Kurt Leavins has been pontificating strenuously for the past several minutes that “air shows should be banned” because of the risk. Nevermind that more spectators have been killed and injured in Canadian hockey arenas than have ever been maimed at air shows (I believe the death toll in North America currently stands at 0) – Mr. Nanny State has nonetheless decided he deserves the right to be ultimate determiner of what other adults may do with their leisure time.
As his (Rawlco radio) show is currently interrupted by a news conference (with family members of the two pilots killed at the Moose Jaw yesterday), would one of you kind folks who work there at the Rawlco building please do me a favour?
Walk down to his booth and kick his ass for me.
I’ll write more on this later, but right now, I’ve got a set of leathers and a nastly little two-stroke motorcycle calling me.
Kick him for me too! What a twit.
(see previous rant in the comments section of the MJ crash post).
I was listening to some of it as well. Gahawud. Oh well, I guess we are all entitled to our own opinions and I definately do not agree with him on this one.
The guy is a twit on almost every topic. He displays the typic al mushy, mindless, big government think that has almost destroyed Canadian scoiety and which is eroding the political superstructure that keeps the state acceptable.
Re: “more spectators have been killed and injured in Canadian hockey arenas than have ever been maimed at air shows”
Okay. Alright. So ban hockey too!
P.S. Chill Out Dudette!
“Slurpee turns 40 today: 7-11 is giving away free samples to celebrate.”
http://outsidethebeltway.com/
Agree with Gary. Who would go to a cock-fight and hope not to see/smell blood? A bullfight in the afternoon was a delight to Ernest Hemingway; ole!
Who would go to an air show and not hope to be horrified?
No crash, no cash. Isn’t human nature great?
>>>>>>>>>>>
Investigation opens into Sask. air show deaths
MOOSE JAW – The Transportation Safety Board will open an investigation today into Sunday’s air show disaster in Moose Jaw, Sask. that killed two U.S. stunt pilots. Bobby Younkin and Jimmy Franklin were killed when the wings of their biplanes clipped one another before 20,000 horrified spectators, including family members.
I heard the comments as well, had to change the station. At least these men died doing what they liked best in the world!
Ya, the lefty, bossy, in-your-face, nanny-state Liberals just can’t wait to use every excuse in the book to sanitize all fun out of life.
It’s a good idea to wear a helmet on your motorcycle but don’t you think that as adults, you ought to have a choice?
I skydive. The powers that be are trying to make AAD’s (the devices that blow out your reserve parachute if you are still falling at a low altitude) manadatory. I won’t bore you with all the reasons why some people don’t use them (possibility of having both main and reserve chutes open at once and tangling for instance) but I figure the nanny-state needs to bug out of our lives.
The EU even wants to sue countries that don’t ban noise from cities! Really (see drudge.)
“kick his ass”, and a dirt bike???
I’m in love!
Re: “The EU even wants to sue countries that don’t ban noise from cities!”
What’s wrong with that? That will stop terrorists from exploding bombs in urban areas.
How about Liberano gladiators, armed with a large fork,( knives are a no-no), and a piece of fishnet, up against lions and bears in an arena?
(Hell- I’d even pay to watch that,)
While no big fan of air shows, I can not STAND Kurt Leavens, and his endless socialist pontificating.
He seems to be the “token” socialist brought in to balance out the more right Gormley, Wood, Adler, Warren et. al that most of us enjoy on the Rawlco network.
In particular, his mindless support of gun control (confiscation), and this comment, made in the past, come to mind.
“I am in favour of paying more taxes to ensure that I get the best health care possible”
A really annoying individual. His rear is def. in need of “tanning”.
If we banned or promoted things on the basis of demonstrated actuarials for personal lethal risk, there would be a handgun range on every block and swimming pools and ski hills would be banned.
And I agree Kate; Mr Leavins is a safety Nazi and a statist twinkie who has no concept of the basis for civl legislating in a free nation under rule of traditional British law. Like most statists who reflexively say “there otta be a law” every time someone skins their knee, he suffers from a civil disability I like to refer to as rectal-cranial displacement syndrome. PJ O’Rourke would concur.
We can only hope some day Leavins will hear that wonderful “pop” sound….when his head is finally dislodged from it’s smelly, moist, dark abnormal envirions and he sees the light of day for the first time…..thus is the fated cathartic experience of all government/buraucracy worshipping statists.
