Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for July 2003.

Instapundit for President?

If the blogosphere is increasingly important, then a Glenn Reynolds administration can only make sense.. but the position of Secretary of Transportation is apparently vacant. Seems like I’d be a perfect fit! That would be even better than impeaching Norm Mineta!

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Musings

This week’s newsletter from David Rowell is uniquely good, so I’m going to reproduce some interesting snippets: VS also enjoy having provocative slogans on the side of their planes. Not long ago, they had the slogan ‘Ours is Longer’ painted on their new A340 planes – presumably referring to the fact that the A340-600 is longer than a 747-400. And now they are painting the slogan “BA Can’t Keep It Up” on the side of its aircraft, – presumably referring to BA’s refusal to sell the Concordes to Virgin. VS will keep the slogan until the Concorde ceases flying in October. … Delta..has announced that it will eliminate its quarterly dividend, while forecasting a loss of $200 – $250 million in the upcoming third quarter. … Russia’s Aeroflot announced a net profit for 2002 of…

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Get software and money

Amazon.com has VirusScan 7.0 and Norton Internet Security free after rebate. Use code TENBUCKS4NIS for an additioanl $10 off when buying both. You get two free software titles and $10.

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Should Home State Senators Be Able to Block Judicial Nominations?

TAPPED, the American Prospect’s blog, complains about Orrin Hatch changing the rules for judicial nomination hearings. I don’t have a strong judgment one way or the other on the specifics of these Senate rules, but TAPPED’s complaint hardly seems a principled one.A Senator from a nominee’s home state had once been able to indefinitely block a nominee by placing a so-called “blue slip” on the nomination. Then the requirement changed, under Hatch as judiciary committee chairman, to both home state senators placing a “blue slip” on a nominee to block a hearing. Now Hatch is scheduling hearings on Bush judicial nominees over Democratic blue slips from Michigan. TAPPED complains that this is breaking with a Senate tradition But as Robert Kuttner explained in the American Prospect a couple years back, [I]t was Hatch, in 1995,…

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Internet banking

Now that Netbank has gotten into the mileage game by offering United and Delta miles, I decided to take a look at an online checking account. I actually didn’t sign up with Netbank, though. Instead, I signed up with BankDirect. Both give miles for checking accounts and other financial products. The (2) drawbacks to NetBank are: They don’t give very many miles (I was only going to earn 4500) and mileage is a one-shot deal — there’s no continued earning. They don’t reimburse ATM fees. So while they don’t CHARGE you to use an ATM, in most cases the machine you use will. BankDirect solved both of those things. Now, BankDirect has two disadvantages: A $15/month fee on checking accounts with balances under $2500. A lower interest rate than NetBank. So I studied hard and…

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First Class Changes at Alaska

The Tacoma, Washington News Tribune is reporting that Alaska Airlines plans to keep first class seating on its aircraft.Rumor has it that Alaska plans to revise the first class upgrade benefit that currently allows MVP Gold (top tier) members to upgrade any fare at the time of booking, subject to availability. This is likely to change to apply only to higher fares. Elites on discount fares will probably have to wait until closer to flight time to confirm a first class seat.

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