Maybe I'm just not a good reader, but I don't see anything in here about legislating health care, nationalizing the largest automotive manufacturer in the world, or forcing people to join a union without a vote:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Congress shall have power

• To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
• To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
• To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
• To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
• To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
• To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
• To establish post offices and post roads;
• To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
• To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
• To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
• To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
• To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
• To provide and maintain a navy;
• To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
• To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
• To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
• To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;—And
• To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

It's long overdue for the states to reminding Washington what exactly they're allowed to do...

Blogging from seat 3E...

Gotta say this is addicting. AA has wifi on a lot of it's fleet now, and two of my last three flights had it.

On my flight last Monday, I had full email, Gmail chat-to-SMS working with my wife, Windows Messenger to someone at work, VPN to my network share, and it never burped....

Tonight, no work. Its Friday. My time. Just play. AppStore and some browsing... And obviously, blog posting...

I'm gonna have to fork over the $8 per flight or get a subscription... Well worth it. My 90-ish minutes of added productivity on Monday saved me at least that much time in at-the-hotel-work, not to mention the convenience of being able to get/give answers to/from co-workers without the next-day lag I'd otherwise have had...

Great product. Try it. You'll be hooked too.

Final approach

Currently flying over Illinois, and about 20 minutes from landing in Chicago, both literally and figuratively. After three years in AZ, I officially start a new job tomorrow. Lights of the small towns are a welcome sight, and not something you see much of when flying over the desert...

I've been away from Illinois for 18 years, so it will be interesting seeing how we all adjust individually and as a family. I really loved living in Texas and the desert, and have never liked living in the city.

I really am looking forward to pizza in square cuts with a slightly firm crust, though. That alone makes putting up with the winter worthwhile....

Cathay Pacific

These were my second and third flight with CX, the first being an A330 in 2007. Both legs were on a 744 and far more comfortable than the Airbus.

CX uses "coffin" seats which are angled so business class seat has direct access to the aisle. On one leg, I was in the last row of business class on the main deck (zone b), and the other was in back of the mid cabin exit on the upper deck. It was a bit confining, but better than climbing over someone else. And in fully flat mode, it was somewhat comfortable for sleeping. Managed to get about six hours of sleep, which is more than my norm on airplanes...

What I didn't like was the total inability to see out the windows. Even turned on an angle, it was painful to see. There's also very little storage... Seat gets a B-

Food was very good, extremely attentive service, and a good mix of Asian and Western choices. lie-flat seat was fairly comfortable. Entrees were presented on a cart, similar to Iberia. I'm starting to prefer that -- an option I'd chosen from the description looked a lot less appealing in person. Since I love Asian, the choices were easier. A+ for quality and portion sizes...

The movie choices overwhelming... 100 movies, 350 tv shorts, and 888 tracks of music... Watched State of Play, The Hangover, The Boat That Rocked (not even released yet in US). Did a lot of work, too... Only wish was for a USB port in addition to the 110v plug. Headset stowage was in an akward location -- slightly behind the seatback, and best accessed with the seat slightly reclined. A+ for IFE.

Lounges at HKG are outstanding. In the First Class portions of both The Wing and The Pier, they offer a self-serve buffet with a wide variety of hot choices, sushi, and salads. They also have private rooms, where you can sleep, dine, and watch TV, and a separate showers area. Again, extremely attentive staff. Arrivals lounge was smaller and hard to find, but provisioned equally well.

Lounges at LAX were less impressive. It's essentially a Qantas Club. Variety of food was greater in the business class side than in the first class, but the liquor and wines were much better on the first side. I don't drink a lot of wine, and had to go to the business class side for a draft beer or a fountain soda. Seats were less comfortable and it was definitely more crowded, but I didn't feel like walking back and forth repeatedly for three hours, so I just stayed on the business class side.

A++ for lounges at HKG. B+ for the QF Club at LAX...

Trip Report - Hong Kong

Hong Kong... It's one of the few cities I've wanted to visit for a long time but never had the opportunity to do so until now.

I only had about eight hours, split across two days to do any sightseeing -- this was after all a work trip first and foremost...