Good luck with your catharsis Mr. Leavins…perhaps your current tight-assed incivility is a result of traum from the kids on the schoolyard taunting you about “the dog’s leavins”….if it still haunts you get therapy…don’t work your personal demons out in the political arena with inane crusades that undermine public freedoms.
Ummmm…this guy sounds perfect for the NDPs…how come he isn’t in there yet?
Kate drives a 2 stock street bike, rare machine these days. You don’t want to be wearing leathes in the dirt JEG.
It takes a very little man to make points on an event like this. I was at the show on Saturday. Those guys were magnificent.
That’s the way I’ll remember them.
Celebrate their life…
Don’t question their death…
Accidents happen.
Leavins is not the only socialist nut running around that station.
Leavins also agrees with gay marriage because…”How is it going to affect you?” was. his rant.
(Hint Leavins……….it is not about you and your selfish socialist little self……..Its about KIDS and the FUTURE GENERATION!!!)
Leavins loves big gov’t. He thinks the gov’t should run everything because he is proving to be right on one thing……..that being he is too stupid to look after himself.
By the way……..maybe someone at Rawlco should ban Leavins using a butter knife at lunch. Hence the mindless piece of drivel should injure himself. Just BAN him from using one.
Woods on the other hand likes to claim he is neither left wing or right wing. Thats right Woods………you are a wing nut.
Woods and Leavins are perfect examples of wishy washy drivel that serves no purpose.
I’ve got a hint for you Woods. If you are so against gun control, then maybe pull your head out of your rear end and support the only ones opposing the registry 0:>
Just remember, those guys are only paid when their mouths are open. What comes out is irrelevant. And who is this Alder dude? I can usually suffer through an hour of Gormley or Woods, but 5 minutes of Alder is too much.
RJM
Kurt? Never heard him and never will. His argument is a dead horse. Once again, this is a free country. People choose to do daring things at some risk.
If Kurt were to sit down and think for just a few minutes, he would realize that it is not reasonable to demand all of Canada give up fun flying, or Drag racing, or Moto-cross, or Hang gliding, or Glacier scrambling, or … well you know.
If you bar one, you have to bar them all.
Next time Kurt, try to argue a viable point. 73s TG
Here’s the kicker – he had no problem with the pilots assuming the risk. His problem was with the “20,000 people who could have been killed”.
So, in his his mixed-up, screwed-up world, the pilots are responsible enough to decide for themselves whether or not they want to take the risk of flying high performance stunt planes … but the audience members who paid to see the show, aren’t capable of making the same judgement about the risks involved in viewing it.
The mind simply boggles.
Two-stroke motorcycle engines, are called ‘wingdings’ (as in wingdingding ding). And REAL BIKERS dismiss Kate as a biker lunatic fringe anyway. But ‘Twisting the Dragon’s Tail’, is also the petname for Lois Slotin’s assignment.
Lois Slotin was a young Jewish fellow, (from Winnipeg?) At Los Alamos, he was given the task of establishing slightly subcritical, but he never got there. Because he got snuffed before he got there, when something went wrong. Check out his website, just google his name, and his thing will come up. His official website is wrong when they claim that he said it was “Tickling the Dragon’s Tale”. But it was not.
And nor was what had actually caused the accident.
Get real, People; can you think of any possible reason why someone would hold apart the two halves of the core with a screwdriver? What on earth for? But Ah know that happened there, and Ah know that Ah will take this secret to his grave. Because too many people already know, and there is just no point in making things worse than they already are……Yaknow? I mean, there are Ethical and Moral issues involved with this, which should be already agreed to on this here subject, okay? You nuke my city, and I will know where it came from, and I will take out one of yours in retribution. Sure thing! But……..
It really isn’t a good idea, (honest), because the optics would just be very bad…..
Because when the incident happened, Slotin knew what he hadda do, and he also knew the price that he would pay for it. He lived in hospital for a couple of weeks until it took him. And three other technicians in that room where it went down, lived!
I do not know, and I rather doubt- whether this man received the order of whatever this is, from our cdn government. All I know, is that his body was shipped home to Canada, in a lead-lined coffin. And I am sure that his family and friends would prefer not to spread around the details of his death. For most obvious reasons.
There will be no acceptance by the people of any country, their leader’ first use of this weapon, (actually, the third).
