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Finding 'black box' must be Job One

One must conclude now that the search for the missing jetliner and its 239 passengers and crew has to center on the black box, the flight data recorder that likely is lying deep below the surface of the southern Indian Ocean.

If searchers find the recorder, they’ll be able to retrieve it and gather all the information necessary to determine what happened to Flight 370 as it left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 8.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/now-missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370/story?id=23003374

All the theories about hijacking seem to have been discounted now. What we don’t know is why the plane turned sharply off course shortly after leaving Malaysia en route to Beijing. Nor do we know whether someone purposely took the plane far south, whether it ran out of fuel, whether the Boeing 777 dived steeply into the water or whether it glided into the water, broke apart and sank.

We don’t know what happened on the flight deck moments before communication was lost. We don’t know whether a struggle occurred or whether the two-man flight deck crew simply decided to end it all right then.

The world awaits the fate of the individuals on board, along with those they left behind.

The satellite pictures of those two objects spotted 1,500 miles southwest of Perth, Australia don’t tell us much. They might have sunk by now, leaving searchers with no visual clues with which to work.

This, folks, is one gigantic aviation mystery.

They’ll be talking about it for many years — even after they find that flight data recorder. They’d better find it soon. The batteries are running out. When they die, the “ping” stops.

Then what?

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Let's end Flight 370 hijacking theory nonsense

I cannot help but think of the families, friends and loved ones of 239 individuals.

These are the people most affected by the ongoing tragedy surrounding Malaysian Air Flight 370. The plane disappeared March 8 after it took off from Kuala Lumpur. Search crews now are looking for something spotted from a satellite; the sighting is about 1,500 miles southwest of Perth, Australia.

Meanwhile, some talking heads have thrown out idiotic theories about what happened to that airplane. A few of more idiotic notions — such as one offered on Fox News by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerny — suggest the plane was hijacked, taken to some secret location and is being “weaponized” to do some horrific damage to some unknown target.

All the while, those who are awaiting word of their loved ones’ fate sit in shock. They are grief-stricken. They are confused. They are hanging on to any tiny nugget of hope that those who are lost will be found — alive. They know in their heads that possibility is virtually zero. Yet they cling desperately absent any proof that what the satellite saw is wreckage from Flight 370.

Can’t we put a cork on the nonsense theories that have been kicked around, if only for a little while we the authorities go about the grueling task of searching and finding what’s left of the aircraft?

Once they locate the wreckage, it’s a near certainty they’ll find the flight data recorder aboard the ship somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. Once they do, they’ll know the truth, all of it — and those loved ones will have the closure they seek.

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Rethinking smoking indoors

I don’t smoke, having quit the habit cold turkey 34 years ago in one of my proudest achievements.

Long ago I lost the desire to light up. In fact, the older I get the more militant I have become about smoking. I detest it now where before I merely disliked it.

The more militant I become the more inclined I am to rethink Amarillo City Hall’s refusal to enact a citywide ban on smoking in indoor public places. I formerly thought the city should leave it to private businesses. I’m wondering now whether the city could make a symbolic statement about its commitment to its residents’ good health by imposing a city ordinance.

http://blogs.star-telegram.com/politex/2014/03/fort-worth-city-councilman-wants-to-revisit-smoking-ordinance.html

Other cities have done it, with no apparent ill effect. The Texas city where my family and I once lived, Beaumont, enacted a citywide ban years ago, arousing the ire of business owners who thought the city was interfering in a private business decision. The city council’s response? That’s too bad; it’s our decision and we’re sticking with it.

Amarillo took a different course. It put the measure up to a vote twice and both times voters narrowly rejected proposed ordinances banning indoor smoking. The city decided to let the voters’ have their say. They spoke and that’s it, according to city council members.

Is it? I’m not so sure.

A lot of bar owners — so I’m told — still allow smoking. Not only are people consuming alcohol, perhaps too much of it, but they’re breathing second-hand smoke as well, causing further damage to their health.

Fort Worth, as the attached blog notes, is grappling with the indoor smoking issue. It’s the largest city in Texas that still allows smoking inside bars and taverns. It’s also considering whether to ban sales of e-cigs to minors.

Everyone on the planet seems to know that smoking is bad for your health. Amarillo has a physician serving on its five-member city council, for crying out loud. He hasn’t yet been able to persuade his colleagues to enact a city ordinance banning indoor smoking.

