Speaking One's Mind...

...may not always engender you to the masses. Mostly, it will piss people off. Ignorant people. People with agendas that differ from yours. People who are just plain mean. And people who are just plain stupid.

Charlton Heston died over the weekend. He's know for his starring roles and portrayals of famous figures throughout history. He was a minority in Hollywood in that he stayed married to his wife for 64 years and was pretty conservative about his views.

He also said this a few years back. It needs to be read by every kid in every school in every grade through college graduation.

"Winning The Cultural War"
Harvard Law School Forum
Tuesday, 16 February 1999 I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people."

There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best. There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.

As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty ... your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is right.

Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."

Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.

Let me back up. About a year ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile, crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old...but I sure Lord ain't senile.

As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issues. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our Land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.

For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 -- Long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist. I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.

Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.

From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying, "Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!"

But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys-subjects bound to the British crown.

In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "Blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, and new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction. Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like it."

Let me read a few examples.

At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.

In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide Who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs --- the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not... need not ... tell their patients that they are infected.

At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.

In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.

In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.

At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.

Yeah, I know ... that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said, "black." But it's a no-no now. For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ... particularly "Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American ... with a capital letter on "American."

Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, "niggardly" means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign.

As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of niggardly,' (b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."

What does all of this mean? It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression? Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.

You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that ... and abide it ... you are - by your grandfathers' standards - cowards.

Here's another example. Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers. I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, "Don't shoot me."?

If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe. Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism.

But what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation? The answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.

You simply ... disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom. I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr.King ... who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.

Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that Disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in VietNam. In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous law that weaken personal freedom.

But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have taken their toll on me.

Let me tell you a story. A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so - at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was A cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black.

I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer" - every vicious, vulgar, instructional word.

"I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF
I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF
I'M ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF
I'M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."

It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that.

Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.

"SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY ... ."

Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said "We can't print that." "I know," I replied,"but Time/Warner's selling it." Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warners, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk.

When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself ... jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office.

When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors ... choke the halls of the board of regents.

When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its doorways.

When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you...petition them, oust them, banish them.

When Time magazine's cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, Crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month ... boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.

So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God's grace, built this country.

If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree. Thank you.

Amen....

(edit)

I was listening to my iPod and this song came up...

As the World Turns
from the album "Vox Humana"
Words and Music by Terry Taylor
©1984 Twitchen Vibes Music (ASCAP)
I'm checkin' out, checking on a late night flight
LAX a horror show
Still I'd rather be here sweatin' out another take-off
Than living in the valley below
And I never get comfort in the earth or sky
It's my belief they're not my home
The world spins one way, but I go another
Against the grain, one often stands alone

1: As the world turns, it slaps me hard
As the world turns, it tells me I'm weak
As the world turns, I drop my guard
As the world turns, I turn the other cheek
I sing, Hey oh, slaps me hard,
Hey oh, slaps me hard,
Hey oh, slaps me hard,
I put it all together in the exercise yard
Dreams that die too easy in the vengeance of time
Some values given up for others
And this, I think, is the essence of our tragedy:
Our fallenness, our bond with one another
And you always hear about it in the evening news
You get it in the morning paper
But if you think it's always gonna be this way
I think it's gonna change, much sooner than later

Repeat 1

Many people wanting the elixir of youth
Through defeats and through disasters
Stifling the only thing that changes it all --
Love is what I'm going after
Achievements always falling into yesterday
I'm a pupil in an Intro class
New cars, travels, love affairs cannot provide
The way out of life's iron cast

Repeat 1

I think it fits.

Eric

Stealing from God...Ballsy

Here's the website.

This is real church folks...not the multi-plex, christian ghetto you see in suburbia..

Eric

A Short History of the Church of England

...by Eddie Izard (Language and really bad makeup alert!)



Eric

Good Friday

One of my favorite songs of all time...The Choir, "Beautiful, scandalous night."

