Bits & Pieces
Bits and pieces form this reporter’s notebook...
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....What’s up with United Airlines? Not their planes, at least not all of them. They are canceling flights by the hundreds, even the thousands, because their pilots are refusing to work overtime as part of contract negotiations. What’s most curious is that United is employee-owned. So here are the pilots, who while not the largest employee group are the ones drawing the largest salaries, and they are causing these massive cancellations. Living here Redding, we are semi-served by a United feeder into San Francisco, where more than half the flights in and out are already delayed or canceled, mostly due to weather in the Bay Area. And now we’ve got these spoiled and greedy pilots causing even more problems. Gotta tell ya, I don’t know why it even needs to be said, but any time I can fly another airline, I will.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Speaking of bad marketing, there are preachers in the South who have taken to bribery — excuse me, enticements -- to try and fill their pews. They’re running contests and giving away prizes because followership has been falling off. It’s another inside job, if you will, since the preachers are gonna face a significant financial challenge if there’s no one willing to sit through their sermons. It’s not likely that this pay-to-pray approach will show positive long-term results, however.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....According to a recent survey, more women than men are using the Internet, and that’s more important than it sounds. The Internet is the ultimate leveler of the proverbial playing field. Not only in terms of the anonymity, but because in a short time, all of the world’s information will be only a few keystrokes away for virtually anyone on the planet. Okay, I don’t mean there are lots of Third Worlders out there pecking away, but here in the U.S., lots of women are going to be able to actualize their potential without the encumbrance of traditional male-dominant discrimination.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Speaking of the Third World, Colorado authorities are weighing the idea of charging a couple in the death of an infant. Their child, actually, who died from a mild infection because his parents’ faith healing was ineffective as an antibiotic. It’s hard to imagine about what the authorities are confused. Here was a living human being dependent on fundamental parenting, and they failed him. Why isn’t that murder?
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....A killing of a different sort, sort of, might be made by anyone who pays attention to the television commercial for Bush’s beans. Watch some yahoo feed marshmallows to his dog. Now you do it. Oops, the dog is suddenly very ill. Processed sugar is not good for canines, not for people either, for that matter. Someone is going to copy the commercial, the dog’s gonna die, and the lawyers will start barking at each other.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Finally, the National Academy of Sciences says there are over a hundred sites where nuclear materials were processed, which haven’t been made safe enough for unrestricted use for lack of money, technical skill or the political will to do the job. They call these irretrievable areas National Sacrifice Zones. Somehow that doesn’t seem enough.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.