Questions people are axing about flydubai flight 1073

 Until copilot Hamam al-Hammami attacked Indian captain Smit Machchhar with the cockpit crash axe, causing the plane to drop thousands of feet in a few seconds, most of us had never even heard of flydubai, the Emirates' budget airline, which sends its fleet of 737's to airports in dozens of countries within 7 hours' flying time of Dubai.  

Here are some questions that would immediately come to mind upon hearing about this near-catastrophe:

1. What is flydubai?
Flydubai is the state-owned budget airlines of the United Arab Emirates, based in Dubai and with there-and-back flights to over 100 destination cities in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. They exclusively use various models of the Boeing 737. They were the first airline to offer service to Israel's only international airport in Tel Aviv, beginning in 2020, and have kept up daily flights all through the Gaza War.

2. Why were Israelis flying on an Arab airline with a Muslim in the cockpit?
Well, primarily because it was so cheap, and also because Muslim pilots only go into jihadi mode on extremely rare occasions. Of course, being a budget airline meant the flydubai tended to take whomever they could get, and when an Omani pilot who'd been kicked off his own national carrier for his jihadist views applied to work for them, they apparently didn't think much of it, and hired him anyway. It's especially concerning that they sent an Omani national on a flight to Israel; Israel doesn't recognize Omani passports, so citizens of that country are generally prohibited from traveling to Israel, even as airline pilots.
Another major reason for the use of an Arab airline was that El Al, Israel's national carrier, had suspended flights to Dubai due to concerns over terrorism. That moratorium has since been lifted, for obvious reasons. 

3. How were passengers able to storm the cockpit, with all the precautions in place to secure it?
Now, that's an interesting question. As I have stated before, there's a fine line between securing the cockpit from a madman OUTSIDE of it, and securing the cockpit from a madman INSIDE it, and this was one case where the two perfectly balanced; Captain Machchhar, while bleeding out, was just barely able to open the locked door to allow his rescuers to enter. 

4. Why don't most news stories mention the pilot's name?

It's basically a matter of journalistic policy. Neither the airline nor any of the three governments involved have publicly released the jihadist's name, so news outlets are reluctant to mention it. There's also a desire not to give the bad guy any publicity, that could be enough to tip the scales in the direction of anonymity. 

5. Why did the secondary crew fly the aircraft on to Tel Aviv, diverting instead to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia?
The clearest answer is that, had flight 1073 continued into Israeli airspace, it would have been shot down, because the transponder was broadcasting the signal that indicated it had been highjacked. Hammami's stated intent was to crash the plane, and the IDF wasn't about to take any chances. Tabuk was a regular destination of flydubai, so it was a natural choice once the secondary flight crew (riding along because they were scheduled to fly the plane back to Dubai) took control. 

Also, the pilot was on the verge of succumbing to his injuries by the time the plane landed; being diverted from Tel Aviv while security officials assessed the situation could have been enough to kill him. And, the high-speed dive had damaged the plane's tail section, and the would-be axe murderer had turned his weapon on the instrument panel, making a quick landing all the more imperative. 

6. Does being arrested in Tabuk mean that the jihadist copilot will escape prosecution?

No, because the Saudis immediately sent him back to the Emirates, he won't be eligible for hero status in the Guardian of the Two Sanctuaries. Dubai will no doubt prosecute him, and at least this way he won't be available to use as a bargaining chip for the release of Israeli citizen hostages, as would have been the case in Israel, which still has no death penalty, even for mass murderers. 

7. Did the plane landing in the Saudi Kingdom complicate repatriation of the Israeli passengers?

It  sure did! Saudi Arabia doesn't recognize Israeli passports, so for the 150 Israeli citizens on board, it was probably the first time they'd ever set foot in that country. In order to get them to Israel, flydubai had to send a couple of their own planes out to pick them up, presumably returning to Dubai enroute as flights between Saudi Arabia and Israel are still prohibited. 

