LIVING AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS. Destination: Freedom notes that the national government might not be providing any funding for the Hiawatha service, and Illinois is not in a position to come up with any additional money, but Wisconsin might be able to come up with some money. (Is that Frederic Bastiat chuckling in the corner?) That's despite a creditable on-time record and passengers discovering the Mitchell Field station.

It's not as if the airlines can somehow pick up the slack in case the Hiawatha service is cut. I got together with the siblings and brother-in-law to bid farewell to the National Liquor Bar, and my brother the aviator informed me that a flight from MKE to ORD does not follow a rhumb-line course (as they did at one time.) Rather, a plane that departs Milwaukee (assuming it has a landing slot at O'Hare, that's sometimes a heroic assumption) has to get into the instrument landing funnel somewhere in the neighborhood of Madison or of South Bend, depending on the wind conditions. Minimum wheels-up to touchdown time 45 minutes, which is the drive time from the airport to the State Line, and the Hiawatha is passing Six Flags by then ...

And we were just a bit late for a proper farewell to the bar. The Miller was on tap, but the grill had already been closed and scrubbed for sale.