Mailbag - Part Deux

As an aside, I might need to start doing a "mailbag" blog every now and again. This is what I get for reading my AOL mail at the same time I'm blogging.

One other aside - Yes, I know that AOL is called the "training wheels for the Internet." And I can hear some people asking "Why on Earth does he have an AOL address?!?" The reasons are twofold. First, I've had the AOL account since mid 1995. That's just over 13 years. A great many people know that they can reach me at the AOL address. Yes, I do have several non-AOL addresses, but I almost never give those out. The other reason is because it's now free. I don't have to pay them a penny to keep the account.

And now for the question (thank you!) The question is that I'd written that Mr Obama's mother couldn't fly back since she was in the late stages of pregnancy. Why couldn't she?

It was a good question! There are a few reasons for being unable to fly during the late stages of pregnancy, and the first has to do with liability. Even during the best of deliveries, delivering a healthy baby is not an easy task. Frankly, I wouldn't want to do it! But things can easily go wrong during the best of times. And I don't think the airline's insurance carrier would want to cover that risk. Because it is a risk. If an attendant were to attempt to deliver a child mid-flight and there was a problem that caused the child or mother to die, both the airline and that attendant would be sued. Possibly the Captain and First Officer as well.

But the second reason is also tied into the first one. The second one would be that the airline simply wouldn't want to take the risk of the mother giving birth at 35,000 feet.

As another aside, can you imagine how that would be written on a birth certificate?

Place of Birth: Seat 29a on United Flight 27 at 35,217 feet over Muncie, Indiana.

How about over the Atlantic Ocean? :) I don't wanna think about that one!