"Beautiful Scandalous Night"

Go on up to the mountain of mercy
To the crimson perpetual tide
Kneel down on the shore
Be thirsty no more
Go under and be purified

Follow Christ to the Holy mountian
Sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall
Cleanse your heart and your soul
In the fountain that flows
For you and for me and for all

CHORUS
At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree
On that beautiful scandalous night you and me
Were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
On that beautiful scandalous night

On the hillside you will be delivered
At the foot of the cross, justified
And your spirit restored
By the river that pours
From our blessed Saviour’s side

CHORUS

Go on up to the mountain of mercy
To the crimson perpetual tide
Kneel down on the shore
Be thirsty no more
Go under and be purified

CHORUS


We sang this at our church last year. The pastor introduced it as a "new" song to some and I grinned widely when he announced the name of the song. Then I was too choked up to really sing it and just let the words and music wash over me as I felt the weight of what the words were saying and what Christ had done for me, a lowly, unworthy sinner.

Eric

Short Attention Span Theater

Blogs are too long.

Emails are too infrequent.

I need to know what's going on in every minute of everyone's life.

Everyone needs to know what's going on in every minute of my life.

Here comes Twitter.

As if idk and brb and bff and lol weren't short enough...

We've lost the fine art of communication. The sitting down and taking time to talk about this, that and the other.

I had that opportunity for a couple of hours the other day to do just that with some dear friends. My wife and I met them when we first moved to Redding. We house-sat for them, they baby-sat our kids, we've spent a number of Thanksgiving's at their home and my wife helps her out with their bookkeeping. Even though they are 20 years older than us and a different generation, those two hours went by so slow they seemed to be over in a minute. And it was pleasurable. Even though I had to leave to make another appointment and run errands, it was relaxing to sit and talk...about nothing and everything.

Don't twitter away your life on-line. ;-)

Eric

Wearin' The MUG Around Town

Nothing like wearing one of these to Costco!



It's a Utilikilt! I own the Mocker as shown above, in Olive. Looking to get one in Khaki!

Had lots of people look, look away, look back then act like they weren't looking. One dude came up to me and said, "I just gotta ask....did you used to play bagpipes nearly CV High School?"

"Nope."

"Oh...I saw the kilt and thought you did!"

Saw a friend there who just shook his head and said, "Make sure you still stand to pee...and get some pants!"

I had a couple of women smile at me. Some men looked then looked away quickly...nervous like.

You should get one...it's really freeing...if you know what I mean!

Eric

In Another Land

Larry Norman has passed.

This is from his website...

LARRY NORMAN
4/8/47 - 2/24/08


Hello everybody.

Our friend and my wonderful brother Larry passed away at 2:45 Sunday morning. Kristin and I were with him, holding his hands and sitting in bed with him when his heart finally slowed to a stop. We spent this past week laughing, singing, and praying with him, and all the while he had us taking notes on new song ideas and instructions on how to continue his ministry and art.

Several of his friends got to come and visit with him in the last couple of weeks and were a great source of help and friendship to Larry. Ray Sievers, Derek Robertson, Mike Makinster, Tim and Christine Gilman, Matt and Becky Simmons, Kerry Hopkins, Allen Fleming and a few more. Thank you guys. Larry appreciated your visits very much. And he greatly appreciated the thoughts, wishes, support and prayers that came from all of you Solid Rock friends on a daily basis. Thank you for being part of his small circle of friends over the years. Yesterday afternoon he knew he was going to go home to God very soon and he dictated the following message to you while his friend Allen Fleming typed these words into Larry's computer:
________________________________

I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.

My brother Charles is right, I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.

My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.

I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.

Goodbye, farewell, we'll meet again
Somewhere beyond the sky.
I pray that you will stay with God
Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.

Larry
________________________________________

Thank you to all of you who were so nice to my brother over the years. Kristin and I will post funeral information in the next day or two. Right now we're not able to function very well, but the whole family is here... our mother Margaret, our sisters Nancy and Kristy, Mike Norman and his new wife Tiffany, and Silver.

We miss him beyond words. Thank you for everything.

Peace to you all in Christ,

Charles Norman

When I was a teenage and just getting into Christian music, Larry was the guy. Most other stuff was sweet and hard to swallow and, unless you really had the hots for Amy Grant, Larry was where you went for rock-and-roll with, as a friend of mine once called them, "interesting lyrics". He was too worldly for the church and too church for the world. He was "knocked down, kicked around"...he'd "been rebuked for the things I've said and the songs I've written and the life I've led"..."but here I am, talkin' 'bout Jesus just the same."

