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Hit up Keegans tonite, hoping to defend my title….alas it was not to be. There was beer however, so the night was not a total loss.

Other highlights…

Buck Humphrey, of the famed Minnesota Kennedys, was there and came over to talk to us. Conversation was mostly off the record, but very interesting. He\’s also VERY paranoid about having his picture taken.

DrJonz, for the second straight time, offered me his daughters hand in marriage. I\’m a bit flattered. I mean she\’s cute, but she\’s also a bit young. Although on the other hand, only a decade seperates us and we both share the opinion that her father is nuts.

I\’m starting to worry about Triple A. The guy hugged me twice tonite and then walked me to my vehicle. Starting to wonder about the guy….although in his defense he did continue bugging me for certain photos of a certain young woman we both know.

Drunkguys appearance was requested at Keegans….hear that DG?? Get up off your arse and get out where the beer is!

Arguments were made for why there should be a \”Whore Branch\” of the Secret Service. Only seconds later, AAA announced his candidacy for President in 2012.

Beer is yummy.

In the wake of a tragedy it\’s human nature to refrain from speaking ill of the victims, especially the dead. Unfortunately sometimes that happens at the expense of others who while not entirely blameless are certainly not at fault.

Unfortunately I see some of this happening in the developing coverage of the crash of flight 5191, which took off from the wrong runway on Sunday and ended up crashing into a field just off the end of the runway.

As Comair Flight 5191 began rolling down the wrong runway, the lone air traffic controller on duty at Lexington\’s Blue Grass Airport was busy with paperwork.

[...]

The controller\’s last look at the Comair CRJ-100 occurred when it was on the taxiway, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigators.

\”He had cleared the aircraft for takeoff, and he turned his back and performed administrative duties in the tower,\” said Debbie Hersman, the NTSB member in charge of the investigation.

She said the controller cleared Flight 5191 to take off on Runway 22, the 7,000-foot lighted runway used by commercial jets.

Instead, the crew tried to take off on the unlit Runway 26, which was about half as long.

The controller told the NTSB he had an unobstructed view of both runways, Hersman said, but because he was not looking in that direction, he was unaware of a problem until he heard the crash.

Let\’s be clear on this. When it comes down to it, the safety of the aircraft is on one person and one person only. That person is the pilot. That pilot has the power to refuse orders from controllers if he feels it will jeopardize the safety of his aircraft.

Now I\’ve spent alot of time in both active control towers and TRACONs (Terminal Radar Approach Control) so I\’m well familiar with the job of both the tower controller and the radar approach controller. It\’s not a job for one person to do. In fact the only time I could understand it being done is on the midnight shift at a remote airport. This controller was likely very busy and I have no problem believing his mind was truly occupied elsewhere. Especially considering his duty was complete.

Sure aircraft can and do wander onto the wrong runway or taxiway. If it occurs in such a way as to present a collision hazard with another aircraft, vehicle, etc it\’s called a runway incursion. Runway incursions are increasingly becoming a problem, and they can and have been fatal. Both the FAA and NASA have attempted to address the issue, with AVSP being one example.

So controllers do watch out for it, but even if they aren\’t doing two jobs there is alot going on at an airport. Frequently view is obstructed of some taxiways. The controller gives the pilot a path that will safely get them to their destination runway. If the pilot does not know the way it is their responsibility to speak up. In this case both pilots had been to this airport, but it had been redesigned since. You\’ll notice if you ever fly that runways and taxiways are marked. Now I\’ve never been to this particular airport but I have a hard time believing that an alert pilot would not have known they were on the wrong runway.

Unfortunately for flight 5191, this controller was doing the job of two people and did not have the luxury of following the flight all the way to their assigned runway. More then likely inadequate staffing at all levels of airport operations will get worse before it gets better. Most of the replacement controllers hired after Reagan laid off their predecessors are now approaching retirement age and waves of retirements have already begun.

