Bad Parking Job

This is what happens when you try to cram a 457 foot boat into a 50 foot slip. What some people will try to save a dollar!

This is legal!

It is ok to park in front of a fire hyrant here. I still blows me away whenever I see this.

Coming soon! Corporate Failure Levys

Now here is the interesting bit of information from Australia that I feel is important for Americans.

Australia's Ansett Airlines collaped in 2001 After Ansett collaped, the Australia government implemented the "Ansett Air Passenger Ticket Levy". This was a $10 per ticket tax that was added to the price of all airline tickets sold in Australia. This levy was implemented between 01-Oct-2001 through 3-Jun-2003. The money raised was suppose to pay the salaries owed to Ansett employees after their airline failed.

I mention this levy because I think it is a forbearer of things to come in the US. United Airlines recently declared bankruptcy and the US government took over their underfunded pension plan. Delta Airlines is threatening the same thing now. I will not be at all surprised if we find that Congress will implement an airline employee levy on all airline tickets sold in the US.

Why stop there? Taking it to the next logical step, Congress might slap a levy on all new cars sold in the US to pay the underfunded pensions of GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

Isn't that nice? Company management can feel free to risk or blow all their company assets because they know that us taxpayers will end up footing the bill for their pension and salary obligations. This puts the company creditors ahead of the employees since they will be paid "separately".

The new corporate mantra: Screw the pension contributions! Fund my golden parachute!

Where is the "U" in Qantas? and other arline trivia

I don't know if people outside of Australia have noticed, but the word "Qantas" does not have a "U" in it as it normally follows "Q" in the English language. This is because Qantas is not a word. It is an acronym for the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. At least the airline was smart enough to grab the internet domains "quantas.com" for those customers who did not notice.

Back in the 1960's, Qantas used to have a winged kangaroo logo. It is similar to today's familar logo, but with an enoumous pair of "angel" style wings on the kangaroo's back.

Australia used to have two major airlines flying routes within Australia. Qantas and Ansett. Ansett collaped in 2001 and left Qantas as really the only airline to fly routes across Australia. Since then, Virgin Blue Airlines has stepped in with Southwest Airlines style service within Australia to compete head-to-head with Qantas.

Film Review: Spanglish - 2 stars

Robin rented "Spanglish" over the weekend and had her friend Stasha come over and watch it with her. They let me watch it too. At the end, they were crying, I was wretching.

It was absolutely a chick-flick. What a load of politically correct junk. It wasn't even funny! The only part I liked was watching the principal actress, Paz Vega. She is gorgeous! She is almost better looking that Penelope Cruz! I could watch her all day.

There was another actress with a bit part that stopped my heart, Nicole Nieth. She was on screen for just a few seconds as the hostess in the restaurant. I've got to keep an eye out for more films with her in them.