RANT: Air travel sucks

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Note: TSA at PHL is now enforcing a “two carry on bag limit” as you enter their lines. People are being told “Either consolidate or check it”. I’m sure the airlines are happy about this now that they all charge extra for each bag (i.e., 15$ to 100$).

Today, my wife’s nephew, his wife, and their twins had an “interesting” experience. Driving them to the airport, they found that their flight had been cancelled. Hubbie was booked on a later flight and Wifey with kids was delayed until the morrow. (Good luck finding a room on New Year’s Eve!)

Conflicting directions of where to check in. United moved them to US Airways in a different terminal. Then the lines again. Conflicting directions. More problems.

It all worked out. But not without a lot of angst!

Argh!

Confirms my firmly held conviction to never fly again.

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RANT: Self-defense is a mind set

Thursday, December 31, 2009

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091226/D9CR18JO0.html

Passengers help foil attack on Detroit-bound plane
Dec 26, 8:49 AM (ET)
By JIM IRWIN

*** begin quote ***

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) – An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke – sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.

*** end quote ***

One thing is new — passenger docility.

The days when passengers would sit idly like sheep and let terrorists act with impunity.

And, how did the explosive get on board?

Yes, security theater!

See it’s all about fooling the traveling public into complacency. And giving job to people who will vote the “correct” way.

Argh!

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RANT: Good after bad

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Govt gives GMAC $3.8B in new aid, boosts stake

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON (AP) – The government gave GMAC Financial Services another $3.8 billion in cash and took a majority stake in the auto lender, aiming to stabilize the company as it struggles with big losses in its home mortgage unit. The fresh infusion is on top of $12.5 billion in taxpayer money…

*** end quote ***

How dumb!

Time to cut the taxpayer’s losses.

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RANT: Lift her light beside the golden door

Thursday, December 31, 2009

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15108634&source=hptextfeature

Going to America
A Ponzi scheme that works
Dec 17th 2009 | ANNANDALE, VIRGINIA AND DALLAS, TEXAS
From The Economist print edition
The greatest strength of America is that people want to live there

*** begin quote ***

When he arrived, Mr Lee was astonished by how rich nearly everyone was. He recalls his first dinner with Americans: the huge bowls and immense portions. He was startled to see lights left on in empty rooms. He is still impressed: “The roads are so wide, the cars so big, the houses so large—everything is abundant,” he says.

Yet this is not why he came, and it is not why he stayed and became a citizen. For Mr Lee, America is a land that offers “the chance to be whatever you want to be”. More prosaically, it is a place where nearly any immigrant can find a niche.

*** end quote ***

We NEED these immigrants. Everyone who wants to come and work.

Kill welfare and then there is no reason not to have them come.

Take the trash bag off the Statue of Liberty and get back to our roots.

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POLITICAL: We need to be “isolationalist”

Thursday, December 31, 2009

http://thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/2651-ben-stein-says-ron-paul-uses-anti-semitic-arguments

Ben Stein Says Ron Paul Uses “Anti-Semitic Arguments”
Written by Thomas R. Eddlem   
Tuesday, 29 December 2009 10:52

*** begin quote ***

Rep. Paul, a Republican from Texas, has argued for removing U.S. soldiers from the Middle East because the American presence there is increasingly seen by many Muslims as a foreign occupation force. Responding to Rep. Paul’s argument that Americans should mind their own business and not become the policeman of the world, Stein argued: “No, we’re not occupiers. That’s the same anti-Semitic argument we’ve heard over and over again. That’s the same anti-Semitic argument we’ve heard over and over again.”

*** end quote ***

Time to get our boys and girls home.

We’re not the global policeman.

The choice is ours, but it can’t be found in EITHER political party!

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