I Was Wrong - there's a Bigger No-Fly Joke

David Heath
Monday, 05 May 2008 18:40

Your IT - Home IT

A few days ago I observed the lunacy that some Air Marshals were being refused permission to fly because someone with a similar name was on the no-fly list.  Silly me, I asserted that this was the final laugh.

Unfortunately, as always, there’s a better laugh around the next corner.

Here’s the laugh: guess which Nobel Peace Prize winner is on the No Fly List.

Give up?

None other than Nelson Mandela, recent President of The Republic of South Africa.

It would seem that President Ronald Regan (remember him?  That B-grade actor comfortably occupying a B-grade role) had ‘issues’ with the African National Congress and marked them all as terrorists; especially their leader.  Clearly jail (at the time) being no object to him causing mayhem!

Having finally found a way out of jail, ascending to the country’s leadership and occupying a position as thought-leader in the world-wide struggle against racism, he’s still not permitted to take a flight in the US without Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s specific permission.

I assume that the rules are different for “men of the cloth.”  Surely other Nobel Peace Prize winners (hint Desmond Tutu) have different claims upon the no-fly list.  Maybe not.

But then again, the current US leadership are totally blinkered by the church.  Whomsoever claims the anointment of god™ seems to be inviolate. 

Not convinced?  Just look at the main support base for the Presidential incumbent - those amazing people who think that they have the specific support of their deity; those who think that (un)Intelligent Design is the way they were invented.

All I can say is god™ help us all.