Something For the Lawyers...

Really? Are all lawyers going to hell?

Qantas -- Safe or Not?

The story goes that the national press is always harder on the national flag carrier than it is on other airlines. Yet, in the case of Qantas (photo) then perhaps this increased glare of the spotlight is warranted considering the consistent failures logged over the last month or so. For an airline that has prided itself on its safety record while allowing its service standards to slip. I must admit that I have not flown Qantas in years, and the reason for this was that their service was less than expected.

However, on with the safety issues. Qantas is taking a bit of a hammering of late as the list of failures grows ever-longer. The most recent of these "events" includes a Perth bound 737-300 making an unscheduled toilet stop in Adelaide on its way from Sydney. It seems that the ground staff had forgotten to empty out the bowels of the plane and consequently mid-flight things went all to crap. I guess this is both in the literal and figurative senses of the word.

After the delay the flight continued on its merry way.

The second "event" was the delay to the QF2 flight out of London. which was delayed some 15 hours because of a broken rudder. I guess though this was not a mid air which is probably a relief for the passengers that were taking this flight.

These two "events" follow a string of other incidents including a mid-air explosion that forced a plane to divert to Manila in the Philippines, a hydraulic leak that forced a plane to divert to Brisbane, and the loss of a panel from a plane in flight that was not discovered until the plane landed at its destination.

The best is yet to come as a drunken Qantas flight attendant fell against a fire alarm in a hotel in New Zealand that caused a full-scale evacuation of the hotel in the wee hours of the morning. The flight attendant has since resigned. Another flight attendant from the same flight refused to take a breath test before boarding the plane and was stood down from the flight. This served to delay the flight for several hours as a new crew was flown in to cover for their drunk and embarrassed colleagues.

I guess people will have to draw their own conclusions on this expanding list of events.

The Lives of the Rich and Famous -- 50 Cent

I like 50 Cent and I often punch out my written work while damaging my ear drums to the tunes of Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent. I guess I enjoy the music because the lyrics are real and reflect real life experiences and it is so much in your face all of the time. Let's face it I heard "It's ya birthday" on Oprah so what more of an endorsement can one get?

This post though is not so much about the music but about the legal troubles 50 Cent has with his former girlfriend and the mother of his 10-year old son. Shaniqua Tompkins has won a restraining order against 50 Cent which includes a provision that he must surrender all guns in his possession. I wonder whether there is a legal technicality here as it relates to access to guns. Does the temporary restraining order require all those associated with 50 Cent to hand in their weapons as well.

In any event it is being reported that he has no guns and his lawyer, Brett Kimmel has said, "To my knowledge, he has no guns". The restraining order also requires that 50 Cent stay away from Tompkins and presumably his son.

The whole affair is a nasty money battle based on Tompkins belief that she is entitled to half of the 50 Cent fortune, which by all accounts is considerable. Tompkins claim is based on an oral agreement. An oral agreement or contract is technical enforceable but the burden of proving whether such an agreement has been made is often difficult without the ability to provide corroborating testimony to the agreement.

The fight has become increasingly bitter and ugly. The house that Tompkins and her son live in, and which is owned by 50 Cent was burned to the ground last month. The police have said that investigations are ongoing and that the fire is still classified as being suspicious. At the time, Tompkins said that the fire was started on the orders of 50 Cent and it was not an attempt to intimidate her but it was an attempt to permanently silence her by killing her.

This has prompted a defamation action by 50 Cent, who has denied any involvement in the fire, for USD 20 million in a Connecticut Superior Court against Tompkins for the statements she made to the media.

My guess is this thing is destined to get even uglier, if such a thing is possible, before it is finally resolved.

Lucky...

You can find the story here.

There is lucky and then there is "lucky". The owners of this place are very much in the "lucky" category. It is an amazing picture and shows you the unpredictability of nature. Some might attribute this good fortune to God.

Me, I don't know about the God angle, I am still grieving the loss of my little dog (you can make the connections for yourself on that one).

I have to say that arsonists also rank pretty lowly on my scale of goodness and I guess this means conversely they rank pretty highly on my scale of cowardice!