Float Planes

Who else wants to discuss float planes?

What?

Nobody?

Too bad.

Here's the deal:  Many Alaskans and Canadiens (French spelling, maybe) need float planes to travel about the wilds of Alaska and Canada.  There really isn't an alternative viable option for them to do the things they do.

Unfortunately for them all the float planes that exist today were originally built in the 30's, 40's and 50's.

I recall, long ago, seeing an episode of "Dirty Jobs" in Alaska.  Mike, the show host, was surprised when the bush pilot pointed out that their plane needed to be retrieved from a museum.  I have heard of lots of float planes being restored after crashes that should have totaled them. 

Using old float planes is less safe than it could be.  For example: A few years ago the majority of the fishing guides on Lake St. Clair were killed in a plane crash while they were on a moose hunt.  But there are no new float planes (that's "float planes" not "boat planes")

Why have bush pilots been forced to use old planes?  Why aren't there new float planes?

Guess whose fault it is.

I'll give you two hints (which should be unnecessary, if you've visited this blog before):

1. Starts with "a", ends with "holes"
2. This organization made $18,000,000 with hidden fees on plane fares in the U.S., in 2009.

Can you say,"health and safety regulations killed float plane manufacturing"?

The Adventures of Greggary Peccary

My Post on Chris Dorner

“If you drive a black truck or apparently any truck, you might want to put a 'Not Chris Dorner' sign on the back,” he said in a status update posted Thursday morning. 

Apparently an ex-cop has a grudge against the police and has killed a few cops.

Two trucks have also been shot up by the police because they were trucks and Chris has a truck.

Wirecutter points out that these cops "can't tell their collective asses from a hole in the ground."

I don't know if Chirs Dorner has a legitimate complaint against the police.

I do know that there are an awful lot of cases where cops shoot, or illegally detain, people and dogs. Eric has listed many of those stories in his "Hero Cop" series.

examples:

Hero Cop Suspended
Hero Cop Murders His Son …and Maybe Others, Too
Hero Cop kills naked freshman at University of South Alabama
Hero Cop Shoots Puppy to Death

This Chris Dorner story should show more of us that the police may be just as dangerous as criminals.  We should all take more care to protect ourselves.  Cops may, or may not be helpful.

Chris Dorner may be far away, but what makes you think that the cops that are near you are any better than those who are shooting up trucks just because their suspect has a truck?

Sometimes its best to laugh.

Chicago Police Want 12 Percent Pay Raise h/t: drudge

excerpt:

The union also wants officers to get extra money because they are required to live in the city.  

I wonder why. Is it because the city has hundreds of murders?

Hare Brush

Political Posts

For a while I have been wondering if there has been a point to my posts that are of a political nature.  Why add one more small (by number of pageviews) voice to my political ideas, when there are already so many others?

I doubt that too many people who come here are liberals.  I have only had two comments from liberals, and they were both in response to the comment debates that I have occasionally.  It is my guess that liberals are less likely to seek out the opinions of their political opponents.

So why should I continue to write about politics when the choir can go other places and find better writers who are writing about the same sort of things?

And why write for liberals if they aren't coming here anyway, and if they are, then they should probably be reading Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell instead?

I thought of this post and a reason for my continuing just before I fell asleep, but now that I've slept on it I don't recall my answer for why I should continue.  I probably will continue, because it occasionally amuses me.

How to Fix the Country

My three step plan to fixing what is wrong with the world:

1. Convince women to return to being mothers

2. Balance the budget by radically changing entitlements

3. Remove as many rules and regulations as possible

Stop me if I am wrong.  Doing those three things would:

Returning women to their homes would:

• Reduce unemployment
• More women would turn into mothers
• Children would spend more time with their parents
• Women would be less likely to want to get divorced
• Women would have more time to spend improving themselves
• Women would have more time to "be creative"
• Etc.

Balancing the budget by radically changing entitlements would:

• Bring stability to the economy
• Eventually, end the debt
• Taxes could be lowered
• No government default
• Give entitlements a shot at existing long into the future (the goal for some)
• Etc.

Removing rules and regulations would:

• Free people to take chances and risks
• Allow the market to work
• More competition would exist
• People wouldn't be jailed for trivialities
• Etc.

Three ideas.  What wouldn't be better if these changes were made?  Fewer workers would even result in less traffic and less global warming (which is stupid regardless).  We would even see improvements in global warming.

Wouldn't it be great if any of these three things happened?