“Study the screen, then select your desired seat!”
By ATWadmin On November 30th, 2006
So the big day arrives, you’ve done all the packing, got the neighbours to look after the cat and the post, cancelled the papers and got all the passports, visas and clear plastic bags so you can take 16 * 100mL bottles of make-up and sun-tan lotion for the kids and the wife; checked the flight times and the tickets, in other words, got ready for your aircraft ride to your holiday destination! You arrive a little later than just about everyone else and miss being able to choose your seating, so the two kids are with your wife a row back, and you are seated in the middle seat, next to a gorgeous blonde in the aisle seat, and a nine year-old girl seated next to the window; but you are happy! The family is close behind you, the cabin doors are being closed, and the safety lectures are about to start!
But what is this? You are approached by cabin staff, treated as a potential child abuser, given no chance at a defence, vilified in public in full sight of an aircraft full of your fellow travellers, and shamed in front of your wife and children! But you are completely innocent! You just can’t Prove it!!
This is what is happening in terms of the latest ruling secretly adopted by, amongst others British Airways, Air New Zealand and Quantas, because they are petrified that if a male is allowed to sit NEXT to an unaccompanied child, he will immediately attempt to sexually abuse the said child! For example, in 2005, a male passenger was forced to change seats when a Qantas steward informed him that only women could next to unaccompanied children. When he registered a complaint, a Qantas spokesperson replied that the airline intended "to err on the side of caution" by continuing to act as though all men were dangerous. More recently and in the UK, Boris Johnson—a Member of Parliament—was asked to move from his seat by a BA stewardess. She retreated when he explained that the adjacent children were his own progeny. Johnson memorialized the experience in an article entitled "Come off it, folks: how many paedophiles can there be?" So if you’re asked to move, because there’s a kid within spitting distance, make sure you get an upgrade, and then sue the pants off the bastards on principle!
I suppose removing the Roman Collar would help.
Sorry Mahons,
Wife + Two kids. Roman Collar:
Does not Compute!! Does not Compute!!
In the past child abuse was not talked about and not acknowledged and its victims were invisible and unheard.
Now child abuse perpetuated by women is not talked about, not acknowledged and its victims invisible and unheard.
I don’t do British/Quantas, but if they ever dared pull this on me, I’d stop flying them immediately.
This is awful. And just stupid.
I guarantee you one thing–if they mess around with their frequent flyers by making them switch seats last minute very often, they will get hurt. Flying is not fun most of the time, and this is one thing I would not stand for.
Mike: Sorry, I thought you were the former Bishop of Galway who would meet that criteria.
Mahons, he only had one (appropriately called Peter!), although he’s as loud as two.
Thanks Cunningham, my memory fades. The poor kid really got named Peter?
It’s true.
What’s more. There used to be a second collection at mass each Sunday in every Irish church in the 70′s/80′s, The proceeds were supposed to go to the missions, and the collection was named "Peter’s Pence".
It was precisely THIS collection money that the Bishop used to collect and forward to the states to pay for the increasingly expensive tastes of his little brat!
Casey did have humour, you’ll have to admit.
That is funny. Peter’s Pence is a worldwide collection allegedly to go to Rome (ie Peter being the first Pope). The double entendre possibilitys are endless.
I always admired the Sawdoctors’ allusion "the bishop’s gone and left the fold" to be one of their most clever lines.
Yes, like, little Peter was both the cause and the effect.
You like the Saw Doctors? Probably my favourite Irish band!
We’ve gonne way way off the topic but one of my favourite bits of Father Ted (and I propabley have 100 fvourite bits) was the bishop’s holiday movie, playing on the beach with his significant other and son, in full bishop regalia and with the wee lad making sandcastles with the mitre.
Cunningham: The Saw Doctors are excellent. I recall a young Irish friend looking at me like I had said I enjoyed Ragtime Music when I said how good they are. I find they have great energy and great songs. Since they have never been big over here I get to enjoy them as a cult band.
Right, they are vastly underrated.
John Waters, a rock journalist (former partner of Sinead O’Connor, but otherwise he’s quite sane), said that if future generations want to get a feel for what it was to be Irish in the 80′s and 90′s, they won’t listed to U2 or even the Pogues, but only to teh Saw Doctors.
http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/sociology/papers/kkzoorop.htm#Abandoning%20the%20Culture%20of%20Abandonment
Thanks for the article. One of the things I like about them (aside from their love of the Ramones) is they stayed who they were. They can be quite irreverant and bold without having to conform to the nonconformist posings of other rock bands.
>>Now child abuse perpetuated by women is not talked about, not acknowledged and its victims invisible and unheard.<<
Interesting point. On a radio show during the week, while talking about attempted abductions of children by men, it was brought up that in one area recently there had been attempted abductions of children by women. Of course this is just one possible occurance, and I cant think of a single other occurance of its like.
Cunningham: By the way if you are looking for a laugh, Aileen nailed me on the Blank Sheet of Paper post with her casting couch joke (how dare the rabble attack their King!). I have to watch that girl. She’s good.
Yes, Unusually for a woman, Aileen can think both straight and crooked!
Kloot
It is a dangerous complacency that we have wehen we assume that woman only want the best for children. In addition to women who abuse for their own direct sick "pleasure", there are those who do it because they are, willingly or otherwise in the thrall of some man,
It’s horrible to think of, which is why we don’t and why we also close our ears.
Mahons
" Aileen nailed me on the Blank Sheet of Paper post with her casting couch joke"
Is this a confession????!!!!
Aileen: Get your mind out of the gutter woman! You would make Colm blush. Actually I was giving you your props on slagging skills, most enjoyable.
Mahons
You do make me up my game.
This is one of those sureal ATW threads where the banter weaves through the deadly serious
>>It’s horrible to think of, which is why we don’t and why we also close our ears.<<
Very true. There have been a number of case in the ROI where a mother has opted to take her own life, while at the same time taking the lives of her kids.
A number of fathers have done similar, but the difference in the media reaction to both is unnerving.
In the male case, there is outright disgust and calls of murder ( as there should be )
In the female case its a tragedy, where sympathy is expressed to the state of mind she must have been in to carry out such a deed.
Both cases are murder in my mind.
That is one of the fun things about the old site. Off to home I go to compose my masterpiece post. I’ll e-mail it in the am to Mike and hopefully when he and David are finished editing the first hundred pages it will be good to go.
Kloot
There is an issue of insanity which would mean that it wasn’t murder. Post natal depression can be so severe as to ammount to insanity. All the same, I agree that we need to rethink our assumptions.
Aileen,
To be honest id regretted the word ‘Murder’ as soon as I posted it. Its not the right word and I retract it.
Every case needs the surrounding circumstance taken into account. No one does this lightly.
Mahons
Have you decided your topic yet?
"How I slept my way to the top"
perhaps
better than "how I slept my way to the bottom"
;o)
Aileen: I thought I would entitle it Orange Woman green with envy.
LOL!
As long as you don’t slip any white into the equation. That would be a bridge too far ;o)