He had long, long blond hair, he could hit impossibly high notes, he pulled no punches in his music, he was considered the Father then the Father of CCM. He didn't necessarily like that title, CCM and wanted people to understand what his music was about...life and Jesus.

A freak accident left him physically weak but mentally still there. He released and re-released his albums via Solid Rock records at Larry Norman.com. I used to have his albums on cassette and have spent a lot of time and money re-acquiring them on CD. Even though some of them were written in the 60's and 70's, they still resonate to me today.

Larry...

You will be missed here on earth. But I look forward to the day we can talk on the golden streets about life, music and Jesus...

Eric

Prayer

This post was titled "Prayer".

And this was my response...

If Kucinich and his pals had there way, we'd be speaking German...or Japanese...or Russian...or Arabic.

While I agree that some of our liberty's have been put on hold, can he offer another way of accomplishing what the Patriot Act has? Can he offer another option to Gitmo? Does he feel safer without armed military personnel protecting him? What has his side offered other than "pull out" (Don't go there Rob!) and come home?

Look...it's not a perfect system. Kucinich and his ilk see George Bush and this current administration as pure evil. Funny....I thought those guys in other countries who consider us evil and need to be wiped off the face of the earth were evil? I would say that those who side with those who want us dead, and do so in the name of tolerance, should be labeled the "enemy within" and not Bush, Cheney, et al.

Has this war gone on too long? Yup. No doubt about that there. Should it have been over 2-3 years ago? Absolutely. Restraining the military from it's job description (kill people and break things in the defense of this country) gives us a quagmire similar to what we had in Vietnam. Read Schwartzkopf's book. Fascinating appraisal of what the US military is, does and should do. Read Gingrich's book on American history. There are those who still long for the old country even though their closest connection to that country has been dead for nearly 100 years.

War is hell people. It ain't pretty. It's not a time to worry about culture and civil rights. It's a time to take the fight to the antagonist. It's time to wipe the floor with the bozo who hurt our mothers and daughters, our sons and brothers. It's time to kick ass and take names. There is precedence all the way back to the bible...

"Saul? What is this bleating of sheep I hear?"

Precedence was set in WWI, WWII and even Vietnam. The carpet bombing campaign put a serious dent in the will to fight amongst the North Vietnamese. When it was stopped by those who couldn't stomach war, the North had time to re-arm and re-arm they did. When the carpet bombing resumed, moral was destroyed. Unfortunately, the bombing was suspended indefinitely and the North re-armed, re-attacked and won.

So I say to Kucinich and his ilk, yes, pray for those who are killed in war. Pray for our leaders to have wisdom. Pray for our soldiers lives. Pray that America will lead the way in peace and freeedom and democracy. And pray that those who stand in the way and do harm to others will earn in themselves due justice for their actions.

Eric

Stereotypical 42-year-old Male...

I'm 42. Soon to be 43. And I'm out of shape. Yep. Happens to the best of us.

Actually, I was in pretty good shape about a year go. Weight was down to about 190-195, decent stamina. A little belly. Then I quit Kung Fu. So for the last year, I've been pretty sedentary. Weight's gone up to about 205, stamina is gone, belly is rounder.

And the problems began in November.

Rewind to about middle of 2005. I fell out of my trash can. We have a large green waste barrel with wheels. I would routinely climb inside to stomp down the leaves and such. Like I said, I was a martial artist and had pretty good balance. Always have. But I stepped on the wrong edge and the barrel shot out from under me and I dropped 4 feet onto my right shoulder. A quick massage; a chiropractic adjustment and I'm good to go.

Then I quit Kung Fu.

And got lazy.

And then the pain in my right shoulder started. Adjustments would last about 2 hours. A massage and an adjustment would last about 3 hours. Chiropractor said my muscles were out of shape. "Not that you're out of shape" he quickly added to which I responded, "Yes....yes I am!"

Then one morning this past November I woke up and my whole right arm was numb. Fingers were tingling like they were "asleep". But they never woke up. A week later, still had the problem. Chiropractic adjustments and massage wasn't working. Off to see the doctor. X-rays show I have arthritis in my spine; C5, C6, C7. And degenerative disk disease at C6. (This is in addition to the degenerative disk disease I have a L4, L5!)

