The better informed part, possibly. The ability to state the case, well, I ain't gonna have that even if I ever do get to retire.

Right then, okay, then the next time an airliner crashes, which I pray no more ever do, that you will be the first, up-front and center demanding that your God, President Obama, shuts down all airlines until the NTSB finalizes and publishes the accident report.

That makes the same amount of sense as Obama shutting down all the drilling rigs in the Gulf. Therefore, as you seem to support Obama's action in shutting down all drilling in the Gulf, you should have no problem supporting, even demanding, that all airlines be grounded the next time an airliner crashes.

GetTheFlick

Nice to see you back peddling the ineffective, tired old Keynesial economics of the Thirties. Economics that were a complete failure, as evidenced by the fact that, had FDR left office in 1940, he would have been viewed as a failure for not having changed the course of the Depression. That is not me, but former Adminstration CEA Chief Larry Summers' idea. I guess, you, Ditchdigger (how appropriate a handle, seeing as we continue to dig holes whilst in one) and leftist hero Paul Krugman can keep at it 'til we're broke worse than we already are.

BTW, it's you that lives in the ole Confederency, not me--enjoy the Confederate bills.

GF

You too Don. :ok:

I of course have my own opinions regarding politics and politicians, based upon what I observe and what I think is right. But you, Ditchdigger, con-pilot and Galaxy Flyer are way out of my league in commenting on political matters or attempting to sway the opinions of others. Nor have I put in the time and effort to read what so many other pundits write about it. I just know a politician's lie when I see it. I can see their lips moving. I'll leave the incisive analysis to you guys!

But I really enjoyed your "Say Again" column on Avweb and respect your opinion on matters pertaining to the FAA in general and the ATC system in particular. Thanks again for your service. And I appreciate knowing a little about what's behind the latest budget dust-up too. Keep at it.

Anyway, I have to admit I'm enjoying watching you guys slug it out, so I guess I'll grab some snacks and watch the spectacle.

Best,

westhawk

And we have a winner, well said. :ok:

I'm not familiar enough with the particulars to know whether the drilling moratorium was the most appropriate action or not. I did question here (rhetorically), whether it made the President many friends, and I did speculate that it got the attention of big oil.

I'm sure we all hope no other airliner ever crashes, and I suspect we'd agree that if none do, it will be as a result of lessons learned the hard way, and the measures taken to correct the flaws that led to those hard lessons--measures which may have been accompanied by thier share of discomfort.

As far as grounding all airlines, I guess the closest we've ever come to that was on 9/11, although that was a horse of a different color.

Certainly though, there are numerous examples of certain fleets being grounded, in whole or in part, due to concerns that needed to be looked into. I guess most of them are flying again. Would you argue that in every case those actions were unreasonable and uncalled for?

Well, actually it was all deep-water rigs. so, the parallel with grounding some particular segements of the airline industry is there. And again, I'm not going to claim to know enough about drilling for oil or running an airline to say for certain whether any given action was the most appropriate.

What unmitigated crap that line is!

I felt at the time that he was the lesser of two evils, and I still feel that way, although I thought he was going to prove himself to be more of a leader.

What I have a problem with there, is the playing of the if-you-don't-hate-him-as-much-as-I-hate-him-then-you-love-him card. It's BS, and I've encountered it enough to know that if somebody brings that attitude to the discussion, there's really no point in even bothering...

You may not realize it, but not everybody you see with a shovel in his hand is intent on creating a deeper hole. Some are about the business of excavating the material needed to build a ramp to some higher goal. You just have to be farsighted enough to distinguish one objective from the other.

Any number of us of the Starboard Side argued that Obama had ZERO leadership background or inclination, but were ignored by the voting sheeple. He voted "present" multiple times in Illinois and had no record of accomplishment in the US Senate, why ANYONE thought he would be a leader or is disappointed by him proving not to be a leader has only himself and hIs delusions to blame.

GF

Yawwwwwnnnn.

Chinese Stimulus

"a RMB¥ 4 trillion (US$ 586 billion) stimulus package announced by the central government of the People's Republic of China on 9 November 2008..."

"...On June 2009, the World Bank raised its growth forecast in China for 2009 from 6.5% to 7.2% amid signs that the economy is doing better than expected, which has been helped by the stimulus package. ..."

Oh, that's right. I forgot. Government can't create jobs. So I guess everybody being in a tizzy about China taking over is just a liberal hoax.

Let's see...the U.S. economy is roughly 2 1/2 times the size of China's so if we'd been serious about a stimulus we'd have spent...a little over $1.4 trillion. (Just to make you squeal, I'm not sure even that would have been enough. I'd have gone for at least $2 trillion.) Keep in mind that's *spending* -- not tax cuts.

What we did -- only $787 billion with a bunch wasted on tax breaks, thanks to Republicans -- is kind of like being cheap and taking half a shot of penicillin for the clap. You wind up still having the clap and not enough medicine left to cure it.

Always fun, Galaxy. But don't get your hopes up. I'll have to go back to writing for Monday soon.

Don Brown
Get the Flick

P.S. I don't have time to look up where we recently borrowed $3 trillion and the interest on a 10-year T-bill actually went down to around 3%. I thought that was low and now it's what? 2.4? 2.5%? That's cheap money. It's somewhere on Krugman's blog. But never mind the facts.

Ditchdigger,

Unlike Con, I'll try to help you when putting words in your mouth. You know the difference between off-shore oil wells and airlines? Regulation.

Nice catch on the deep-water difference. ;)

BTW, are the oilfield workers unionized? I really don't know. Just askin'. :)

Don Brown

I read that question, and my immediate reaction was to place tongue firmly in cheek and reply, "Of course not. If they were, the union boss could've just called the White House and said "Barry, I don't want you to stop them from drilling", and it would have been a done deal."

But I got to wondering what the real answer is, and as it turns out, no, they're not.

Lack of union workers hurts offshore oil industry | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

That was a very good piece DD. Thanks.

Don Brown