggested more than a decade ago before the contract was given to a Vancouver company.    At this rate, if Hamilton doesn't meet minimum flights over a sustained period, NavCanada, the company spun off from the goverment some years ago to handle air traffic contral might decide that it's not worth keeping a staff at the airport and have a nearby airport -- say, Pearson -- do it instead.   This has major safety implications, especially given that geographic curiosity that slices Hamilton into upper and lower cities, the Niagara Escarpment.

Bottom line:  If a company promises to fill a hanger and it hasn't yet, shouldn't that company be found in breach of contract?   And if we lose the ATCs because of that, shouldn't the damages be that much higher?

World strikes back against Libya

I've often felt that military intervention is warranted when there are gross human rights violations, but often it has not happened where it was most needed or when it was too late -- think Rwanda and Bosnia for instance.   But now the rubber has hit the road, and several countries -- Canada, the US, the UK, France, Italy and Spain among others -- are now striking Libya.   Canada has two ships and 6 F-18s there, although it's still not clear whether they'll be based in Italy, Malta or Spain ... (we never should have closed our bases in Germany).

Let's just get the job done quickly to get rid of the idiot running the country and not get bogged down into yet another quagmire (think Afghanistan).

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F-35, boondoggle? Think "Sea King"

In the last couple of weeks, there's been growing discontent about the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II which is intended to be the workhorse of the air forces of Canada, the US and a number of our allies in the years to come.   At first it was just the RAND Corporation and a series of private military analysts who know the realities of the program better than governments.   Then the F-35 flunked a major war game off the coast of Australia.   And these in 2008, was two years before Canada formally opted into the program last year.

But now, and surprisingly, the malcontents are to be found within the Pentagon itself.   My fellow blogger Impolitical noted this back in November ... but it's now gotten even worse.   First, the estimated cost for the program for 2443 aircraft -- $382 billion and counting.    And second, it now appears the Defense Department and the Environment Protection Agency are at loggerheads over concerns the plane may not mean emissions and noise regulations -- since a report that was supposed to be released this past week detailing the environmental assessment on this, has been "delayed" three months.

There is potentially a third, and one that must be panicking the Pentagon.   Turns out one of the variants of the plane, the F-35 B, is a VTOL or vertical takeoff and landing -- in that it takes off and lands like a helicopter but then flies in the air like a standard supersonic jet.   Unfortunately, the present iterations of VTOL have been plagued with major safety issues.  Think of the Lockheed F-22 Raptor which was de-funded.   And the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey (no relation), a Marine turboprop / helicopter hybrid which after tens of billions spent may also be de-funded in favour of a more reliable craft, the Sikorsky UH-60 (a pretty reliable technology from, oh let's say, the 1970s!).

In the present environment in Washington there is huge pressure for spending cuts and there are no more sacred cows, not even the military -- a military which took great pride in spending more on its budget than the civilian government spent on health care, a complete reverse of all if its allies.

It's worth pointing out that due to cost concerns, the UK has switched its order from the F-35B to the F-35C the latter of which is the intended replacement for the F-18, the workhorse of the Canadian Air Force.  (The A series, incidentally, would replace the F-16).

Canada has been involved in the program since 1997, so it's no surprising that we're going in headlong on this.   So really both the Liberals and the Conservatives have a hand in this mess.   And it's true that out of the 2400+ planes being built, we're "only" buying 65.   But here's my question:   It is really so important to Western security that we have an identical plane to our allies, or would another similar plane with similar performance outputs do the job and for less money while employing Canadians for the medium and long terms?

Want proof?   The Sikorsky Sea King.   It proved to be disastrously expensive to operate as well as to maintain for us Canadians.  Not just because of its age, but because our weather challenges made it very prone to corrosion from the beginning.   On the other hand, Marine One, the US President's helicopter, is of the same vintage (the 1960s) and still in marvelous shape -- and keep in mind DC is in the same mid-Atlantic region which is continually pounded by the "Nor'easter" in winter and hurricanes in summer that plague most of the rest of the East Coast from Virginia to Newfoundland.   I don't think it's just a question of service levels quite frankly -- it's possible we just ended up with a bill of goods.

But we usually do -- look at the submarines we bought second hand from the UK when we probably could have built new at home for the same price.

It's amazing there's virtually no debate on this one ... and when questions are raised one is accused of being unpatriotic.

