Up in smoke

Just before our flight home after a five day pairing I was eating lunch with my captain, first officer and a flight attendant. We got to talking about Iran and I happened to mention that Bush scares me just as much as Mahmoud Aberdianshamindaderson...

"You don't support Bush?" The captain asked me

"No, you do?"

"I don't just love Bush, I emulate him"

The first officer and flight attendant quickly agreed with him.

"You probably believe in global warming too don't you?" he asked

"Global warming? Do I believe in it? What?"

"Yeah, you probably fell for all that left-wing propaganda telling you that we are destroying our environment right?"

"I don't know if I understand, we're not talking about whether I believe in ghosts or aliens, but whether I believe in global warming?" I asked

"You're only 22, so you're still impressionable. I've been following weather patterns for years and things aren't changing, its arrogant for you to believe that we have that much effect on the earth."

I couldn't understand why they would looking at me like I had just said that I sew my own clothes from yak hair. Why am I the crazy extremist for believing in things such as pollution and the ice caps melting? Why was I the only one at the table who thought that maybe Bush has made some questionable decisions during his reign as president? What sort of upside-down universe had I just entered?

Thats what I love about this job, where else would you so often feel like the strangest person on the planet for believing things like car fumes...