Apparently the exercise I used to get at Kung Fu kept those muscles strong enough to compensate for the arthritis and bad disk. Once they started to atrophy they couldn't hold it together. Then they spasmed when the disk slipped and impinged the nerves.

It took 8 weeks of physical therapy to get the knot out and relax the muscles around the nerve bundle. During that 8 weeks I was exercising and stretching the muscles...working them out. I still have the occasional twinge, especially if I sleep on my side for too long. What's a guy to do??

Well, I thought I'd join a gym and work out. I hate gyms. So I thought I'd buy a home workout routine. Almost pushed the buy button on this but my wife said, "Hey! I've already got it!" I watched the DVD and figured "I can do this!"

So. I'm 42 and finished my first workout in over a year. My legs are rubbery as are my arms. I was sweating and panting for almost a half an hour after I finished the meager 30 minute workout. And that was just circuit training. Cardio is tomorrow...

I think I'm going to hurt a bit by Friday!

Eric

Argh! Frustrated!

Some days I wonder if I want to be in aviation anymore.

Not two hours after my turbulent air encounter "debriefing" (which left a lot to be desired...
"Everyone's okay now right? Good...let's move on.") the boss man calls to pressure a pilot to take a trip that he can't take due to weather.

We do "long range" trips on occasion. This one was supposed to leave Redding, fly to Ontario, OR (1/2 flight northwest of Boise), pick up a critical* patient and fly him to Pittsburgh, PA. Yep. All the way across the country.

The weather at Ontario (ONO) is just at minimums but doesn't allow for a departure. The weather at the fuel stop, Sioux Falls, SD (FSD) is good but Pittsburgh (AGC) is forecasting freezing rain. The Long Range coordinator, who took the flight without asking if it could be done, got pretty upset when the pilot said he was delayed for weather. To the point she called the boss man who proceeded to tell the pilot, "This flight has to go. What's the problem?"

After 2 attempts to explain it to the boss man and after multiple offers for alternate solutions to the problem (reposition that night to Boise so they could get an early start, bring the patient to Boise to get an early start, have the patient at ONO when they arrive) all fell on deaf ears. To the point where Ms. Long Range Coordinator (Ms. LRC from now on) said she wouldn't even ask.

Finally...after the pilot explained basic FAR 135 regulations to the man who is supposed to know them inside and out, the boss man agrees that they can wait.

Next morning, fog traps the plane in Sacramento. Now the flight is delayed again but only by a couple of hours. #2 boss man calls and wants to know why we aren't taking 2 pilots? "Because, I can't do it as the flight won't be back in time for me to go to training, one pilot is out sick and the other just came off duty. No more pilots to go with!" Then we get the "he came in at 9, right?" (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more!) "It's not the duty time (14 hours in a 24 hour period) it's the flight time (no more than 8 hours in a 14 hour duty day) that's the issue boss man #2."


Now.

The point of all this is the promise made at hiring that management wouldn't second guess out-station pilots decision making process. And yet, boss man did just that 3 times. #2 boss man did it once. 3 pilots standing around shaking their collective heads asking "WTF Over!?" If we pilots, who have an average of 20 years flying, are so pathetic in flight planning and checking the weather (things we've done since Day 1 in our flying careers), then maybe we should be fired. If you can't trust us to do our jobs as professionals, then maybe we need to be replaced.

I am still new to EMS but I'm not new to flying, flight planning, weather, etc. Bottom line, if a pilot at my base says the flight can't go due to weather, the flight can't go. I'll not second guess. If I don't know what the weather is, I'll check it myself or ask the pilot. 10 times out of 10 when this has happened, the weather was the deciding factor. End of story.

When the almighty dollar drives a company and the pilot gets pressure from the boss man to take a flight, you start to wonder? "Did the brochure look better than the resort???"

Eric


*Critical. This patient wasn't critical. He was a spouse of a company employee. Ms. LRC knows better than to tell the pilot about how "critical" a patient is in an attempt to get him to do a flight. The nurse who took the call said the patient wasn't "critical". He only had a saline drip...nothing else. Critical my arse!