Piling on the automakers

Okay, everyone is doing it, and why not?

The guys at the head of Ford, GM and Chrysler got into their big corporate jets and spent around $20,000 each to fly from Detroit to D.C. to ask Congress to give them money so they won't have to go bankrupt.

First class ticket from an airline for the same trip? Less than $1,000.

Then they dodged, on the television news last night, or offered up lame excuses as to why they had to do that. At least while they were sitting at the table, some of the committee members questioning them took a few shots at how ridiculous the irony was.

I'm concerned about both alternatives with the auto manufacturers -- they have not figured out a way to survive on their own, so how will they manage to do that with a bunch of our money? And if we let them go and fend for themselves, if they go away, that will be an unimaginable impact on our economy, psyche and culture.

There's no easy answer.

Integrity and Honestly

Lots of talk out there about the unquestionable integrity and honesty of a golfer this week. You can probably find the story on any news site, as well as www.espn.com, www.si.com and others.

Seems a gent, J.P. Hayes, was playing in a pro tournament. He accidentally used the wrong ball for two shots on one hole, and let officials there know. He was assessed a two-stroke penalty.

That night, he realized that the ball he used was not sanctioned for use in competition play -- meaning that he would be disqualified from the event -- and lose any chance he had to play on the PGA Tour in 2009 -- if he confessed his mistake.

No one would ever know what had happened. He stood to go on and play in 2009 as a pro on the tour as he always had. Or he could admit the mistake, and miss the cut.

He called tour officials that night to let them know about the mistaken use of a prototype ball.

Commendable, although not all that surprising in the world of golf, which prides itself as being a gentleman's game where players police themselves.

Airline Madness

Yesterday's news featured a story that, because fuel prices have been falling steadily, the airlines will now end the add-on fuel surcharges they had all made into a standard fee on tickets. Sort of.

You'd think that the result would be immediately lower ticket prices. Not so.

They are just rolling the fee into ticket prices, so there is no real change -- you just won't see a fuel surcharge broken out on top of your standard fare.

A nice little trick of language and wording. Deceptive? Perhaps. But, as anyone who has flown in recent months knows, they are not too concerned about that. We're just cattle, after all -- when your very survival as a company is concerned, why bother with little things like whether you are being up front and honest with your customers?

The PR nightmare for TSA

Truly scary.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/airport-security

Basically, everything that you feared is wrong with TSA is, and more.

Never too old . . .

This!

Is!

Awesome!

from the AP wire

1. I'm inclined to believe him when he said he did not soap the coach's windows.

2. Amazing, isn't it, what used to get you kicked off a college team, and what you can get away with now. Sad in more ways than one.

Man, 73, scores 2 points in college hoops game

AP Photo/Owen Driskill HARRIMAN, Tenn. (AP) -- Ken Mink, a 73-year-old full-time student, scored two points Monday night in Roane State Community College's 93-42 victory over King College's junior varsity. Mink entered the game with about 16 minutes left in the second half and attempted one shot in about three minutes. Seven minutes later, he went back in the game, was fouled and made two free throws. "I found myself on the free-throw line 52 years after my last college game," Mink said. "I said, 'Just relax and shoot it like you know how to all day long.' I just floated the shots in there. I'm in the books now. I can relax a little bit." Mink, of Knoxville, last played college basketball 52 years ago at Lees College in Jackson, Ky. After someone soaped the basketball coach's office, he lost his spot on the team and was expelled. Mink still says he didn't do it. Last year, after shooting baskets at a neighbor's house, he wrote to several area colleges, and Roane State coach Randy Nesbit agreed to give him a chance. Mink has practiced regularly with the team since school began in August.