How Women Lose the Right to Vote

For many years I have pondered the very notion of women voting, and one of the mysteries of this whole topic is whether the right to vote, once having been bestowed upon women by men, could ever be withdrawn. It seems illogical that women themselves could be persuaded to yield suffrage, once having obtained it, but it turns out not be be impossible after all, as we shall soon see. This is true precisely because of an innate difference between the generic male and the generic female: he's much better suited to warfare than she is. 

I offer the case of a country where a movement became active to give women the vote in 1919, even before implementation of the 19th Amendment in the US ensured suffrage for the women there: Afghanistan. 

Yes, Afghanistan. Who would think of THAT country as being ahead of the United States in the area of women's rights? Yet, in the 1920's, it was--at least on paper, and at least in the media. But it was a top-down revolution, and, as these tend to do, it didn't last. 

In 1913, Emir Amanullah Khan took Soraya Tarzi as his third wife, having divorced the first as a teenager and losing the second to death in childbirth. But, unlike every monarch throughout history to precede him on that throne--he himself being the son of his predecessor's second wife--he announced that as of Soraya, he was done taking wives; the Christian notion of monogamy seemed, to him, something that his Islamic nation could adopt to their betterment. Emir Khan proclaimed himself King in 1919, ousted the British Overlords in the Third Anglo-Afghan War, and as the decade of the Roaring Twenties dawned, set about to bring his country into the 20th century--starting by elevating women to a status equal with men. This move, which included appointing his wife as Minister of Education and opening that world to the female majority, was directly contrary to the teachings of Islam. The Qur'an states, in An-Nisa 4:34,

"Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property. So good women are obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah has guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. But if they return to obedience, seek not a way against them. Surely Allah is higher, great."

This top-down revolution was thus doomed from the moment it began, and by the close of the decade Amanullah and Soraya were in exile, never to return home until their respective royal burials in the 1960's. Amanullah couldn't even manage to keep the reformation going in his personal life: although he held on to Soraya and went on to father ten children through her, he lapsed back into polygamy by briefly marrying his first cousin in the dying days of his kingdom. 

The remainder of the century would see Afghanistan endure one government overthrow after another, with women in the forefront politically whenever they were permitted it, and then thrown back under the bus when Islamic doctrine prevailed over Western thought. 

So here is what it comes down to: whenever modern doctrines like the equality of women hold sway over the ruling class, women get the vote; but whenever the core beliefs of the nation at large gain the preeminence, women lose it again. This process has repeated itself in Afghanistan probably more times than in any other country, but it serves as an example of how it could happen anywhere else. In the USA, the process is still on its first cycle at the national level--but it we were to peer closely down to the local level, we would see that the second cycle has already begun to play out. 

I can now envision a movement in which women are taught that their inherent status is one of submission to men, and where they either give up the vote altogether, or only vote as their husbands instruct them. This would be the most peaceful option, in which the female vote is surrendered voluntarily. But should that option fail, men could still win back exclusive suffrage by brute force, womankind being much less of a match for mankind militarily, as they are politically. 

And in a nation whose women only ever vote in accordance with their husbands' wishes, there is actually no need to abolish female suffrage, in order to obtain an equivalent result. 

Jesus the Helite

 Re-reading my article on Job reminded me of another theory I have, regarding Jesus the Helite*. It draws from the same Pentateuchal passage I cited earlier, to gain some insight on the Lucan genealogy:

"The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren. And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses." --Numbers 27:8-11

Note that this statute required a man's inheritance to pass on to his daughters, should they lack brothers (the male kind). Only in the case of utter childlessness would it pass to a male relative of the same generation, or one above it. The daughters, having been duly married to kinsmen, would each pass on their portion of that inheritance to their sons. 

Now let's look at how this would work if a firstborn daughter with no brothers (the male kind) came of marrying age. As an heir apparent to her father's estate, she would need to marry a relative within her sub-tribe (Numbers 36:8) in order to secure the inheritance. Should that husband die without issue, she would have to marry another relative--specifically the closest one--in order to keep the inheritance from passing on through her to another clan (Ruth 4:4). 

