New Home, Same Mission

We want to maximize eyeball traffic from within the ranks of those who share the values of The Conservative Soldier. So we’ve relocated our blog to its own “private label” domain.

But we are certainly not starting from scratch at the new site. We’ve moved all of the existing rants on politics, culture, sports, dining and travel over to the new home. Plus, we have recently posted a lot of new content. In this crazy political season it is tough to stand silently on the sidelines for very long.

There was incredible media coverage of Pope Benedict’s recent U.S. visit. We were actually mostly fascinated by the peculiarities of the Popemobile.

A high school band in the Chicago area canceled plans to perform in a prestigious pre-Olympic Games music festival in China this summer. Why? Parents and administrators convinced themselves the band’s members would be too vulnerable, fearing protests will escalate against indifferences by Beijing’s political brass toward human rights as the Olympic torch makes its pre-Games journey. At what point do we stop giving in to the conventional wisdom that we, and therefore our kids, should more or less be afraid of just about everything, everywhere, at all times?

And, don’t miss our examination of Barack Obama’s latest examples of political waffling. His recent behavior has been a tad unappetizing.

Big government clears the air (of travelers)

Other than some excellent spot analysis by travel expert, NBC Today contributor and mega-blogger Peter Greenberg, I have seen little journalistic clarity in the wake of The Great American Airlines Debacle.

For those seeking a real-life example of what happens when the federal government is permitted to run amuck, thereby complicating our lives and creating a huge financial mess, drive over to any major airport and visit the American Airlines terminals.  

Even in an era in which airlines are quick on the flight cancellation trigger, American is enduring a nearly incomprehensible fiasco. This is American Airlines. This is not JetBlue stranding a a few hundred passengers on a tarmac or two for eight hours. This is the world’s largest airline and American’s customers are among the most loyal around (even after being robbed of the short-lived, more-legroom-in-coach perk).

Yet the numbers do not lie. AA cancelled 460 departures on Tuesday, and more than 1,090 flights on Wednesday. It forecasts more than 900 additional cancellations today, and is making no promises about returning to normal on Friday or even Saturday. The projection of 100,000 customers delayed or stranded is probably a low number.

These past few days have been an “economic 9/11″ for American. That’s not a stretch. These MD80 jets (averaging 140 seats) are the core of the airline. Have been as long as I can recall. They comprise nearly half of AA’s fleet of 650-plus aircraft. They are assigned to virtually all of the airline’s most vital business routes, including Chicago-New York, Chicago-Boston, Chicago-Los Angeles, Dallas-New York, Dallas-San Francisco and St. Louis-Chicago. There are 18 weekday AA flights from Chicago-O’Hare to New York-La Guardia. Seventeen are handled by MD80s.

Plus, MD80s are used exclusively on key leisure routes such as Dallas-Los Cabos and Dallas-Pam Springs.

The sad truth is: it never should have happened. It absolutely didn’t need to happen.

Mainstream media “reporters” are accepting — and spoon feeding us — the spin that the airline is addressing a serious threat to the safe operation of its planes caused by an obscure wiring problem.  The real reason is so obvious I do not understand how anyone can overlook it. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was nailed by a whistleblower who revealed it had been letting certain “airworthiness directives” slide, specifically in the area of fuselage inspections by mechanics of Southwest Airlines.

The headlines were alarming and potentially damaging to the FAA. It fined Southwest more than $10 million to show it is still boss, but that was just the beginning.

Knowing it would wreak havoc on the business and leisure traveler — and not caring — the FAA obviously made it known to American that it was going to play hardball with regard to the airworthiness directive tied to MD80 wiring (which was first issued in 2006). It left American no choice but to ground its planes all at once.

This is a sly, some would say sinister, move by the FAA. It makes American look like the culprit. It makes American take all of the heat. It tells the public that the airlines do not care enough about safety, and certainly not as much as does the uncompromised FAA.

It takes the FAA off the hook. The federal government was roundly criticized for bailing out Bear Stearns in the financial sector, but that wasn’t about one investment bank. For better or worse, that was a proactive bail-out to protect the U.S. economy. Now we have a horrfying example of what can happen when big government does the opposite of protecting the nation’s interests, when it shamefully covers up its bureaucratic bungling and shuns accountability.

To make matters worse, the FAA screwed American Airlines at a time when the major airlines have never been more economically vulnerable.

What should have happened? Logically, the FAA should have taken its lumps after the dust settled in the Southwest matter. It fined SW more than $10 million, so it was certainly not handing out a wrist slap. Next, it needed to quietly circle its own wagons inside FAA HQ, reassess its inspection compliance procedures and face the fact that it dodged a bullet (no SW planes were compromised) and must become much more vigilant.

Then, the airlines needed to be advised, quietly and calmly, that they were all expected to pay closer attention to existing (and future) airworthiness directives, and that they were all receiving an extension in order to systematically inspect and address the types of maintenance issues (i.e., wiring of redundant hydraulic systems in MD80s) so as to avert industry chaos.

Instead, the FAA has gleefully diverted all of the anxiety, anger and blame pent up in business and leisure travelers to American (and to a lesser degree, Delta and United). They bet, correctly, that the public’s anger would be tempered by the fact that the cancellations were safety related, even though they are really related to sustaining the bureaucratic status quo.

