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News Annoys Me
Mar. 15th, 2011 06:35 amThe Washington Post has redesigned their website, making it harder for anybody over 40 to read and, more significantly, making it harder to actually find much of their content. I firmly believe that paper and on-line media function differently enough that it is a mistake to try to make the latter look more like the former.
On the plus side, John Kelly's column in the Sunday Post answered something I have wondered about pretty much since moving here. It's quite striking to see two headstones at the corner of a suburban shopping center. That shopping center is quite nearby and I run over there to the supermarket or the drugstore or the art supply store all the time.
I should probably read less news anyway, as it just ends up annoying me. From the Republican House Speaker in New Hampshire who wants to restrict voting rights of college students because they're "foolish," "lack life experience," and "just vote their feelings" (i.e. tend to vote for Democrats, but even he is smart enough not to say that explicitly) to the excessive attention paid to Charlie Sheen, the papers are full of vitriol and trivia. It's really better just to skip straight to the crossword.
Finally, there's yet another story of an ignorant flight crew panicking over tefillin. This time it was Alaska Air. (Previous incidents have involved Air Canada, US Air, and a New Zealand ferry.) Here's Alaska's version of the story (from their facebook page):
Shortly after Flight 241 departed from Mexico City bound for Los Angeles yesterday, flight attendants observed unusual behavior from three male passengers that continued during the four-hour flight. Out of concern for the safety of all of the passengers onboard, the crew erred on the side of caution and authorities were notified. The crew did not realize at the time that the passengers were Orthodox Jews engaging in prayer ritual in Hebrew.
They also have a rather bizarre and paranoid interpretation of what the men were doing. "The men prayed aloud together in a language unfamiliar to the crew while wearing what appeared to be black tape and wires strapped to their forearms and foreheads and wires on their chests." Uh, the straps hang loose from the head piece, but I can't see how anybody could interpret that as "wires on their chest."
Their story then refers to the passengers ignored instructions to stay seated and providing "very little information" about what they were doing. That's probably true, but one also suspects language barriers since AS flight attendants speak neither Spanish nor Hebrew. (AS flights to/from Mexico carry one interpreter.)
Before someone asks why they had to pray on the plane, flight 241 leaves Mexico City at 6 a.m. and gets to LAX at 8:55 a.m. if it's on time. The men were Mexican citizens connecting to an international flight. It often takes 1-2 hours for non-U.S. citizens to get through immigration at LAX. And their international flight presumably would get in long after sundown.
But the main thing I want to comment on is the sheer nastiness of so many of the comments on the various news stories about this incident. Most of those are along the lines of "prayer should be done in private or a church, not in a public place like an airplane." This is in relation to an airline that includes prayer cards (with psalms on them) on their meal trays / snack boxes. Sigh.
To their credit, Alaska Air seems to be trying to learn. Again, from their facebook note on the incident:
To help make sure this misunderstanding does not happen again, we plan to incorporate awareness training of Orthodox Jewish religious practices into our ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts. We’ve asked the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for their assistance to help us better serve our Orthodox Jewish customers and employees alike.
On the plus side, John Kelly's column in the Sunday Post answered something I have wondered about pretty much since moving here. It's quite striking to see two headstones at the corner of a suburban shopping center. That shopping center is quite nearby and I run over there to the supermarket or the drugstore or the art supply store all the time.
I should probably read less news anyway, as it just ends up annoying me. From the Republican House Speaker in New Hampshire who wants to restrict voting rights of college students because they're "foolish," "lack life experience," and "just vote their feelings" (i.e. tend to vote for Democrats, but even he is smart enough not to say that explicitly) to the excessive attention paid to Charlie Sheen, the papers are full of vitriol and trivia. It's really better just to skip straight to the crossword.
Finally, there's yet another story of an ignorant flight crew panicking over tefillin. This time it was Alaska Air. (Previous incidents have involved Air Canada, US Air, and a New Zealand ferry.) Here's Alaska's version of the story (from their facebook page):
Shortly after Flight 241 departed from Mexico City bound for Los Angeles yesterday, flight attendants observed unusual behavior from three male passengers that continued during the four-hour flight. Out of concern for the safety of all of the passengers onboard, the crew erred on the side of caution and authorities were notified. The crew did not realize at the time that the passengers were Orthodox Jews engaging in prayer ritual in Hebrew.
They also have a rather bizarre and paranoid interpretation of what the men were doing. "The men prayed aloud together in a language unfamiliar to the crew while wearing what appeared to be black tape and wires strapped to their forearms and foreheads and wires on their chests." Uh, the straps hang loose from the head piece, but I can't see how anybody could interpret that as "wires on their chest."
Their story then refers to the passengers ignored instructions to stay seated and providing "very little information" about what they were doing. That's probably true, but one also suspects language barriers since AS flight attendants speak neither Spanish nor Hebrew. (AS flights to/from Mexico carry one interpreter.)
Before someone asks why they had to pray on the plane, flight 241 leaves Mexico City at 6 a.m. and gets to LAX at 8:55 a.m. if it's on time. The men were Mexican citizens connecting to an international flight. It often takes 1-2 hours for non-U.S. citizens to get through immigration at LAX. And their international flight presumably would get in long after sundown.
But the main thing I want to comment on is the sheer nastiness of so many of the comments on the various news stories about this incident. Most of those are along the lines of "prayer should be done in private or a church, not in a public place like an airplane." This is in relation to an airline that includes prayer cards (with psalms on them) on their meal trays / snack boxes. Sigh.
To their credit, Alaska Air seems to be trying to learn. Again, from their facebook note on the incident:
To help make sure this misunderstanding does not happen again, we plan to incorporate awareness training of Orthodox Jewish religious practices into our ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts. We’ve asked the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for their assistance to help us better serve our Orthodox Jewish customers and employees alike.
