A quiet Presidents' Day weekend draws to a close. The tantalizingly brilliant days were simply too breezy and cold, and the snow was too patchy (in spite of the WeatherChannel's threats of "lake-effect"), for X-C skiing. It was a good weekend for household chores. Weatherwise, I suppose we can't complain this year. While not enough snow to ski, it was rather pleasant not to have to snowblow to get out of the driveway. It was certainly better than '02-'03 and '03-'04, which looked like the beginning of the next Ice Age. [I'm somewhat of a Global Warming Skeptic -- but I'll save that subject for another day]. Oh well, it's only 4 weeks and 1 day to spring -- and gardening!
One thing did get my attention this weekend: the story about Dubai Ports World acquiring the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation. The latter company apparently controls operations in most of the U.S.'s major ports, and the former is apparently a corporate face for the Dubai government. I don't know about you, but this worries me. How can we allow our ports to be controlled by a foreign government? How could we have already allowed our ports to be controlled by a foreign corporation? Perhaps this was done in the same way we allowed National Grid (from the UK) to take over NiMo, or German RWE to take over American Waterworks (soon to be spun off). Perhaps this was done in the same way that "American" corporations have exported most if not all of their manufacturing overseas. (Can we really consider them "American" anymore?) Perhaps my worries may be attributed to the history lessons I learned in school (apparently no longer taught) on how we were able to convert our peace time assets to war production to protect ourselves and allies during the two World Wars. If our industrial capacity has been exported and our ports and utilities are foreign owned, what's to stop others from pulling the plug and walking in and taking over? I simply do not understand why the export of jobs and foreign control of vital operations are not viewed as national security risks.
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