Learning to Fly

Look, it's me. Today, I learned how to post pictures. This might seem like a non-accomplishment to the more experienced bloggers out there but for me, it's huge. I have many pictures. Sadly, I don't have many of them here with me at work or I'd be busy posting the hell out of them. All right, then...

I watched the news last night about the guy down in Florida being shot by the Air Marshalls. Now, I'm no fan of the cops and, most of the time, I tend to take a rather lopsidedly lefty stance when it comes to cops blowing people away. BUT... Come on, dude, really? You CANNOT get on a plane and start making bomb threats. AND you cannot get up out of your seat and run down the aisles screaming you have a bomb in your bag, especially when there are armed federal agents on board the aircraft. THEY WILL SHOOT YOU. I mean, if NYPD will poke 40 holes in you for taking out your keys, you can rest assured the feds will drop you like a bad habit for screaming bomb threats on a commerical aircraft and then running at them top-speed with your hand in your bag. Let this be a lesson to us all -- THEY ARE NOT FUCKING AROUND WITH THE PLANES.

I do think this highlights an important fact about life in these United States. Other than the random, devastating attack we have much more to fear from crazy people than we do from jihadists. It's the first time an Air Marshall has shot someone since they started the program after 9-11 and the guy they shot was a manic-depressive missionary who works at a paint store. So, for all the profiling and detentions and delays and "if you see something, say something", the first casualty in the domestic air war on terror is some poor, crazy bastard off his meds whose quiche lorraine of a brain told him to do something most people would never, ever, even consider doing. What a waste.

I live in NYC and I see crazy people all the time. It kind of makes a mockery of the city's advice to "report any suspicious behavior." What am I supposed to consider suspicious? The guy on the corner with women's underwear on his head eating his own shit? Or is it the normal-looking lady in the nice clothes having the animated argument with herself and lightly banging her head against the subway window? I have a feeling it would take something pretty goddam out of the ordinary to get people to look up from the Post and turn down their iPods. Especially on the trains. The morning commute is the only time a lot of us have to ourselves all day and the last thing we want is to be actively engaged with our fellow commuters. We want to listen to music and read. I know, personally, that if something serious pops off on one of the trains I'm riding, I'll probably be dead before I even know what's going on. I'm just not aware enough to save myself. And I'm okay with that.

"A working class hero is something to be/If you want to be a hero/Then just follow me..."
John Lennon