Some time ago in Australia.

Royal Australian Air Force DHC4 Caribou is on its way into Townsville in Northern Queensland flying at 9000 ft. A Mooney 20 follows closely behind from Bankstown near Sydney flying at 19000 ft. On descent the Mooney encounters the Caribou at about 5000ft and lets lose to air traffic control about the slowness of the old aircraft.

    "Can't you get that crate going Sir, or is he afraid that he might lose the elastic bands that holds that thing together"?

     The answer came.

    "Sorry Sir, the coffee-grinder is on the correct approach and has an ample supply of masking tape on board to hold together all the RAAF aircraft in the fleet but I shall ask the aircraft to land in behind you".

    The Mooney landed, closely followed by the Caribou. The Air Force pilots were not amused.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a recent flight into Santo Domingo during a very rough day resulting in a very rough landing this was the announcement from the cockpit.

    "Ladies and Gentlemen. This is the co-pilot speaking.  Welcome to Santo Domingo. Please remain seated while our Captain will attempt to taxi the undamaged bits of this aircraft to its allocated parking spot".

    Captain was not amused.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hypocrisy knows no bounds. China sends up a missile to destroy a defunct satellite. Bits everywhere it is believed. The first countries to complain are 'me-too' Australia and the US. What the US did not want people to know though is the fact that it already has that same technology and the capability to apply it. Oops

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Democracy is a strange beast in the US, the UK and indeed Australia. In the US a majority of people voted for a Government during an election. People, in majority, subsequently tell Government not to send troops to Iraq. Government ignores people's wishes and sends over 100,000. People vote again telling Government not to send any more troops. Government again ignores the people and sends 20,000 more. With any luck, people might just sack the Government during an upcoming election.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently somewhere near Rome, 777 pilot encounters a rather interesting 737-400 flight flying between Eastern Europe to Bermuda via Dakar and onwards at about 35,000 feet.  He monitors the aircraft on a frequency rarely used by civilian long-range aircraft. He hears the unscrambled mumble, mumble between the aircraft and its US base. He decides to have a bit of fun.

    "Aircraft 'xyzabc', welcome to the frequency. Hope you have a wonderful flight to Guantanamo Cuba, and next time please make sure you scramble your telephone. Have a nice day now". 

    So what was that flight? It was what is known as a 'rendition' flight transporting US-captured people between countries for 'interrogation purposes'.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The US President and other US regime officials often babble on about democracy and freedom in the Middle East. So what about those 'freedom-loving, democratic countries'? Fact is there are only two of them. One is Israel and the other is Palestine. All the other states, at this point in time, would not know what a democracy looked like. However, the US does not appear to like democratic processes when it does not suit them. In fact Hammas won the last Palestinian election. In US eyes, wrong type of democracy perhaps?