SOBer Thoughts (091707)

Though he could have done better with his post’s title, Porkopolis found a story I heard about on Hannity’s radio show but had a hard time finding:

OTTAWA–Belinda Stronach, the MP for Newmarket-Aurora and former cabinet minister, travelled outside Canada’s health-care system to California for some of her breast cancer treatment earlier this year.

Stronach, diagnosed in the spring with a type of breast cancer that required a mastectomy and breast reconstruction, went to California in June at her Toronto doctor’s suggestion, a spokesperson confirmed.

Reports of prominent US officials traveling to Canada for health care superior to that found in the US could not be located.

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Boring Made Dull caught a story from ABC about the FAA threatening to curtail flights because of air travel delays. Trouble is, ABC didn’t investigate why the FAA may be the most culpable party in all of this. Bill Hensel Jr. at the Houston Chronicle did:

….. The FAA is pushing “NextGen,” short for the Next Generation Air Transportation System Financing Reform Act of 2007. It says the NextGen system will accommodate two to three times current traffic levels, but a fight is expected over how to pay for it.

Aviation consultant Mike Boyd of the Boyd Group said he thinks that the government largely is responsible for what is happening with the nation’s air traffic system.

“Unfortunately, instead of the DOT investigating why the FAA has failed, they are investigating the airlines, which are just trying to meet the needs of the nation,” (aviation consultant Mike) Boyd said.

The FAA is seven years late in its program to update the air traffic control system and five times over budget, Boyd said.

“It is outrageous,” Boyd said. “This is a smokescreen of the worst kind.”

BMD is, of course, absolutely correct that rationing flights will lead to higher fares.

Update: John Fund at OpinionJournal.com is all over this story today:

Some 40 nations, including Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Fiji, have taken their air traffic control systems out of their calcified government bureaucracies and created public-private partnerships or self-supporting public-sector corporations that can move more quickly and nimbly to meet challenges. A 2005 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that under the new entities have made it possible “to implement modernization projects more efficiently,” while “safety of air navigation systems has remained the same or improved.”

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I sure hope Puddle Pirate at Brain Shavings isn’t sitting at his computer waiting for specific responses to the three excellent questions he put to Ohio’s Junior Senator Sherrod Brown. As you will see, Brown has already whiffed once. Proving that life does provide occasional second chances, Puddle Pirate re-sent his questions. Your move, Senator. Based on your first answer, further silence signals, and confirms incoherence.

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FYI News noted that USA Today’s 25th anniversary occurred this past weekend (link is to an interactive timeline at USAT). Though the paper has had its share of knee-jerk Old Media moments and reportorial gaffes, it has certainly tried to be fair and balanced — something that its brethren at the so-called “papers of record” (NY Times, WaPo, and LA Times) have abandoned almost all pretense of trying to do. One thing I’ve always appreciated is that USAT has always allowed a viewpoint opposite of its daily editorial positions to appear on the very same day, in the space immediately below.

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The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is considered one of those political “third rail” laws. In other words, touch it and your political career is dead. Large Bill refers to one of a gazillion examples of why that shouldn’t be.

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King’s Right Site has a story from Tiffin (OH) that is giving Seneca County a case of heartburn.

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I meant to get this one much sooner. Last Tuesday, One Bob very nicely tied in the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the six hours of MSNBC’s replay of the coverage that fateful day, and General Petraeus’s testimony.

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Another “should have mentioned sooner” item — But this time I have an excuse, as Maggie Thurber’s September 12 post now has a September 15 update (there’s also a backgrounder here). Maggie has been following the story of planned eminent-domain abuse by the City of Toledo against a shopping center. City fathers are “cleverly” planning to put a road through the center as a “public use” smokescreen. My contention is that the property confiscators have to prove that the road is publicly useful and necessary to pass Fifth Amendment muster. I’m not close enought to the situation to know for sure, but it looks like they would have a tough time doing so.

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If you haven’t already, check out Justin’s reports at Right on the Right on Gathering of Eagles III. Just keep scrolling.