Month: September 2004

The forest behind the trees

In spite of the fact that the Bush camp has turned the whole debate around to be about one set of probably-forged papers, one shouldn’t forget that the basic facts are not in dispute. And those facts are that Bush received a sweetheart deal because of his wealth and status, and then didn’t fullfil his committments, and then has had his proxies and surrogates lie and dissemble about this. Why does he get a by on his obvious lack of integrity and faithfulness to his comiittments from the majority of the press?

Air Force Times

Some highlights:

“I heard George Bush get up and say, `I served in the 187th Air National Guard in Montgomery, Alabama,'” retired Lt. Col. Robert Mintz said on camera. “Really? That was my unit. And I don’t remember seeing you there…”

“Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.” – That’s from Colin Powell’s 1995 book “My American Journey”.

KROC – CYKZ

Vicki and I flew across the lake this weekend. Except for a day trip to Ben and Jerry’s, we haven’t flown an “away” trip together since 1999, when we went to Piseco, NY for a weekend. I love it when we get to fly somewhere together – it sort of makes me feel like all the money I’ve spend on my pilot training wasn’t totally selfish.
Continue reading “KROC – CYKZ”

Country boy, City boy

I’ve always thought that my ideal place to live would either be out in cottage country with woods and a lake, or right downtown in a vibrant exciting city in a high rise with a huge window with a great view. And I always thought that was sort of contradictory of me. But visting Vicki’s friend Jonesiexxx, (who, by the way, lives in a cool neighbourhood in a vibrant exciting city with a huge window with a great view), I think I figured it out.

One of the things I liked living in the country was the quiet and the closeness to nature, but another thing I liked was the sense of belonging to a small community. As we walked down the street, and Jonesiexxx was recognized by people at her neighbourhood butcher and green grocer (yes, real stores with real specialties, not monster supermarkets), I realized that was something that the tiny village of Rupert Quebec and her corner of Toronto had in common – a small community that you could belong to.

Funny that something like that would appeal to an introvert like me. My fear is that if I did live in a place like that, I *wouldn’t* get to know the community and miss out on the whole point of living in a place like that. Fortunately, I have Vicki, who would know everybody in a 5 block radius within two days of our arrival.

This morning’s fun discovery

If you discover a bunch of old files in /var/mailman/qfiles/shunt, do NOT run unshunt. It doesn’t get rid of them, it delivers them to the mailing lists that they’d originally been rejected by since they came from non-members and are spam.

I just sent 18 peices of spam to the members of the Upstate Aviation Mailing list. And they’re all helpfully tagged ‘[UpstateAv]’ in the subject line so people know where they came from.

One bullet dodged, how many to go?

WEINER WITHHOLDS “OUTRAGEOUS” ANTI-GENERAL AVIATION BILL IN HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE

This bill would have essentially outlawed general avaition. For one thing, it would have required the Department of Homeland Security to security screen general aviation flights – I could see them rushing out to put screening stations in all 18,000 general aviation airports in the country. And what about private airfields? And for what? To make sure my friends and family don’t threaten me with a box cutter when I’m taking them flying?

Another provision would have forbidden me from flying within 1500 feet of any structure or building. I don’t see any exemption for airport buildings. I wonder where I was supposed to land?

Oh, and it would have required all aircraft to remain in contact with the FAA (presumably by radio), regardless of altitude or location. Remember that 18,000 airport figure? Guess how many have control towers. About 600. Somehow I don’t see the FAA rushing out and building 17,400 control towers.