Keith Burgess-Jackson

Both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees won today, so Boston’s magic number to eliminate New York is down to 22. I want to make clear that this Yankee Watch has nothing to do with making the playoffs. It is about the race for the East Division title. The Yankees have won the East Division title for nine consecutive years. In eight of those nine years (all but 2006), the Red Sox finished second. This year, Boston wins and New York finishes second.

Addendum: Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox (a native Texan) pitched a no-hitter this evening against the Baltimore Orioles. Congratulations, kid.

To the Editor:

Your editorial says there is an urgent need to remedy the delays and overcrowding at airports, and that the government should cap the number of aircraft that airports can handle.

In the context of concern about global warming, the solution is to drastically cut the amount of aircraft travel.

Air transport accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, but high-flying airplanes leave contrails that are believed to cause two to four times more global warming than carbon dioxide emissions normally generate.

Curtailing air travel these days sounds like a hardship, but in the 1950s we lived comfortably with a small fraction of today’s air travel.

John Burton
Washington, N.J., Aug. 27, 2007

Note from KBJ: The writer sees the benefit of “curtailing air travel,” but makes no mention of its costs. A rational person estimates both costs and benefits before making a decision. Is this where global warmism (the ideology of global warming) leads? Do we simply identify activities that contribute to global warming and shut them down, without conducting a cost-benefit analysis?

The editorial board of the New York Times is worried that Rudy Giuliani might benefit politically from being present at the 9-11 memorial service in 10 days. Wasn’t he the mayor at the time? Isn’t it fitting that he be present—indeed, that he actively participate? It’s not Giuliani who’s politicizing this event; it’s the Times.

Here.