United Airlines Shows How Not To Run Your Business (Forbes)

Many companies forget their main purpose and become bogged down in just sustaining their operations. United forgets that it's not only selling a means of transportation that is faster than trains or cars. For vacationers, who make up most passenger traffic, it's selling dreams and memories. An airline flight is typically the first and last part of a newlywed couple's honeymoon, or a family's overseas trip in planning for years. People remember such journeys forever. I fondly recall my own first flight on TWA when I was six years old, to Italy and Greece with my parents. Likewise, my childhood flights on Delta to see my grandmother in Florida. What United fails to get is that it is selling dreams, not just a form of transportation. Few United employees take pride in their jobs, and it shows.

Labels: airlines

Excerpt from The Royal Gazette

Four hundred years ago today the Sea Venture was wrecked on Bermuda's reef and St. George's is throwing a party to celebrate.

The Sea Venture was on its way to Jamestown in the US with crucial supplies for the newly established colony when it became separated from the other ships it sailed with on July 24 when they encountered a serious storm at "latitude 27 North and some 1000 leagues West of the Azores".

Captained by Sir George Somers they managed to survive the storm and four days later the severely leaking Sea Venture was run aground on Bermuda's eastern reefs. All the passengers and crew as well as the ship's dog made it safely to St. Catherine's Beach, which was historically known as 'Gates' Bay'.

To celebrate the milestone, a number of activities have been planned including a re-enactment of the landing of the survivors...

Related
My mum gave me a copy of Bermuda's Story by Terry Tucker that she found this weekend at the 49th Annual Pequot Library Book Sale. Here is Terry Tucker on the wreck of the Sea Venture:

"And suddenly, as if beholding a miracle, Sir George, still at the helm, gave a great hoarse shout: 'Land ho!'

Everyone rushed, straining eagerly in the direction he was looking; even those who had fallen to the docks with fatigue struggled to their feet. Yes–they could make out not only a rocky coast but even trees bending in the wind. How they must have held their breaths while Sir George guided the water-logged ship hard towards shore where she stuck between two shoals half a mile or so off the coast–and wedged there. The wind dropped; between the ship and the shore lay a stretch of blessedly smooth water. And presently, with great joy, they lowered the longboat, and, after several journeys, everyone was landed safely ashore. God had heard even those prayers carried away by the wind.

'Where are we?' they must have asked each other as they scrambled up towards the thick woods, giving a helping hand to one another and pulling the tired children after them. Sir George knew they had landed in the terrible Bermudas. Well, they must make the best of it. Even devil-haunted islands were better than a watery grave.

That was how the English came by chance to Bermuda. Never again were the islands entirely uninhabited. Friday, July 28th, 1609, was the day they landed and Bermuda's story as an inhabited place began. You must always remember that date. We call July 28th, Somers Day, in memory of the great man who is really the Father of this Colony."

Memorial to Sir George Somers, St. George's, Bermuda. Photograph from the Limestone Roof archives.

Labels: bermuda

Knowing the Endgame — in Chess and the Economy

In the agon we are considering, Barack Obama is an unskilled player. Timothy Geithner is an unskilled player. Larry Summers, Christina Romer, and Austan Goolsbee are unskilled players. (The jury is out on Ben Bernanke.) The moves they are now making will see to their embarrassment when they try to unkink the sinuosities of the endgame — assuming, as with my five-year-old, that they get that far. Indeed it appears that almost everyone in the administration is either an unskilled player, an old hack player (Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton), or a weirdo player (John Holdren, Van Jones).

This also appears to be the case with the Democratic Congress and its attendant RINOs. Duffers all or most. They cannot adhere, in Harry Frankfurt’s words, to “a disinterested and austere discipline” since they do not understand the game they are playing or are merely incapable of taking it seriously. They do not even read the bills that they pass. They are, in fact, prone to “some kind of laxity,” they are “trying to get away with something,” and they are blithely making up the rules as they go along. Frankfurt would not hesitate, despite his cachet as a Princeton philosopher, to call them bullsh*tters. But when one tackles a vital issue like the economy, there is no room for ignorance or frivolity — or bullsh*t.

Related
Granholm’s California-by-the-Lakes

Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid

(1) Airport Check-in: The Palm among new JFK eateries

(2) Another quote from How Rome Fell...

"There were no hordes of barbarians hurling themselves time and again against the walls of civilisation."

(3)


(4) A quote from Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison...

"The northeastern shore of this gulf is noted for the subterranean streams that flow down through the limestone and break out under the sea not far from the shore, welling forth such a volume of sweet water that that swarms of manatee are attracted to quest their thirst, and seamen may fill water casks without the trouble of going ashore."

I'll be quoting from this Pulitzer Prize winning book again in September.

