Ships careening out of control

Reflections on human systems failures: The Ship of State, a bunch of great big American Airlines airships, and a Carnival cruise ship have all been careening out of control.  It is always about peoples' handling of very complicated systems. The judgment of leaders is always key to what works and what does not work. 

. Contrast the potentially successful merger of US Airways and American Airlines with the two other utter failures we've seen this week.  Both events were ignominious failures of competency and systems: Senate Republicans successfully filibustered former Senator Chuck Hagel's Secretary of Defense nomination.  And the crippled Carnival ship was finally towed into port in Mobile, Alabama. I ended the day by watching the poor cruise ship dock. And I thought about the looming end of the month deadline for ending the sequester, while Congress just leaves town for over a week.

My feeling is disgust for the poor leadership exhibited by angry lawmakers and by two CEO’s in big travel corporations.  We see a bunch of small, nasty failures . . . very much akin to the red plastic bags and open buckets of human waste accumulating in the halls of the Carnival cruise ship