cowperthwait | lies, evasion, spin, circumspection and cleverly veiled hype

How not to win public support for your cause:

[A]lthough corporate jets tend to use smaller airports in the New York area, it’s possible that a crowded 737 might have to wait for a tiny Gulfstream to take off in Miami or at Dulles, outside Washington.

The users of corporate jets defend this practice, saying they deserve equal takeoff rights. “On a business flight, you might have people going to Wall Street from companies who are creating jobs and generating billions of dollars in commerce,” Mr. Brown [of the National Business Aviation Association, a group representing owners of private business aircraft] says. “People on a commercial flight might be going on vacation or going to New York to go to the theater.”

—NYT

Translation:

Get out of my way! I'm rich, and you're gay!

PARIS, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Passengers on a flight from France to Mauritius have filed suit against Air France after musician Bonnie Tyler performed a song at the request of the co-pilot.

The passengers, believed to be Belgian, complained to the airline after the Welsh singer performed part of her 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" at the request of the co-pilot, who retired after the flight, The Mail on Sunday reported.

—Passengers complain after Tyler sings, UPI.

Jaer replied, "Why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn't it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?" One of the JetBlue workers said, "people here in the US don't understand these things about constitutional rights."

Another added, "You can't wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a t-shirt that reads "I am a robber" and going to a bank."

—Jet Blue makes passenger change "offensive" tee shirt

Is this Sierra Mist ad now funny or sad?

[insert the-real-threat-to-national-security-is-Kathy-Griffin's-explosive-plastic-surgery... joke here]

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FOLLOWUP:
The more I think about it, it's definitely funny. I mean — inadvertently brilliant!

The Ad Council should pick it up as a PSA:
Our Nation's Security Screeners: Do What We Say, Or We'll Digitally Rape You.

It is the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system has been invoked, although there have been brief periods in the past when the orange level was applied. Homeland Security defines the red alert as designating a ''severe risk of terrorist attacks.'' The government said it was banning liquids including beverages, hair gels and lotions from flights, explaining only that liquids emerged as a risk from the investigation in Britain. —AP. Also NYT, WP, CNN ...

And do you know why it's happening today? Ned Lamont, that's why!:

At the same time, Republicans began a concerted effort to use Mr. Lieberman’s defeat to portray Democrats as weak on national defense, reprising a theme that they made central to the last two national campaigns.

The attacks came in searing remarks from, among others, Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and Vice President Dick Cheney, who went so far as to suggest that the ouster of Mr. Lieberman might encourage “al Qaeda types.”

—NYT

This Greek airliner crash story just grabbed my attention. I had heard about the crash over the weekend, but somehow missed all the scary details until now.

ROME -- High in the skies above the Aegean Sea, two Greek fighter pilots nudged their F-16s to either side of a Cypriot passenger jet and quickly discerned the disaster that was unfolding.

They saw a cockpit in turmoil. One of the Cypriot pilots sat slumped over the instrument panel. The other was not visible. Two other people desperately tried to gain control of the plane. Oxygen masks dangled in the cabin.

(read more)

But the one that got my attention, buried waaay at the bottom of the L.A. Times' piece, rather, umn, matter-of-factly:

Sudden loss of cabin pressure would trigger a loud horn and caution lights, said John Nance, an air safety analyst and former Air Force and commercial pilot. "You're not going to miss this anyway because your ears are going to start popping," he said.

"There's a lot here that doesn't make sense," Nance said. "Provided the information from the fighter pilot is right, then we have a high, high probability that we had a malfunctioning crew oxygen system, that the crew didn't know it in time."

He also noted that drop-down oxygen masks provided in the passenger cabin are not powerful enough to sustain consciousness for very long.

...Oh.