I support our troops wholeheartedly.   I also support our men and women in uniform have the best equipment; after all, with the end of the death penalty, they and cops are the only groups who can kill legally.   But it's Canadian tax money, and we have a right to demand value for money.   It's more important to determine we need the Cadillac than say we want it -- there's a big difference.  If the Pentagon is willing to have a second look at the F-35 then so should our DND -- and there should be no political interference if it's determined we made a mistake.

Better to pick the right plane before 65 of them are built and we end up with even more bills of goods.   We don't need a military industrial complex in Canada -- any more than the US does.

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"Eyes on the floor! Eyes down on God's fabulous parquet floor!"

It's hard not to laugh at this one, but this seems to be one of those times when the law of positive attraction really wasn't compatible with religion.    The Crystal Cathedral of the Reformed Church in America, better known to Sunday morning devotees as the "Hour of Power," has filed for Chapter 11.   Apparently the church owes about $43 million, including a $34 million plus mortgage.

While the current pastor, the Rev. Sheila Schuller Coleman, has vowed the congregation will overcome and fight back, it may finally offer an explanation as to why her brother Robert Schuller Jr. was fired so quickly after he was named their father's successor -- because he realized the church's finances were in such a mess he couldn't cope (not to mention Junior's approach to his sermons was actually much more Biblically based and sound than his father's -- which didn't sit well with the Health and Wealth crowd).

Touchy feely religion has never really appealed to me ... nor does the high flying lifestyle of many televangelists.   Remember a few years back Schuller Sr. got lucky to get off after an incident of air rage.   But the whole thing seems to prove that there really is no business like show business, especially in religion.

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Isn't it time we got this coward out of Canada?

With all the talk about refugees as of late, and how many on both the right and the left are trying to make this a political issue and about shaping the kind of country we ought to be and the people we ought to admit, there is one example of a very well known terrorist who has been making a joke out of our refugee appeals process for over twenty years:   Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed.

Even though we know for a fact he hijacked an El-Al plane in Greece, an incident that led to the death of an Israeli mechanic and got a lengthy sentence (commuted due to a prisoner swap / blackmail), he roamed between several Arab countries and eventually managed to get into Canada in 1987.   When it became obvious who he was -- it was shown that he did not disclose his affiliation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, he was ordered deported.  In 1988.   He's still here.

He has used the standard canard that he was not a terrorist but a "freedom fighter" (like the Provisional IRA) and that he was fighting his enemy, Israel, "the enemy of his people."  [his words, not mine]   He also says that if he was sent back to the last country where he apparently came from, Lebanon, he would face almost certain death in a refugee camp -- and in any case, he has been an idea citizen, his daughters have established roots here and it would be a violation of his human rights to be deprived of citizenship due to an "oversight."

Frankly, I do not consider omitting a previous criminal conviction, especially a terrorist act (even if one was pardoned for it) to be an oversight.   Further, the PFLP is a listed terrorist group by Canada, the US and the EU.   It also backed away just a few months ago from endorsing a "two state solution" and has now gone to a "one state solution" which of course would mean the end of Israel as we know it.

While we grant asylum to people who have been convicted of crimes that would never be considered crimes here (such as advocating for a free press or proselytizing) there should be a no brainer on this one:    MMIM is a menace to society.    It doesn't matter he has a family here.    We have a hard enough time hunting down terrorists and organized crime figures who were born here.    We should not be sending a message that we welcome terrorists from foreign shores.

How many "pre-removal risk assessments" do we have to do to figure out the obvious?   The last time I checked, a potential refugee is entitled to go through a Singh process once from application to final appeal once, not five or six times.  MMIM has made a mockery out of habeas corpus -- the evidence against him is overwhelming and proven.   Kick the bum out, now.

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Is it time to clean housse at Hamilton City Hall? Yes

Only in Hamilton could they screw something up like a stadium. It's official – the track and field events for the Toronto Pan Am Games in 2015, the “glamour” events as it were – will now be held at York University instead. And their facility just needs a bit of upgrading for cheap which will no doubt come as a relief to the federal and provincial governments worried about cost overruns that inevitably happen with multi-sports extravaganzas.    With that, we're left with soccer and cycling, and at the rate things are going soccer is gone by next week -- which means no new stadium and the local football team will be gone by the end of next year.