And consider this: This country, is officially non-nuclear. I recall watching that speech on the tube, and made by the Prime Minister at the time, that Nuclear weapons did not exist on Canadian soil, and nor would they be permitted, here.” What the hell? And I walked over to the runway of that USAC base, and I looked at that lineup of B52s already on that ramp, (heaters on motors), and all airborne within ten minutes! Awesome! But troubled: I went to a much older man, a guy who I respected the opinions of, and I asked him: How can our Prime Minister possibly say that, with what we got here? He replied: “Well- technically, he is correct. The land that those B52s are parked on, is leased to the US Government, so it is not ‘our land’ any more.”
Huh? This made me even more confused: How could my government lie to me? (Simple: so that they could also lie to other countries, too. “No, we do not have those here.” So that if those things actually get deployed, it is not our responsibility, (We’ll let the Yanks take the heat for this one).
And the meanwhile, I shall not tell you where the warheads in this country are right now. And nor will I tell you how many of them are there. Because like I said: too many people already know.
And it has been said, that when Robert Oppenheimer was watching a test, he could determine the yeild, by watching the mushroom cloud…..Brillant! (and bent as a boathook- more ammunition for alla youse anti-gay wonks,(it sure beats getting serious).
And Yowsa: (If Kate ever invites youse to try out her scoot, and before you fire up, ask her a couple of questions: Is this a stock motor? If not- waddya got in it? Have you changed the gearing? And if so- by how much? And ‘Supercritical’, (haw!) At what rpms does this thing come on the pipe?
Most critical: the two-stroke motor makes twice as much bhp as the equivalent thumper. It accomplishes twice the power strokes. Problemo: it’s get up and went, occurrs within a limited rpm range, ( determined by the pipe and other stuff that is on it). And like everything else on this earth, you don’t get anything for nothing.
With a weezer, you get reduced klicks per liter, and although the upper lumps are easier to get at than a four, you gotta do it twice as often.
In a ringding, the power comes on at a certain rpm, and you better ask when it does: before the peak, Blaaaaaaaaa! (Oh God- this thing is taking forever. And then it hits the magic number, and everything changes, all of a sudden. (the ‘afterburner kicks in’ …………(hang on pleeze- I got another call coming in on the other line). And beware playing too close to the edge, in rain, or on corners that are not swept for loose shit. Pardon me- gravel!
Long time old buddy comes to visit moi from another town. And he is riding a bike! Superduper! And we catch up on old times, have a couple of beers, and he sez: “Hey! Wanna go for a ride?” (Does the Pope poop in the whoops?) So we jumps on and fires up, and we heads to the downtown main drag, and along there, he is pulling burnouts and popping wheelies, and I is following him and thinking: This is so really not cool, and outsida town, he slacks off and I pulls along side, and he shouts at me: “Hey! I hear that the #2 mineshaft is about done, and they are gonna open it up shortly- let’s go take a look/see!” Sure- why not? And as he is setting up for the corner/sideroad, I do not believe this-he is gonna drag a peg! And then when he cranked it over for the entrance, he did not quite get a peg down. The whole bike flopped over on it’s side, with him still sitting on it!?!Stopstopstop. Bike and rider are down on highway.
First omni is anything following youse. Dey gotta be warned. Jump up and down and wave your arms like crazy, ( Yooohoooo ‘scuse me……..obstructions just ahead. Yoohooo!
And the old stationwagon comes to a stop, (and a uniformed cop crawls out of it, and both of us runs to the downer. I gets to him first, and I asks him if he is dead or not? He replied: “No.”
So I ask him: flex your muscles, feel like anything broke? “No.” Well, look- you is laying on the highway and this is not cool, is it okay by youz if we drag you very carefully, outta the way? He replies: “Yeah-but you gotta lift this thing off me because I is under it, (lot heavier than your bike, Kate), and then the cop speaks up:
“Looks like your bud dropped his bike!” uh……yeah….uh……Hey- if you wanted to buy this thing off him, I am sure he would give youse a really good price on it, right about now? Haw!
The cop helps me to lift the motorcycle off my bud, and then we sorta drag him to the shoulder, )he sez he is okay. And then we get the downer off the road before it causes another one.
Then, the cop goes back to his cruiser, ( shaking his head), gets in, and drives away!?!