This controller was doing two complex jobs. That he did not have the chance to go above and beyond what was already required of him does not surprise me in the least. We can criticize the system that left him in the position he was, but let us not unfairly target the controller himself for blame. In this case the blame ultimately lies with the pilot, and secondly with the FAA for not following their own procedures.

In every tragedy there is a lesson. Hopefully this one got learned.

Sometimes you just can\’t make this stuff up…regarding the deployment of UN troops on the border of Lebanon and Syria, Syria\’s head fucktard leader had this to say…

\”This negates the sovereignty of Lebanon,\” Al-Assad said in an interview Wednesday with Dubai TV. \”No country in the world accepts having soldiers of another nationality patrolling its border.\”

Says the man whose troops have occupied Lebanon since 1976 until just last year.

ENOUGH!!

I get it, Katrina was a year ago. Iraq\’s National Assembly also signed the text of their new Constitution a year ago yet I don\’t see anyone broadcasting that 26 hours a day.

New Orleans is still a shithole, I get it. But on the other hand it was before Katrina as well.

It still hasn\’t been rebuilt, I get it. On the other hand when most of the population was shipped to cities that aren\’t corrupt, has jobs, has a functioning police force, and is at least above sea level, well…..why would they want to come back and rebuild??

So please for the sake of what little sanity I have, please please please stop going on and on about New Orleans. It\’s a shithole and the rest of the country barely acknowledges it\’s existence…except during their annual drunken tit-bearing festival, also known as Mardi Gras.

For those of you who absolutely insist on going on about New Orleans. Here are some facts of life.

The primary responsibility of disaster response is at the local level, assisted if necessary by the state. The feds are more for coordinating the cleanup/rescue attempts after the fact.

When you live at, or below sea level you should expect to eventually be flooded out. Crying when it happens is just silly.

Expecting everyone else to foot the bill to rebuild a city that is absolutely guaranteed to undergo the same disaster in the future is even sillier.

If you live in an area that has ever been hit by a hurricane before, you shouldn\’t be surprised when another one arrives. You should be prepared for when that happens. If you are not, this is not my problem.

When you buy insurance, READ THE POLICY. If you don\’t, and then after the fact you realize that what you thought was covered is not, it is not a giant conspiracy against you, your race, your city, your class, your whatever-the-hell-social-group-you-want-to-claim.

When you find insurance for very very cheap, chances are it actually covers very very little.

If you buy insurance for event A but not event B, and event A is frequently accompanied by event B, it\’s probably prudent to also buy the readily available insurance for event B. When you don\’t, it is not the fault of the insurer of event A.

When you live in an area run by inept and corrupt local officials, you should probably not be surprised when even when they received plenty of warning of a disaster they do nothing except complain, cry, make extravagant claims/excuses and point fingers afterwards. This is not MY problem….YOU elected them….again.

Insurance companies do not cover stupidity on the part of the government. Such coverage is impossible as such stupidity is never ending and in some places rampant.

The fact that there is still no reconstruction plan, much less progress on reconstruction, should highlight the problem. If you can\’t at least create a plan, should you really be in charge??

For example, the town of Fargo, ND manages to rebuild itself every year just in time for the Red River to overflow and wash it away again. If they can manage that on the permafrost of North Dakota, surely you can manage it in the Gulf.

Playing the victim card is discouraged. This is America. We didn\’t whine that colonial rule was unfair, we did something about it. We didn\’t fret over the dangers of the frontier, we conquered it. We didn\’t complain that the west coast was too far away, we built a fucking railroad. You got a little water….fine, open a water park or something.

I\’ve returned from the great unspoiled outdoors of northern Minnesota….well unspoiled except for the still very evident devastation from the 1999 windstorm that leveled large portions of the Boundary Waters. Put in on Snowbank Lank, came out on Moose Lake. Spent a night on Disappointment, Ensign and Splash Lakes.

