Regulate in Favor of Me

Seeing this today, I was reminded that, while I generally oppose invasive government regulation, I do favor re-regulating the airline industry.

Now, I don't say this necessarily for altruistic purposes. I actually think that the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was good for consumers. Sure, there are a ton of bad things with air travel today, but air travel is a LOT more accessible to an average member of the middle class than prior to deregulation act.

(On a sidenote, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend Thomas K McGraw's Prophets of Regulation, which won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for History. McGraw profiles four intellectuals who are incredibly important in the history of industry regulation in the U.S., one of whom is Alfred E. Kahn, who oversaw airline deregulation under President Carter. On a side-sidenote, I once again reiterate my position that Carter was not really that liberal. On a side-side-sidenote, I loved my trip to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in January.)

But, anyhow, for purely selfish reasons, I want re-regulation. It might hurt the average guy, but, on this topic, I say, screw the average guy. More expensive flights, so be it. If it were up to me, we'd take all of those planes with three seats on the left and three seats on the right of the aisle, I would mandate that they have to replace them with bigger seats, so only two seats on each side of the aisle. (See photo.) I'd mandate meals on every flight longer two hours. I'd ban charging extra for checking bags. I'd ban overhead bins (there are few things in life I hate more than people who hold up flight boarding with putting their hugeass bags in overhead bins). (See photo.)

I also favor massive, widespread use of eminent domain to double or triple the number of runways in the country. NIMBY be damned. Boo hoo - "I lost my house and got fair compensation" - how awful. Our delays are all caused by the fact that runways are so tightly scheduled that weather problems anywhere in the country disrupt the entire system - it's nuts.

Royal Wedding Bells

Scour the world, and you'll probably never find a schmaltzier statue than the statue of the Queen of Hearts and her Dodi erected by Mohamed Al-Fayed in the basement of Harrods in London. Of all the weird things to come from Diana's death, that was no doubt the weirdest.

Well, with Prince William of Wales finally proposing to Kate, I guess the circle is unbroken, and what Diana and Dodi could find only in a statue in the Harrods basement will hopefully be found by Wills and Kate in Anglesey where the newlyweds intend to live (say what you will about Prince William of Wales, but he seems to take the "of Wales" part of his name considerably more seriously than his father ever did).

But remembering the death of Di has only fed into my rampant Nineties Nostalgia, which has lately seen me revisit the O.J. trial via Frontline and the Clinton impeachment via Dean Gormley's fascinating tome on the subject. (Sidenote: did anyone else notice that Ken Starr is now the President of Baylor? Also, remember when there was all that talk about making Baylor an evangelical equivalent of an Ivy League school and how that totally fizzled?) And of course, nothing has cheered me up of late more than revisiting Joycelyn Elders and her wacky ideas.

Anyhow, wanting to revisit Princess Di, as a crucial part of 1990s weirdness, but not wanting to revisit the funeral (too sad) or the Martin Bashir interview (too weird - and at any rate superseded by Bashir's interview with Michael Jackson the next decade).

So, I humbly submit this clip from the shortlived 1996 ABC Dana Carvey Show. (Probably an underrated show, but Carvey was sort of old hat by then. But look at the all-star cast: Steve Carell, Bill Chott, Stephen Colbert, Elon Gold, Chris McKinney, Heather Morgan, Peggy Shay, Robert Smigel, and James Stephens III. And the writers: Charlie Kaufman, Louis C.K., Jon Glaser, Dino Stamatopoulos, Spike Feresten, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell and Robert Carlock.

Or if you want something more in bad taste.

Jones v. Clinton - Thirteen Years Later

As you know, I love John Paul Stevens and recently attended his homecoming dinner, hosted by the CBA at the beautiful Stevens Hotel, where he grew up.

Stevens authored the unanimous opinion in Clinton v. Jones. Clinton's lawyers in that case had argued that if Paula Jones (pictured being punched in the face by Tonya Harding) were allowed to proceed with her civil sexual harassment claim against Bill Clinton, then future presidents might be subject to vexatious civil litigation that would distract them from their presidencies. Stevens rejected this argument, writing that "in the more than 200 year history of the Republic, only three sitting Presidents have been subjected to suits for their private actions. . . . If the past is any indicator, it seems unlikely that a deluge of such litigation will ever engulf the Presidency. As for the case at hand, if properly managed by the District Court, it appears to us highly unlikely to occupy any substantial amount of petitioner's time."

I think the last thirteen years show that this is probably a correct assessment. As much as the left hated George W. Bush, to the best of my knowledge, he was never subjected to any vexatious civil litigation. And as much as the right hates Barack Hussein Obama, I'm not aware of any lawsuits looming that threaten to derail his presidency. The fact of the matter is that Bill Clinton had a background that, for a president, was pretty unique and pretty checkered.

Just a minute

It was not six weeks ago that Bristol Palin was saying that Levi Johnston is a "stranger to her".

Now they're getting married?

This is a little hasty, which has been the problem with their relationship all along. Will this wedding actually take place? The world (not to mention all the gay guys who subscribe to Playgirl) wait with baited breath.

Wiki-interesting

Interesting graphic, showing that if Wikipedia were printed out, it would be 1,410 volumes long and require a little over seven stacks of library space to accommodate the whole encyclopedia.

Book Recommendation

Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far), a compilation of his end-of-the-year columns for 2000 to 2007. I picked it up for an airplane ride and was very glad I did. It's always so useful to reflect on recent history.

I only recently read his review of 2009 and it's really funny. You should go read it now.

Superman Musical

I suppose you saw this article in the NYT, about the revival of the Superman musical currently being staged in Dallas.

This gives me a second reason to want to visit Dallas. (The first being my desire to see the Southfork Ranch.)

So, my interest piqued, I searched on YouTube and it appears they have a made-for-TV version of the Superman musical from 1975. And, my God, that looks like it must have been one of the worst made-for-TV movies of all time (and there's a lot of competition in that category). If I had to pick just two random aspects of the production for criticism, I'd pick, oh, I don't know, the sets and the uninspired choreography.