Pepper

Denial is more than just a river in Egypt

Here is a news item from last week;

Fight over headphones delays flight

MONTREAL -- Two pilots on an Air Canada Jazz flight were forced to break up a fight between two passengers who were brawling over a pair of headphones, police say.

One of the men was kicked off the flight at Trudeau Airport and has been arraigned on several charges.

The altercation delayed the flight to Winnipeg on Tuesday afternoon.

Montreal police spokesman Dany Richer said officers were called to the plane, which was still at the gate.

"The conflict began when one of the two men sat on the armrest of a seat and broke his neighbour's headphones," said Richer.

A fight broke out and a flight attendant was unable to separate the men.

"Her arm was hurt during the altercation," said Richer.

The pilots were finally able to separate the two passengers.

Jamie Lee Prefontaine, 26, of Winnipeg, was taken into custody and charged after police say he resisted arrest and tried to damage a police cruiser.

Prefontaine was arraigned at the Montreal courthouse Thursday on charges of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and mischief.

Air Canada Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said the flight was delayed two hours.

If you search this article it will show up dozens of times, exactly the same. But I had a relative on that flight and a different story emerges.

Specifically, there were four natives who boarded in Montreal, all drunk. The one that was taken away by the police and subsequently charged was covered in gang tattoos and had been asleep in his seat and not responsive to the attendant who was trying to wake him. At some point the man awoke and using a chain from around his neck attacked the attendant bruising her arm resulting in his being removed from the plane by the police.

Which version is correct and why am I bringing this up?

It has to do with another story from last week concerning Air Canada's decision to put up their flight crews during layovers at the Sandman away from their old haunts at the Radisson in the city centre citing concerns over an increase in local crime which they felt was brought on by an influx of "rural" Mantitobans driven from their homes by flooding.

In this case there were several more articles from different sources each adding to the story. So much information that native Chiefs started calling for a boycott against AC and legal action against anyone and everyone, a predictable response that we won't address here. What was interesting was the way the Mayor and other provincial politicians and downtown business leaders combined forces to lash out at AC's very reasonable response to the situation in the downtown. They did not use facts like those that could very easily be found on CromeStat as was very nicely done by Menno Zacharias.


Instead he Mayors response was to find one or two people to claim, as a matter of opinion and without addressing any facts, that the Winnipeg downtown is super fine and just needs the benefit of the doubt. I kid you not.

Kevin O'Leary, Tone Deaf?

Or just in character.

Witness this example of his tired shtick getting the slap down by Pulitzer prize winning US journo Chris Hedges.

And now compare that embarrassment with an interview by RT. Yes, RT. CBC should hang their heads.

How To Peel A Head Of Garlic

My wife and I use a lot of garlic, so this is very, very useful!

I have been living in a desert.

Rachel Platten – 1,000 Ships

This has been running around in my brain for a while now. 

And The Last Day Of Summer Is Upon MeYouUs

Hmmm, almost time to put (throw) the sandals away and start wearing socks, if I can ever get the soles of my feet clean again. Going to have to be mismatched darkish socks from the church bin most likely. For a while, till the grey scales and carbuncles wear off.


September equinox or Autumnal Equinox will be tomorrow I figure. Marking the end of summer, and what a great summer it was, no bugs! Heh. Mostly no employment either but one should not complain about what everyone else thinks is likely to be a great deal during the summer time. Being un(self)employed. I'll clue y'all into the reality of that little grade school fallacy some other time, but here's a hint. Being unemployed on a beach in Ischia is a whole lot different than being unemployed in Winnipeg. Just so you know. 

But of course this means I'll be blogging again and so sorry about that my fellow droogs. I mean, you knew it was likely to happen right? As long as I didn't OD or get hit by an ice cream truck stumbling off the curb whilst sssquinting into the way harsh early morning light.

Weeeell, looking around I see that the Blogger™ interface has been updated! Guess I shouldn't be surprised. My FB is a mess. Full of "improvements." And something called Google + which I already have set up and linked to my Twitter/Linkedin/FB/Flickr yadayada. Did it on my iPhone4 while taking a crap and waiting for the 5 to appear and give me a hand job.

Meh. I really need to get something different happening. Isn't it time for nuclear war or something. The 2nd coming?

But I've said too much already. First things first, a little housekeeping is in order. I need to clean out those blog links, reset the wallpaper and get a new battery for the MacBook. I'm partitioned and running Win 7 but 8 is coming out already? How the fuck am I supposed to keep up with this shit, I just upgraded the other partition to Lion! 

Sigh. It's going to be a long winter.

Lazy Daze of Summer

I'm still around. Not very productive though, many incomplete posts in Drafts. Marvelling at the Murdoch Meltdown and the American Debt Debacle but generally calm and peaceful which is not a condition that nurtures strong opinion. Behold...

...nevermind the storm activity, it's a false flag. Nothing to see here. So back outside to fire up the BBQ. If I was with my wife right now we would both be suffering through the smoggy humid hell that is Moscow at this time of year and dreaming of southern Italy and The Med. But the Great Magnet is being cruel to us and we are only left with our dreams. Soon that will change.

Now you must excuse me, summer does not last very long around here.