Now, let's take this hypothetical scenario and apply it to a real-life situation. Luke starts out his genealogy of Jesus by stating that he was "the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli." How could Joseph be considered the son of Heli when Matthew records that his father was Jacob? Well, suppose that Heli had no sons, but a firstborn daughter Mary. In that case, Mary would have been required to marry someone from her own sub-clan: and in fact, Luke also reports, or at least implies, that both Joseph and Mary were of the house of David (Luke 1:27). Thus Joseph, along with his sons by Mary, stood to inherit from Heli's estate--in which sense he could be referred to as the heir, or son, of Heli. And thus Jesus, as the legal heir of both Joseph and Mary, stood to inherit both Joseph's claim to the Israelite throne and a double portion of whatever inheritance his mother had brought into the marriage: at least a double portion, were she the firstborn, and possibly all of it, had she no younger sisters. 

One final observation: John records that among Jesus' dying words were a charge to him: take care of my mother. If John's mother Salome were in fact Mary's younger sister, it would explain a few things: 

1) John, although apparently much younger than Jesus, becoming a disciple first of his cousin John, then switching allegiance to his other cousin Jesus.
2) John's mother being audacious enough to ask her nephew for special placement of her sons in their cousin's kingdom.
3) Jesus (knowing that the older brother James would suffer an early death, but that John would outlive Mary) commending Mary into the charge of her sister's son John, thus passing his double portion of the double inheritance (meagre as it was) onto the man who would use it to care for his widowed aunt. 

One more note in passing: we can conclude from the fact that they came up short on a staple at their wedding reception that the couple getting married in Cana were poor. And we know from their choice of offering at Mary's postpartum purification ceremony that Jesus' parents were also poor. That, along with the likelihood that several of his disciples were themselves close relatives, would help to explain why Jesus and his disciples, along with all his brothers (the male kind) were invited to the wedding at Cana: Rabbinical Law specifies that ten male guests are the minimum to comprise a wedding party (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Ishut, Chapter 10, Halacha 5), and apparently this couple really had to scrape to come up with a sufficiently padded guest list. Because, of course, couples want to go all out for their weddings, so just the minimum wouldn't do. Such an eagerness, compounded by the realities of poverty, could also explain why the wine order hadn't been expanded to meet the expected demand. 

*"Helite" is just a fancy way of saying "descendant of Heli."

From Anguish Languish to English Language: Trains-lading debt Furry Tail avowed Beers into a Fairy Tale about Bears

 It's been decades since I first posted Furry Tails to this blog, and since most of my readers are from countries other than the one in which Anguish Languish was first published, I thought I'd do them the favour of translating this one into Standard English. Here, then, is Goldy Locks and the Three Bears:

Wants pawn term dare worsted ladle gull hoe hat search putty yowler coils debt pimple colder Guilty Looks. Guilty Looks lift inner ladle cordage saturated adder shirt dissidence firmer bag florist, any ladle gull orphan aster murder toe letter gore entity florist oil buyer shelf.

Once upon a time there was a little girl who had such pretty yellow curls that people called her Goldy Locks. Goldy Locks lived in a little cottage situated at a short distance from a big forest, and a little girl often asked her mother to let her go into the forest all by herself. 

“Guilty Looks!” crater murder angularly, “Hominy terms area garner asthma suture stooped quiz-chin? Goiter door florist? Sordidly NUT!”

“Wire nut, murder?” wined Guilty Looks, hoe dint peony tension tore murder’s scaldings.

“Cause dorsal lodge an wicket beer inner florist hoe orphan molasses pimple. Ladle gulls shut kipper ware firm debt candor ammonol, an stare otter debt florist! Debt florist’s mush toe dentures furry ladle gull!”

Wail, pimple oil-wares wander doe wart udder pimple dum wampum toe doe. Debt’s jest hormone nurture. Wan moaning, Guilty Looks dissipater murder, an win entity florist.

"Goldy Locks!" cried her mother angrily, "How many times are you going to ask me such a stupid question? Go to the forest? Certainly NOT!"

"Why not, mother?" whined Goldy Locks, who didn't pay any attention to her mother's scoldings.

"'Cause there's a large and wicked bear in the forest who often molests people. Little girls should keep away from that kind of animal, and stay out of that forest! That forest's much too dangerous for a little girl!"

