Hey Michelle Malkin

To: Michelle Malkin
Re: Comment Registry

I have read and enjoyed some of your commentary over time (well, I'm not exactly a conservative, I'm more of a center left guy, but, still... sometimes what you write makes sense). I have noticed, however, that you have not been allowing people to join your registered community of comments lately. While this does a disservice to those of us who would very much like to comment and talk about going-ons and opinions, whether conservative or liberal, whether sensical or not, this might be understandable. Anyhow, you have been doing this since at least late 2008, and probably much earlier than that. Anyhow, that being said, I might as well proceed to make comments on the following articles:

Flight 1549 pilot: God bless Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger!

Amen to that. Sully is quite the barnstormer, and he is also proof that good military men and women make good American citizens. This is not always the case for every military, but it seems to be the case for the military of the USA, and perhaps for Britain and some other Western countries. It may be true for Israel, too, as warlike as it is, and places like modern Japan, modern China, etc. In the militaries, obesiance to rules is highly regarded, and if the rules are noble and ethical, than the military people will also likely wind up noble and ethical. It is when people running militaries make stupid rules and encourage stupid things to happen (like the ruthless Rape of Nanking or the Abu Ghraib disaster) that militaries wind up being, well, foolish and evil. Unfortunately, in the emotional heat of wartime, this is likely to happen, because anger leads to the urge to harm the target of that anger, which, in turn, leads to wartime atrocities. (In WWII, no side was innocent, although the principal Axis countries and the Soviet Union were more guilty than other participants. To wit, the USA imprisioned Japanese-Californians, failed to help Jewish refugees enter the country as much as it could, and made a controversial call over whether or not to use a practically untested weapon (there was only one nuclear explosion on record at the time) on two Japanese cities in order to end the war; the Soviets and Germans bitterly contested eastern Europe with numerous atrocities and tragedies, there were the Holocaust, the Rape of Nanking, and the Bataan Death March, and so on and so forth. To be sure, civilians performed some, but not all, of those atrocities (the Holocaust was at least partly a civilian affair, although military people played a role, I think; the racism in America was also at least partly civilian, I think, but correct me if I'm wrong).

Tl;dr: Military people are more likely to be good and trustworthy when the rules followed by militaries are good and trustworthy, and this extends to the heroism of people such as Sully Sullenberger. And, yeah, he made a heroic landing that was difficult, relatively untested, and a major lifesaver, and he deserves a reward for this mitzvah.

AP's final dig at President Bush

Yeah, MSM and AP do have some contempt for President Bush. Probably with good reason, too: this was a man that the US should've known better than to elect at least once (I still think Bush "stole" 2000 from under Al Gore's feet, although one might argue that it was essentially a draw and thus both people should've considered themselves winners). Bush's initial "election", if you want to call it that and not an appointment (by the Supreme Court), was due to his name and family connections, and because he appeared friendly to the people around him. While he had executive experience (unlike Obama), this was also largely due to family connections and not really due to talent in his own right (he hires people to tell him what to do, just look at Dick Cheney!). Furthermore, he was a Big Business and Big Oil type of guy, bad for our environment and bad for mixed transportation systems. Also, let's not forget that Dubya was a "C" student in college. On the plus side, Dubya made for many a funny presidential moment (remember him and the locked doors in China?)

Obama, in contrast, while his executive resume is short, is a very good speechmaker and a decent writer, and his resume is one of an activist and community organizer. Also importantly, he's sort of an outsider - someone who got picked up by some high level Democrat for the 2004 convention because he liked his charisma and his ideas, rather than his family connections (Obama? Who has ever heard of an Obama in American politics before?). While there are concerns about Blagojevich and the Illinois political machine (there's a lot of bribery and pay-to-play over in Illinois, but this wasn't Obama's fault and might not really be any current Illinois politician's fault to begin with), Obama still appears to have better potential than Bush did. I also like him because he appears to be friendly to Amtrak and other transit (would you imagine John McCain, staunch Amtrak opponent, picking "Amtrak Joe" to be veep or riding a president-elect train down to his inauguration?). Furthermore, this economy is in a classic recession, with lost jobs and receding prices, and Obama is a Democrat, and Democrats tend to be good with classic recessions (not to be confused with stagflations, where tax revolts become more common).

Not all conservatives are singing O-Kumbaya

Yeah, the current inauguration is a bit overblown (although I'm more preferential to the word "ticky-tacky" than "schlock"). However, spending is important for the economy, which is in a funk right now. What we need is good management, not a coronation; however, coronations are fun and enjoyable, whether of a new President or of a king (or a mayor, although I have yet to see this much grandeur and pomp surrounding a new mayor or a new governor). When Governor Paterson took office in NY state, he pointed out repeatedly that it was a "Monday (or whatever day of the week it was) morning and it's time to get to work", and that's what he did, rather than hold a large and distracting celebration of his taking office. So, go ahead and party, but keep in mind that work needs to be done.