Medary.com

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-eight

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December 3 (Thursday, Day 36, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) -

Christ The Redeemer over Rio

We woke up at 7 AM to watch the sail in to Rio. Rio is supposed to be one of the three prettiest harbors in the world to sail into. The other two are Sydney and Hong Kong and we’ve done both of those. The morning was kind of cloudy but we were able to see Sugar Loaf and Corcovado (the statue of Christ the Redeemer). We think Hong Kong is the most interesting and Snookums really was impressed by the beauty of Cape Town’s harbor. (It probably didn’t hurt that we had the best weather when we sailed into Cape Town compared to the other three ports.)

More after the jump . . .

Here it is. I have to admit, if I had my mother-in-law's name in our annual Christmas gift exchange, she'd be getting a copy of Going Rogue. Quite probably an autographed first edition. Sadly . . . she'll have to make do with this NBC Tonight Show encounter that starts with William Shatner (James T. Kirk from Star Trek, T.J. Hooker, and Denny Crane from Boston Legal) doing his beat-poetry schtick with random quotes from Palin's book, followed by Palin's revenge. I think it's absolutely hilarious.



(I guess I just let out the secret that I don't have my M-I-L for this year's Christmas present exchange. Ah, well . . . )

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

The clash between (central) planning and democracy arises simply from the fact that (democracy) is an obstacle to the suppression of freedom which the direction of economic activity requires.. . . in so far as democracy ceases to be a guaranty of individual freedom, it may well persist in some form under a totalitarian regime. A true "dictatorship of the proletariat," even if democratic in form, if it undertook centrally to direct the economic system, would probably destroy personal freedom as completely as any autocracy has ever done.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

Jim Lindgren, writing at the lawblog The Volokh Conspiracy:

A welfare state is in one sense a big Ponzi scheme. Without increasing numbers of people entering the scheme, there is no money to pay the people receiving the money.

This in reference to a recent editorial in Canada's Financial Post which argued for a global one-child policy to "save the planet" or whatever.

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-seven

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December 1 (Tuesday, Day 34, Cruising the South Atlantic Ocean) -

Breakfast Tea

We woke up (Snookums had been up since 5:15 AM) and our morning timing allowed us to enjoy breakfast together at La Veranda. Filbert has been on a huge hot tea kick and drinks 2 or 3 pots at breakfast. Most recently he’s been enjoying orange pekoe, but he sometimes has black currant, Irish breakfast or English breakfast.

More after the jump . . .

They've made Iowahawk go all serious and stuff.

See what global warming has done? Made the Internet's preeminent satirist go all statistical and stuff. And the fact that he riffs off of the title of the best R.E.M. album is just an unexpected but delightfully ironic bonus.

So, True Seeker Of Truth, you have two choices: either you read and follow his simple, easy instructions for seeing exactly how f*cked up "climate science" is, or . . .

Or, you can avoid the hard work yourself and start demanding real, skeptical science from people who call themselves "scientists" and haul down six- and seven-figure grants from government agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations that are desperate to maintain their relevance and to extend their political reach, scope, and power.

Don't make Iowahawk go Medieval Warm Period on your ass.

On December 11, 2007, I posted:

Here's what the plan was: We would fly out on Tuesday afternoon, in order to be in New York in plenty of time to board our cruise ship on Wednesday for our 10-day Caribbean cruise. Everything was in order--hotel reservations, airline tickets, everything.

Then . . .

ICE STORM!!!!!!

Ice storms are not good. Ice storms are bad. Ice storms are very, very bad. Ice storms are, if you will, not at all cool.

So, on Monday, the National Weather Service says "We're putting out an ICE STORM!!!!!! WARNING at 6 p.m. on Monday until noon on Tuesday." (They may have left off the all-caps and the extra exclamation points--I'm not sure.)

ICE STORM!!!!!

Snookums gets a call from her mother at about 9 a.m. Monday. "Your brother thinks we might want to get a hotel room next to the airport tonight." Since all of Kansas City is at least 30 minutes from the airport (and our house is closer to 45 minutes away), this is good advice. We decide to take it, so we get ready to bug out. Snookums' mom likes to worry about travel, so she's already on board with the plan. Snookums' dad is cool with it, and her sister, who has just arrived from Wichita, is up for the change of plan as well.

So, we get to the Airport Fairfield Inn at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. We dump Snookums' parents in their room, dump our luggage (and Snookums' sister) in the other room, and head over to the airport long-term parking to drop off sister's van. Then we take the parking bus to the terminal, in order to transfer to the Fairfield's bus which will pick us up and take us back to the hotel.

In the meantime, we decide to check to see if we can check in. Snookums runs inside. I flag down the bus and ask the driver to wait. Snookums returns and says that all of the early morning flights on Midwest out of Kansas City for Tuesday morning are canceled. Well, our flight is an early afternoon flight. The check-in person told Snookums to call Midwest's reservation line.

She calls, finds out that there's a 6:50 p.m. flight on Monday night that has seats. OK, can we switch to that flight?

Sure! says the reservation agent. Do it! says me.

So, we hustle back to the Fairfield, burst into Mom and Dad's room, and tell them to pack it up, we're going to New York TONIGHT!  And BONUS! the Fairfield Inn doesn't even charge us for either room that we already messed up.  We decided we like Fairfield Inns.  A lot.  Go stay at a Fairfield Inn tonight.  For us.  For the children.

Anyway . . .

We get packed up, get on the Fairfield's bus, get to the airport, get checked in, have plenty of time for a sit down dinner, get on the plane, fly to LaGuardia, get in a cab that holds all of our luggage and a wheelchair, and get to our New York hotel like clockwork.

Oh, yeah, when we got to the baggage carousel, there is a TV screen of the next few Midwest flights.

The 6:30 a.m. departure from La Guardia to Kansas City is already canceled.

You know, every time since last Thursday when I've looked at the weather forecast for Kansas City, it's gotten worse. This time, at 11:45 p.m. Monday night, is no exception:

In the bizarre world of the NWS, "occasional" is more likely than "likely". Looks like KC's gonna get some freezing rain.

The more I look at that National Weather Service graph, the more I'm looking forward to the Caribbean.

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

It may well be true that our generation talks and thinks too much of democracy and too little of the values which it serves. It cannot be said of democracy, as Lord Acton truly said of liberty, that it "is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration that it is required, but for the security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life." Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom. As such it is by no means infallible or certain.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 28 (Saturday, Day 31, Jamestown, St. Helena, UK) -

Jamestown

Snookums woke up at 5:30 AM and read her book. Around 6 AM she looked out the window and realized that a huge chunk of rock was out there. Okay, it was St. Helena. While we were eating breakfast Snookums asked the St. Helena policewoman onboard (who was also eating) about getting a pedicure while on shore. She said that there was one shop that did that. Snookums hates paying $65 for an onboard pedicure and tries to get them during our port days if at all possible since she literally is not capable of polishing her own toenails.

More after the jump . . .

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

It is now said that democracy will not tolerate "capitalism." If "capitalism" means here a competitive system based on free disposal over private property, it is far more important to realize that only within this system is democracy possible. When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will inevitably destroy itself.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

UPDATE: I mis-posted yesterday's TFTD as today's as well, and just now noticed. Mea culpa. My bad.