Sign of the times

Driving across New Mexico on I-10 today enroute to Texas... The Union Pacific mainline runs parallel to the interstate for a couple hundred miles, so there's usually a few trains along the way.

Interestingly, there are a lot of storage sidings as well. On them, I think we passed at least 400 auto carriers... All empty, without engines attached.

Yep, because people stopped buying cars, the railroads now have more rolling stock than they need.

Something I hadn't put a lot of thought into until today.

Virgin (un)America...

It's been a while since I wrote about airlines, and that's because they've been on autopilot for the past six months or so. But today, they're back front and center.

Both Wall Street Journal and PlaneBuzz are reporting that Cyrus & Black Canyon have taken their money and run, so Virgin America is no longer 75+% owned by U.S. investors.

While nobody at DOT or VX has said anything public as of yet, for all intents and purposes, they no longer meet the ownership requirements for a US carrier.

So, I'll write this obituary a little early. Virgin America was a case of an airline trying to create a niche that didn't exist, and in an environment they couldn't survive.

And that's all I have to say about them right now. Let's see what happens in the next two weeks...

Porky's 2009

No, it's not a remake of the '80s film. Fox's Eric Bolling (Happy Hour, Strategy Room) did us a favor, and culled thru the thousands of pages in the Stimulus Package... Here are his picks for the Top 10:

Top Ten “Porky” Projects:

10-$1.7 million for a honeybee lab
9- $800,000 to study catfish genetics
8- $8 billion train from Las Vegas to San Francisco
7- $5 million for salaries at the Sugar Beet Lab in Michigan
6- $500,000 for the fruit fly research
5- $200,000 for Tattoo removal in Los Angeles
4- $400,000 to train teachers on bullying

……and the bronze, silver and gold go to these stars:

3- $59 million to study the mating habits of the Pacific salmon
2- $2 million for astronomy awareness in Hawaii!
1- $1.8 million to study the effect of swine odor on the environment

Out of fairness, the train from Vegas to the Bay might not be so bad if it were from Los Angeles... But, SoCal got its pork in the form of tatoo removal.

Besides, this will no doubt make it easier for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to meet while out on recess.

Amateur Hour At The White House

If there's ever any doubt that the current administration is in over their heads, look at the following two shopping lists:

Head of State:	A box set of 25 classic American films	A pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a Navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa. A framed commissioning paper for HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet. A first edition of Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, whose World War II partnership with President Franklin Roosevelt symbolized the U.S.-Anglo alliance.
Kids:	Two plastic helicopters modeled after Marine One	Two outfits from Topshop, a British chain of clothing stores, and several selected children's books by British authors which have yet to be published in the U.S.
Cash Value:	Perhaps $300	Priceless

I'm not one to spend a lot of money. The Queen will quickly agree. Yet I still spent more on Christmas presents for my wife than the President appears to have spent on what is our most important ally globally...

People used to complain about W's lack of global awareness, but even he did better when it came to gift-giving. When Brown came to DC for his first state visit in 2007, W presented him with a fur-trimmed brown leather bomber jacket. Somewhat symbolic in itself, given the military history between the two countries over the past 100 years.

So far, Downing Street isn't going public on what movies were in the box set.

"One reason for the secrecy might be that the gift seems markedly less generous and thoughtful than the presents taken to Washington by the Prime Minister," London's Evening Standard newspaper reported.