Getting Home from L.A.

We wrapped up our weekend trip to Los Angeles Sunday afternoon at about 3:30pm. By "wrapped up" I mean that we were done with the all the L.A. specific stuff we wanted to do for the weekend. All that was left to do was get home. Unfortunately our flight out wasn't until 8:45pm, over 5 hours later. If we'd driven in our own car for the weekend we could've been most of the way home by then! This is why trips to L.A. always involve a fly-vs.-drive calculation.

For this trip I was glad, on the whole, we chose to fly. Even though we ultimately didn't get back to our house until almost 10:30pm, we probably wouldn't have done much better driving directly home from The Getty Museum at 3:45. The drive is about 5.5 hours straight through. With stops for food and gas, plus delays for traffic, it likely would have been 7 hours. But more important than the issue of which is faster was which was easier. Flying meant I only had to deal with some local driving around LA to get to the airport. Other than that I could veg out.

And "veg out" is about all I could do. BUR airport is a hovel. The terminal looks like something that was built 50 years ago on the cheap and barely updated. There's one restaurant that's open inside, and it's ridiculously expensive. Like, $20 for a burger and fries or a pizza, plus $5 for a Coke or $12 for a beer, expensive. What's all that money going to? It's certainly not improving the bare cinderblock walls, industrial carpeting, or ceilings with exposed pipes. Seriously, it's like my old high school. With $12 beer.



Another aspect of how cheap and old-timey BUR airport is is that there are no jet bridges. You board by walking out the door from the terminal, across the ground, to stairs or a ramp up to the aircraft hatch. It's just like a small airport in a developing country.

RIP, Colin Powell

Yesterday Colin Powell, retired general and former Secretary of State, died from complications of Covid-19 combined with underlying conditions such as cancer and Parkinson's disease. He was 84.

Colin Powell became a household name during the 1991 Gulf War when he served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the Department of Defense. There was talk later in the '90s that he might run for president. There is, after all, considerable history of successful military leaders going on to hold high office. And as a commander his philosophy toward war was appealing. He did not relish war, preferring instead to work via diplomatic means. But when war was necessary he preferred to fight it only from a position of strength, with clear goals, and with clear popular support. These three elements— which, BTW, are a repudiation of what's popularly considered to have been wrong about the Vietnam War— became known as the Powell Doctrine.

Powell never did run for president but he was tapped by President George Bush in 2001 to serve as his Secretary of State. Sadly for him he never fit well in the role. ...Not because he was oriented against statesmanship, but because others in the administration, notably Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, saw opportunities to remake the world through military means after 9/11. The president was swayed by these warmongers. Powell, the career officer, toed the line of his boss's decision. He even made his boss's case to the United Nations for invading Iraq: his infamous speech of 5 February 2003 when claimed— falsely, and with flimsy evidence that was soon discredited— that Iraq was developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Powell's reputation never recovered from the stain of false pretenses for invading Iraq. He knew it, too, and remarked on it years later. I think he genuinely regretted it. Still, he is partly responsible for the thousands of lives lost, hundreds of thousands displaced, and trillions of dollars wasted.

May he now rest in peace.