I’m wondering, actually, if Dr. Brian Eades is trying hard enough to bring his colleagues to his side. If not, he needs to try. If he is, he needs to try harder.

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Chairman Ryan must avoid code words

When you mention people who live in what’s called the “inner city,” you’re generally referring to Americans of African descent.

That’s a given in today’s political culture.

And when you suggest that the “inner city culture” doesn’t honor work, you’re insulting a whole race of Americans.

That’s what U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan was told after he made some, um, intemperate remarks on talk-show host Bill Bennett’s radio show.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/paul-ryan-confronted-over-inner-cities-remark-tense-exchange-n57636

And one of Ryan’s Wisconsin constituents called him out on it at a town hall meeting this week in Janesville, Wisc.

Ryan said on Bennett’s show that there is a “tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of work.”

An African-American man, Alfonso Gardner, challenged Ryan for that remark, saying he was using code words to describe black citizens. Ryan’s response? “There was nothing whatsoever about race in my comments at all, it had nothing to do with race.”

Actually, Mr. Chairman, it had everything to do with race, even if you didn’t say it overtly.

That’s the point Gardner is making and it is something the possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate may need to clear up if he jumps into the next national presidential campaign.

Ryan already has more or less apologized for using what he described as “inarticulate” verbiage when talking to Bennett. Indeed, as the link attached here notes, Ryan has become an advocate for immigration reform while many of his GOP House colleagues have balked at the notion. He told the town hall crowd he is entirely sensitive to the plight of minorities.

Code words can be perceived as hurtful if they’re put in the kind of context Ryan was addressing in his radio interview. One of the young congressman’s constituents construed it that way. It doesn’t matter what he intended to say or meant to imply.

Words have consequences, Rep. Ryan.

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Don't discount pain of economic punishment

Before we let the chicken hawks and armchair generals get too far ahead of themselves in this U.S.-Russia confrontation debate, it’s good to perhaps understand what kind of pain can be delivered via economic sanctions leveled against Russia.

A number of President Obama’s critics want him to do more than just level some specific economic sanctions against Russia. They want some form of military option, such as arming Ukrainian military units and sending troops to NATO nations as a standby warning to Russia.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/03/20/obama_orders_new_round_of_sanctions_on_russia_121998.html

However, the sanctions that Obama has imposed on a number of key Russian leaders with lots of money spread around in banks throughout the world well could put a serious damper on an already-weak Russian economy.

Russia’s economic growth is near zero. The Crimean region that Russia has effectively annexed is an economic basket case. Corruption still runs rampant throughout Russia, with gangsters and thugs controlling an underground economy that dwarfs many aspects of the above-ground economy.

The measures enacted by the White House through executive orders signed by the president are meant to deny access to financial assets by key Russian leaders. It’s going to cause them considerable personal pain. There well might be more severe measures taken against rank-and-file Russians if Russia ratchets up its military involvement in Ukraine.

Let’s be crystal clear about one non-starter of an idea: War with Russia is out of the question, which Obama has declared. There will be no battlefield confrontation between the nations.

Having said that, there’s no way to guarantee what Russia might do to re-annex three Baltic states — Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, all of which are members of NATO. Let us not forget that NATO constitution says that an attack against one member nation is an attack against the entire alliance — which includes the United States of America.

The White House is banking that given the sad state of the Russian economy, the economic punishment just might be enough to give Russia pause if it aims to continue its aggression in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the chicken hawks ought to pipe down.

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Let's define 'sanctions'

The media have this habit of latching on to words without clarifying their context, meaning or importance.

The word of the day is “sanctions.”

President Obama today announced he is expanding the sanctions being leveled on high-level Russian officials who have played any important role in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Being a reasonably well-read individual, I think I know what he means by “sanctions.” The president is using executive authority to freeze assets of individuals high up in the Russian government. They’ll be unable to move money around. They’ll be hit where it hurts, in the bank account.

I think that’s what the word means.

The media, though, ought to explain these sanctions and how the U.S. government intends to inflict enough pain on Russia’s government to make it stop interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs. If the media cannot do it, then they should ask White House officials, Treasury Department gurus, Federal Reserve Board brass, high-level Ivy League economists or anyone else with intimate knowledge on how these things work to explain to us unwashed masses.

Sanctions.

It’s a nice word. It seems so clinical, so clean and so, oh, bordering on meaningless unless you can define how the sanctions actually work.

I’m all ears.

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Predator gets off easy

My wife came unglued this morning as we listened on NPR to someone defending an Army brigadier general who had been accused of sexually assaulting his former lover.