Labels: airports, books, quotes, signage, weekend

Adrian Goldsworthy could be writing about Obama:

Diocletian's government lacked the machinery to enforce such a rigid pricing system on a day-to-day basis. Perhaps the most striking thing about the edict was its ambition - even if it was economically naive. Combined with the objective of profound change is the highly moral rhetoric. Talk of the 'peaceful state of the world' now that the 'seething ravages of barbarians peoples' have been restrained by great effort, is followed by outrage at a new evil attacking the soldiers. 'There burns a raging greed, which hastens to its own growth and increase without respect for human kind.' A little later the emperor compared this greed to a religion. The tone is typical of the other legislative activity of the tetrarchs and of their recorded rescripts - replies issued to legal questions and appeals sent to the emperor. The sense of outrage was accompanied by savage and often inventively cruel punishments.

Diocletian may genuinely have believed his own propaganda. He certainly felt that the best way to deal with the empire's problems was to impose strong central control. This was not a new idea. Bureaucracy had been growing in the last decades. The turnover of emperors was do rapid that officials, especially those of middle rank who were less likely to be purged when a regime changed, provided the most stable element in government. Diocletian stayed in power longer than his recent predecessors, his strength increasing with each passing year. He was therefore able to take much further the trend towards centralised government.

Related
Michelle Obama: Barack is the only man who can “heal” this nation and “fix our souls”
Make mine malaise
Obama vs. Carter

Labels: books, obama

The US MNT defeated Honduras 2-0 in their semifinal match. They will play the winner of the Costa Rica/Mexico match this Sunday. The US is vying for their third consecutive Gold Cup title.

Notable
The second goal by Kenny Cooper in the 89th minutes was brilliant.

Related
Honduras 0-2 USA: Young Yanks Headed to Final

Labels: soccer

The latest title/chapter in the Kingdom Hearts series by Square Enix will be available for the NINTENDO DS on September 29, 2009. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is the fourth title in the series.

KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days revolves around Roxas, the “other” hero from KINGDOM HEARTS II. Players follow Roxas through his days among Organization XIII’s ranks, unraveling the events that took place during the year that Sora was asleep, and ultimately revealing one of the KINGDOM HEARTS saga’s most shocking secrets.

Related
Kingdom Hearts (Wikipedia)
IGN: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Square Enix North America (Press Release)

Labels: disney

As heard on the Bill Bennett radio program: Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work.

You can listen to Bill Bennett interview author Matthew Crawford here. It's okay. I promise I won't tell NPR you listened to this.

Labels: books

Orwell was a genius. Most writers quote 1984 and/or Animal Farm but it is his work in The Road to Wigan Pier that most devastatingly reveals how and why the left can embrace fascism/statism.

The underlying motive of many Socialists, I believe, is simply a hypertrophied sense of order. The present state of affairs offends them not because it causes misery, still less because it makes freedom impossible, but because it is untidy; what they desire, basically, is to reduce the world to something resembling a chessboard.

Companion Piece
The Deeper Debate by Yuval Levin (***MUST READ***)

Labels: obama, pelosi, reid

The world's worst airports to sleep in

Related
The Guide to Sleeping in Airports
Hotels Around the World

Labels: airports

The US MNT defeats Panama 2-1 in overtime for a semifinal berth in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- With just one regular in the starting lineup, the United States rallied past Panama into the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Kenny Cooper converted a penalty kick in the 105th minute, giving the two-time defending champions a 2-1 victory and a semifinal berth against Honduras, which beat Canada 1-0 in the opener of Saturday's doubleheader.

In Sunday's quarterfinal doubleheader, Guadeloupe meets Costa Rica and Mexico faces Haiti in the first sporting event at the Dallas Cowboys new stadium at Arlington, Texas. The semifinals are Thursday in Chicago.

Labels: soccer, weekend

"He rode hell for leather to escape..."

This is how Adrian Goldworthy describes the flight of Constantine to Britain in How Rome Fell. What a brilliant use of words.

Labels: books, history, weekend

Our Radio Flyer ATW wagon goes north. New routes (new memories) and hopefully a refurbishment/overhaul.

Labels: weekend

Two great posts by Andy McCarthy. The first is about a conference in Chicago (wink, wink) entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" sponsored by the Sunni fundamentalist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

The second is about the lifeline the Obama administration has given the Iranian terror regime.

This quote answers the why:

"As I've been saying for a month, there is nothing complicated about this: Obama wants the mullahs to win. That seems impossible to believe for many well-intentioned people, but once you accept it — and everything it implies — life starts to make much sense. It isn't any better, mind you, but at least it makes sense."

