Icelandic ash
We've heard, over and over, about the Icelandic volcano which is spewing ash, causing the closure of European airports. The Urban Dictionary, a reliable source of amusing neologism, calls a clear place that you can fly through an "ash hole."
Roger Kimball is, to my mind, one of the bright lights of conservatism. He's not a yapper like Hannity nor a polemicist like O'Reilly. He's lettered too. His blog is Roger's Rules, on Pajamas Media, and the RSS feed is worth something.
Here's the ultimate paragraph in his post of April 18. (The page I want is redirected; look in the third column under "If global warming doesn't work...")
Naturally, safety must be the airlines' first concern. But solvency is also a concern. And one wonders to what extent the danger posed by these dramatic eruptions from Iceland are exaggerated. When Mount St Helen erupted in 1980, there was a lot of damage and a lot of ash. But air travel in the U.S. was hardly affected. Are the restrictions being imposed in Europe an expression of laudable caution? Or are they an expression of politically motivated hysteria? I'm not sure we have the answer to those questions yet.
This is rather strong meat, to suggest that an entire continent would give over to politically motivated hysteria. But then for the last year we have been subject to nothing but politically motivated hysteria here in America. One of the many casualties of the totalitarians now running the free world* is that I am all too willing to believe anything disreputable that I heard about any government. And surely some government somewhere is not utterly evil, with designs on the property and freedom of its servants.
* Without question there are some countries viler than others. Zimbabwe under Mugabe for one; North Korea. But with the U.S. now in the hands of totalitarians, how much distinction is there now between the free world and the rest of the world? It's no longer a matter of constitution, but of dictator.
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10 Comments
To jog your memory, here is the wiki for Speedbird 9, the British Airways 747 flight that encountered a volcanic ash plume in flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9
Sky King
Theo , we live in interesting times . Today , when we build a park , we must be sure to "Rubberize" the sidewalks lest a child (actually running?) trip and fall and skin their precious knees on the concrete ! Thus saving their innocent minds from a crule lesson of being "careful" at play .
No more Jungle Gyms or Merry-go rounds as little children could be thrown out of them so we end up with hiking trails on ruberized sidewalks and seatbelts on swings .
At what point does the Government STOP trying to protect us from ANYTHING..even OURSELVES
I too believe Europe acted a wee bit too extremely in this airline thing...but it does tell everyone in Europe " Your Government is at Work" !
(We have always been at war with Andrews)
May I remind you guys of the geography involved here? Mt. St. Helens ash blew eastward over thinly populated areas, with hardly any flights involved, and Pinatubo blew over the Pacific and the ash was easily evaded. Europe IS different.....
Frankly, I would rather take the train just now.
My dear lady , your points are valid , yours and Sky King's .
To be truthful, I WOULD expect the government to delay flights but the reporting I see is meant to panic the public !
The slant of reporting is that of the governments are being right in ALL things and that..well..creeps me out.
(We have always been at war with Andrews.}
Wouldn't Icelandic Ash be a GREAT name for a rock band? Huh ?
....oops.., forgot...
(We have always been at war with Andrews)
Thank God it has been sorted....I can get back to all the lvoely mindless stuff I do that gets my day in -- I just couldn't stay away from the news channels (very uncharacteristic of me)!
BDJgLM epejktnscwlu
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Here is a short item on the second largest volcanic eruption (Mt. Pinatubo - 1991) of the 20th Century. Mt. St Helens was a walk in the park to compared to this monster.
http://geography.about.com/od/globalproblemsandissues/a/pinatubo.htm
Like Mt. St Helens, I don't remember any airline traveling restrictions to any extent as what we are seeing in Europe currently.
It boggles the grey jello.