A military judge this morning sentenced Jeffrey Sinclair to a fine, a reprimand and zero jail time after he pleaded guilty to charges involving an affair he had with a junior officer.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/general-fined-not-jailed-or-demoted-sex-case-n57646

Gen. Sinclair copped a guilty plea and got the Army to drop the most serious charge of sexual assault involving the woman with whom he was having the affair.

Then came the NPR report in which a spokesman for Sinclair declared the general to be a “man of honor” who didn’t deserve to spend time behind bars.

“A man of honor?!” my wife shrieked as we sat in the car. “My God, the guy had an affair and was accused of assaulting someone,” she said.

I have to agree with my bride. A “man of honor” never would have gotten involved with someone other than his wife in the first place.

The sentence now essentially ends this high-profile court-martial.

Gen. Sinclair has disgraced himself, grievously injured his family and dishonored the country he served.

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'Secede' from our beloved country?

I keep seeing this bumper sticker on the back end of a pickup.

It’s next to another one. Their juxtaposition means that neither of them makes sense.

One is an American flag, Old Glory, the Stars and Stripes. The fellow who owns the truck is a “proud American,” I’m reckoning.

The other one says a single word: “SECEDE.”

OK, so which is it? Is the guy a patriot who loves this country? Does he want to break up his beloved United States of America?

You see these “SECEDE” bumper stickers and other signage around the Texas Panhandle every so often. I’m unsure — as I haven’t mustered the guts to actually question someone displaying the signs — whether the secede messages are to be taken literally.

I’d ask, except that in Texas we allow people to carry concealed handguns, so I’m afraid of getting shot … OK?

The secession talk ebbs and flows. I think it’s beginning to flow once again with election season coming on and tea party folks in Texas and elsewhere touting their candidates for public office.

The “SECEDE” sign next to Old Glory on the back bumper of the pickup sends a mixed message. I trust the owner of the truck is as proud of his country as I am, but I don’t know it, given the sign calling for Texas to pull out of the country.

I believe that’s called “sedition.”

In this country, though, it’s OK to say you want to secede; it’s quite another to actually do it. Eleven states did that once. It didn’t work out for them.

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Realism rules in taking military strike off table

World leaders usually say they are leaving “all options on the table” when dealing with crises.

President Obama, though, has taken another — quite reasonable — approach in trying to find a solution to the crisis in Ukraine.

He has ruled out a “military excursion” pitting U.S. armed forces against Russians.

Good call, Mr. President.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/obama-rules-out-military-excursion-ukraine-n57081

The United States does not need another war. It certainly does not need a shooting war with Russia, which — in case anyone needs reminding — is the second-greatest nuclear power on the planet; the United States is No. 1, but the Russians still have the ability to inflict cataclysmic damage.

Thus, the United States will not entertain the idea of engaging Russia on the battlefield.

Critics no doubt will say something about a “timid” U.S. response that “emboldens” Russian President Vladimir Putin. Let them grumble.

The very idea of a U.S.-Russia battlefield confrontation is too chilling to even ponder, let alone discuss out loud.

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Who will also-rans endorse for lt. gov.?

Jerry Patterson and Todd Staples are feeling a bit stung these days.

Patterson, the state land commissioner, and Staples, the Texas agriculture commissioner, finished out of the running in the four-man race for Texas lieutenant governor. But they both still might have something to say about who Texas Republicans should nominate in the May 27 runoff.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/03/12/patterson-staples-talk-the-past-present-and-future/

They talked to the Texas Tribune about their campaigns and their futures.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is facing state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston in the runoff to see who will run this fall against Democratic nominee state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio.

It’s going to be a bitter fight all the way to runoff voting day.

How might Patterson and/or Staples affect the outcome? They could endorse one of the two runoff foes.

My guess is that Dewhurst would get the nod, given that Patrick managed to anger Patterson and Staples with some pretty mean-spirited campaign ads during the primary.

What’s more, both the land commissioner and the agriculture commissioner have worked with Dewhurst as statewide elected officials. It’s kind of a clubby atmosphere among statewide officeholders.

Patrick could be seen as the fiery outsider in this foursome.

I don’t know what Patterson and Staples will do. I don’t know either of them well enough to predict how or whether they’ll make endorsements in this contest.

They’ll wait a suitable length of time before making their decisions, either because they don’t yet know what they’ll do or because they want to generate maximum political impact on this important contest.

Stay tuned.

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