As regular readers know, few people can 'read between the lines' like ol' Doc Murky can.  Hell, that's why you're here — for my probing investigative reporting skills.

Well, I've read all the articles and it's pretty clear to me that American Airlines was perfectly willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in order to make a quick buck.

Typical of Big Business, eh?  Run roughshod over the hapless masses, eliminate a few hundred thousand here and there if it helps the bottom line — and who'd know or care?

Perhaps you've seen this shocking picture that was released by an American Airlines mechanic who mysteriously died in a car accident later that day:

As was made very clear in the FAA directive, these twist ties are supposed to be 1" apart, not the 1¼" this covert picture of an American Airlines plane reveals.  By the numbers, that means they save an entire twist tie every four ties, because they've squeaked out that extra quarter-inch with every (illegal) wrap.  Given how many of these things they use, this could mean an enormous monetary savings over time, and certainly worth sacrificing a few planes here and there when the incorrectly-installed ties start popping off in mid-flight.  An ingenious plot, to be sure, and I'm sure we'll see some hefty prison sentences handed out once the facts are in.

Oh, by the way, this is the reason so many airliners were grounded last week by the FAA and a quarter of a million passengers were stranded.