Flying United, real horror

By now, I'm sure most people reading this have seen the video of the man being dragged off a United Airlines seat. If you haven't, it's horrific. The flight was apparently overbooked and the airlines was unable to get four people to volunteer. So they did the modern equivalent of choosing lots and drew four names at random. However one gentleman, reportedly a doctor refused to give up his seat. Security and the police were called, the boarded the planed and basically dragged the man off. The man briefly re-entered the plane, bloody, gripping a wall and chanting "Just let me die".

Early reports just indicated the flight was overbooked, but it looks as if United was actually opening the seats in order to accommodate four United staff members, The video has gone viral, sparking outrage, and a less than half hearted statement from United, with no actual apology for the traumatized paying customer or others on the flight.

I'll start of by saying that airlines do have the right to force people of the plane, for pretty much any reason. However I have never heard of a person being removed, after he was seated, unless he were being unruly, or disruptive. Likewise the police, when asked to remove a person, are in a bit of a bind. You can't sit and negotiate for hours with a plane at the gate. So what do you do? It was a situation that never should have happened, and United should not have let it escalate. You can blame the passenger, the cops and the flight crew, it's easy to say if any of them had responded differently this wouldn't have happened

United did ask for volunteers, offering a reported 800 dollars and a seat on the next plane. The problem is, it wasn't 800 dollars in cash, but in United Cash. Not hard spending money but currency that can only be spent on flights, and comes with a lot of restrictions. And of course the possibility of getting bumped from that flight. Add to that fact the next flight wasn't until 3:30 the next day. Which would entail a hotel room, and another pass through security getting groped, or sleeping in the terminal. That's a really appealing offer isn't it?

And why stop at 800 dollars? If it was that vitally important, why not a even thousand? Cash and a free flight voucher and free hotel. Or maybe they could have bought the crew tickets on a competing airline? Or rented a van and a driver? Or simply planned better?

Probably the worst mistake that United made was allowing the plane to fully board without having the volunteers. How much different the story might have been if four people were randomly selected and simply not allowed to board? Yeah, it's still a shitty deal, but the situation would be so much easier to control at the gate, versus on a crowded airplane. United is extremely lucky no other passengers, as far as we know, were injured.

This is a problem that was bound to happen. Ever since 911, we have given up more and more rights for the privilege of flying. While it might not be the root problem of this issue it definitely contributed. When yous step into an airport you become less than a person. You're  potential threat. That's why you can be searched, screened, poked, and groped, all without suspicion, cause or warrant.  That's why a 69 year old man was accosted by aggressive security for not giving up his seat.


The flight crew, and pilot pretty much have carte blanche to remove anyone from the plane, for any, or no reason. But they need to exercise it judicially, not just because a flight crew needs to be somewhere else. Although I have a feeling this might not have been wholly a decision by the flight crew, but by their supervision. But the call was made, the passenger, perhaps unwisely refused to give up his seat. The flight crew chose, or were ordered to escalate by calling security. That's when the fear if terrorism and America's growing police state collided in a near perfect storm. The passenger had to be removed, no negotiation, and you don't defy the police, or airport security. Comply or die.


But in the end, the fault lies with United. Doing some research for this article I found that United involuntarily bumps 3,000-4,000 passengers a year. I couldn't find direct comparison numbers from other airlines but I did find that Delta bumps an average of 3 out of 100,000 passengers involuntarily. In five years, ending in 2016 42,500 passengers were bumped involuntarily from United. (source the Boston Globe and federal statistics). American bumps an average of 5 per 100,000. Where is United? They average bumping 11 out of 100, 000.  (source PBS.org)Almost twice the number of the other two airline giants combined. Don't get me wrong, over booking happens at all airlines, and at times it can't be helped. But it's clear United has a problem. Keep in mind there are involuntary bumps. Not the ones where passengers accept a coupon or cash to delay their flight.

I understand why the airlines over book. People cancel, canceled seats are lost revenue. Or are they. Have you tried to get a refund if you miss your flight? So if someone cancels, no shows, whatever that's money in the bank (usually there are some situations where a ticket might be refuned), and then that empty seat is resold. SO why oversell?


I sincerity hope this leads to change, not just at United but across the whole airline industry. We have gotten so used to be treated like animals that we come to think we deserve it. Already people are starting to blame the passenger. Because he should have accepted it, he should have blindly obeyed. As if his refusal warranted his treatment.  