Well, people always want to do what other people don't want them to do. That's just human nature. One morning, Goldy Locks disobeyed her mother and went into the forest. 

Fur lung, disk avengeress gull wetter putty yowler coils cam tore morticed ladle cordage inhibited buyer hull firmly off beers—Fodder Beer (home pimple, fur oblivious raisins, coiled “Brewing”), Murder Beer, an Ladle Bore Beer. Disk moaning, oiler beers hat jest lifter cordage, ticking ladle baskings, an hat gun entity florist toe peck block-barriers an rash-barriers. Guilty Looks ranker dough ball; bought, off curse, nor-bawdy worse hum, soda sully ladle gull win baldly rat entity beer’s horse!

'Fore long, this adventurous girl with her pretty yellow curls came to a modest little cottage inhabited by a whole family of bears--Father Bear (whom people, for obvious reasons, called Bruin), Mother Bear, and Little Boy Bear. This morning, all the bears had just left a cottage, taking little baskets, and had gone into the forest to pick blackberries and raspberries. Goldy Locks rang a door bell, but, of course, nobody was home, so the silly little girl went boldly right into the bear's house!

Honor tipple inner darning rum, stud tree boils fuller sop—wan grade bag boiler sop, wan muddle-sash boil, an wan tawny ladle boil. Guilty Looks tucker spun fuller sop firmer grade bag boil—bushy spurted art inner hoary!

“Arch!” crater gull, “Debt sop’s toe hart—barns mar mouse!”

Dingy traitor sop inner muddle-sash boil, witch worse toe coiled. Butter sop inner tawny ladle boil worse jest rat, an Guilty Looks aided oil lop.

Dingy nudist tree cheers—wan anomalous cheer, wan muddle-sash cheer, an wan tawny ladle cheer. Guilty Looks set darn inner ladle cheer, bushy worse toe bag ferret, ant soddenly bustard.

On a table in the dining room stood three bowls full of soup--one great big bowl of soup, one middle-sized bow, and one tiny little bow. Goldy Locks took her spoon full of soup from a great big bowl, but she spit it out in a hurry!

"Ouch!" cried the girl, "That soup's too hot--burns my mouth!"

Then she tried the soup in a middle-sized bowl, which was too cold. But the soup in a tiny little bowl was just right, and Goldy Locks ate it all up. 
Then she noticed three chairs--one enormous chair, one middle-sized chair, and one tiny little chair. Goldy Locks sat down in a little chair, but she was too big for it, and it suddenly busted. 

Clamming upper stars tutor beer’s bet-rum, Guilty Looks dish-cupboard tree bets—wan grade bag bet, wan muddle-sash bet, an wan tawny ladle bet. Failing torrid, shay flunker shelf honor ladle bet, an, jester cobbler menace letter, worse sunder slip an snorting.

Climbing up a stairs to the bear's bedroom, Goldy Locks discovered three beds--one great big bed, one middle-sized bed, and one tiny little bed. Feeling tired, she flung herself on a little bed, and, just a couple minutes later, was sound asleep and snoring. 

Inner ladle wile, donors offer cordage cam beck firmer barrier-pecking extradition, currying baskings fuller rash-barriers. Whinny entity darning rum, Fodder Beer stuttered snuffing an gruelling tomb shelf.

“Warts ban goring earn hair?” crumpled dole beer, “Conjure small psalm-sing deferent a boarder horse?”

“Crashes!” crater murder beer, ashy castor quack glands adder tipple, “Hose ban muddling wet debt sop?”

Ladle Bore Beer stuttered crayon.

“Jest locket mar ladle boiler sop—oil garbled dope! An locket mar itchy pitchy cheer—oil bustard!”

In a little while, the owners of the cottage came back from their berry-picking expedition, carrying baskets full of raspberries. When he entered the dining room, Father Bear started sniffing and growling to himself. 
"What's been going on here?" grumbled the old bear, "Can't you smell something different about the house?" 
"Gracious!" cried mother bear, as she cast a quick glance at the table, "Who's been meddling with that soup?"
Little Bear started crying. "Just look at my little bowl of soup--all gobbled up! And look at my itty-bitty chair--all busted!"

