Good Stuff

Kim du Toit
May 14, 2008
11:48 AM CDT

Bob Bidinotto posts his thoughts on November’s election, and they’re good ones. Here are a couple of samples:

Someone just posted a comment to a previous entry, asking, in essence, whether I thought it was better to vote for Republican John McCain (because of his stand on the war, and his likelihood of appointing better Supreme Court justices) or Libertarian Bob Barr (because of his superior political philosophy).

My answer is a qualified “neither.” The qualification hinges on the word “for.”

I won’t be voting “for” any presidential candidate in November. I’ll be voting against one.

As good as Bob Barr is on most domestic issues, the Libertarian foreign policy is suicidally naive. Also, I think minority-party “protest votes” are futile and wasted.  Either a Republican or Democrat will occupy the White House in 2009. Those are the only realistic alternatives. For me, therefore, my November presidential vote will be between the two major party candidates—and that vote will be purely tactical, not philosophical.

Obviously, I can’t support either Obama or McCain on philosophical grounds. Both, in different ways, would be national disasters—Obama both at home and abroad, and the McCain mainly on the domestic front. Unlike conservatives, I have zero confidence that McCain, as a conservative progressive in the Teddy Roosevelt tradition, will select limited-government justices to join the Supremes. So I think that there is only one public-policy reason to pull the McCain lever: the war against radical Islam. Period.

Can’t argue with any of that. Pragmatic approaches always win out for me, especially when facing the Antichrist socialists. Also:

It looks like the GOP will suffer crushing defeats at the congressional level in November. I would not want the Dems to take the White House, too, and thus have an unobstructed path to unlimited expansion of federal power. Since limiting federal power—to whatever extent possible—is my top political priority, I’d probably want a Republican (however nominal) in the White House, as something of a check on Congress. In other words, I’ll be voting in hopes of some measure of gridlock.

Yup.

And for those who are thinking of sitting this one out, allow me to quote some other guy:

Fact is, our choices are going to be Maverick Johnny McCain (Self-TV) or Messiah Obama (Soc-IL). That’s the hand we’ve been dealt, and that’s the one we’re going to have to play.

Remember, this is not like a poker game, where if you’re losing, or don’t like the stakes, you can walk away from the game with your money.

If you walk away from this game, the others will continue to play your hands, with your money.

Time to restart the conservative revolution later.

Partial Recovery

Kim du Toit
May 14, 2008
11:45 AM CDT

Looks like The Mrs. has managed to get her site up and running again. Now it’s her turn to rebuild everything…

Be warned: there are pictures of a bunny massacre in today’s post.

Gratuitous Insult

Kim du Toit
May 14, 2008
10:01 AM CDT

Okay, so Manchester (UK) would not be on my short list of places to visit. Especially today:

There have not been so many bagpipes on the streets of Manchester since Bonnie Prince Charlie turned up in 1745.

But while he led a Jacobite army of just 6,000, Rangers Football Club is expected to muster 100,000 troops for tonight’s Uefa Cup final.

The “friendly” invasion began in earnest on Tuesday after a noisy and colourful exodus from Glasgow.

The Rangers hordes left by plane, train, car and bus, with road vehicles festooned in red, white and blue ballons and Union flags. Around 23,000 Rangers fans are thought to have tickets for the 44,000-capacity City of Manchester stadium

Oy. A horde of drunken Scots [Redundancy Alert] in what has been called one of Britain’s least attractive cities?

I’ll watch it on TV*.

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* Fat chance—ESPN is showing the Argentinian national nailbiting playoffs, I suspect.

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Update: Watched it on Fox Soccer Channel—Dirty Russkis 2, Porridge Monkeys 0.

Perfect Sense

Kim du Toit
May 14, 2008
9:32 AM CDT

Okay, so I read this about the airline industry:

Fewer Americans are expected to fly this summer, but don’t expect more empty seats as carriers park planes to help offset surging fuel costs.

The trade group for the nation’s largest airlines on Tuesday forecast 211.5 million passengers will travel on domestic carriers between June 1 and Aug. 31. That would be a 1.3 percent drop from last summer.

Airlines are reducing their carrying capacity amid slower economic growth and rising jet fuel prices, the Air Transport Association said.

So one would think, therefore, that with fewer planes flying, that delays will be reduced?

Silly rabbits.

But planes will be nearly 85 percent full and delays emanating from New York-area airports will remain a problem, ATA President and Chief Executive James May said. [emphasis added]

Well, that explains it all.

Unusually, I have some sympathy for the airlines nowadays: fuel costs must be astonishing, and while it makes sense to let a few planes remain idle, those planes still have to be paid for—and no flying, no revenue.

Just out of curiosity, however, I looked up a couple of coach fares yesterday:

DFW - Paris: $1,100
DFW - Paris - Vienna: $900

The outgoing DFW - Paris flight was the identical American Airlines flight number in each case. I could understand the price difference if both flights were AA: but the CDG - VIE leg was Austrian Airlines, which isn’t even a partner airline to American.

Now that makes no sense.

Recycling

Kim du Toit
May 14, 2008
9:04 AM CDT

So I read this article with increasing puzzlement:

Bombing ranges have become prime hunting grounds for so-called “scrappers,” who are motivated by soaring commodity prices to take greater risks in their quest for brass, copper and aluminum. The scavenging causes headaches for the military, which cannot patrol every inch of the remote bases where spent ammunition, shrapnel and unexploded ordnance are easy to find.

“This is not just some petty crime. This is dangerous business,” said Andy Chatelin, director of range management at Twentynine Palms, which at 932 square miles is the world’s largest Marine Corps base.

Illegal scavenging of military munitions has long been an issue at military bases. But as metal prices have climbed in the past two years, scavengers have become more numerous, more audacious and more sophisticated.

Look, I’m just a civilian here—but I was a soldier, once, and it occurred to me that it makes sense that the .mil should, as it were, police their brass on these ranges, just as they do on the rifle ranges.

Yeah, I know it’s time-consuming and all that; but when I think of how much time the .mil wastes on a daily basis anyway, it seems to me that this would be an excellent punishment for minor offences.

“SPC Slakka, your uniform is a disgrace! Field Punishment #25: Brass Pickup!” then issue a couple of defaulters a truck, and make them go out and not come back until the truck bed is full of expended shell casings.

Then on a weekly basis or whatever, have the shells delivered to various scrap metal dealers in the area, with the proceeds going towards the C.O.’s discretionary fund.

I know, it’s not as satisfying as this outcome:

In May 2007, two suspected scrappers removed a Vietnam-era missile from the Twentynine Palms base. It later exploded in their Barstow home, killing both men and destroying the apartment.

But at least some good can come of it, compared to the current situation, which benefits only criminals.

Late Start

Kim du Toit
May 14, 2008
8:33 AM CDT

...today, because I stayed up late last night, to welcome Tech Support’s birthday.

She’s all “I’m getting so old!” and I’m “Like that matters.”

Mature wine and Stradivarius violins come to mind. Here’s how she always looks, to me, and always will:

Happy Birthday, sweetheart.