A couple weeks ago, under very suspicious circumstances, and not reported at all by the mainstream media, council approved without any debate a two for one public for private land swap around Hamilton Airport with -- get this -- Senator David Braley, the auto parts magnate and owner of 2 CFL teams, who is widely suspected of being the source of the brief rumour that Hamilton would get any federal funding pulled if it did not kowtow to the current Hamilton Tiger Cats ownership and go with East Mountain as the site of the new stadium instead of the West Harbour which is what council decided on regardless.

Keep in mind, this all going on while we're debating the merits of the so-called "Aerotropolis" which would put commercial development on pristine farmland.

We can't get it straight when it comes to projects that come with the promise of money.   Whether it's public transit or sports facilities or whatever else, we take too long to debate these things -- meanwhile, other cities are shovel ready and the shovels go in the ground the moment the green light is given.   Or we swap land under very suspicious circumstances even if everything is above board and legal.

City government may be government, but many cities in Ontario like Cambridge and Missisauga are run like businesses.   Here it's like a mom and pop shoppe and accounting is done as if we're still on a cash system instead of accrual (i.e. transactions are recorded when they happen, not when cash or equivalent changes hands) as it's supposed to be.


Perhaps there is an argument to be made that there should be a wholesale cleaning of house when the local elections are held October 25th.  The Mayor (Fred Eisenberger) I like.   Some of the councillors -- in fact most of them -- not so much.   But with FPTP, instead of alternative vote (ranking candidates 1, 2, 3 and so on) there isn't much hope unless enough voters wake up; and with only 39% turnout last time I don't see it happening.

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RIP Ted Stevens

While one may have profoundly disagreed with his pork-barrel politics, he was still a human, and a good servant to his fellow Alaskans.   Ted Stevens, former Republican Senator from the last frontier, died in a plane crash Monday night along with four others.  RIP.

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"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" ... and, untendered plane contracts

Two thoughts today.

1) HT to Crystal Ocean:  I've heard of appealing to "The Base" (which, ironically, is also one of the rougher translations of Al Qaeda).   But if these numbers from Angus Reid about what people think about evolution in Canada, the US and the UK are correct then our education system -- or at least the one they have "out west" -- is going to hell in a hand basket as it has in the states, and it has major ramifications for the central government's research funding councils and what could happen if election trends continue the way they are; unless we insist that reason will guide our faith and not the other way around.   And more importantly, that reasonable people lead our country.

In other words, the "base" being appealed to is that which wants to so manipulate our education system that it leads long-term to desired voting results rather than the free reasoned choice it ought to be.

Last time I checked the Bible, it said "'Come now, and let us reason together' saith the LORD" (Isaiah 1:18).   It does not say "“Faith is not a product of reason … Believers are not to be led by logic. We are not to be led by logic. We are not even to be led by good sense.”  That, by the way, is Kenneth Copeland.

For the record, I think evolution is the most plausible explanation for God's creation.   Intelligent design, as it's whitewashed called nowadays, is anything but intelligent.

What is really surprising is that support for the theory of evolution is highest in those parts of Great Britain that are generally among also the most religious -- anything outside of London and in Scotland and Wales.   But even London (58%) rated higher than Alberta (51%) and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (50%).   Can't tell from the poll if Northern Ireland was surveyed but I would suspect that this is something that Catholics and Protestants would agree with also.   But that's also still better than the States, where just 47% nationwide think evolution is the correct explanation.

Great Britain ... they actually get it more than we or the Americans do.   Hmm.

2)  The Liberals are trying to get the Defence Committee reconvened to get the government to explain how the pending purchase of the next generation of fighter jets -- 65 Lockheed Martin F-35s -- got untendered.

Our fleet of F-5s (or as we classify them, CF-116s) and F-18s are in woeful need of replacement and we need to start the process ASAP.    But one of the principles of a huge purchase of this nature ($9 billion up front, plus another $7 billion for maintenance over the anticipated lifetime of the planes) is that there should a tendering process.   We just don't "design build" unless it's a toll road (which is a provincial jurisdiction in any case).

As now MP and former Capt. Marc Garneau (Canadian Navy -- Ret'd) has pointed out, we just spent $2.6 billion to refurbish the F-18s to keep them airworthy until 2017.    Was that just a make work project to get the Conservatives votes; or to "un tin hat" it, was it value for money?

