Paging Dr. Occam (Signifying Nothing: how does saying nothing at all become so loud?)

Friday, 30 May 2008

Paging Dr. Occam

Ezra Klein sees sinister relationships everywhere:

Mark Schmitt wonders why John McCain has had such an interest in America West’s runway operations throughout his career. The answer, it turns out, is predictable enough. “America West was a major financial backer of McCain, and one of his top aides, John W. Timmons, became America West’s lobbyist. America West donated a charter plane to Cindy McCain’s charity, American Voluntary Medical Team, for a trip to Kuwait, and this story in TheStreet.com says that Cindy McCain’s Hensley Group holds a large stake in US Airways, the successor to America West.”

How about a simpler explanation: America West was and US Airways is headquartered in Arizona. John McCain is the senior senator from Arizona. McCain has thousands of voters in his constituency employed by AW/US, so maybe it makes sense for him to do things in their interests.

This logic also works for Democrats, by the way. Or are you going to tell me that Barack Obama (you know, from Illinois) has never done anything to support Chicago-based (that’s a city in Illinois) carriers American and United?

6 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.

1. Scott wrote @ Fri, 30 May 2008, 7:33 am CDT:

This is a completely irrelevant pet peeve, but—although “Occam” has become the default popularized spelling—I believe the proper spelling is “Ockham” after William of Ockham.

2. Chris Lawrence wrote @ Fri, 30 May 2008, 7:35 am CDT:

Like British people know how to spell.

3. Alfie Sumrall wrote @ Fri, 30 May 2008, 7:56 am CDT:

I wish I was kewl enough to have my name spelled different ways, depending on the country. Oh well, I’ll have to live with Summerall, Sumrallii (when they ignore the ,II), Sumerall, Summeral, et al.

4. Scott wrote @ Fri, 30 May 2008, 8:09 am CDT:

Alfie:

I thought it was spelled “Douchebag.”

5. Chris Lawrence wrote @ Fri, 30 May 2008, 8:13 am CDT:

You know Scott, calling your former students names doesn’t look good when you’re being evaluated for tenure.

Oh, wait… never mind. Fire away. ☺

6. Alfie Sumrall wrote @ Fri, 30 May 2008, 9:34 pm CDT:

Yes, my many letters to Winthrop clearly carry no weight.

Douchebag? Damn.

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