A feelgood story to cleanse the palate at the end of a long week.

Not that the details are important to enjoying this audio, but it happened two weeks ago onboard a Southwest flight taking off from San Jose airport. The pilot is, uh, evidently not from the Bay Area himself. In fact, his voice reminds me a bit of George W. Bush’s.

Although Dubya, especially in the post-Trump era, is a lot sweeter on liberals than this guy is.

The FAA is investigating this incident, as it’s against regulations for pilots to discuss anything unrelated to flight safety while operating below 10,000 feet. That doesn’t sit right with me, though.

Truth is an absolute defense to libel. Shouldn’t it be a defense here too?

Lots of profanity in the clip, obviously:

Tell us how you really feel about the Bay Area Mr. Southwest pilot pic.twitter.com/hZl6I1IATM

— The Pro & Con Podcast (@TheProandConPod) March 26, 2021

For the uninitiated, “rolling coal” refers to tweaking a diesel engine so that it produces more black smoke than is necessary. Whatever the opposite of “carbon neutral” is, this dude is it.

The local ABC affiliate played the audio for a few residents to get their takes. “I think I’d maybe be worried that he was drunk, or out of his mind, maybe,” said one. I, on the other hand, would have felt reassured to know that my pilot was so clear-eyed about the world and his surroundings before takeoff.

Another said, “I think it’s a good thing that the aircraft did not hear that because I would be very scared to hear a pilot saying that. Especially with everything that’s been going on.” I’m not sure what the last part means. Is it a reference to the Capitol riot? He heard a guy in a southern accent ranting about “liberal f***s” and thought he was going to … do what? Crash the plane? C’mon. The worst that conceivably could have happened was the pilot strolling out of the cockpit in face paint and Viking horns, wanting to talk to passengers about QAnon. Perfectly safe.