Since I started writing this, there have been some positive steps. United has issued an apology, congress may investigate, and there is a bill to make it illegal to force a boarded passenger from his seat, in order for someone else to have a seat. United has also reported refunded all passengers on the flight their ticket price. Small steps, but positive ones.

One last update, the doctor in question is, according to several reports a convicted felon. But does that matter? Did the crew know this beforehand? And if so, do we really want airline crews passing moral judgement on citizens? It also has come to light that United may have violated the wording of their own Contract of Carriage more than once in forcing him off. But this is a long post already, so I'm ending it here. I may do a update if I feel it's needed.

Zombies, cannibals, and um zombies, Oh My!

I was on the road last week when news of the "zombie attack" in Miami broke, but when I got to my hotel the news was all over Facebook.  To most of my horror friends this was proof that the zombie apocalypse was in full swing.  A few of my friends of a more political nature looked at it as another instance of police using undue force on an unarmed (and naked) person.  Honestly I think eating someones face gives the police just cause to use deadly force.

However, the Miami Zombie as most are calling the incident was big news.  Within a week pictures and video had appeared on the web.  What is even more shocking that the gory images are the other incidents that seemed to suddenly be happening.  A New Jersey man hurling pieces of his own intestines at the police.  A Maryland man who eats the heart of his roommate. **(see edit) A Texas woman who decapitates her infant and eats its brain.**  All obvious signs of the impending Romeroesque Armageddon.  Suddenly the Mayans were all getting smug looks on their face.  Not since Dick Clark's death were so many predicting the end.

What most overlooked, even many hard core horror fans, was that only the Miami incident really looked like a zombie apocalypse foreshadowing.  Now that incident looked just like a classic zombie attack.  Ignoring bullets, eating flesh, growling and being naked (corpses are stripped for the morgue) all straight out of a good old Romero flick, with effects by Savini.  However the others just looked like really fucked up cannibalistic murders.  While they could be connected to horror films, they really aren't very zombie like.

The Jersey man cutting out pieces of his own flesh and hurling it at cops could have come from the warped mind of David Cronenberg.  Well Cronenberg before he found mainstream success, and put away his flesh warping imagination. The Texas woman who ate her babies brain claims she was told to do so by the devil.  That sounds like an exorcism or possibly a cult movie, the same as the Maryland man who devoured his roommate.  Still these grisly events get grouped together, and usually labeled as proof of a zombie onslaught.

Critics will say that the sensationalism of the Miami zombie case has simply heightened our senses to these gory crime.  There is a lot of truth to that, even the police in the Miami case have said similar cases involving drug psychosis have happened in the past. Whether this is a new phenomena, or just the latest attack in a series that up until now we have over looked, I can almost guarantee that we will see more.  Hell, maybe even copycat zombie attacks.  Now that's scary.

***EDIT ( proof of the media sensationalizing the Miami attack is that the woman who ate her babies brain actually happened in 2009 and was thrown out there as new by some unscrupilious editor or writer to cash in on the cannibal attacks.  I apologize for not fully fact checking.  The article plays only a small role in this blog post so I wont delete the post or the reference but will (*) it.  Shame on internet "journalists" and I use that term lightly)

How is this going to affect the current zombie craze?  Right now that craze is riding high, being pushed in large part by the popularity of AMC's The Walking Dead.  I'm somewhat shocked that The Walking Dead isn't being blamed for the Miami zombie attack.  I could concede that a psychotic person could become convinced he was a zombie.  The press has always been way to eager to blame popular culture for homicidal acts, but so far AMC has escaped their wrath.

In fact the Miami zombie attack may actually help The Walking Dead.  After all the word zombie is on almost everyone in America's lips right now.  Now with the season three premiere still four months away there is time for the furor to die down.  That is if there are no more zombie or cannibal attacks between now and then.  That's a big "if."

Whatever happens, whether TV and movies get blamed, whether more disturbed people dine on bath salts and go loco, or even if this is the opening snack in a zombie apocalypse, I can just about bet we will be hearing more about this.  I would also bet the press is going to hype up any attack that even slightly resembles a cannibal or zombie attack.  Me? I'm gonna just sit back, stock up on bullets and water, and practice my head shots.


