On regulation

On whether less government regulation is always better, for my Libertarian-leaning friends.

I'm not saying that regulation is good, or bad. Rather, I've learned that each case must be considered on its own merits. 
 
You see, I'm an airline pilot. And you probably know that flying is the safest form of transportation. It wasn't always so. 

You may also know that many commercial aspects of the airline industry were "deregulated" in the early '80's.   The result has been cheaper tickets (with the tradeoff of declining standards of service, and extra fees for just about everything.)  But behind the ticket counter, regulations abound.  Airlines, manufacturers, maintainers and pilots are all are subject to minute government scrutiny and control.  And that's as it should be. Virtually every one of the regulations under which we operate were written in blood, as a result of accidents.

So it is a result of BOTH strict regulation AND deregulation, that air travel remains safe AND affordable.
 
So it seems to me that blanket ideological beliefs espousing "less government interference" are poor substitutes for well-informed and thoroughly researched policy opinions. Some activities benefit from regulation; some would do well with less. But most importantly, poorly informed opinions on complex topics (heathcare, climate change and the economy come to mind), informed solely by general principles like "less is better," are just plane foolish.

Follow me

Dear reader. I've been blogging, but it's been on Google+.  Maybe I should blog here, and just put links on Google+.  But either way, the best way to know if I've posted something new, is to follow me on Google+

Hello again, Wyrld.

I've neglected this blog for several years now, but things have changed, and now it's time to do some blogging again.  Thanks to Jack Koehler, whose blog, sksojurn.blogspot.com (and his relationship with my daughter, Rachel), have reminded me how useful a blog can be for keeping people informed of one's travels.  Jack and Rachel recently moved to Korea.  Jack's blog is an amusing read, with titles like "Why does that dog have a green butt?"  Jack's blog has not only been a pleasure to read, it's been about the best way I've found to feel connected to Rachel.

So now, it' my turn to help you, dear reader, feel what I'm feeling today as I travel the world.

Today I'm in Riga, Latvia. You see, my new job with National Air Cargo has me flying 747's around the world, into garden spots like Camp Bastion, Afghanistan (where no real garden would survive), and to some really beautiful and amazing places like Riga.  Yes, I know you never heard of it, but it's on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.  I really like it here. So would you.

Though I've been flying a lot, today I had a day off.  This morning, I slept in, then went down to breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The restaurant was crowded.  It's a free breakfast, after all, but the food is not what you'd get at the Best Western.  I'm staying at the Radisson Blu Latvia, and the breakfast spread includes a variety of fish, meats, cheeses, breads, yogurt, omelettes made to order...well, you get the idea. But what struck me most, while sitting alone at a table (I had slept too late to meet my travel companions), were the people.  And the sounds. And what it all meant, in an historical sense.

To look at the people, this could have been a restaurant anywhere in the U.S.  Everyone was wearing what could best be called American Casual style.  And playing over the speakers, softly, in a perfect elevator-music way, were American songs, old ones, like "Fly Me to the Moon," and the theme from the movie Exodus.  American culture has certainly taken over Europe.  Also much of cosmopolitan Asia and the Middle East.

With no one to talk to, I started listening to conversations at other tables. That's when it hit me.  Everyone was speaking their own languages.  Not a surprise, but a revelation.   The family at the next table... husband and wife, sister-in-law (probably), twin boys about 6 years old shoving each other around the table fussing in...Hebrew.   At another table, a Polish couple.  Another table, two men sitting across from each other, gazing out the window together at the immaculate park across the boulevard, one man in a tight t-shirt and jeans, the other in pastel-colored shorts and shirt. (Gay, or just European? It's hard to tell.)  German speakers, Russian speakers, Turkish, Italian, other languages I didn't recognize.

So why is this a revelation, you ask?  That in a hotel in Riga, Latvia, I'd hear many different languages spoken?  Duh, Joel!

I'll tell you why.

It's because of the history.  I began to think how just a few short decades ago, this place was behind the iron curtain.  And a few decades before that, it was under NAZI occupation.  Now, it's free, and beautiful, and welcomes people from all over. Peoples who, within living memory, were busily trying to exterminate one another, were now eating breakfast together. And wearing American fashions, and listening to American music, and if they had nothing else in common, they all had at least that much in common.

Then I began to reflect on how most of these people came here on a jet airliner, and it was because of air travel that people of different backgrounds came together, began to understand each other, and stopped wanting to kill each other.  And the American-ness of the scene couldn't be a mere coincidence, either.  Did our example, in America (the U.S. and Canada, especially), where people of different ethnicity not only get along, but form prosperous communities together; did our culture and example, not just through our music and fashion, but through our multiculturalism, influence these peoples of Europe and Asia to give up warring and live peaceably?  I think America, and aviation, can take some credit for that.

So for a moment, taking all this in, I felt proud of my country, and my profession, and I smiled.

Joe "Capo" Liebermann

Joe "Capo" Liebermann

I just heard Sen. Lieberman say he will join the Republican filibuster of the health care bill if it includes a public option. Of course, any bill that includes a mandate to have insurance, without including a public option, would enrich the insurance industry and have no effective controls on rising health care premiums. But that's what Joe wants, because that's what his masters want -- the big insurance companies based in Connecticut.

Given the self-serving nature of Joe's position over a life-and-death issue, and his complete defection from the interests of the people of CT and the US, what came to mind for me, a Jew raised with images of the holocaust, were the capos, the Jews who worked for their Nazi captors in the concentration camps who helped to beat, starve, torture and kill their fellow Jews.

Sure, Joe may believe that his political survival is at stake. The capos believed they were acting to ensure their own survival, too. But Joe, this isn't life or death for you, it's just politics. That makes you worse than a capo, and it does an injustice to the memory of capos to compare them with Joe Lieberman.

Call Senator Lieberman, and call him out. Call him an insurance company capo, and when you have his attention, demand that he allow a health care reform bill with a public option to come up for a vote. You can contact him online -- http://lieberman.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm?regarding=issue

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Pieras (red foliage when not blooming)
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Deep Purple
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