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November 17, 2008
iconoclast
One good thing about the Delta delays, I was able to finish iconoclast by Gregory Berns. It was a nice book on the neuroscience of how some people "think different". It did point out some the traits that those who do novel things have in common, such as lacking fear. I'm still not sure how much of this is genetic and how much f it can be learned, but I think at least some of it cna be learned.
Posted by robertgreen at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
Good News for Dems? Not so Sure.
Good news for the Dems; bad news for America, Thomas P. M. Barnett
Thomas P M Barnett says the argument between traditionalists and reformers in the GOP is good news for the democrats but bad news for the country. I agree with him in part. It is bad for the country because I think we need to quit all the in-fighting and get back to fundamental conservative principles—limited government and free markets. I’m not sure it is good news for the Dems though. The public has a short memory and the average Joe does not o serious policy analysis—he votes how he feels and right now he does not feel good.
The problem, in case you haven’t heard, is the economy. But it is not America’s economy; it is the world’s economy. There are some things president-elect Obama will be able to do but I’m not comfortable he, nor anyone else, will be able to turn this thing around in four years. Come the next election, average Joe will still be hurting and will blame it on the President. I think for that reason the GOP has a great chance in four years of winning back the Whitehouse and keeping it for two terms. Why? Because the economy will be better, although neither party will have really solved the issue, it will just be timing. Had McCain won this last election, I would be saying the same thing for Democrats.
In a nutshell, I’m predicting a one-term president Obama and two-term GOP president in 2012. We’ll see. The truth is right now all of this is nothing much more than reading tea leaves.
Posted by robertgreen at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)
Arrived in Norfolk Despite Delta
Another flight on Delta and another comedy of errors. I left Starkville with no problems. It does irk me a little that when I travel I always take the same stuff and pack the same way. Most times I sail through security, other times they want to search everything. I can’t imagine why the difference. Heck, even some of the TSA agents know me now and talk to me. I got to Atlanta with no problems, had time to stop at Starbucks, and then got on the plane. We even left on time. Of course I immediately noticed that we quit climbing and started banking which meant only one thing—we were returning to Atlanta. The problem was the throttle on one engine was sticking and pilots wanted it checked.
Once we got to back to the gate maintenance took a look and the pilot announced that sometimes the baggage handlers packed the bags too tightly which forces the ceiling of the cargo hold up a little and can bind the throttle cable. After a little while everyone was pretty much convinced that was the problem but not enough to fly the plane. So, we deplane and go to another gate. They announce a departure time of 5:30 and we board the plane accordingly. We are all ready to go but there are no pilots. Not only that, there is no air conditioning. We were getting hot and the flight attendants were trying to get maintenance to turn on the air conditioning. Finally one pilot shows up, then another. But we don’t move. The new problem is that the caterer took the drinks off the old flight and moved them to the wrong gate. We were grounded because of soft drinks.
While we are waiting for the drinks to arrive, the Delta messenger service starts sending me email messages every five minutes telling me we are leaving in five minutes. Finally, we leave and trust me, by the time I was served a soft drink on this flight, we could have landed in Norfolk had we not waited for the drinks. The crew and the flight attendants were as nice and helpful as they could be but there are some serious management issues with Delta. I also continue to be bothered by the number of mechanical problems that are discovered in flight.
But, the good news is I am in Norfolk with friends and an exciting week of work ahead.
Posted by robertgreen at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)