Cat Fight

NEW YORK, NY -- Adam Lambert has no hard feelings after "American Idol" Season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken bashed him then apologized over a series of blog posts late last week.

"I don't know Clay," Adam told Access Hollywood on Thursday morning after performing on the "Today Show." "I'm glad he's getting headlines now though, because he wasn't before."


Last week, Clay hit his official blog, and slammed Adam, this season's runner-up. Clay revealed he only watched one episode of the FOX reality series all season, and it was the one where Adam Lambert took on Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire."

"At that moment, [I] thought my ears would bleed. Contrived, awful, and slightly frightening," Clay wrote.

A day later, Clay hit his blog again, to apologize for his comments.

"I do apologize to Adam for my colorful (and negative) choice of words. I hope he can forgive me," Clay wrote. "I imagine he doesn't give a damn! :-) God knows he shouldn't."

And it appears Adam didn't actually mind.


"If he wants to ride my coattails about it, good for him," Adam told Access, giving Clay the thumbs up sign.

Propsition 8

The California State Supreme Court upleld the law banning gay marriage.

I agree with the court ruling.

The people voted and that's what they want. I think it's stupid but if that's what they voted on...so be it. It'll change soon enough. And it made sense to me to leave alone the 18,000 that got married before the vote. They're still married. And after 18,000 got married I don't see any substantial changes in California. I come out here all the time and I don't see any more debauchery than normal. I don't think the demise of marriage has been accelerated by the 18,000 gay marriages.

But the whole debate is a great distraction. The state has no money. Zero. They are so broke. So why not obsess about something completely inane? I mean very shortly half of the state is going to be in the Pacific Ocean. I don't want to think about that either. Since I can hear every breath of the person in the next room I don't think this hotel would fair too well when the big one hits.

So I think Prop 8 and all it entails is a great debate. Keeps my mind off of important and scary things.

Receipts

This morning I went down to the lobby of the hotel/inner city shelter that I'm staying in and bought a USA Today. I love USA Today. Good puzzles. Good pictures. The USA Today was $1.09. They usually are 75 cents but I guess they charge a dollar. I give the lady my money, she gives me the change and then with the change, stuffed into my supple milky white palm, she gives me THE RECEIPT. For $1.09. I have to take this receipt. It's very important. I don't know why but if I don't take it the clerk will become highly agitated and quite possibly violent.

I'm not buying a car. I don't need a receipt to register this paper with the DMV. I'm not going to return it for a refund. I'm going to leave it somewhere so a cheap pilot can find it and be fulfilled that he didn't pay $1.09 for the paper.

Weird. I'm tired of these silly receipts.

Email is Quaint

Quaint

adjective, -er, -est. 1. having an old-fashioned attractiveness or charm; oddly picturesque: a quaint old house.

It seems to me that young people,(anyone younger than me), don't use email much anymore.

Using email is almost like writing a letter and putting a stamp on it. Nobody does that anymore.

I'm on Facebook. Yes it's shocking but I am. I have a reason that I got on there in the first place that I won't divulge here, but now I am firmly entrenched on Facebook. I got a message this morning from a friend of mine who is older than I am on Facebook.

It seems like people wait until I'm online to say hi. Whether it's IM on Hotmail or Facebook or texting, nobody sends me email anymore. Unless it's work related.....then I call someone, they really don't like that. I'm supposed to conduct all of my work exchanges via email. I like talking. I don't like email.

So I guess for work......I'm supposed to email.

And for everything else....I'm supposed to sit here in front of the computer or have my Iphone on waiting for the next message to come in.

Email is over.

Rosie and Sonia Sotomayor

I was watching CNN when the President announced his Supreme Court pick. I didn't have the volume turned up and I was doing something else. When I saw Sotomayor come out with Obama, I thought for a minute now why has he picked Rosie O'Donnell to be on the Supreme Court? That's a gutsy move. I guess the Supreme Court is like a talk show. Maybe it will work.

