Month: January 2011

Why “Bipartisanship” Makes Me Cringe

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“Strategery”, “nucular”, and “guesstimate” are words that make people twitch when heard. For me, my head instantly starts pounding when “bipartisanship” starts being thrown around. Both Republicans and Democrats use the word in their attempt to assuage people’s need for civility and goodness. In reality, what either side is saying is “we need to come together as long as our coming together is on our side of the issue”.

Our political disagreements is the actual bipartisanship we should strive for. Disagreement on policy is how policy making works. Having everyone sitting around in a chant circle signing “Kumbaya” and agreeing on every single thing proposed allows crud to flow through with the good stuff. Rather than bipartisanship we need people discussing, disagreeing, and reworking legislation so that it is succinct, serves a purpose, and does the most good.

I am sure tonight’s State of the Union address will have plenty of “we need to come together” lines along with “we are one so we should act like one” ovation getters. These are simply long forms of “bipartisanship”. What I wish the President would say is, “We need to hash out the details on legislation to get the economy moving. We need each side to whittle this legislation down to help as many Americans as possible”.

Agreement is great, I’m just not sure that having a Legislative Branch of yes-men is the best way to go about getting people to agree.

Salzburg

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The airport is packed. This fact surprises me, I was expecting a quiet evening in a regional airport. Come to find out, Friday is London City Airport’s busiest day. Squeezing past the crowds I make my way to the departures area to look out the window. This is the airport of the regional airplane. Bombardier Q400s, BAe Avro RJ85s, and Fokker 50s sit on the tarmac waiting to take businessmen and women from Canary Wharf to places like Paris-Orly, Amsterdam, Zurich, and for me, Munich.

Boarding is called and I make my way across the tarmac to my waiting crane-tailed bird. The doors close and the pilot taxis to the runway. We hold, waiting for another aircraft to land. It howls by us and exits the runway as we enter. A jerk as the brakes are set. The engines roar to life and the pilot holds position while maximum thrust is achieved. Suddenly the plane leaps forward and we are off. 45 seconds later and we are in the air at an unbelievable angle. I look out the window to see London out the left side of the plane.

I can say I did all of this for the image above but I would be lying. I did a lot of it just to experience that take-off and it was well worth it.

2011 Begins

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I am not one for bidding everyone a “Happy New Year” or even resolving to do anything differently. But, I do think 2010 was a good year, and hope that 2011 will be even better. Better not just for me but for my friends, family, city, and country.

2010 was a good year for my wife and me, but I know for a lot of people out there, it was difficult, stressful, and for some, downright depressing. Here’s to 2011 being a year of blessings for those who have endured tribulations and tragedies. Here’s to 2011 being a year of economic clarity for our government, local, state, and federal. And finally, here’s to 2011 being a year of people showing love for others.

Let’s do this year right.