Nifong's Career Move, Commercial Air Travel Revolution

What is an ambitious lawyer to do when his law career is deadended? Results vary by party affiliation and political clout, of course. Lawyers are the undisputed fundraisers, financers, strategists and leaders of the power party. Among the other, the pretense party, however, lawyers are usually lower profile characters who feign fundamental differences with their loyal counterparts.

There is only one league in which players in the two, major U.S. political parties compete for jobs. Neither seeks to upset league policy or rules of the game. The public votes for most valuable players every few years.

If you are Watergate convict Charles Colson (GWU-Law 1959), you become an evangelical Christian minister. If you are Mike Nifong (UNC-Law 1978), that last thing you not want to become is a cleric, but your former colleagues encourage it. Why? It places you far from the fold of lawyers, especially the power party's lawyers. Unlike another disbarred power party politico, Nifong does not merit a presidential library.

Will Nifong take his former colleagues' advice for televangelism, or revert to an occupation prior to law school (teacher or social worker)? Watch for a decision in a few months.

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What's wrong with commercial air travel in the U.S.? The purpose of air travel used to be enormous time savings over competing transportation. For longer distances this is still true, but not as attractive as in the recent past.

Today, commercial airliners are like interstate buses. Amenities are poor, overcrowding is a given and schedules are dicey. For shorter, regional trips one spends as much time in waiting rooms and traffic queues as in the air getting from Hub A to Hub B then driving or training to the real destination. Hmmm!

Something revolutionary is now on the horizon (but, only in Europe). Will lobbying prevent it from revolutionizing air travel in the U.S.? I am afraid so, initially. It will be available privately, of course, but not for the public. It eliminates not only needless Hub-to-Hub travel, but unnecessary Hub and spoke air travel, as well. You could travel from your nearest departure airport to the choice destination airport. These aircraft takeoff and land vertically with better speed, range and capacity characteristics than helicopters. Amenities? Improved, of course.