Then I came out of my delirium and saw Sonia Sotomayor. She seems good to me. She has a great story and she proves that you can do anything you want in our country no matter where you come from. As long as you have a mother who is going to work two jobs and kick you in the butt the entire way. Good for her mom.

Rush Limbaugh is in complete overdrive. Why does the mainstream media give him the time of day? He and some others are very critical of something she said 10 years ago. I'm glad I'm not judged by everything that has come out of my mouth in the last 10 years.

The best part about Sotomayor is her name. I love to hear her say it. I can't begin to pronounce it that way. And the newscasters say it all kinds of crazy ways. Not as fun as the Rosie show but almost.

Let's all get fired up!

Try harder than all your competitors - never give up.
-Rules of the Road

Richard emphasized to frontline employees Tuesday the importance of offering customers a flawless experience as increasingly more of the operations are integrated during the merger.

“It’s so critical that each of you keep your eye on the ball and run the operation as smoothly as possible as we head into the busy summer travel season. I know the hard work you’ve all put in as we bring our two operations together, but the only thing our customers should know is they had a great flight on Delta. That’s our best measure of success."

Richard Anderson
DNN Feature


Those are great sentiments Dick.

I really would like to be as excited as you are. I probably would be if I just arrived like you have and if I made millions and millions of dollars in my job. And especially if I would make more millions if Delta did really well.

Now I'm not stupid. I know where my paycheck comes from. And I want Delta to do very well. I just don't have any energy for it anymore. I'm tired. I work alot harder than I used to. For less money. So I'm trying Dick. I really am. And I promise I will read as many of your slogans that come out of the Ministry of Propaganda as I can. But I just don't think I have the energy to get really fired up this time like you are. Sorry.

Memorial Day- LCPL Philip Johnson, USMC

LCPL Johnson Biography

LCPL Johnson was born in Hartford, CT, the son of Louis and Kathy (Titus) Johnson. Philip was a graduate of Enfield High School Class of 2005. He was a member of the wrestling team during his junior year and he was also a member of Voices Incorporated, a choral program that integrated both Enfield high schools. Philip enjoyed music tremendously and played several instruments including saxophone, keyboards, drums and bass guitar. Philip's love for his country was strong and true; he wanted nothing more than to be a United States Marine from the time that he discovered what a Marine was. There is a certain pride in a Marine's eye from the moment that they earn their Eagle, Globe and Anchor and this pride radiated from Philip.

Philip was a dedicated member of the Westover Young Marines at Westover Air Base, MA. He joined the Young Marines at the age of 11 achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant before being honorably discharged in 2005 prior to joining the US Marine Corps. Philip took this step with solemn foresight that he was meant to serve his country through the Marine Corps. Philip began his journey as a Marine in August 2005 at Parris Island, the Marine Corps basic training base. Before graduating as a US Marine, Philip achieved the positions of squad leader and platoon guide an honor bestowed upon a select few that demonstrate leadership and proficiency skills.

After basic training, he was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC where he trained with the 2nd Marines Scout Sniper Weapons Unit. LCPL Johnson was a member of the 3D BN 2D MAR KILO Company while in Iraq.

LCPL Johnson is survived by his immediate family; Lou and Kathy, parents; Jessica, sister; Beverly, grandmother; Doris, great-grandmother; Bill, uncle and Josephine, aunt. Phil is also survived by Aunt and Uncle Anne and Rick Honn; Uncle and Aunt Andy and Lori Titus; Uncle Paul Titus, and Cousins, Jimaine Titus, Joe and Jonathan Titus, Jacob and Andrew Honn
and Bill and Missy Johnson.

Propostion 8 and Iowa

Proposition 8 put a gay marriage ban in the California state constitution.

The California Supreme Court has agreed to determine the ban's constitutionality on Tuesday.

Here's what I don't understand.

I thought that California was supposed to be land of the liberals. Anything goes. And Iowa was conservatism central. Pigs and soybeans and lots of old married people who go to Lutheran churches. So how is it that it's OK to have a gay marriage in Iowa and not in California?

I'm so confused.