Given the world we live in nowadays where terrorists can strike any time and anywhere, we just can't slap things together, building a deep sea port here and doing bit work contracts there.    If we have an integrated forces (with army, air force and navy under a unified command) we need all the pieces working together.   We also need to make sure that if we have to make foreign purchases that we don't get skunked over -- no matter who's in the corner office in the Centre Block.

For my part, I personally continue to support a concept proposed by Jean Charest way back in 1997 when he ran under the PC banner:   a "rapid reaction force" of 10-15,000 of our best men and women from all three branches, knowledgeable in each other's capabilities, with the best equipment and able to move out on 48 hours notice without any foul-ups.    And of course, backed up by the very best equipment -- following a proper sourcing process rather than feeding the friends that bite you (and that's not a misprint).

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No Hamilton Aerotropolis

You'd think with all the serviced industrial land in Hamilton, ready to go, not to mention all the brownfields, that this city would look to fill those in first for new businesses wanting to locate here.   But guess what?   After years of debate, the city fathers want to develop a "Hamilton Aerotropolis", 1173 hectares (2898 acres) of virgin farmland, around the airport and the Highway 6 bypass.   (Source:   Raise the Hammer) Land that, cleverly enough, is largely not in the "Greenbelt" protected area.

Thirty years ago I lived in a part of town that was quite literally at the edge of the urban boundary.   Matter of fact, you just had to jump a fence to cross into the property where the largest radio station in the city had its transmitter (that tells you how old I am!) -- an area long swallowed up by residential and commercial concerns.   But that was also prime farmland, and it's gone forever.

Do we really want to throw away all that farmland around the airport on the possibility that businesses will want to come here, when we already have shovel ready properties?   And that most points in Hamilton are within a 20 minute drive (and will be a twenty to twenty-five minute ride on light rail from downtown once the A-line is upgraded from the present express bus)?

Especially when just servicing the land won't even be covered by development charges even if they are hiked to more realistic levels?    And not to mention, the airline industry is shaky at the best of times, we just lost more Westjet ™ flights to Toronto, and the cargo business while quite lucrative only generates peanuts of royalties to the city coffers under the long-term lease agreement to an out-of-town developer?

And lest we forget, as we boil in another massive heatwave, greenfields act as a temperature moderator.    Pave that over, and the city core would be even hotter (even with Lake Ontario on the other side).

How moronic can we get when this city is a major regional processor of food and oilseeds, and will soon get the country's biggest bakery ... and at the same time we tell the few wheat and corn farmers we have left in Hamilton to go fuck themselves in the name of "light industry"?   What happens when there is no farmland left to create the food to service the food plants?    And the West really does become a desert?

We have lost too much farmland in Hamilton and too much forests.   Enough is enough.   No Aerotropolis!

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No answers for Air India 182

We're twenty-five years removed from one of the worst acts of terrorism ever and, despite a much delayed investigation into the Air India 182 bombing and a 3000 page report that was released yesterday by retired Supreme Court of Canada Associate Justice John C. Major, we still don't know whodunit.    What we do know is that there were major and massive clues that something was going to go down, there were several informants who told the police something was up, and nothing was done to follow-up.

Worse still, the fact that most of the victims were South Asian and not white is a big reason why it took so long to even begin the criminal investigation, let alone this judicial inquiry.    There is no doubt that racism and an attempt to appease business interests in India was the reason those who did it got away with it.

The next time someone takes flying lessons but doesn't want to learn take offs and landings, or if someone flies first class but doesn't want the drinks or gourmet meals, or if someone fires off a "practice bomb," would it hurt so much to look into it.

The skies aren't so friendly any more, are they?   We spend all this money on security and do not feel any safer.    And the worst part is, there were several opportunities in three different Canadian cities to stop this disaster before it happened -- the day it happened.

UPDATE (1:56 PM EDT, 1756 GMT):  Yes, it was 25 years ago, not 15.   Too much on my mind this weekend.

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Blame the air traffic controllers?

Rather than bitch about the Copenhagen meetings on climate change -- we all pretty know how much nothing's going to come out of that thanks to Harper and other skeptics like him determined to scuttle any meaningful treaty -- I wanted to make note of another example of the pot calling the kettle black. In this case, it's about the Northwest pilots flying from San Diego to Minneapolis who overshot their destination because they were distracted by their laptop computers. Quite rightly, the FAA stripped them of their licenses. Then they claimed they were discussing new flight rules implemented by the company and they simply lost track of the time.

