Airline Pilots Are Slaves Now?

The government somehow owns them?

Oct 11, 2021

I’m one of the pesky minority of Americans who are both pro-vaccine and against vaccine mandates. The evidence overwhelmingly proves that these vaccines are effective against the coronavirus, and I will continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated. And, also, in addition to that, vaccine mandates are not only un-American but counterproductive. In addition to all the other dishonest, lame-brained, self-negating messaging we’ve heard during this pandemic, telling Americans what to do just doesn’t work. That’s not how we’re built.

And just on principle, vaccination is your decision as an individual. That’s how it’s supposed to work in this country. This is still a republic, if you can keep it.

Which is why it’s interesting that now this is happening:

The Daily Wire @realDailyWire

Southwest Airlines Cancels At Least 1,800 Flights Over Weekend, Blames Weather, Air Traffic Control dlvr.it/S9H947

Southwest is the only airline cancelling so many flights. Is that because the employees, including the pilots who are needed to fly the planes, are refusing to comply with the company’s new vaccine mandate?

The airline is saying otherwise:

Southwest Airlines @SouthwestAir

ATC issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation. We appreciate your patience as we accommodate affected Customers, and Customer Service wait times are longer than usual. (1/2)

“Disruptive weather”? Wouldn’t that affect all the airlines, not just one?

In any case, the smart fellers seem to think it’s about the vaccine. And they ain’t happy:

Andrew Ross Sorkin @andrewrsorkin

Reminder: @SouthwestAir accepted $3.2 BILLION from taxpayers. That money kept its pilots employed during the pandemic. It also made @SouthwestAir the first airline to post a profit. And now, apparently, many of those pilots don’t want to help society by getting vaccinated.

Oh, is that how it works? Those pilots are no longer individual human beings, with individual thoughts and opinions? They must subsume themselves into the corporation? The government throws money at everything in sight, and therefore all that stuff is owned by the government? All those people are owned by the government?

And these clowns call us fascists?

Airline pilots aren’t slaves. If they don’t want to work because of an employer’s mandate, that’s between them and the employer. If they get fired, that’s their problem. But nobody owns them, let alone entitled @$$holes like Andrew Ross Sorkin.

jimtreacher.substack.com @jtLOL

Day 42 of Americans stranded in Afghanistan.

Over at Quillette, Rob Henderson has an interesting theory about what he calls “luxury beliefs.”

You may have noticed that the people who are the most passionate about ludicrous ideas like defunding the police are the people in the least danger from violent criminals. It’s easy to believe these things when you won’t suffer any consequences. The rich and powerful, who used to be obsessed with obtaining rare material goods to prove they’re better than us, are now obsessed with obtaining rare beliefs that are too stupid for the rest of us. They’ll say anything to differentiate themselves from the common rabble, no matter how insane it makes them look.

At least I think that’s the theory. Read the whole thing.

And speaking of luxury beliefs…

If you believe that all of today’s problems stem from the gender bias and harmful stereotypes in children’s toys, then today is a happy day. We finally have justice.

New York Post @nypost

Lego commits to removing 'gender bias and harmful stereotypes' from its toys trib.al/AzeiVHw

This welcome news comes on the UN’s International Day of the Girl, which apparently the Taliban haven’t heard about yet. (It’s also Columbus Day, but he was a fascist colonialist so we don’t like to talk about him.)

In case you were wondering who makes these decisions for you, Lego was audited by something called the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. They’re the ones who decided Lego had done something wrong. While it’s nice that Ms. Davis is keeping busy, it doesn’t seem fair that the whole world has to pay the price for Renny Harlin cheating on her.

Now, don’t get it twisted: Gender doesn’t actually exist. It’s just a social construct and has nothing to do with biology. That’s why the United Nations has dedicated today to girls, who can also be boys and vice versa.

If you’re still confused, a noted expert on the subject has boiled it all down to a tweet:

Titania McGrath @TitaniaMcGrath

Why do bigots find gender identity so confusing? It simply means the immutable yet fluid feeling that one is male or female or neither or both based on conceptions of masculinity and femininity that are innate but also social constructs that don’t exist. This really isn’t hard.

See?

Following Kyrsten Sinema into the bathroom wasn’t enough for the leftist activists who are getting paid to yell at her. Now they’re “bird-dogging” her as she runs the Boston Marathon. Well, at least it’s not the worst thing to happen at that race.

If you haven’t checked out Matt Labash’s triumphant Substack debut yet, you should do that right now. His blog or newsletter or whatever is called Slack Tide, which is some sort of fishing reference. He likes fishing. I mean, he really likes fishing. But you don’t need to know anything about fishing to enjoy his writing. I don’t.1

The 2018 version of Halloween was a sequel/remake/reboot/whatever, and it won me over by ignoring all the previous sequels and remakes and reboots. All those movies tried to explain stuff I never cared about in the first place. The new movie picked up 40 years after the original movie, and the filmmakers wisely pretended all that other nonsense in all those other Halloween movies never happened.2 It got back to what I always loved about Halloween: an unstoppable maniac killing everybody in sight and making Jamie Lee Curtis’s life miserable for no particular reason.

And now the sequel to that sequel is actually making me contemplate something I never thought possible: I might actually sign up for Peacock to watch it. Between that and the prospect of Hunter reruns on demand 24 hours a day, it seems like a no-brainer.

It’s only been three years since Halloween premiered, but it feels like a century ago. After the past 18 months, the idea of a psycho in a boiler suit and a painted Capt. Kirk mask chasing you with a butcher’s knife seems almost quaint.

But there’s good news!

The New York Times @nytimes

Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview on Sunday that outdoor trick-or-treating is perfectly safe. While he still endorsed vaccinations for all who are eligible, he said Halloween was "a very important part of the year for children."

nyti.ms‘Go out there and enjoy Halloween,’ Dr. Fauci says.Some towns have canceled celebrations, but Dr. Fauci says outdoor trick-or-treating is perfectly safe.

Isn’t that wonderful? St. Fauci says the germs won’t get you on October 31 because Halloween is supposed to be fun.

But on November 1, the armistice with the virus is over. It goes right back to attacking you wherever you go. That’s what we call #science.

Remember how Game of Thrones was pretty good for a while, but then it started to suck when the producers ran out of source material because George R.R. Martin hasn’t finished the book series and never will? Well, guess what?

Well, nerds like dragons. Give them some more dragons. Put “dragons” in the title, even. Otherwise those dummies might get confused!

Happy Holiday Formerly Known as Columbus Day, and thanks for reading. I care enough about you, dear reader, to put out this newsletter for you even on a federal holiday. You really should be thanking me, but I’m too magnanimous to insist on it.

If you really want to show your gratitude:

Who the Heck Is Jim Treacher

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