The Death of Newsweek

Newsweek Magazine is dead.

Or at least the Newsweek that I have read for a very long time.

I really like Newsweek. I don't read the local paper and occasionally on a trip I will read USA Today but that is like reading people magazine. So Newsweek was my source for more in depth information on whatever was going on at the time. I took what they said with a big grain of salt but I still learned alot.

For the past few weeks or months I've noticed that I've found Newsweek really boring. I thought that I was just getting bored with the same old news and the same old problems. It turns out that wasn't the case. I think Newsweek was slowly becoming the hideous version that they are now.

I got my new Newsweek in the mail the other day and as usual, I waited to read it until I was on a trip and in the airplane, I mean my hotel room.

The format of the magazine sucks. I don't like the print they chose. It's very small and hard to read. And it has long essays and boring crapola about stuff I really don't care about. I was so disoriented. I couldn't figure out what was going on. So I read the editor's column in the front. It said that with the Internet and so on that all of the news was already out there and they weren't going to rehash the news with little or no new content. So what they are going to do is bore me to death with commentary and drivel. So I canceled my subscription immediately.

Here are some comments about the new Newsweek from the soon to be fired editor.

Editor Jon Meachem wrote that the "reinvented and rethought" Newsweek would focus more on "original reporting, provocative (but not partisan) arguments and unique choices" and less on the "straightforward news piece."

Assistant managing editor Kathleen Deveny wrote in an article about the redesign that the changes were brought about by the shifting media landscape ushered in by the Internet.

She said the new Newsweek would eschew celebrity news and was seeking to appeal to "smart, educated readers who are looking for a publication that can help them put the flood of news into perspective."

"We will focus on a smaller, more devoted, slightly more affluent audience," she said, adding the magazine would drop its guaranteed circulation from 2.6 million to 1.5 million by January and increase subscription prices.

So I guess I'm not devoted, smart, educated or affluent enough to read the new Newsweek.

I should have known something was up when columnist Anna Quindlen "retired".

Goodbye Newsweek. Hello Time.

American Idol and Dick Cheney

I've almost recovered from Kris Allen winning American Idol.

Adam Lambert should have won by a mile but I guess 13 year old girls have more texting prowess than the rest of the population.

And what's up with Cheney? Doesn't he have something better to do than bash Obama?

Aren't former Presidents and VPs supposed to shut up and go away. Write their books and give vanilla speeches? I guess he didn't get that memo.

Maybe Dick would feel better and loosen up if he hung out with Adam for the summer.

$100 GPS

More airline safety.

In the airline business, we have something called runway incursions. That is a very bad thing. A runway incursion is when an airplane goes onto a runway without being cleared onto that runway. If there is another airplane taking off or landing on that runway while you make your gigantic screw up, you could go bang, boom and that is really a bad thing. If you don't go bang or boom, you will be in deep doo doo with the FAA.

Why do runway incursions happen? Part of it is that we are confused on where we are exactly on the airport. Most of us are taxiing around using a paper map of the airport with all of the runways and taxiways on it. We have to figure out where we are on the map and where are we cleared to go. Just like you used to do when you got the AAA map out to go to Grandmas. But guess what you can buy at Best Buy for $100? A GPS. It knows exactly where you are. We have GPS in our airplanes for flying but not for on the ground. Why? Paper maps are cheaper than a moving map in the cockpit. They can do it if they want to. But they don't want to. Money money money.

With a moving ground map in the cockpit you would really have to work hard at getting lost or going the wrong way or interpreting the map wrong. There is your airplane, on the moving map. That's where you are. If they were really serious and they're not, we would have a data link with ground control that would issue the taxi clearance on our moving ground map and we would simply follow the yellow brick road where ever they want us to go.

So it's money money money in exchange for a lower level of safety.

Major General Greg Feest, Jenny Craig is Calling

In this picture, Maj Gen Greg Feest, 19th Air Force Commander, visits an Air Force base. A Major General means he has two stars.