Locking adder bustard cheer, Murder Beer bay-gander gat historical, an stuttered hurling tore horsebarn:

“Brewing! Brewing! Way gut BURGHERS inner horse. HORSE BURGHERS! Quack! Coiler place! Wail, dun stun dare lacking end-bustle during nosing! Coiler Place Deportment, quack!”

“Harmer garner coiler Place Deportment wen way dun heifer toiler-fun?” resplendent Brewing, inner trampling verse. “Set darn, worming, an cape quoit! Yore oil-wares thanking dare burghers inner horse!”

Oiler shame, Brewing worse jesters scarred aster udders; infect, haze niece war shagging.

Finely, Fodder Beer gutter grade bag short-gum, Murder Beer gutter muddle-sash haunting raffle, an Ladle Bore Beer gutter tawny ladle pestle, an oiler beers crypt upper stars, ware Guilty Looks worse line honor bet, sunder slip an snorting. Herring door beers, shay weakened, lipped otter door windrow, an dished aware harm jesters fascist shagged scrabble.

Looking at a busted chair, Mother Bair began to get hysterical, and started howling to her husband:
"Bruin! Bruin! We got BURGLARS in the house, HOUSE BURGLARS! Quick! Call a police! Well, don't stand there like an imbecile doing nothing! Call a Police Department, quick!"
"How am I gonna call a Police Department when we don't have a telephone?" responded Bruin, in a trembling voice. "Sit down, woman, and keep quiet! You're always thinking there are burglars in the house! 
All a same, Bruin was just as scared as the others; in fact, his knees were shaking. 
Finally, Father Bear got a great big shotgun, Mother Bear got a middle-sized hunting rifle, and Little Boy Bear got a tiny little pistol, and all a bears crept up a stairs, where Goldy Locks was lying on a bed, sound asleep and storing. Hearing the bears, she wakened, leaped out of the window, and dashed away home just as fast as she could scramble. 

Oiler beers tar darner stars, an ntoe locker doers an windrows.

“Fodder,” aster ladle bore beer, finely, “Wart worse debt discussing crasher honor bet? Wart worse debt ogling ammonol wet oil debt yowler far honor had, an hoe dint half nor far atoll honor beck? Wart worse debt hobble lurking crasher, Fodder?”

Fodder Beer shuttered.

“Comb hair, mar bore. Heresy gut lessen furrier! Debt discussing crasher worsen HORMONE BANG! Kipper ware firm debt candor ammonol! Dare nor gut! Warts mar, are dun wander catcher goring entity florist oil bar yore shelf. Debt florist’s mush toe dentures furry ladle beer!”

All a bears tore down a stairs, and started to lock a doors and windows. 
"Father," asked a little boy bear, finally, "What was that disgusting creature on a bed? What was that ugly animal with all that yellow fur on her head, and who didn't have no fur at all on her back? What was that horrible looking creature, Father?"
Father Bear shuddered. 
"Come here, my boy. Here's a good lesson for your! That disgusting creature was an HUMAN BEING!
Keep away from that kind of animal! They're no good! What's more, I don't want to catch you going into the forest all by your self. That forest's much too dangerous for a little bear!"

I translated this as literally as I could, exposing the weakness of the author's use of articles: he failed to distinguish between the definite and indefinite articles, sometime even confusing them with possessive pronouns. I gave him as much latitude as I could in a strict translation (probably even more, by translating 'sop' as 'soup'); using dynamic equivalence-- along the lines of the NIV--would make such inconsistencies disappear entirely. And there could be some dialect of English out there in which they wouldn't be phonemically distinct anyway.

Mankind makes it to the Moon

 Fifteen years ago, I noted that only men had ever been to the moon. I didn't say it in that post, but it was obvious to me that whenever men did return to the moon, it was inevitable that there would be a woman along; failure to tick off that box would be an unimaginable offense to the gods of sexual equality. 
And sure enough, the Artemis mission this year to the far side of the moon included a woman. What's interesting is that taking a woman along required a private bathroom facility, and the need to build a spaceship big enough to accommodate that did help to delay this milestone mission by several decades.