Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Ferry News, London, UK  2/26/2006

The controversy being generated by the media and amplified by the politicians and other talking heads in addition to creating a panic where there is little or no reason is also casting a shadow on two of our oldest and I assert are the most effective “first lines of defense”. Not only that; but I will also state that they approach private industry when it comes to efficiency in dealing with the mountainous task of dealing with risks of containerized cargo at the ports and assuring that the tariffs and the laws of the other agencies of government are followed.

International logistics is an extremely complex industry and the maritime portion of that industry has been in place and continuously refined by business and national administrations for thousands of years. Before biblical times vessel captains met at one port or other and asked what the “Custom” or tariff for bringing trade goods to such and such a port. I suspect they also would ask what hazards exist and how best to deal with them. That would include natural ones such as reefs as well as pirates or rogue governmental administrations.

The first conferences dealing with terrorism were most likely conducted by vessel captains; today they and the vessel operating companies are still dealing with the same issues except that the terrorists are more sophisticated now. I suspect that a large reason there have been few terrorist activities involving commercial shipping is because of their efforts pushed by the commercial needs over these thousands of years.

With this in mind, it is clear that for a vessel carrier to place a ship and her cargo in the hands of anything less than a reliable stevedoring company, to dock the vessel, unload the cargo and safeguard it until it is in the hands of the customer would be suicide and every means available legal or shadowy would be employed to determine the risks.

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Published in the “Lone Star Liberty” the monthly magazinge of the Texas Libertarian Party”.3/1/2006
Grant Rostig’s announcement that he would provide a choice to what seem to be socialists offered by the Democrat Republican Party or the Republican Democrat Party, gave me an inkling that there might be hope for a real representative of the “folks” to reach Congress. I only wish I lived in that District so I could vote for him! Fortunately there are lots of Libertarians here in the “Valley” but unfortunately they just don’t know it yet.
The news story published in The Brownsville Herald, supplied even more to be optimistic about. Firstly, the story about a Libertarian Candidate occupied twenty column inches on a premium day, which seems like a good start even in a Libertarian friendly paper.
Secondly, Mr. Rostig will attract those disenfranchised by both the Democrats and Republicans, in particular many Texas Democrats who are quite conservative and not happy with Congressman Dogget’s “hard left” stance on gun control, his votes to increase taxes by supporting the retention of the marriage tax, being against a permanent child tax credit, as well as being against the tax cuts of 2001.
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Published in The Brownsville Herald 2/12/2006 and in “Lone Star Liberty” February 2006 the monthly news magazine of the Texas Libertarian Party.
On Friday January 13, ABC aired a John Stossel segment called “Stupid in America”.
I didn’t see it but found that it was a prime topic of conversation, in my “mainstream” so I secured a transcript. I also looked at the comments from a variety of sources.
Generally, in the educational world, with administrators at the different levels, the higher you go up in the food chain, the more vehemently the report was attacked. Also, as expected, those viewing social responsibility from a more liberal point of view were the most aggressive in their attacks with Conservatives more supportive.
The presence of this show in prime time, on a prime day by a news organization not usually known for Conservative bias, indicates a very important issue.
Some of the descriptions started to ring true with my personal experience. One in particular was where it was stated, “At age 10, American students take an international test and score well above the international average. But by age 15, when students from 40 countries are tested, the Americans place 25th.”
I have participated in a Texas UIL inter-mural academic competition by judging student essays for a “Ready Writing” classification. Many of the middle school students submissions were excellent often by any standards, and that when some of these same students reach High School the quality of the work declined substantially to just bigger words with no substance and the analysis that I enjoyed earlier was all but non-existent.
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