But now it seems the pilots, Cheney (no relation, far as I know) and Cole, are blaming the air traffic controllers and the airline. In statements filed on November 24th and released to the media today the airmen say that air traffic rules were violated by ground crew and personnel from the airline, and if they had been followed the mistake wouldn't have been made.
　
Yeah, right!
　
Maybe it's me, but if someone's trying to contact you repeatedly by radio and by the onboard computer that relays real time urgent messages and you don't respond to them, then there's one of two possibilities. Either you're so distracted you're not doing the job you're supposed to; or you're a terrorist who has no intention of responding because you have a "God-given" mission to "kill the infidels."
　
It's amazing the plane landed safely at all -- a few minutes more and it would have been necessary to scramble US and Canadian fighter jets to escort it to safety, and if necessary possibly have shot it down. Remember, when the pilots finally did contact the controllers the pilots were ordered to conduct a series of evasive manouvers first to prove it wasn't a hijacking. In this day and age, we need our pilots to absolutely pay attention. We need more pilots like Sullenberger and Skiles than Cheney and Cole, with all due respect. As for laptops, PDAs and the like, they may be necessary in the cockpit but there should be technology to ensure that while in flight the computers are locked so that they only process relevant flight information and nothing else.

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Flying saucer stunt not funny

I have to ask after yesterday's weird incident with the homemade "flying saucer" (more like a helium balloon) whether it was all a setup; especially after the six year old kid involved hinted that it may have been all just that, all for show no more or less.

Maybe the kid's just six years old, and maybe he gets a sense of adventure from his father who is a well known (at least on the Net) as a storm chaser. However, our air defence system in North America was designed to handle real emergencies and not publicity stunts. When we found out after the balloon landed that no one was in there after all and there was no possibility anyone could have been in there at all, and later when we found out the kid had been hiding out all this time, I'm sure we all breathed a sigh of relief.
　
But what if this had been the real deal, a terrorist attack or worse? Or while the world was distracted by this a terror attack happened somewhere else. I can't say I was all too impressed by the response. The fact that this may have been all fake is outrageous, but if it was such a stunt then the joke was on us and it wasn't funny at all.
　
If this was nothing more than a minor's cry for attention, it was done in one of the most bizarre ways imaginable. If this was, however, a publicity stunt, then the family should be sent the bill for the "rescue" which is certainly into the tens of thousands. This looks like a grouping that could afford it but that's not the point. It makes a mockery of what the phrase "breaking news" should mean.

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Compassion to someone who showed none?

The decision today of the separatist-led Scottish government to free Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person ever convicted in the Pan Am 103 bombing in 1988, after serving just eight years of a life sentence is very difficult to accept. It may be true that Mr. Megrahi has cancer and only has a few months to live. It may also be true this is being done on "compassionate" grounds, which Scots law does provide for and which the Scottish people have exercised since justice (among other fields) was delegated back to Scotland in 1999.

But there are two problems I have. First, Mr. Megrahi was convicted in a vicious terrorist attack that killed 270 people. He is a mass murderer and his release means he only served 11 days for everyone killed (259 on the plane plus 11 on the ground in Lockerie. Far as I can tell, he has never apologized for it nor shown any empathy for the families left behind. Certainly he showed no compassion since he planted the bomb in the first place.
　
Second, by allowing Megrahi free, it prevents a full investigation into what happened. The agreement between the US, the UK and Libya ensured that two and only two people would be tried for the attack -- under Scottish law and in a courtroom in the Netherlands that was temporarily ceded to the UK precisely for the purpose. As I noted last week, many felt more got away -- and Megrahi's sole co-defendant was acquitted. All evidence points to the fact that there are at least a dozen unindicted co-conspirators who got away with cold blooded murder. Under the terms of the release, Megrahi doesn't even have to name names; all he had to do to get off the hook was to drop his second and last ditch appeal which he did last week.

Compassion is a virtue shared amongst the vast majority of peoples on the planet, of all races, religions and ethnicities. Certainly it is one shared by the vast majority of Muslims. But Megrahi betrayed one of the key principles of Islam, not to harm a fellow human being. He got caught. And most importantly, he refused to name names.

For that reason, he should have served out his term and died in prison, or at least a prison hospital; after all, the NHS does cover even persons serving time in one of "Her Majesty's gaols" and the cancer could have been better treated in Scotland than it will be in Libya. Then and only then, after he died, should his body have been released to Libyan authorities.