Now the USAF is completely freaked out about physical fitness right now. They measure your waist, they make you run 1.5 miles, you do push ups and sit ups. They are very very serious about this. You have to test once a year unless you fail and then they beat you with a rubber hose, don't promote you and then test you more.

Now look at this picture. The guy on our far right is a skinny Captain. Good. He's a good boy. The guy in the middle is the Wing Commander. He's a full Colonel. Still a good boy. Nice and trim. The lady is a civilian. She can eat as many donuts as she wants. And then there's the General. Making full use of every inch of that flight suit.

Good thing the flight suit muumuu is just around the corner.

Leadership by example.

A great thing.

It's All Written In Blood

Most every rule change in aviation is a result of someone dying.

We didn't get bullet proof cockpit doors until after 9/11.

Now we have the Colgan Airlines crash in Buffalo.

I was wondering when there would be a crash that would address commuting pilot fatigue and pay, experience and training.

The first officer commuted from Seattle. She lived with her parents, was based in NYC and her pay was $16,000/year. Of course she commuted to work. Where is she supposed to live in NYC on $16,000/year? Under a bridge? Lots of pilots commute to work. I used to but it was too much of a pain in the neck for me. The stress of getting to work combined with the fatigue made me move to my base. If I had a 12 hour day that started at 1pm and I got up at 5am to commute to work, by the time 1am rolled around I was almost incoherent. Not good when you're flying an airplane. So I moved.

Pilots commute for many reasons. Some pilots just want to live in a certain city and alot of them are living in places that used to have a pilot base. They live in Boston for example, have kids in school, are established in the community and are based in Boston. Now Delta closes the Boston base and they are unwilling to uproot their family and move to Hooterville, I mean Atlanta. So they commute from Boston to Atlanta. Or there are financial reasons. Most pilots based in NYC commute. Who can afford to live there? Not us on the pay we make now. So they commute.

When pilots commute, because we are by nature very cheap, will not get a hotel room. We will sleep in a black lazy boy chair in the pilot lounge before we get a hotel room. I'm a rare bird. I won't do that. I need my beauty sleep but most pilots will.

So how do you legislate pilots commuting and rest requirements? That's going to be interesting. Commuting pilot fatigue was definitely a cause in this accident.

Pilot training and experience were also a cause. This makes civilian pilots livid but it's true. Military pilots receive much better training than civilian pilots. Unless you have a couple of million dollars to spend there is no way you can get the equivalent military training. And in the military world, we wash people out. If you have military wings on your chest you earned them. You can fly airplanes. If you are a civilian and have enough money, you just keep buying flying lessons. Can't do that in the military.

I fly with many very competent civilian pilots. Some are better than the military guys. But the problem is that the civilian world doesn't have the weeding out process that the military does. The Captain of the Colgan plane supposedly failed 5 check rides in the past, I think with Colgan. That wouldn't hack it in the military world. You would be looking for other employment.

In the military we fly upside down and in all kinds of unusual attitudes in the airplane. And we know how to recover from a stall. You sure don't put the flaps up and you push the nose down. What were they thinking? Maybe they were just very very tired and disoriented. And inexperienced. When I was new in the USAF, there was no shortage of stupid things I did due to lack of experience. When I got to the airlines, I had thousands of hours of flight time and hopefully had gotten most of the stupid out of me.

The most irritating thing I heard during the NTSB hearings was the Vice-President of Colgan Airlines saying that they hire and expect their pilots to be professionals. And commuting to work and being fatigued is unprofessional. Really? You pay a professional pilot $16,000/year? Fascinating.

If the public wants to be safe then you have to pay pilots more and raise the training standards to get in the profession. What if I want to be a Doctor, have lots and lots of money but I'm not smart enough? In the pilot world, you just keep buying more lessons. I don't know of any medical school where you can keep buying schooling and take 10 years to go through the 4 year program. They have standards. Although by looking at my family Dr I sometimes wonder.

And it's all about money. Money money money. The public might be outraged now but give them time. They don't really want to die but even more they want an $79 ticket.

Aren't you glad Sully was an Air Force pilot?

