I wear a lot of hats, here at dKos and in the world. Jack of all trades and master of none, you know the deal. Anyway, yesterday, as I was wearing my musician hat and leaving a gig, I saw an airplane perhaps 2 miles distant coming into land at the Columbia, SC airport. It was clearly a jumbo- rare here- and not in the paint scheme of UPS, which is the only airline that flies such things. I saw it from a distance, but it seemed that the fuselage and tail configuration (overhead wing but tailwings at the base of wing, wide body) meant it was either a C-130 Hercules of the US Military or the russian Antonov AN-124- the soviet equivalent of the C-5 galaxy and not a common sight around here. So I, being a nerd and having some spare time, drove to the airport to look- and lo, it was the An-124, with a big ol' Russian flag on the tail. I know planespotting is not an uncommon hobby, so I was just wondering if anybody around here knew why this plane could be where it was. My guess is it was flying some liberals to Eastern Europe to be tortured, but I'm open to other suggestions :)