- Andy McCarthy

Related
Islamic Supremacist Group Holds First U.S. Conference

Labels: islamofascism, obama

And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

- John Mayer

The Obama Administration is now referring to their failed $800 BILLION stimulus as a stabilization/recovery act/bill. The intent is to lower expectations now that economists have predicted a jobless recovery. The national unemployment rate is hovering near 10% and is expected to increase before a fragile recovery in 2010. In addition to deflecting blame for the failed stimulus, the Obama Administration may ask DEM lawmakers for a second stimulus bill to complement their TRILLION dollar schemes for socialized health care and cap and tax.

Turns out the $787 billion "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (AARA) was not designed for full economic recovery, but rather to "stabilize" the downturn. That's the word from White House officials today, who held off-camera briefings with reporters on how the AARA is working so far.

The Obama Administration is spending an estimated $100,000 a week on "message people" to spin words in a "consciously dishonest way." According to Accuracy in Media (AIM):

The Obama media machine is up and running, but it could backfire if the media gain some self-respect and tire of being manipulated on behalf of the President's image and agenda.

Related
Barney Frank: White House "Message People" Telling Democrats to Call Stimulus a "Recovery Bill"
Stimulating Dishonesty
Krugman: U.S. Headed for 'Jobless' Recovery (ABC NEWS)

Labels: left-wing media, obama

Welcome Back, Carter
The stimulus package has failed to stimulate as trillions of dollars of debt are being laid upon our children and grandchildren as we build turtle tunnels and try to save marsh mice. The Obama administration is trying to get money into the economy instead of leaving it where it was in the first place through tax cuts. As we near double-digit unemployment, it is failing as Carter failed, and the cry goes up: Where are the jobs?

Related (Absolute Insanity)
Your Tax Dollars at Work

Labels: economics, obama

...from Mark Steyn about the death throes of the Fourth Estate are HOT! My leg is tingling.

This kind of indestructible, fatuous narcissism is a big part of what's wrong. What other industry conflates itself with the very legitimacy of the state? If you're insisting on your indispensability even as millions dispense with you, you're the one with the problem.

Labels: left-wing media

There's something in the air called objectivity.
There's something in the air like electricity.
There's something in the air, and it's in the air, the air.
There's something in the air that's pure silliness.
There's something in the air that you can't resist.
There's something in the air, and it's in the air,
And you can't get it out of the air.

- "Es Liegt in der Luft" (There's something in the air) (1928)

Getting emotional over Healthcare
"It was a surprisingly emotional phone call. I realized later that part of my weepiness was sentimentality – the saying goodbye to a trusted doctor, and to my own days as a young mother – the acknowledgment that Buster is a grown fellow, now. But there is a fearfulness there, too, on my part; we stare at a list of “approved” names in a book and step out into a great unknown, with our choices already narrowed-down for us and our options limited. Beyond sentiment, I think the lump in my throat was partly about those limits, that ever-narrowing field of choices and how it portends a narrowing of our overall liberties, here in Middle-Class America.

Nothing feels right."

I feel very weird today, like I am living in a dream state.

- Comment at Ace of Spades HQ

Disarray. That's one word to describe the status of the Obama administration's legislative program as Congress heads into its final four weeks of work before the August recess...

Related
$1 Trillion Deficit Complicates Obama's Agenda (WSJ)
Federal budget deficit tops $1 trillion with 3 months left in budget year (USA Today)

Limestone Commentary
Who will the DEMS blame?

Labels: democrats, dodd, left-wing media, obama, pelosi, reid

U.S. 2010 World Cup roster projection

Labels: soccer

10 Great Things To Do in Airports

Labels: airports

Flea Market Treasures
This trading card is from the 1950s. It was produced as part of the Jets/Rockets/Spacemen series by Bowman (Topps). This card is #2 of #108 and titled Seeing a Rocket Built. The set was reissued/reprinted in the 80s.



The back of the card reads:

While our 6X52 was being prepared for blasting off to the Moon, we dropped in a Hangar "B." Spatial engineers were building a rocket for the regular run between Mars and the moons of Jupiter. Our leaders, Capt. Argo and Dr. Zara, discussed the composition of the rare lunar metals used in the 250-ft. shell. A cosmic crane lifted the atomic motor into place. The engineers began insulating the ship against the motor's radiation and installing the radar equipment.

You can view all the cards at Lowell's Place. I also found them at Chuckman's Non-Sports Trading Cards of the 1950s.

Labels: weekend

The Stuart Holden Goal in stoppage time against Haiti. Awesome!

Labels: soccer, weekend

One Year, One Nation - Outside the Lines on ESPN

The 2010 FIFA World Cup, to be played next summer in South Africa, means so much to this nation that is just 15 years removed from authoritarian apartheid rule. Bob Ley, host of "Outside the Lines," (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET on ESPN) reports from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Soweto about Africans' passion for soccer and what the investment in infrastructure means -- if anything -- to their lives.