I'd arrived into Chek Lap Kok about 0500, and was out of immigration by 0525, but that was still a half-hour before the hotel's shuttle service started to run, so I found the Cathay Arrivals Lounge, took a shower, read some email, and had a little breakfast. That's one of those elusive perks I'm likely to lose if I don't earn another 40,000 flying miles on AA or other oneworld carrier this year. Then it was off to the hotel, just to find out that they wouldn't have any rooms available until around noon. Hardly unexpected, and yet another reason why I took a shower at the arrivals lounge. At least I felt human, so I checked my bags with the hotel, and headed off on the metro to do a little exploring.

HKG airport was built pretty far east in the chain of islands which compromise the former colony -- Chek Lap Kok was leveled, and the channel between it and Lantau Island filled in to make the airport complex back in the late 90's. So getting to the city takes at least 30 minutes by cab, 22 minutes by express train, and 45 minutes by metro from Tung Chung, which is where my hotel was.

Riding the metro during rush hour was unintended, but that's the time I was there... It's staggering to see how many people can be crammed into so small of a space. Being the tall American, I probably had a different perspective of it than others - I was able to look down the entire 8 car length of the train and see nothing but people. Walking thru the stations in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, same thing. Just seas of people everywhere...

Since I knew I would be on Hong Kong Island later in the week, I chose to head out into the New Territories -- north of Kowloon but south of the PRC border -- to see Che Kung Temple and the Hong Kong Cultural History museum. The temple was interesting, but the museum was unfortunately closed on Tuesdays... that little tid-bit was left out of my tourist guide. I'd also hoped to get up to see the Big Buddah on Lantau Island, but the cable tram which goes up there was closed for annual maintenance... It also worked out to be one of the hottest days -- 27C and about 80% humidity. Not exactly pleasant, and I was drenched in sweat after being outside for about 30 minutes, so it was back to the hotel for a shower, lunch and a nap.

Later in the week, one of my work colleagues and I decided to be real tourists, and go up to Victoria Peak. We took the tram up, and had about 45 minutes to wander around the top and see the city from up high. Again, staggering to see just how many high-rise apartment and office towers there are in such a small space. We'd timed it to be later in the afternoon so we'd catch some views of the cityscape with the building lights on, but Mother Nature didn't want to cooperate.

Because you can never time your trip to have perfect weather, we were actually under a Level 3 Typhoon Warning. The scale goes from 1 to 8, and while 3 was not exactly dangerous, we were in the outer rain bands of the storm, and while on top of the Peak, the winds kicked up something fierce, and 20 minutes later, the rains hit. Impressive to say the least...

From there, we took a cab down to the somewhat famous Yung Kee restaurant where we were meeting with two other coworkers. The neon was everywhere, and so were the people. After dinner, we wandered around the streets a bit between rain bands. The only thing we didn't get a chance to do was ride the Star Ferry, but given the weather, decided to call it a night and stay dry.

Definitely somewhere I'd like to go back to in the future, preferably not in typhoon season... maybe in winter...

Enroute to China

Sort of... Hong Kong, actually, but Kowloon is on the mainland, so it counts in my book.

Started out on WN to LAX. A boringly normal flight, but surprisingly full for Sunday before Labor Day. Even the Fast Park was full today, which means lots of people buying airline tickets. Good, but if they were as cheap as mine, not very profitable for the airlines.

At LAX, I had a four hour wait until my CX flight. Rather than slumming at In-N-Out in Westchester on Sepulveda, I chose the oneworld lounge in TBIT.... My frequent flyer status qualifies me for the First Class Lounge, so im going to enjoy a sit-down dinner, some adult beverages, and get some work done in relative peace abd quiet.

It sounds perhaps a bit decadent and indulgent, but as my days of long-haul flying are winding down, I won't requalify for Executive Platinum on AA this year, and won't be able to sneak into the inner sanctum until some time in 2010, so I have to enjoy the perks while I can... I'll still have my Admirals Club membership, but they don't have the food selections that the business and first lounges do...

The lounge is fairly boring and sterile. lots of light colors, but no real views of the airfield, and looking around the corner, it's pretty much the same as the business class lounge... Food choices include some spicy red curry, an eggplant & veggie dish, chicken over noodles, and a selection of finger sandwiches (salmon, chicken, veggie). But it's quiet, there's free wifi, and I don't have to listen to flight announcements.

Next up... my flight to HKG... in about five hours....