Phil Roe and Guns

Would someone please remind me why Phil Roe had such nasty things to say about the failed legislation in Tennessee that would have allowed law-abiding citizens with gun carry permits to carry their guns into restaurants that served alcohol provided they were not imbibing? How many more people must die before the pols realize that criminals bent on harm are going to ignore the law? Thankfully, some parts of the country have figured it out. Via SayUncle.

Phil Roe is running for Congress in Tennessee's First Congressional District.

Want cheap gas?

Here is a novel idea - get government out of the way and let the free market handle it. The CEO of Shell Oil recently tried to explain that to our idiotic government officials, but they did not want to hear it, preferring instead to suggest nationalizing the oil industry (of course, Maxine Waters lacks the intelligence to even understand what it is called). Sign this petition for cheap gas today, and hope that it will make a difference to our government. Drilling domestically is a good solution to this problem until alternatives can be developed. I know it will work, you know it will work and the government knows it will work. They just don't want to give up the power that comes with their control over the people's land and resources.

Only a liberal

Only a liberal could complain about the government's response to Hurricane Katrina but then advocate for universal (i.e., socialist) healthcare.

Update: Here is a good list of similar thoughts: You might be a liberal if ...

American Airlines to Charge for First Checked Bag

Instead of charging for the first bag, maybe they ought to cut costs by suffocating the labor unions. I'm sure this means that your bags are less likely to get lost. Yeah, right.

A Muslim Apostate?

I don't subscribe to the "Obama is a Muslim" hysteria. That wouldn't be PC. However, as this editorial points out, there are real reasons that his election may create foreign policy issues in the Muslim world. Essentially, Muslims could view him as the worst kind of apostate - one who was "fortunate enough" to be born into a Muslim family and then rejected the faith.

Another reason airlines are destined to fail

A JP Morgan analyst noted that bankruptcy of a major air carrier is a matter of "when not if." Reasons given are high fuel costs and competition. There are, however, other reasons which are seldom discussed because (a) the liberal media refuses to offend a key Democrat constituency and (b) it is easier to take a mental shortcut and blame all problems on big business or big oil than it is to do the tough work of actually thinking.

The problem to which I am referring is labor unions. A recent trip on a major airline was instructive for me. After the cabin door was closed, we were told that the flight would be delayed "a short while" so that a small repair could be made. The plane could not take off because one of the latches that holds the "tray table in the upright position" was broken. [Whether the FAA ought to be regulating such things is for another discussion.] Of course, they had to call a union mechanic to get the job done. My understanding was that the fix was duct tape that could have been applied by anyone. OK, so what's my problem with this? A mechanic's union worker had to do the job. The attendants and pilots are undoubtedly prohibited from doing those jobs because the mechanics' union would be filing grievances in protest if anyone other than a union worker made the fix. Of course, they are willing accomplices in this scheme, because they play by the same silly rules in their own unions.

What should have been a two minute delay by a flight attendant with some duct tape turned into a nearly forty minute delay. This was for an Atlanta-bound flight. How many people missed their connections because of this? Do these morons not understand that if the plane flies when the seats are empty, those revenues are gone forever? Those who missed connections probably caused others to get bumped from flights and most likely resulted in some seats on future flights not being able to be sold. This also resulted in minutes lost in valuable flight duty time for the pilots such that they may not have been able to take a subsequent flight in the same day. It probably resulted in some overtime (or at least wasted time) for the flight attendants and other employees. There is undoubtedly a ripple effect from silliness like this and it is no wonder that airlines fail when you see such stupidity by the unions. It was only about a month ago that we heard carping because Delta did not consult its baggage handlers before announcing a potential merger with Northwest. What are these people thinking?

Obama or Carter

Obama recently had this to say:

We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to
say OK.

This reminds me a lot of Jimmy Carter's suggestion to wear a sweater, but creates even more fear in my heart. This man has no concept of freedom. I frankly do not give a rip what "other countries" have to say about what I drive or the temperature of my home. It is simply none of their business or concern.

UPDATE: Others have noticed as well. (Via Instapundit.)