Final Note On Jackson

I was in Atlanta last Thursday, and I had the occasion to speak with a writer for CNN. I initially offered my polite criticism of his employer, which he seconded with a far more scathing rebuke. He was embarrassed to be associated with them, and hoped to leave as soon as possible. In fact, he didn't even get CNN at home.

One of my criticisms was that CNN should start an entertainment news network, and cover all of those stories there, leaving the core channel for actual news.

It was only a few minutes later that I was to hear about the death of Michael Jackson. Today, we learned that "Fully 93% of cable coverage studied on the Thursday and Friday following his death was about the King of Pop."

For days, their top story was: "Michael Jackson is still dead."

Jackson death also killed any remaining interest the world had in the Iranian election, let alone hiking trips conducted by southern governors.

One Rabbi's Experience With Michael Jackson

I don't follow much celebrity gossip, and I am not particularly interested in reading that Michael Jackson is still dead.

That said, I found this article in the Jerusalem Post by his onetime confidant, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach sufficient to put his life in perspective. Ultimately, Rabbi Boteach was unsuccessful in helping this talented, yet deeply trouble person. In death, he humanizes Jackson in a way he was unable to do in life.

Talk Nicely, and Carry a Big Stick

Obama is not a simple person. Depending on who you talk to, he a Communist, a Muslim, a Christian, a foreigner, or perhaps even a centrist Democrat (no way!).

This article seems to nail his political strategy to a T. Obama corners his opponents in public by being conciliatory, and then kills them in private. A great strategy, especially when you agree with his policies.

Good Riddance to "Clear"

The "Clear" registered traveler program went broke and is no more, and that is a good thing. Not only is was it unprofitable, it set a terrible precedent for paying for security.

With paid screening programs like this, the incentive is for the alternative to get worse and worse. I am sure it bothered them to no end when the TSA added new lanes or opened up the existing ones at peak times.

Fortunately, their fatal flaw was that they really didn't do anything but allow you to cut in line. Passengers were subjected to the same security, just possibly with slightly less waiting beforehand.

Actually, the precedent was set a long time ago when they established separate lines for elite members of airline's frequent flier clubs. Of course, membership in these "elite" programs can be obtained through some credit cards without even stepping on a plane. In other instances, a promotion offers the opportunity to take one or two flights that will give you status. So much for the idea of a "frequent flier". And really, how the heck does a private company give you some card that determines your access to a federal security screening? Why can't I use my Blockbuster or Starbucks card?

Ultimately, less ability to bypass security will make the problems of the TSA more noticeable to some of the country's most frequent fliers, our members of Congress.

Health Care

I am very interested in the current debate about health care, even though I am not a medical professional and I am very healthy.

One of the scariest exercises I ever performed was when my former employer told me that they were going to offer me a slight pay raise in order to drop my health insurance. They even said that they would be looking to eliminate health benefits in the future. I looked around the private sector for health insurance for myself and my healthy wife. The numbers were staggeringly in excess of what we were paying, dwarfing they pay raise that I was offered. Had my wife or I had a pre-existing condition, coverage would have been far more expensive and the condition would not have been covered.

As people debate health care reform, please consider the following:

1. Every elected official debating health care already has government health care. Keep that in mind when they are slamming it. Add to that every member of the military, their families, and many veterans enjoy government health care. Finally, another 40 million Americans have Medicare. If you think this is so terrible, just hint that you are considering thinking about proposing to study some minor cuts to these programs. If you are an elected official, you will be run out of town instantly.

2. Obama and most Democrats are proposing a public option. No matter how many times they repeat the word option, the members of the hollow shell of what was once the Republican party claim that you will be forced into it. This is a continuation of their failed strategy during the 2008 Presidential campaign. They refuse to criticize Obama's proposals on their merits, rather they merely claim that he is not telling the truth and has other, hidden intentions. Every time you hear someone, Democrat or Republican, criticize Obama's health care proposal, ask yourself if they are really just claiming he won't do what he says he will.

3. A lot of people are scared of the idea of government run health care. They feel that it will take over the health care industry. There are many examples of government competing with the private industry in sectors of the economy even larger than health care. For example, you have government co-existing with private industry in education, law enforcement, and even courier services. Think of the public option like the post office. If you don't like, go to UPS or FedEx. They might give you better service, if you live in a major city, but it will cost you a heck of a lot more than 44 cents to mail a letter.

4. If you think that private industry is so much more efficient than the government, 1. You haven't read the news in the last 6 months, and 2., You have never tried to get a health insurance company to pay a claim. I will see your "hundred dollar hammer" and raise you a $50 dollar band-aid.

5. Speaking of paying claims, private health care is fantastic, until they have to pay a claim. Keep in mind the inherent conflict of interest that will always be present in a for profit health insurance company. They have a duty to their shareholders to maximize profits that takes precedence over their obligations to their insured. The administrators of a public option would have a duty to the public, just like the VA, Medicare, or the insurance provided to government employees.

6. When objections are raised to the public option, consider on whose behalf the objection is being made. Are people against the public option because they claim it will be more expensive or less efficient hurting patients, or because it will be cheaper and more efficient, which would hurt insurance companies? Are they looking out for patients, or just trying to preserve the status quo on behalf of the insurance industry?

7. Whenever you hear that we currently have competition, ask yourself what competition you have? If you have a job, your choice is your employer sponsored health care plan, or nothing. If you don't have a job, your choices are similar to a traveler at an airport with no commercial airline service. There are many companies from whom you can charter a private jet, so there is competition. The question is, can you afford it? Like air service, the price of health care drops dramatically when there are efficiencies of scale. That is why insurance will always cost less when you are a member of a large company, or better yet, part of a public option.

