OK, so some of you jumped all over me yesterday after the horrible plane crash

[PCIntern]

because I had the temerity to state that in no time at all, the apologists for the military would be all over this story, changing facts and generally making shit up.

Well, guess what? I was not wrong...

Within minutes, Kyra Phillips on CNN stated that these two pilots were "heroes" because they tried to make it to the beach because, she added and I'm only slightly paraphrasing, all fighter pilots know that they must ditch over water or open territory so as not to hit areas which contain people and property (and oh yes, pets - musn't forget those). She apparrently has flown planes out of this "exact same runway" herself, and because the tail of the plane was horizontal, then blah blah blah, pilots doing an amazing job of not hitting a school.

First, how the Hell would she know what was going through their minds during the incident? She didn't interview them, she was just busy making excuses before she knew anything.

Second, the whole area is densely populated so if you crash on takeoff, you're gonna hit something civilian almost fer sure. Fair enough...I grew up near the Willow Grove Naval Air Station and we had some near misses and a couple incidents over the decades. It happens...but I have no recollection of the local news people making up stories a priori. what they USED to say was "The FAA and military investigators will have to investigate this incident." and leave it at that. They didn't make up plausible scenarios and state them as fact.

Third, and damn it, I KNOW I'm right about this: the lying-ass military-industrial complex is given a big pass even by those on Progressive Websites by those who think that they're all gung-ho-military such that you went after me when all I stated was that they were going to concoct a story, if they could, which would absolve the pilots if at all possible, reiterate that they do everything as safely as possible, and that if the pilots happened to be Republicans, then all the better - OK, that was a cynical remark, but not far off the center of truth. Those who have any kind of memory will recall the young lady who was the POW in Iraq rescued by a team whose exploits could have been portrayed in Marvel Comics. Turned out of course, that it was almost all BS. But that's OK...we need our stories of heroism and valor and since Audie Murphy's dead, and John Wayne was only a movie actor, then we have to come up with new ones for the new generation.

Fourth and finally, to those who typed out a knee-jerk response to my post: you might consider the bigger picture once in a while. It would do you some good - the fact of the matter was that all I really said was that I was awaiting the usual gabble-degook from the PR folk at the military and for that I was excoriated.