Now here are the very, very graphic pictures.  Be warned

Miami zombie victim

Aftermath of the Miami zombie attack

Miami zombie attack victim after the attack

Victim of abuse by priest takes revenge

No one is surprised anymore to read about a priest allegedly raping young boys. It seems to have become almost a given. Priests molest kids and when they get caught the church pays off the family and relocates the priest. Win, win situation, the family gets money to help cover the therapy, the church limit’s the bad publicity a trial would bring, and the priest gets access to fresh meat.




See how easy it is to laugh about it? Who hasn’t heard or even told a molesting priest joke? Now that Michael is dead, we all feel bad making pedo jokes, but the priest are still around. It’s easy to laugh, but it’s not quite as easy to remember that each joke represents a life ruined. It represents the institution that people look to for guidance and hope stealing the innocence of our children.



We look to the head of the church for a solution or at least for justice and we find nothing but weak words. If these molesters were not priests they would be in jail, but the church protects them, and worse at times seems to be aiding the pedophiles by relocating them, but still allowing them access to kids.



Does the priesthood draw pedophiles, or does the priesthood lead them down the road to sexual predator? Personally I lean to the latter. Priests are forbidden to marry or have sex. However while having sex with a woman is a sin which can see a priest removed from the pulpit, pedophilia is a sickness and needs counseling. In Christianity a sin is wrong, yet sickness is not a sin because it is beyond our control. Thus horny old men, locked in celibacy by their vows to God, may see their only release in the cherubic faces of young boys.



That is in no way meant to absolve those pedophile priests. There are plenty of other men of God who never walk down that path, or at least I hope there are plenty of them. These men are sick and they are criminals. They deserve to be in jail, just as the dirty old men who don’t have the protection of the Vatican are in jail. We don’t move them to a new neighborhood, we lock them up and even that seems too little, too late.



With the pedophile priests, we get no satisfaction. We get nothing but horror stories. Priest accused, priest denies, church denies, priest gets moved, new accusations arise, rinse and repeat. How long before the bubble bursts and people start taking the law into their own hands?



In California that has just happened. William Lynch was reportedly abused as a child three decades ago. On Friday he was arrested for viciously beat the priest accused of molesting him. The alleged molester, Rev. Jerold Lindner, was accused of molesting Lynch and his younger brother. He of course denies the accusations. The church had so much faith in his innocence that they paid Lynch and his brother 625,000 to settle in 1998.



There may be some who question a victim who takes a cash settlement. There have been times I have questioned why someone would drop the charges. Well half a million dollars is a lot of money. The alternative is a long drawn out trial, that may last for years.



Now consider that you were raped when you were seven years old, forced to have sex with your five year old brother. I’m betting your life has been pretty shitty, you can take the half million, try to salvage it, try to repress it or else go to trial, against the churches lawyers. You expose everything that happened and have the lawyers call you liars. All in the hopes of justice. A justice that would probably see him spend a very little amount of time behind bars. Hell, I’d probably take the damn money myself. It’s easy to judge them when you aren’t in their shoes.



Lynch took the money but apparently couldn’t forget about the past. Cash can’t buy back innocence apparently. So he took the matters into his own hands. This is the point where I should say that violence is not the answer. Two wrongs don’t make a right. What happened to Lynch doesn’t justify him beating an old man nearly to death. Well I am not going to say that.



What Lynch did to Lindner was no worse than what happened to him. If the allegations were true, than Lindner attacked a helpless child and scarred him for life. Yet he has never been charged or spent time in jail for it. Lynch attacked a helpless old man, beat him severely, but he is back at work.

His blood is on the church’s hands.



The blood of the innocents who suffered at the hands of Lindner also rest squarely on the church. They chose to look the other way, even when they knew they had repeat offenders. How can anyone have faith in a church that protects and possibly even breeds monsters. Monsters like Lindner, who belongs behind bars



Counting Lynch, Lindner was accused in three separate lawsuits for molesting children between 1973 and 1985. He was part of the over $600 million settlement struck between the church and over 500 accusers in 2007. He remained behind the pulpit till 2001, when he was assigned to the Los Gatos retirement home.

WM3

As I am typing this right now the latest attempt to gain a new hearing for Damien Echols of the WM3 is ongoing in Arkansas. Will justice finally be served or will paranoia and fear reign supreme? You can watch the hearing live
http://arkansas-sc.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2