Reluctant Politician

Oil still visible Aug. 27 on rocks at Perdido Pass (Ala.) jetty.

The American news media is often criticized for reporting a story into the ground and ignoring other stories in the process. There is a bit of truth to that, however it is also the American public that must accept some of the blame. At some point during the last century it became the American way to go full-bore, head-first into any situation and basically obsess about it and little else. Of course, long before the issue was truly solved, it also became our way to become bored and seek out a new problem to attack foolhardily without realistic goals, proper financing or an exit plan.

For more than a month after the large earthquake in Haiti earlier this year, the U.S. and the media were all over the disaster reporting the story and pledging support for the devastated third-world country. Yet, the country is largely ignored nowadays and undoubtably still worse off today than it was before the earthquake shook apart the country’s capital city. (continue reading…)

Rendering of Park51

Outrage across America seems to be brewing recently over the planned $100 million Islamic center and mosque. Is the outrage justified and should anything be done to prevent it from being built in the proposed location just two blocks from Ground Zero – the former World Trade Center site – in New York City?

Pure and simple the answers are not really, and no – at least not via legislation.

Let’s start with the easy answers first. Politicians have no business legislating where any religious organization can or cannot build. I am an adamant supporter of the separation of church and state. I believe such separation is applicable in this situation as well. That includes both federal, state, county and city branches of government. There absolutely should be no special legislation forbidding the building of the Islamic center. If there is an existing broad city code covering such a situation, then by all means it may be considered, but even then, I say tread carefully. (continue reading…)

“We tried jiujitsu, we tried yoga, we tried everything we could to get Republicans to come along.”

~ Sen. Harry Reid, describing the Democratic Party’s recent attempts to garner bipartisan support for a bill.

I applaud any attempt to get all political parties in Congress to work together. But jiujitsu and yoga? Has everything else – including common sense and a desire to do what is best for the nation – been exhausted or so overused that it has resorted to this?

It seems that Southwest Airlines has found a novel way to not be responsible for just about anything. ‘Mechanical difficulties’ has been added to the list of things for which the airline will not accept liability in case of travel delays. While the list includes the roll call of standard exceptions for liability – acts of God such as storms and earthquakes, as well as wars and riots – the very idea that Southwest now considers mechanical problems to be outside of its control is absurd. So no longer will the airline be required to offer compensation for “any type of special, incidental or consequential damages,” even though such may have been caused by the lack of proper maintenance of its very own aircraft. At least in theory that is what the airline is ‘telling’ us.

Why did I put telling in quotes? Simply because this change is buried on page 11 of the airline’s “contract of carriage.” I am not a frequent flyer, taking an average of one to two trips a year via aircraft. However, I have flown Southwest before and I can honestly say that I have never read this 32-page document. For that matter, I am not aware of ever having seen the document in question.

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