Instapundit - I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS INTERVIEW OF NEAL STEPHENSON by Mike Godwin in Reason to go online, and now it has. Here's what I think is a key bit:
reason.com
Speaking as an observer who has many friends with libertarian instincts, I would point out that terrorism is a much more formidable opponent of political liberty than government. Government acts almost as a recruiting station for libertarians. Anyone who pays taxes or has to fill out government paperwork develops libertarian impulses almost as a knee-jerk reaction. But terrorism acts as a recruiting station for statists. So it looks to me as though we are headed for a triangular system in which libertarians and statists and terrorists interact with each other in a way that I'm afraid might turn out to be quite stable.
That, in fact, is why I see it as important to win the war. I think that the best thing for civil liberties in America is that we've gone over 3 years without another 9/11 style attack. (And note an example of Stephenson's dynamic, here.)
Daniel Drezner -
How to turn Americans into libertarians
As I was boarding my ATA flight back to Chicago yesterday, I was startled to see the boarding area so crowded. I then found out that the flight before mine to Chicago -- which was supposed to leave six hours before mine -- had been cancelled. I assumed this was because of the inclement weather (it was snowing), but it turned out I was only partially correct.
The flight had indeed been delayed by a few hours because of the weather. By the time it was ready to take off, however, a new problem presented itself. One of the flight attendants had been on duty by that point for more than 16 hours. Because FAA regulations stipulate that no flight attendant can work more than 16 hours straight, she was not allowed to work on that flight. This left only three flight attendants for that flight segment. That, however, bumped into another FAA regulation -- there must be one flight attendant for every 50 seats on the plane. Because this was ATA, they didn't have some vast reservoir of flight attendants twiddling their thumbs at the airport. So, the flight was cancelled.
Needless to say, the following occurred:
1) The passengers on that flight were less than pleased;
2) The ATA spokespeople were extremely apologetic;
3) It was difficult to hear the words "FAA regulation" said by anyone sitting in the area without an expletive modifying that particular noun.
Where oh where is the Queen of Sky when you need her? |
