Tuesday, December 12, 2006

With Six You Get Greedy

If you've been paying attention (and I know all 6 of my fans have been), you've noticed that I haven't said anything about the six imans who got thrown off a US Airways flight out of Minneapolis. Mainly, I've stayed away because so many people have already commented on the subject. For those of you who don't know, I try to stay away from issues where everybody and their grandmother with a blog has an opinion. Mainly, it's because I like to illuminate the stories you might not see. Besides, if the most I can add is a hearty "ditto," that makes this blog more boring than Al Gore playing Pat Paulsen on NyQuil.

Then, the imans got greedy and decided to...that's right, seek for an out-of-court settlement from US Airways. Seems these guys who had no problem mouthing off about how bad the Bush policy in Iraq was and yelling "Allah Allah Allah" need money to make their "pain" go away.

Enter the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The imans were originally going to meet with the airline December 4th, but they backed out and got CAIR involved. Now, with CAIR on their side, they're going for the big bucks.

If recent history with groups like CAIR is any indication, US Airways is going to fold and try to contain the PR hit they think they've taken. I'm no lawyer, but I think the fact that the six iman were acting in a way consistent with current security "red flags" pretty much negates any claim they could make about being abused or demeaned. And it takes them out of the Litigation Lotto.

At least, in my world it does. See, if you act like a jerk and get punched, you brought it upon yourself. Our legal system apparently no longer considers that to be a reasonable conclusion, instead preferring to let people get paid for being stupid. And with CAIR pumping up the "poor Muslim victim" angle, this situation is ripe for the imans to get paid.

If there are any representatives of US Airways reading this, I urge you to stand your ground on this one. These guys inconvenienced the majority of the passengers on that plane and did so in a way that caused great emotional strife for them, and for their families. Not to mention, it caused great stress on those of us concerned about another terrorist attack on this country. If anything, the imans should be the ones getting sued.

Say, that's a great idea! Settle out of court with the imans. Then, when they show up to pick up their checks, slap them with lawsuits demanding far more than they were awarded. Heck, sue CAIR while you're at it for being enablers. I'm sure a class action lawsuit or even a series of single suits filed by the other passengers on the plane will make other Muslims wanting to "prove how racist America is" pause and think.

And all I ask is for a portion of the winnings. Not much. Just 10-15%. After all, it was my idea.

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