8. Even if you have a great job with awesome insurance, consider the penalty to the economy that derives from so many uninsured people in the United States. One way or another, you are already paying for these people through inflated costs both directly and through your insurance. Furthermore, consider that over 60% of bankruptcies are linked to medical bills Finally, how many people are unable to quit their jobs and work for themselves for lack of affordable health care? Health care reform may well be the key to an explosion of entrepreneurship.

Again, I am not an expert in health care, but these principles seem incontrovertible. What are your thought?

Hope or No Hope?

I am generally an optimist when it comes to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. I have felt that way ever since I visited Turkey, and saw a modern Muslim country that happened to be an ally of Israel.

Then again, sometimes I read stories like this: Palestinian family kills 15-yr-old son for 'collaboration'

Why Do The Legacy Carriers Exist?

Scott McCartney over at the Wall Street Journal exposes what I already knew, that certain discount carriers are much more comfortable than the legacy carriers.

Anyone who has ever flown discount carriers like JetBlue or Southwest will testify that the amount of space you get in your seat is far more than you do in older airlines like Delta and United.

So you pay less and get more. In fact, on Southwest, you get a lot more, like two free checked bags.

Why do the Legacys exist? First class, or at least the possibility of a free upgrade to first class. Then again, you don't really need first class if your coach seat is comfortable. In fact, I have long suspected that they probably sell more first class seats on airlines when coach is the most uncomfortable.

The second reason is international flights. Jetblue and others are expanding to the Carribean, but there really hasn't been much of a push overseas for most American low cost carriers.

That is a shame. I would love to see Southwest or Jetblue aquire some larger aircraft and start offering service overseas from their hubs. In the absense of that, I think someone could make some money with a discount international carrier that codeshares with Southwest, JetBlue, Airtran or Frontier. Think of it like a regional jet provider, except it would be an international provider. Perhaps they could code share with multiple discount carriers both in the US and overseas.

One can dream.

Air France Tragedy and Fernando de Naronha

Fernando and Me

This tragedy really struck both my wife and I on a personal level. While the rest of the world is unfamiliar with the area off of the coast of Brazil where this plane disappeared, we remember it fondly as the place where we spent the first week of our honeymoon in July of 2005. The island of Fernando de Naronha (pronounce naron-ya) is an amazing place, often referred to as the Galapagos of the Atlantic.

The Middle of Nowhere

This is an island that is so remote, that it's meager population of a few hundred are the only inhabitants of it's entire time zone, making it the least populated time zone on the entire planet. From that description, and the picture above, you can see why it was such an attraction to us as a honeymoon destination.

The island is incredibly well known throughout Brazil, yet very few Brazilians have ever visited there. It is expensive, by Brazilian standards, and as a National Park the number of visitors is tightly restricted. Very few people outside of Brazil have heard of Fernando, and at the time, it was extremely hard to get there. From Denver, we flew via Miami, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, and finally to the island of Fernando. Five flights traveling a great deal out of our way were required since at that time, there was no service from the United States to northern Brazil. Today, Delta and American Airlines serves Natal and Recife from Atlanta and Miami, which are both much more direct routes to the island.

The island is only a few miles across, just large enough for a tiny commercial airport in it's interior. It receives only two flights a day, and it's "terminal" is about the size of a small cafe. Nevertheless, it is easy to see how any distressed pilot in the central Atlantic would immediately turn towards Fernando in the event of an emergency, as there is nothing else out there for hundreds of miles between South America, Africa, and Europe.

Publicity

It is said that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and in the wake of the Air France 447 disaster, billions of people know of Fernando de Naronha who would have never known of it's existence. If .0001% of them ever visit there, it will be a major influx of people.

This New York Times article explains some of the islands history, and references the fact that the paper hasn't written an article about it in nearly 20 years.

Aviation

What brought the plane down? For some informed information, I would refer your to the website of pilot and former CNN correspondent Miles O'Brien. Now that Miles is no longer with CNN, I believe they now cover aviation stories with whoever on their staff happens to have the most frequent flier miles at the time.

Here is an interesting article about the chances of a meteorite hitting an airplane. Of course, who is to say that a small meteorite would be instantly disastrous?

I personally am leaning towards some kind of turbulence induced structural failure, like American Airlines 587.

Philosophy

This kind of accident scares us in part, because there is not yet a known cause. It has been so long since a large jetliner was lost without survivors, the scope of the tragedy seems to have receded from our memory. The last major aviation disaster was actually the aforementioned American Airlines 587 that crashed in November of 2001. This article about the people who accidentally missed boarding that flight shows the random forces that continues to choose between life and death in our modern world.

Few things bother me quite as much as when people say "Everything happens for a reason". It doesn't. There is no reason some people made that flight, and others didn't. When the people who skipped work at the twin towers on 9/11 started saying nonsense like, "I think god wanted me to live", what did those statements imply for the thousands who did show up for work that day?

It is scary to live in a world where the most casual of decisions can ultimately determine life or death. The upside of this realization is that it reminds us to live life to it's greatest extent. That was our motivation for taking three weeks off of work in July of 2005 to visit Brazil, and explore paradise in the Central Atlantic.

Blogging Update

As some have noticed, I have taken a break from my personal blog. I have also stopped blogging as the Denver Local Expert over at PlanetEye. PlanetEye was a fun gig, but they have restructured their once generous payment system so that I would hardly be getting paid at all there.

All of the while, I have been contributing to the blog at AskMrCreditCard. I have actually learned a lot about the credit card and banking industries while producing lengthy posts nearly every day. If you don't currently read it, I highly recommend that you check it out.

I am now ready to resume some more blogging here on Steele Street.