I'm Seriously Considering Going Back in the USAF

Why?

It's the comfort factor.


This is a development I never thought I would see. A USAF flight suit muumuu. I could eat all of the chunky monkey that I wanted. Gorge myself on endless pizza and donuts. And still make quite the fashion statement in my new flight suit.

My Delta uniform is way too restrictive. Even with my Sansabelt pants.



Flight Suit Muumuu finalized, ready for production
By Master Sgt Jan E. Craig
Air Force Print News

2/20/2008 – WASHINGTON (AFPN) – The heavily anticipated flight
dress muumuu is ready for production and will be available in FY2009,
said the Air Force deputy chief of staff of personnel.
Many factors were weighed in developing the final design, with concern
for Airmen's comfort being at the top of the list, said Brig. Gen. Lance
Atkins.

"There was only so much that could be done with the Velcro tabs," he
said.

The current flight dress uniform (FDU) was not designed for the carrying
capacities demanded by today's aircrews. Researchers at the Air Force
Material Command Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson found it
could safely retain excess mass only 5-10% over the rated load factor.

"At that point, we began exploring the option of adding bonus material to
improve retention of the pilot," said Maj Dick Scarsdale, lead designer of
the new FDU. "Now the sky's the limit."

Findings from a 2006 safety investigation board that a catastrophic main
zipper failure was causal in an A-10 crash beefed up demands for a
relaxed-fit flight suit.

Critics complain this is a just a cover-up for the vast failure of the new
referral OPRs, BMI and other "fit-to-fight" programs, but most concede it
was an inevitable outgrowth of the expanding workforce.

"It's a triumph of style over substance," said Gen Atkins.

The new FDU, inspired by the traditional Hawaiian muumuu, is being
produced under a hefty contract with Hilo Hattie's in Honolulu. Proposals
for matching Nomex shirts for spouses are under review.

I Want a Prescription Pad

I had to go to the Minute Clinic today because someone is sticking an ice pick in my left front sinus and it hurts. This is my semi-annual sinus infection. It started 10 days ago and two days ago I thought I had it licked....but no. It's back and it hurts and it's disgusting.

Thanks goodness for the minute clinic. It's in the CVS pharmacy and manned by a nurse practitioner...aka a drug dealer with a prescription pad. She said are you a Delta pilot? Yes I said. Ohhhh. I'm so afraid to fly. When I look out the window it looks so far down. I said, well that's a good thing. It's bad when it doesn't look so far down and the ground is getting closer really fast. That's when you should be worried. That's one of the first things you learn in USAF pilot training. Ground rushing toward you really fast is really bad.

Now I know what I need...the same stuff they give me every 6 months when there is green stuff coming out of my nose. Yukkkkk. But since I don't have the magic pad, I have to go see the drug dealer. But it wasn't so bad. I was in and out in 2 hours and that included her mandatory 30 minute lunch break. She acted like if she didn't take it the CIA would come and water board her...maybe they would...maybe that's part of the deal when you get your prescription pad....mandatory 30 minute lunch breaks....

Well I don't want to be water boarded. Been to survival school and was terrorized enough there...so I'll pass on the pad.....but I really want one

Delta Pilots Finally Get Their Own Psycho

I was really feeling left out.

All other professions have a psycho that has been sentenced to life in prison. Why can't us pilots have one too?

Well, glory be, we have us a winner.

A 19 year Delta pilot, former USAF fighter pilot, gets life in prison.

He is a former Delta Airlines Management Pilot. Being a management pilot means that you work in the office bothering regular pilots. And by definition, if you are a management pilot, you are deviant.

So what did our management pilot do? Just beat the crap out of his wife for 18 months. Broke bones, sodomized her, beat her with drum sticks. He was 6' 3", 270 lbs and she was tiny. That's all. He's 48 years old. He got three life sentences to run consecutively. That means in a row. I looked it up. And then when he's done with that he can do another 20 years.

I'm sure that based on his crime the other prisoners will treat him with the utmost respect that he so richly deserves.

Here is the article from the paper.


