How many times a year do we have a column here inviting comments on most hated airports? It's a good way to bring on the comments I suppose.

Anyway, I have never quite understood the hatred for IAD's "mobile lounges". I fly in/out of IAD a couple of times a year. The lounges depart every couple of minutes for each of the outlying terminals. The ride in the thing takes 5 minutes tops. So, that's less than 10 minutes from the main terminal to the others. That doesn't seem very long to me. But I always arrive way early. Now that the tunnel to the B gates is done you can walk from the main terminal to get out there. But it probably takes as long to walk as it does to ride the mobile lounge. The train system will be faster for sure but I don't think the current system takes all that long. And I never have to wait more than a few minutes at the security checks but maybe I have just been traveling at off peak times. They even seem to have finally staffed the passport control with enough officers. My last return I was through passport control with no wait at all. Then we have to wait a half an hour for our bags to show. That is Dulles's biggest drawback as far as I am concerned. Because the terminals are so far apart it takes a long time for the baggage to get from the plane to the main terminal.

I am also not necessarily as enamored of foreign airports. I visited Changi in Singapore for the first time a few months ago. It was also a giant shopping mall and quite noisy. I was stuck there overnight making a connection and the blaring TVs made it impossible top get any real rest. Even though everything else had closed down at 1AM it was still awfully noisy. The one nice thing is the butterfly garden in Terminal 3. And it is large and airy. But the staff are not especially friendly or helpful. I guess that is universal.

I'll second the vote for Tampa as a top US airport. The sort of wheel and spoke layout means that walks are not especially long. And access to the big highway is relatively easy or will be once they are done reconfiguring all of the roads.

It's nice that he showed compassion for the homeless woman. But what about the thousands of other homeless people? Is his "staff" going to help them too?

Maybe he should just get Oprah to write some checks...

I will have to agree with everyone saying this sketch wasn't really very funny. And it went on way too long. The studio audience was basically silent. Ackroyd's Boehner was no where in the right ballpark...he sound way too gruff while Boehner is actually quite a smooth talker.

The whole show was terrible and unfunny other than part of the 4th Jonas Brother sketch. I never really heard their music before. They were absolutely horrible. Can't sing worth a lick. I suppose their usual live shows are drowned out by screeching tweens so they don't have to sound any good.

Is bailing out the banks and owning a large stake in them the same as owning the means of production? Doesn't socialism require the government to basically own and run industrial concerns?

Has anyone asked these know-nothing yahoos exactly what they think socialism actually has as its definition? Not that it will stop them from their red-baiting cries of "socialism" at every turn. Seems like America has had its fill of unrestrained capitalism over the last several years.

Of course there have been numerous reports recently about the pent up dissent that is boiling over much more frequently in China as a direct result of factories closing, people not being paid, etc. I wouldn't necessarily call China a socialist state anymore. It's just an authoritarian state.

There was an article in the Washington Post yesterday or today that talks about how China is buying up all sorts of natural resources around the world at bargain basement prices because they are the only ones with any cash at this point. Their locking up of all this stuff (energy, minerals, etc) now will make them even more formidable in the future. And rich Chinese people are coming here and buying up real estate. But as was previously noted here they are going to be facing some awfully gigantic problems in the not so distant future.

Why would anyone in his right mind buy something that has no value and has been weighing down some one else's books as a result? This whole idea has never made any sense to me.

Wow, first the evil monster who is currently pope tries to kill people in Africa by telling them not to use condoms. Now the conservative Catholics are all in a tizzy because the president is pro-choice. I am happy to no longer be a Catholic. What I will never understand is why so many people who don't agree with most of the church's "teachings" on so many issues stay in the church and keep sending money to keep the pope in his dresses and palaces. Wake up, people! If you don't believe in Catholic teaching you should leave!

The MB-Chrysler union never made much sense. Their markets didn't really mesh. I think Fiat and Chrysler are more aligned with respect to design and product aims. What Fiat really wants is a dealership base in the US to sell their cars here. My guess is they will chop away all of the unprofitable parts and products that no one wants from Chrysler's portfolio.