First, kudos to the various elements of the government, law enforcement and other agencies who caught Shahzad before he could leave the country.  But let’s be honest here: we got lucky.  Lucky on multiple counts.  Now, I’ll take lucky every day.  Considering that the administration was already in deep water over the Christmas Day kabloomer being on the no-fly list but still flying over U.S. airspace to a U.S. airport, one would have hoped that over the course of the last four months, the powers-that-be could have tightened up the procedures to handle that better than allowing a person on the no-fly list to board a plane which pulled back from the gate before addressing the issue.  I’m waiting for Napolitano to tell us that the system worked….again.

Second, Apple is finding itself on the other side of the coin from a decade or so ago.  Microsoft found itself the target of a government antitrust investigation when they packaged Internet Explorer with their Windows operating system under the (erroneous) claim that it was integral to the operating system.  Microsoft earned the mantel of the villain and Apple and others looked to be the white hats.  Now, with the upcoming iAds system that Apple plans on releasing with the iPhone 4.0 system and the recent changes to the iPhone Developer’s Agreement, Apple is potentially eliminating and interfering with competition and other business practices.  Maybe in five years we’ll see some ad (maybe on the iPad or iPhone) where AgentUSA tosses a hammer at a huge screen with Steve Jobs speaking on it.

Third, the so-called Wall Street Reform efforts in Congress merit watching. Yes, for the obvious reasons of what it could mean for regular investors and our tax burdens and impacts to the economy. But, in a more telling manner, watch how the various politicians, including the president, line up with the various sub-efforts within it. Note that hedge fund managers gave largely to recent democrat campaigns, including Obama’s – the top 10 managers gave something on the order of $33M over their lifetimes to democrat campaigns and only $600,000 to republicans. Considering who the targets of this reform could be, we’ll have to wait and see if that $33M buys any sort of leniency in the legislation.

Fourth, with regards to the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s been said here before and I’ll echo ‘Puters sentiments – (1) it’s a dangerous and risky business, (2) the so-called “green energy” alternatives have dangers (see video below – note those blades are big and come off at incredible speeds, blade tip speed can reach over 400mph during failures), deaths and environmental impacts as well, (3) it’s better to have our own supply versus importing and (4) nuclear power remains the best, broad alternative in a cost-per-kWh source.

Fifth, Happy Cinco de Mayo!

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.