Was rather interesting driving home listening to the radio. I kept hearing updates to current events and I had no idea what they were talking about. Apparently Karr is innocent, pilots can\’t figure out which runway to take off from, the Vikings are still the Vikings of old, Iran is still defying the world, Louisiana is still a shithole…which dates back to colonial times, and ironically some anonymous Senator anonymously put a hold on a bill designed to increase transparency in our government.

Highlights of the trip include :

I was not at work.

I was not in contact with the outside world short of hearing a commercial jet fly overhead at some point.

Dumping eggs, diced ham and shredded cheese in a ziplock bag and boiling it for awhile makes an awesome omelette.

Due to the \’99 blowdown, there is a simple formula for finding firewood. Follow trail to the toilet for about 100 yards. Walk off trail for about 25 yards. Follow the carnage. Yell back to camp to inquire how many trees you should drag back.

The song \”Row Row Row Your Boat\” was attempted a minimum of 42 times.

The song \”100 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall\” was never attempted.

Water temperature was approximately 42 degrees. Temperature at which water is considered dangerously cold is 50 degrees.

There is rumor that Kevin went skinny dipping. His publicist has refused to comment on the matter.

Given 6 people in 3 canoes with 3 maps, it is possible to have 11 opinions of where we are.

Iron ore and my compass are not friends.

According to my compass I\’m in London right now.

The average time it takes to fall asleep with a rock/root/dirtclod poking you in the ribs is roughly 24 minutes.

The average time it takes before wildlife feels it is okay to enter camp and make noise sufficient to wake you up is 27 minutes.

The average distance from each campsite to the accompanying toilet is approximately 23 miles.

Encountered a guy who I am fairly certain is a future subject of a US Forest Service rescue mission. Entered (all alone!) the small lake we were camping on at the time. Lake is fairly round. It has one campsite. No islands. Fairly simple lake is the point I\’m making. It has a channel at the western edge which holds the portage he came into the lake on. The channel to the portage out of the lake is at the south eastern corner. He circled the north-eastern corner of the lake 4 times before we took pity on him and pointed him the way out.

Debate as to whether we should have just told the guy he wasn\’t cut out for this type of trip and therefore was only a danger to himself and turned him back around towards home continues to this day. Prevailing argument is that we pointed him in the direction of a lake with plenty of people on it to provide assistance if necessary.

Currently two members of our group each have plans to open a White Castle and an ice cream shop in the middle of the Boundary Waters.

The Rangers station at the Canadian border closes at 3 pm. This was the source of much surprise until it was asked why one would want to go to Canada anyway.

Two days into the Boundary Waters we found two ears of corn…not corn growing, but two ears of corn. Why somebody would drag entire ears of corn into the Boundary Waters is beyond me. This ranks up there just under a party ball as one of the oddest things I\’ve found in the BWCA. Reportedly the corn was delicious.

Overall another successful trip. Good times had by all….even though it didn\’t include beer. That said, it was nice to sleep in a soft bed again. Although going back to work again tomorrow….hmmmm, I wonder if those rocks I slept on that one night are still open. On the other hand, if I left Drunkguy alone with the keys to my site any longer he would surely have staged a Sisyphus style coup.

The boss and I have been talking about putting in a fire ring. We both enjoy campfires, we like the idea of sitting out by the fire on a cool evening, roasting up a hot dog, maybe a marshmallow or two and maybe drinking a beer at the same time.. We have a few neighbors that have rings and every time they have a fire, I get jealous… I would have thought that this was the same reaction that most would have to a back yard fire. Who doesn\’t like the smell of burning wood, and good clean neighborhood fun.. Its gives you a chance to sit back, take in the world, and if you are really daring you could even have a beer with a neighbor. Rather it seems the Red Star found some dumb dumb poopy heads that think that anything you do to make yourself noticed by a neighbor is bad.. I\’ve fortunately had neighbors tell me that they are jealous of the odors wafting from my grill most evenings around dinner time… and I\’ve had to graciously accept the compliment, but redirect them across the street where they still use charcoal. now that is a tasty smell… steaks on a char coal grill… Mmmm steaks… but I digress…

Anyways, the thing that bothers me, is who in their right mind would call and complain about a neighbor? Isn\’t the neighborly thing to do to go over and have a chat with them, and explain the problem? Then when they make the fire bigger, and move it closer to your house, then maybe give the city a call… I would suspect that if you were open and honest that they\’d tone it back a notch and try to be neighborly in return..

