Planes keep falling out of the sky, coincidence?

No, airlines aren’t just charging you every fuckin’ fee they can think up short of the pay-per-breath fee.  They’re also aggressively engaging in fuel hedging which could be contributing to rising oil prices.  But even more scary, they’re also cutting costs along the lines of fuel.  Sure that sounds ideal.  Use fuel more efficiently right?  Right.  But what happens when you decide to take risks by  not providing extra fuel to a plane?  What happens when you give a plane just the right amount of fuel to fly from point “A” to point “B”. 

For years, fuel represented 10% to 15% of most airlines' operating costs, but in the summer of 2008, as crude prices soared, its cost-share shot up to between 35% and 50%, according to the Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents most U.S. carriers.  Part of the problem is the more fuel being carried by a plane, the heavier it is thus the more fuel it’s burning hauling the load.  Planes typically (maybe not so typical anymore) fly with more than enough fuel for those instances where an emergency arises and they can’t immediately land.  Spare fuel beyond the minimum required by FAA is often added to airliners to allow for weather or airport delays. That adds weight, which burns more fuel and increases a plane's operating cost.

FAA regulations require airliners to take off with enough fuel to reach their destination or an alternate airport, plus another 45 minutes of flight. The regulations also say it's up to dispatchers and pilots to decide the size of fuel loads, with pilots making the final call.  Many Pilots are calling bullshit on that last sentence.  They’re complaining airline bosses, looking to cut as much cost as possible, are forcing them to fly dangerously low on fuel.

So I decided to put on my thinking cap.  Now is it me or do planes seem to be falling out of the sky frequently?  I mean come on, we have planes being landed in the Hudson, planes mysteriously disappearing, it seems every time I turn on the television there’s another plane accident.  But I don’t suspect that cutting fuel costs is the only corner being cut.  Any greedy corporation is going to find ways to keep their profits up while passing on any potential price increases to the consumer be that in the form of rate increases, or inadequate funding of safety and maintenance.  I suspect maintenance duties aren’t being performed on a regular basis either.  And if they are, how many of those defective parts are being swapped out when they should be?  Who’s to say they’re not putting Band-Aids on these maintenance issues to buy time or save money?  Lots of companies do risk assessments to determine if certain risks (in this case cutting fuel and possibly maintenance costs) are worth the savings. 

Thank about that next time you board a plane.

Sarah Palin lay off the meth.

In a speech introducing Michael Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Regan.  Sarah Palin did what I would call a

paranoid potentially meth induced rant implying that our current administration is trying to turn the United States into some sort of communist state. 

Palin warned that the government is planning to "bail out debt ridden states" so it can "get in there and control the people."

"Since when can you get out of huge national debt by creating trillions of dollars of new debt?" Palin asked. "It all really is so backwards and skewed as to sound like absolute nonsense when some of this economic policy is explained."

"We need to be aware of the creation of a fearful population, and fearful lawmakers, being led to believe that big government is the answer, to bail out the private sector, because then government gets to get in there and control it," she said. "And mark my words, this is going to be next, I fear, bail out next debt-ridden states. Then government gets to get in there and control the people."

"Some in Washington would approach our economic woes in ways that absolutely defy Economics 101, and they fly in the face of principles, providing opportunity for industrious Americans to succeed or to fail on their own accord," she said. "Those principles it makes you wonder what the heck some in Washington are trying to accomplish here."

What the fuck is she talking about?  Economics?  Really?  This from the Governor of Alaska, a state with all of about 6 people.  I’m sure she’s an expert on Economics 101. 

"It is war over there, so it will not be war over here," she said. "And it had better still be our mission that we win, they lose."

Since when did a conceding incumbent start making demands?  This from a women who is against sex education in school but her daughter Bristol Palin was pregnant at 17?  Why is she even speaking?  She’s irrelevant and makes an ass out of herself every time she speaks.  Palin, those people are laughing at you, not with you.  If those words don’t sound like the words of a person smokin’ “that shit”, I don’t know what does. 

So because our current administration is bailing out businesses so that Americans MIGHT be able to keep their jobs, thus forcing unemployment down, thus keeping food in people’s mouths and mortgages paid, she’d rather we let every business fail?  Why? Because she feels like the government wants to get in there and “control the people”.

I do agree that some businesses should be left to fail.  GM is a good example.  Clearly the company was mismanaged.  Ford isn’t failing, in fact they’ve recently ramped up production.  But we cannot allow every business to fail without some government intervention.  Isn’t that what the government is here to do?  To help?  It’s your political party Palin that got us into the debt we’re in today.  So crawl back into your meth lab trailer in Alaska, help raise your grandchild and leave the politics to the administration the United States voted into office and ZIP IT!