And A Cairn By Every Runway

Here are some definitions of a cairn, according to Wikkipedia:

• To mark a burial site, and/or to memorialize the dead.
• To mark the summit of a mountain.
• Placed at regular intervals they indicate a path across stony or barren terrain, across glaciers, or a bad-weather navigation route.

As cairns are somewhat of a feature in many pagan faiths, what could be more appropriate to place beside every runway, into which pagan travellers can meditate beside before embarking on their journeys? Some can even be buildt to allow for entrance of one or more travellers for the purpose of private meditation.

I've even discovered a stone artisan, Dave Cudworth, who might be prevailed upon to build them, in the event a pagan builder can not be found.

Not only are they appropriate for Celtic Pagans, but also for Hellenic Pagans such as myself, who identify them with Hermes, God of Travellers.

After all, since some Muslim activists are now demanding private prayer chambers in airports, surely they would not presume to think they should be afforded this special privilege all to themselves.

Yeah, right. No doubt they will also insist it should be buildt in such a way that those who kneel within should face Mecca. If accedded to, this would probably lead to demands that toilets in all bathroom facilities should face either toward the north or the south (neither toward nor away from Mecca), and most importantly, that a resident Muslim chaplain be installed in all airports to sound the Muslim call to prayer five times a day.

Frankly, I'm past caring even if they insist on a star and crescent be the predominant view above the airport control towers. Just give me my fucking cairn.

I don't agree with Ann Coulter very often, though I almost always think she is hilarious, but when she wrote this particular editorial, it struck me as not only funny, but one hundred percent correct.

As you may recall, a recent controversy erupted when six imams were removed from a flight in Arizona due to complaints by concerned passengers. They had been praying in a loud fashion, in addition to complaining about American foreign policy. Upon entering the plane, they demanded seperate seating, and though none were obese, insisted on seat belt extensions.

At least three of them purchased one way tickets, and had no checked baggage, which ever since 9/11 have been two standard red flags in airport scurity matters. This, in addition to their generally boorish, obnoxous, and provocative manner and actions, seemed almost calculated to insure a reaction, and a confrontation.

Naturally, they have been ardently defended by the so-called Left. Surprise, surprise!

Coulter hit the nail right on the head when she pointed out, in reaction to the Immams call for all Muslims to boycott the airline in question:

"The idea that a Muslim boycott against US Airways would hurt the airline proves that Arabs are utterly tone-deaf. This is roughly the equivalent of Cindy Sheehan taking a vow of silence. How can we hope to deal with people with no sense of irony? The next thing you know, New York City cab drivers will be threatening to bathe."

Exactly. If the truth were known, one of the first things most Americans at least subconscously take note of when they get on any plane is the presence, or lack thereof, of anyone with even a vaquely Middle Eastern appearrance.

The most insulting thing a Muslim could possibly be confronted with should be the waves of overwhelming relief collectively exhibitd by the majority of airline customers at the news that this boycott would soon take effect. But they just don't seem to get it.

Coulter even wonders if the entire story isn't a fictional advertisng scheme. As she puts it:


"Come to think of it, the whole affair may have been a madcap advertising scheme cooked up by US Airways."

Ouch.

And, as she points out, it is not only the immams who have no sense of irony, but their leftist supporters and defenders, many of who are still high from the fumes breathed in from the last Democratic victory, and as such may be sufferring from altered states of conscousness-and perception of reality. But they don't know, or maybe just don't care, that, as Coulter puts it

"But now, on the eve of the busiest travel day in America, these "scholars" have ginned up America's PC victim machinery to intimidate airlines and passengers from noticing six imams chanting "Allah" before boarding a commercial jet."

As if all of this isn't enough, she points out the history of one of the immams in such a manner as to make anybody want to stick with Greyhound.


"Shahin's own "scholarship" consisted of continuing to deny Muslims were behind 9/11 nearly two months after the attacks. On Nov. 4, 2001, the Arizona Republic cited Shahin's "skepticism that Muslims or bin Laden carried out attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon." Shahin complained that the government was "focusing on the Arabs, the Muslims. And all the evidence shows that the Muslims are not involved in this terrorist act."

To which I personally thank Mr. Shahin for his, I am sure, qualified interpretation of terrorist evidence.

I'm still waiting for Richard Reid, the notorious shoe-bomber, to be released from prison, his prior conviction appealled for lack of evidence. After all, what proof do we have really that he intended to blow up the plane he was in? Because he lit a match to his shoelaces. Hell, what if he is sufferring from some kind of rare, debilitating condition that causes his feet to get excruciatingly cold? Maybe he is forced to heat them periodically. With matches.

Maybe the so-called bomb in his shoe was some kind of experiemental device that is supposed to aid in this affliction, only it wasn't working properly. Just because he was a Muslim, why do we assume the worse?

I'll be waiting for the building of my fucking cairns at all godamned airport runways.

I will probably be waiting until motherfucking Ragnarok.