King of Zembla: The Aviator

Courtesy of Zemblan patriots K.Z. and J.D.: That Cindy Sheehan must be one scary broad:

"She feels strongly about her position and she has every right in the world to say what she believes," Mr. Bush told a news conference. "And I thought long and hard about her position. I've heard her position from others, which is: Get out of Iraq now. And it would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run if we were to do so."

Mr. Bush said he grieves for every death in Iraq. "It breaks my heart to think about a family weeping over the loss of a loved one. I understand the anguish that some feel about the death that takes place."

Yet there was no sign Mr. Bush intends to meet Ms. Sheehan. In fact, there were reports he is travelling solely by helicopter when he leaves the ranch in an effort to avoid racing past the protester in a limousine.

You cannot appreciate the full extent of Ms. Sheehan's scariness until you understand that Mr. Bush takes his life in his hands every time he steps aboard the Presidential helicopter. As it turns out, the daredevil crew of Marine One is in the unfortunate habit of playing chicken with commercial aircraft:

Two sources have confirmed there was a close call at O'Hare Airport involving President Bush and his helicopter flight party when they when they took off from O'Hare for Montgomery, Illinois earlier this week . . . .

Aircraft in the president's party are choreographed to fly under very strict rules. Wednesday morning his helicopters were all instructed to fly north of an active landing runway at O'Hare until further clearance.

But the two lead helicopters, believed to be carrying members of the press corps and presidential staff, elected to fly almost directly down the center line of that active runway.

An American Airlines MD-80 with passengers was approaching that runway in the opposite direction to land.

That's when the airline pilots saw the two helicopters at low altitude heading right toward them.

The MD-80 aborted the landing, making an abrupt left, climbing turn. The lead helicopter also turned left, avoiding a possible collision.