Ellicott gets 3 life sentences for assaulting wife
Mon, 05/04/2009 - 11:24amBy: The Citizen
Judge: guilty verdicts represent ‘death of a monster’

In all likelihood, Michael William Ellicott will spend the rest of his days in prison for brutally assaulting his wife in their Peachtree City home.

Superior Court Judge Paschal A. English today sentenced Ellicott, who is 48, to three consecutive life sentences, each of which he must serve a minimum of 25 years before being paroled. Ellicott was also sentenced to an additional 20 consecutive years in prison.

A jury convicted Ellicott late Friday afternoon of 13 of the 15 criminal counts against him: five counts of aggravated battery (family violence), four counts of aggravated assault (family violence), two counts of aggravated sodomy, one count of false imprisonment and one count of rape.

Judge English said the injuries he saw documented on photographs of Pamela Ellicott at the hospital following the Jan. 20 assault were so devastating, “I think you would have done your wife a favor to have just killed her.”

English said Pamela Ellicott “lived through a burning hell” at her husband’s expense, and he characterized her injuries as being the worst he has ever seen in his entire legal career.

“I’m still trying to figure out, in my little mind, what this poor young woman did to you to cause you to brutally and savagely almost kill her,” English said.

The judge also spoke of the victim’s “chilling” testimony of her husband’s threat to hunt her down and kill her if she ever told the police about the beatings she received.

English also referenced Mr. Ellicott’s use of drumsticks to beat his wife during the assaults. When the jury voted Friday afternoon to convict him, a different drumbeat began, “because that drumbeat represents the death of a monster, and that’s you Mr. Ellicott,” English said.

English also characterized the defendant, dressed Monday in an orange jail jumpsuit, as “a control freak” who will now have his life controlled for him in prison.

At times during his lecture, English castigated Michael Ellicott for his conduct during the trial.

“For you to say that you loved her and that you did not want a divorce from her, what a charade!” English said.

The judge also pointed out that Michael Ellicott smiled and laughed during the trial despite the serious nature of the allegations against him.

“I don’t think you ever thought for a second that you were going to be convicted,” English said.

English said Michael Ellicott’s conduct not only besmirched himself but also his co-workers at Delta Air Lines where he flew large jets and the U.S. military under which he flew an F-15 fighter jet.

The three life sentences with the minimum 25 year prison service requirement are the minimum allowed under Georgia law for the charge of rape and aggravated sodomy.

Prior to sentencing, Ellicott attorney Don Samuel asked the court to have the sentences run concurrent, meaning they would be served at the same time.

English, after his lecture, chose to impose the consecutive sentences instead, meaning they must be served one after the other.

Saturdays

If you work during the week and have Saturday's off.....you have my pity.

I work almost every week-end. And I like it that way.

Yesterday I was off and foolishly left the compound on a Saturday. I hadn't been off on a Saturday for so long that I forgot what it was like....It wasn't pretty.

I think everyone left their house at the same time. Maybe they were waiting outside my heavily guarded gated community filled with obnoxious people.....just waiting for me to leave so that they could make the traffic even worse.

It took me 30 minutes to go maybe two miles. Thank goodness for Satellite radio.

I just can't imagine driving every day to work in that traffic and then on Saturday...one of my two free days....it's even worse. There's no way I could live in Atlanta and do that everyday. I'd have to find somewhere else to live.

Mother's Day

I don't like Mother's Day.

I think it's stupid.

I also think Father's Day, Valentine's Day and Secretaries Day are stupid.

I love my Mother. And I will play the Mother's Day game. But I don't want to.

Mother's Day is another inane holiday conjured up by the greeting card, candy, flower and other companies that want us to buy Mother's Day junk.

It's just another stupid holiday that I have to remember. I have enough trouble remembering the birthdays.

Now birthdays I like. That is your special day. Not a generic, I gave birth day, so be nice to me on Mom's day. I like Christmas and Easter. Those are legitimate. But Mother's Day. Bahhhhh Humbug.

Don't tell my Mom though.