DON'T VISIT MEXICO FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!!

There's s justifiable move afoot to label Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. 
During a morning press conference, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would not accept the U.S.’s potential designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which could enable our direct action in Mexico.

“We will never accept that, we are not ‘vendepatrias’ (nation sellers),” Lopez Obrador said. 

All of which means where ever you visit in Mexico...Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Puerta Villarta... you are vulnerable. 

DON'T FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES

Brittany Oswell was flying an American Airlines flight from Hawaii to Dallas-Fort Worth on April 16th when she collapsed. She subsequently regained consciousness and then collapsed again.  Another passenger, who was a medical doctor, determined she should have advanced medical care immediately and asked the pilot to divert to the nearest airport.  The pilot, on conversing with another doctor of the ground, decided to continue the flight to DFW.  

During the in-flight emergency, the doctor attempted to use on-board medical equipment, two blood pressure machines and a defibrillator, all of which malfunctioned.  Oswell was declared brain-dead three days after the landed at DFW.  

What this tells me is that, should you have a medical emergency while in flight on an American Airlines plane, medical equipment on board may be totally useless.  Further, if there is a medical doctor on board who can and will assist, his/her immediate diagnosis may be overruled by another doctor on the ground who has no medical readings upon which to base a decision. 

A spokesperson for American Airlines released the following statement: “We take the safety of our passengers very seriously and we are looking into the details of the complaint.”  

Given the information as it is presented here, you must presume that American does not routinely check to make certain such equipment is operative and you should not get on an American Airlines flight unless you have your own medical doctor with his own equipment on board  with him. 

WHY I WON'T FLY

I love to fly; I even took flying lessons.  I fondly remember the days when the airlines did everything in the world to cater to the traveling public; Delta was the epitome of service and all of the other airlines wanted to be just like Delta.  People actually looked forward to flying; it was a pleasant experience.  

Today, you won't see me on a commercial flight.  Travelers are just a number and that's that.  Fork over the money, get on the damned plane, follow the rules, sit down and shut up.  If you're a good little boy, we'll fork over a few peanuts and four ounces of cheap soda.  If you have to take a pee, you'd better hold it until the plane backs away from the gate, gets off the ground and the "fasten seat belts" sign goes off; otherwise, you're going to get tossed off the plane and, if you pee your pants, that's your problem.  

Some accountant discovered that they could get more suckers on the plane by narrowing the seats and shortening the leg room.  Never mind that by doing so they have more weight on the plane and need more fuel to fly, or that passengers are uncomfortable; if they don't like it, they can walk and we'll put some other paying sucker in their seat.  

The last time I flew, I got onto the internet and got my boarding pass so that I could gain some early seating choices.  They pulled me out of the security-check line and by the time I got to the gate, they had already boarded the the lower boarding pass numbers, so they made me wait until everyone else had boarded.  It wasn't my fault, but I was penalized anyway.  Well... I have an artificial hip, so I always get pulled out of the line, but they don't care.  

So, I'd prefer to drive, even if it takes an extra day.  I can pull over and leak when I need to, I can eat when I want to, I have much better seating and I don't have to follow any stupid, anti-customer rules.  I can get on board when I want and I don't have to sit next to a crying baby or some jackass who hasn't bathed in three months.  

The airlines these days do not deserve my business or my money.  They're to blame for that, not me.  

YOU THINK FLYING IS SAFE?

After all of the hassle one goes through to get through the front door, past the long security lines and onto a plane, one would think that we have a pretty high level of security at our airports.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  

In many airports today, airport workers such as fuelers, baggage handlers, caterers, cleaning help, maintenance people... many of them with access to airplanes... do not have to pass through security checkpoints on their way to work.  Construction personnel and others often get through side gates and onto the tarmac without question.  Small airports have much less in the way of security requirements; yet, in many cases once you get onto a small plane at a feeder airport on your way to connect with a larger craft, you often don't have to go through a more rigorous security check.   The contents of food and beverage containers being loaded onto planes are usually not checked.  

Add to that the possibility of a direct terrorist attack at the front of the airport and you can see for yourself that flying is simply not as safe as they would like you to think.  

Bon voyage.  
 

AMTRAK DERAILMENT: BLAME GUNS

And why not blame guns?  Guns are to blame for everything these days.  

I'd be willing to bet my bottom dollar that at least one of those passengers or crew was carrying a pistol when the wreck happened. 

ONE TRACK MINDS

Much has been said about how spending more money on infrastructure would have prevented the recent Pennsylvania train crash.  Of course, we all know that was not the cause of that accident. 

But, there's another move on by the feds in Washington that doesn't make any sense, either.  Supposedly, there's this new type of tanker car that is much safer than the tanker cars of today and years past.  One of the associated arguments for building the XL Pipeline is that transportation of oil by train is more dangerous; indeed, that seems to be the case.  Part of that hysteria is due to the fact that transportation of oil by train has increased from 9,500 carloads to over 450,000 carloads per year over the last few years; and, the explosive volatility of oil being transported has increased as there has been a shift to oil from developed from tar sands and fracking.  

But, the federal government is once again trying to throw money at the problem by making a mandatory upgrade to these newer and "safer" tank cars.  Newer tank cars have already been involved in train accidents and have proven to be more susceptible to leaks of crude oil which result in more explosions.  

It seems to be that the fundamental issue in Pennsylvania and in the oil tanker problem is the same: safety.  The answer is to slow down the trains, take more care to ensure braking systems and signals are working properly and to have more frequent,  and meaningful, safety training sessions with train operators.   

To that extent, the current failures can be blamed on the railroad operating companies. 

CALIFORNIA'S $68 BILLION FIASCO

Although it turns out that the proposed bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco will not meet the specifications heralded in the proposition when it was presented to taxpayers for approval in 2008, California's Governor Jerry Brown is going ahead with the project... the most expensive public works project in American history. 

The project is already 13 years behind schedule and costing billions of dollars more than originally predicted.  They said the train would get passengers from L.A. to San Francisco in two hours and forty minutes; but they are now talking four or more hours.  Odds are, you'll be able to drive the trip in less time and at a lower cost.  

Thank God, they say, that Californian's won't have to pay for it, because the job is being done with federal dollars.  Now, who's to blame for that?