I Thought He Was The Environmental Candidate?

Gee, John Kerry is trying to position himself as the environmental candidate:

Throughout his career, John Kerry has been a top leader on the environment, fighting to clean up toxic waste sites, to keep our air and water clean, and to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other pristine wilderness areas....

We owe it to our families, our communities, and to our planet to elect a president who will unapologetically pursue our environmental values.

So given his supposed environmental commitment, why is he flying around on a 727?

The 727 is a relatively old airplane. It uses 3 JT8D engines - not exactly the most fuel efficient or cleanest burning of engines out there. By contrast, the 737-200, which is just about as readily available as a 727 uses 2 JT8Ds, with nearly the same range. And the 737-300, which is fairly easy to come by uses the CFM56, which is very fuel efficient, quiet, and clean burning - all with greater range and payload.

The JT8D also suffers from not exactly being the most quiet engine in the aviation market. The roar of the JT8D is part of the reason why there are noise restrictions at some airports and why the aviation industry has to work under Stage III noise regulations.

So what is John Kerry, the great environmentalist, doing flying around on one the most noise polluting, gas guzzling, and clean-air unfriendly airplanes still flying? About the only way he could have made this worse is by renting a 707, with 4 JT8Ds.

As for the rest of the story, if Kerry doesn't want to see The Passion, that's fine. I can understand that. It's an honorable position to take.

But he needs to watch with throwing around the accusations of potential anti-Semitism. That is a pretty powerful charge. Because of the potential damaging power of such an accusation, Kerry should probably use a little more tact before throwing it out so cavalierly.

I also found it interesting that he is too conservative for his daughter's tastes. That has got to be just about one of the scariest propositions out there. If he's not liberal enough, she must be out there in full-blown Marxism.