After all the flying I've been doing the past couple weeks,
I was genuinely sorry to hear today's story of the Continental
Airlines pilot who died while flying back from Belgium.
While
resisting the tasteless temptation to observe that dying after having visited
Belgium strikes me as needlessly repetitive, I have to say the story hit home
because on my flight last night back from Latin America I was actually
surprised that the "cabin service director" did not herself
expire mid-flight. This woman was so old that at one point during the
flight I thought I could actually hear her osteoporosis. While I admire her for
setting such a good example for other senior citizens by continuing to work, I
do feel that her insistence on wearing a leather flying
helmet and a jaunty scarf she held on to from her days in the Lafayette Escadrille was
a bit unnerving to the other passengers. It wasn't too unnerving however,
because we hardly saw her. Being that this was a flight on a U.S. carrier
from Latin America, she did not actually feel compelled to speak to a single
passenger during the flight (I don't think I'm exaggerating here). She
just sat up front and every so often would make an announcement that was so
unintelligible that it made Jimmy Carter's mumblings the other day on behalf of
Hamas seem coherent.
Speaking of that other octogenarian, you couldn't help but
be struck by two things while watching Carter offer the weight of the office
bestowed upon him by the American people to lend support to the Hezbollah-backed
group of allegedly reforming terrorists. (You can imagine the 12 step program
Hamas is running to keep its guys "political": "Hi, I am Khaled
and I am a terrorist. I have not launched a missile at a nursery school in 17
weeks.")
The first was: "Aha! Here is an American president who is
not afraid to stand up for an Iranian political movement."
The second was that
for once I wish Walt and Mearsheimer were right, and that taking a stand that
was anathema to the Israel Lobby really did mean the end of a political career
in the United States, because Jimmy is well past his sell-by date. (For more on
this last point, see Jeffrey Goldberg's observations on "The
Taboo That Won't Shut Up.")
Carter's signature message was "Never before in history
has a large community been savaged by bombs and missiles and then deprived of
the means to repair itself." The view is so typically one-sided in its
selective recollection of history -- he
neglects to note who, for example, fired the first 10,000 or so missiles in the
recent confrontation -- that it would make Carter the Flat Stanley of U.S.
politics were it not for the fact that Flat Stanley actually had two dimensions. (And I say this as someone who believes that
the international community and the Israelis owe it to the Palestinians to help
them heal and to find a sustainable solution that offers both them and their
neighbors dignity, security, and a chance at prosperity.)
Finally, as a parent, I found myself misting up a bit at
Chastity Bono's recent reappearance in the news. (Since her
father ended up being a Congressman, I think it's perfectly appropriate to
discuss her in this blog. Chastity is a Washington insider once-removed.
Although frankly as a lesbian child of celebrities, she probably makes it as a
Washington insider entirely on her own what with this being a Democratic
administration and all.) In any event, given the fame of her parents, you can't
help but feel for poor Chaz, wondering how she was going to make a name for
herself. Yet, here she has done it. With
her decision to have a sex-change operation, she boldly went into the one area
of plastic surgery her iconic mother never considered. (Which is saying
something, as the only thing left about Cher that is authentic is the signature
on her monthly retainer checks to the plastic surgeon she keeps on call.)
And the international affairs insight in the Chastity Bono
story? (Besides the fact that post-surgery she will be the only other person
still using the same first name as one-time National Intelligence Council nominee
Chas Freeman.) Well, presumably if she could find someone who would sew a pair
on her perhaps we might look into a way to do the same for our current foreign
policy.
Irresistible sexist jokes aside, I am pretty sure our current
problem is not so much the amount of testosterone in our system -- the feminist in
me actually thinks you can never have too little -- as it is the vaguely
masochistic impulse to effectively respond to every threat or provocation with
an Oliver Twist-like, "Please, sir, may I have some more?"
MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images
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