Then there is the topics of burning illegal things… like leaves… can anyone explain why its illegal to burn leaves? Chemicals, and batteries I can understand (Kevin can probably explain why batteries are a bad idea to burn) but leaves?

Needless to say I\’m going to push the need for the fire pit, and see if we can have a nice night out by the fire this weekend… I should be off my pain meds to by then and can enjoy a nice cold frosty beer as well… I can\’t wait… If I\’m really daring I\’ll fire up the charcoal grill and do up some steaks as well… wait, I still can\’t life more than 10 lbs so no charcoal… We\’ll use the gas grill.

Kevin Adds :
Yeah…on the topic of burning batteries. If one is planning on burning batteries I would recommend that one also has a high pain tolerance and that they do so when the closest hospital with a burn unit is not busy at the time. Just my experience.

I\’m back….will post highlights and pics later.

For now be content in the knowledge that I was not eaten by a bear. I know you were all worried.

Happy to see that even though DrunkGuy does zero work all day he managed a paltry two posts. Would have figured he\’d at least pioneer the field of beer-blogging.

Be back soon. Right now I have about a million things to deal with now that I\’ve rejoined civilization.

Who knew that me driving around the redneck ford would cause the personalables of a polar bear to shrink, so says some far fetched study. Now I personally think global warming is a load of crap, but I\’d rather not get into that right now. More I\’d like to talk about how sick someone\’s life is that thinks to look at the size of any animal\’s genitalia much less a polar bear\’s to determine that pollutants are causing them to shrink and then making the leap to say that is why the population is dropping… Now I\’ve always been told size doesn\’t matter, but rather how you use it.. so just maybe someone needs to pull these boy bears aside and explain to them what they are doing wrong…

\”One evening a bear came just next to us in the night when we were doing the toilette,\” Sonne recalled. \”They shot and it ran.\”

This is my favorite part of the article… I\’m guessing a typo, unless there is a new dance craze going around the artic… and what did the guy think, maybe he was doing some comparing? See if his peep was slightly larger than some foolish researcher taking a dump in the middle of the artic? I don\’t know, it all seems a bit far fetched to say that because they are eating pollutants its in turn causing their ding a lings to shrink… But what do I know.. Perhaps they should do some research on the Black bears and see if all the crap they are fed by hunters has an effect on theirs as well…

While the cats away, the mice will play… I know Kevin hyped up the great return of Drunkguy… but he failed to realize that while I\’m laid up in bed unable to do much of anything… I\’m still lazy, and have very little desire to think (I would have thought he\’d knew me well enough to expect that by now) I figured I better make a couple posts before he got back, otherwise he might strip me of the honored title of…. uh, do I even have a title? I think I need a title…Hell I\’m not even on the staff page yet… What the hell!? Honestly, why do I put up with him?

I\’m going to spend a few minutes and get situated here… You know find Kevin\’s stash of beer, and munchies… then I\’ll fire up the posting machine and see if I can\’t put together some worth while output for you…

Well I\’m off on my yearly excursion into the Boundary Waters.

Am I helping to fight forest fires?
Am I looking for holes in our nations northern border security?
Am I smuggling firearms?
Am I looking for new exotic animals to hunt down and kill?
Am I searching for a natural beer spring?

It\’s up to you, take your guesses in the comments.

I\’ll return sometime on Tuesday….unless I get eaten by a bear.

Now where did I put my protective bear suit?

UPDATE : Stay tuned….since Drunkguy is on bedrest for a few weeks, and has a laptop and wifi in his house, I fully expect him to be making about 20 posts a day.