My Bud is now able to sit up, (still got his helmet on, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. ( I could actually see some of those lumps of gravel, imbedded in his skin- that’s really gotta hurt).
I asked him if he wanted me to get help, or passenger him to the nearest hospital? He replied: “I can ride- lets get out of here.” So we fired up and went back to my place, assessed the damage to his scoot, and then went inna house and had something else to drink, while I picked the lumps out of his skin! The bigger ones did not require twezers- one could pluck them with a thumb and forefinger! Spooky! (Chief Wiggums’ son, Ralphie: “That’s an ouwie! Sniff” T-shirt don’t do no good in this, (it makes it worse- the rocks go right through it, and you cannot see for other damage). Finish with tweezers and a magnifying glass, then disinfect and put a dressing on, and then we had a nice meal and a whole bunch more catching up, and then he rode it home, several hundred klicks away………!?!
So: go right ahead and Twist the Dragon’s Tail, Kate! Consider it a reward for a very fine blog! Find a nice open stretch, (preferably where nobody else, no side roads, no intersections, good fencing to keep the critters off the road, good visibility, predictable road surface, and just………….’put the hammer down’. And does it not get strange, when the telephone poles become like a picket fence? (You better believe it.) That imaginary picket fence become a blur, as your pipheral vision,(sp) narrows, and what is happening right up ahead, becomes so much more important that whatever is beside you.(because it is already gone).
Yowsa! Hit the peak that it’s maker built it to do. Nice! Doing what it was designed to do. Means that you will probably get another season out of it, and a fairly good idea how long into next season, you gotta do a top-end overhaul and a freshen up on it.
Such an original paintjob, ( we already know who done it), and that old crock looking so shipshape and Bristol fashion!
“Critical mass is a little over 2 kgs.” So sez Dr.(his name temporarily escapes me- but he co-wrote a book with John McPhee, called ‘The Curve of Binding Energy’, and passed away within the past two years. ( never got to ask him, to explain how he could make an atomic bomb, using a lump of Plutonium and a household toilet.)
Very fine blog! And to Kate- and the rest of youse bikers, ( for who gives a rat’s ass for anybody else): Rock on!
Kurt Leavins wants to ban dangerous activities, I understand.
I would ask Kurt if he would also agree that people who knowingly engage in risky, bizarre kinds of sexual activity and contract HIV and then go on to spread it to many more people should be executed for murder one?
In the interest of consistency, he should agree. It does no good to talk about the “human rights” of people who uncaringly, knowingly infect others with an always-terminal disease.
There are documented cases of non-participant casualties at air shows–but *none* in North America after WW2. This is because air show rules prohibit placing spectators in harms way (no flyovers and no aircraft performing a stunt which has it flying toward the crowd, for instance). In 1988, at Ramstein AFB in Germany, a disaster occured when two Italian planes collided in midair. There were 70 fatalities and over 400 injured. Google “Ramstein Flugtag 1988” for more information.
All that being said, in NA the only persons truly at risk are the pilots of the aircraft performing the stunts, and I daresay there are more fatalities on US roads (and possibly Canadian) in one day then there are in one decade of airshows.
That was cool, Dave. And I have seen the telephone poles go by like picket fences.
I should say, the part I understood was cool.
Reminds me of the time the Thieves and Related Workers Union went on strike, and called out the Polish-Canadian Association in support. I saw the telephoned Poles go by like picketing fences…
haha – yeah, i can’t wait until an entire crowd of idiots is wiped out by a crashing Hercules at an airshow. no spectators killed, sure – what about the poor bastards who have to fly the planes (which eventually end up crashing) in order to sate the hunger for entertainment that is the hallmark of the moronic middle class? hyuck – let’s go down and see those big bomber jets what bomb Iraq – hyuck…CRASH!! BURN!! cue me laughing. idiots…
The Moose Jaw Airshow was always a highlight while growing up in Regina. The ultimate annual summer ballet of man & machine captured the imaginations and thrilled everyone I went with. Sure, there was always a chance that something could go terribly wrong but the experience of watching people of great skill and courage pushing their limits was more than worth it. It was a valuable life lesson too…there’s much beauty in trying to be more than just mediocre.
It’s a pity that some people who would push to do away with such public expositions are happy with the boring safeness of mediocrity. I’m concerned that our children will become happy with that too.
Hey Damian – is that an act, or….?