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Military stupidity in the air

I'd like to meet the idiot who thought it would be a good idea to have the chiefs of staff of the Army, Air Force and Navy of Canada travel to the same destination, on the same flight. Apparently, they were involved in an almost tragic incident back in April when their Challenger jet had a near miss with a commercial airliner.

Having all the executives of the same company together on a flight would be stupid on its own. There has to be someone to continue the company if something were to go wrong. And it's very very hard to think of any other democracy where something so stupid would be tolerated. Aren't there always at least one MP and one Senator who sits out the Throne Speech, just in case "God forbid" happens? Why can't the military abide by a similar principle?

This isn't a Liberal or Conservative thing. It's just plain common sense, something that seems to be lacking no matter who's running the show. I don't know what the fiscal situation of the military is day to day, but was it so hard to find a second plane; or to have one of the three stars fly commercial?

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Talk about a joy ride ...

After yesterday's horrific earthquake in Italy, I thought what could possibly top that. Then came the story of a kid who steals a plane from a fight school in Thunder Bay, Ontario -- and flies south over several US states. He gets "escorted" by two F-16s who keep trying to communicate with the pilot who waves but offers no radio answer. Finally, the plane cuts out of fuel and lands on a rural highway in southern Missouri. Of course the pilot was arrested -- but for a while people were wondering what the hell was going on. Was this a sarin attack, or worse?

I really have not too much comment on that one. In this post 9/11 world, wouldn't there be reason to be worried? In this case, NORAD worked exactly the way it was supposed to and for that, I suppose we should be grateful. But we can't have too many close calls, or distractions from what could be an actual terrorist event.

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As for the earthquake, I noticed that at this time the Red Cross here is asking Canadians to hold off on donations directed for disaster relief in Italy, until the CRC's Italian counterparts get a better idea of what they're dealing with. With this being a week where both Passover and Easter are marked, it's probably a good idea to give to the CRC or the charity of your choice anyway so the money can go to where the greatest need is. Just make sure your dollars go to a charity that has a generally low overhead and where its executives don't live high off the hog.

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It happens in waves every few months, and I've been getting them again in my comments bin. "Nice blog. I will continue reading your blog." Then, there's a link on the bottom -- the top level domain indicates Western Samoa or Mainland China.

Folks, let me say this again: I'm trying to write a serious blog here (with maybe a hint of wit every so often). If you're going to advertise something, or if you're going to be a shill for the Beijing government, find somewhere else to write.

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Canada's chance to invade Turks and Caicos? Uh, no

There have long been proposals -- quite serious ones, it seems -- that the Turks and Caicos Islands (which is home base for a lot of "shell" corporations) should secede from Great Britain and join Canada, specifically Nova Scotia. Those dreamers, nearly all of them Canadians, have new ammunition today with word that the TCI's PM has resigned over allegations (denied) of selling government lands for personal gain.

I just post this to point out the story is out there. But really, folks -- does anyone really want TCI to be a part of Canada? Especially those living there? They don't want to give up their currency -- the US dollar. And as long as there are outposts like the TCI, Britain can still claim to say that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" -- or what's left of it.

Besides, we all see what happens when we whites move into a black majority area and try to impose their "civilization". Blueprint: Africa, and most Caribbean states.

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Good pay, huge risks, terrible loss of life

Obviously, these have not been a very happy few days for Canadians. I think of course of the helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland the other day that killed 17 of 18 on board whilst the passengers were being ferried to their shifts on board the rigs in the White Rose and Hibernia fields.

The riches of oil and natural gas off the East Coast have brought some long-sought and so well deserved prosperity, but with the business comes inherent risks. Many of us who live in this part of North America, where I write from, don't appreciate just how difficult it can be to be away from home for up to three weeks at a time (with an equal amount of time off back onshore) while working very intense shifts, on 12 hour rotations all week long.

Being in close quarters for such long periods of time, and with co-ed work crews (a good thing) can be trying at the best of times, but it's even harder to imagine the most dangerous part of the job is actually getting there or coming back home. You just can't hop in your car or take a train. This is something that people on the US Gulf Coast as well as those who live along the North Sea in Europe (another abundant supply of oil and natural gas) can appreciate also

There really are no words, other than to offer my condolences ... and a hope that all bodies can be recovered so that the families can properly bury their loved ones. And to the sole survivor, you have my prayers too -- hang in there.

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