More...
South Africans insist they will be ready
Host Cities for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Labels: soccer, weekend

Bermudan, U.S. Governments Take Hits for Moving Uighurs Out of Guantanamo

"When an American is watching an ad (for Bermuda) it hits my mind as an American, they saw the level of intense media attention, I say to myself, 'Hmm, that's the country that accepted Guantanamo Bay detainees' ... This is a fact, mark my words, tourism will be affected by this."

- Donte Hunt, United Bermuda Party

Four PLP MPs call for Premier Dr. Brown's resignation

MPs should be given a full report on the Uighur fiasco

No Confidence Motion Against Ewart Brown

Labels: bermuda, weekend

The U.S. MNT plays Haiti tonight at 7:00 PM EST in their final match of group play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The U.S. is 2-0 in group play.

Updates
¤ The U.S. leads 1-0 in the 20th minute. The match is on TeleFutura.

¤ It's half time and U.S. still leads 1-0. What a sloppy half.

¤ The U.S. has conceded two goals in the first 5 minutes of the second half and now trail 2-1.

¤ It's the 65th minute and the U.S. is still searching for an equalizer.

¤ Holy Crap! Equalizer!! Equalizer!! Equalizer!! The goal, a beautiful strike from distance by Stuart Holden, comes in the waning seconds of stoppage time (90+).

Post Match Headlines
Holden's strike keeps U.S. unbeaten in group play
Late Goal Seals Group B For U.S.
U.S. ties Haiti 2-2, wins Gold Cup first-round group

Labels: soccer, weekend

I referenced this article yesterday from The Royal Gazette and keep coming back to this quote:

The Warwick businesswoman wrote to Government MPs: "I am ashamed of the leader of my country. His dictatorial leadership style, his grandiose spending, his questionable ethics, his inflated ego, his lack of transparency, his stirring up of racial hatred, are all hurting the fabric of our Island.

Labels: bermuda, obama

Neal Boortz channels George Orwell:

All you have to do is recognize and acknowledge the true goal of the political class. It's summed up in one word: POWER. You think they actually give a flying Krispy Kreme about you? What? I know you were born at night, but was it last night? They may care about your vote .. but that's it. It's power, my friends. Power and little else.

Labels: obama, pelosi, reid

The Music of Eastern via Ultra Swank.

Labels: airlines

Three related articles...

How Nations Rot + Our Chrysalis Stage +
Shocked by MP's e-mail 'arrogance' = X

Related
Hard to Believe the Lovable Uighurs Could Be Involved in Terrorism...
Unrest on the western front

Labels: bermuda, end times

Help choose the next quote/phrase for Limestone Roof.

(A) Convenience and frequent repetition do not amount to truth.
(B) The best argument for conservatism, is the real world results of liberalism.
(C) 'More Humble Men.': The Poor and the Rest

Labels: quotes, weekend

The vast sweep of an early Revolutionary War battle, with well-trained and equipped British troops on the left and the raggle-taggle citizens' army ranged against them, brings to life a stirring chapter in America's history.

- Excerpt from Walt Disney's EPCOT Center: Creating the New World of Tomorrow. Panorama created for The American Adventure.

Labels: history, weekend

Then something messy comes along that doesn't fit the neat paradigm like the purple-finger elections in Iraq, Tiananmen Square, or the most recent democracy demonstrations in Iran that confound that easy calculus.

- Victor Davis Hanson

Labels: obama

"The emperor needed the wealthier classes to help him run the empire. Senators in particular were the class he lived amongst and their attitude towards him tended to dictate how he would be portrayed in later histories."

- How Rome Fell, Adrian Goldsworthy

Related
Amid Criticism, Post Drops "Appalling" Plan to Sell Access (ABC)
Barack Obama Seeks to Turn America into a Third World Country
Again, Why the Diffidence?
National Security & the Cult of Personality
Congress's Travel Tab Swells: Spending on Taxpayer-Funded Trips Rises Tenfold; From Italy to the Galápagos (WSJ)

Labels: dodd, history, left-wing media, obama, pelosi, quotes, reid

The Job Market's Grim Picture: Unemployment flirts with an ugly truth--the possibility of hitting a new post-Depression high. (Forbes)

Stocks Skid on Payrolls Data (Wall Street Journal)

Unemployment in America: A rising tide (Economist)

America lost a further 467,000 non-farming jobs in June, pushing up the unemployment rate to 9.5%, a 26-year high.

Related
How Politicians Bankrupted California
Obama’s jobless ‘recovery’ - unemployment at 9.5%
A Miserable Failure
Forget Green Shoots: They’re Just Weeds

Labels: economics, obama, pelosi, reid