American is certainly not faultless. It could have taken the high road and systematically inspected the MD80 wiring over a period of many months during regularly scheduled maintenance for these aircraft. It did not have to act like a child who only obeys the rules when mommy and daddy are watching. And it certainly could have come up with a more honest explanation for the past few days when posting a notice on its web site, AA.com.

The notice reads: “We are very sorry for inconveniencing you with the cancellation of a portion of American Airlines’ flights which started on April 8.  Additional inspections of our MD-80 fleet are being conducted to ensure precise and complete compliance with the FAA’s directive related to wiring in the aircraft’s wheel wells. … Please be assured that safety of our customers is, and always will be, American’s first priority.”

Is that the muffled howling of FAA paper shufflers I am hearing?  

  

Nurturing democracy ‘on the cheap’

Everytime Sen. Barack Hussein Obama spews his contemptible campaign trail rhetoric opposing the Battle of the Ages being waged in cities and villages across Iraq by courageous patriots, American and Iraqi alike, he often refers to the cost of this war on terror. He even dares to suggest to his spongelike masses that the cost of war hits them directly in their pocketbooks, and that it is crippling the American economy.

If BHO is truly concerned about the U.S. economy, I suggest he review a list that is appearing in credible forums across the blogosphere. Here it is. 

Fourteen initiatives that cost more than the war in Iraq:
(Verify by clicking on the accompanying URL)

1. $11 billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 billion a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 billion a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 billion a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and … they can not speak a word of English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 billion a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 million a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 billion a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare and Social Services by the American taxpayers. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

9. $200 billion a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the  United States  have a crime rate that is two-and-a-half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the U.S. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were four to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border. Also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens come from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U.S. from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report. http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute “estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion, or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”  http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.
http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. ‘The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The  United States’. http://www.drdsk.com/articles.html#Illegals

Total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION A YEAR!

 

Burned, but blame not the Torch

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The Olympic torch arrived for its only North American stop amid heavy security Tuesday, a day after its visit to Paris descended into chaos and activists scaled (San Francisco’s) Golden Gate Bridge to protest China’s human rights record. Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the committee would consider ending the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay because of the protests.

Many individuals are reading news reports like this one today and many will conclude that China is finally paying the price for thinking it can host the Olympic Games without curtailing or ending its supression of human rights, specifically among Tibetans and other dissidents.

This might, indeed, seem a rather obvious conclusion. It is also a flawed conclusion.  It is an inaccurate take on what actually happened, first in London, then in Paris, and on what will inevitably happen tomorrow in San Francisco.

What is destined to go down in history as the 2008 Olympic Torch Debacle (presented by Coca-Cola, Lenovo and Samsung) is not so much a condemnation of China, worthy of condemnation though it may be, but a swift kick in the pants, and elsewhere, inflicted on the International Olympic Committee and, to a lesser degree, the multinational corporations who underwrite the Olympic movement as $60 million-plus sponsors in four-year cycles.

Let’s be clear about what we’re dealing with here, and what we’re not. The International Olympic Committee is not, as some misperceive it, a hapless, monolithic entity guided by senile old men in tweed jackets and hunting boots, swilling brandy and inhaling cigars. Although some do a fair amount of smoking and drinking in various wood-paneled places, a good many members of the IOC these days are intelligent, engaged, connected business people, politicians and power brokers who are drawn to their volunteer roles as voting members both by a love of sports (many are former athletes, some even world-class) and a keen appreciation for the splendid, well-tuned financial engine that is the Olympic property as we know it today. 

Any way you want to slice them, ”the Olympics” — as Games, as an ideal, as a unifying social force, as an inspiration to the world’s youth — generate billions of dollars from many sources. These billions create a huge crest upon which IOC members can ride around the world, attending meetings, embracing pomp and circumstance, making great proclamations and rubbing shoulders with world political leaders. They are not merely representing the IOC. They represent their own favorite causes and organizations — international and national sports associations, sport administrative bodies and national Olympic committees and Olympic Games bid organizations.

The Olympic engine churns out cash that trickles down to the members’ pet causes just as the enormous United States government tax base churns dollars that elected officials here direct to constituents and hefty pork projects in home states.

As an IOC member, you are free to achieve great success in your professional and political life, while adding the ego rush of being an “Olympic insider” who has the solemn duty of deciding where the Olympic Games will be contested. And you are given this power by your peers. You don’t have to be elected by the masses and you need not risk a dime of your own cash at any time. It’s a free ride.

Why should we care? Because what these Olympic Torch protests that have blindsided the IOC and its sponsors — even though it was obvious to some they were coming — suggest is not that China is the bad guy. The protesters can’t be surprised that China has failed to play nice just because it is hosting the Olympics. Who is that naive?

What the protests really tell us is that the IOC’s 105 voters made a colossal blunder when selecting Beijing as the winner in the race for the 2008 Summer Games. And they tell us how misguided sponsors Coca-Cola, Lenovo and Samsung were when deciding that it was a good idea to invest millions of dollars and thousands of manpower hours in an historic global relay of a torch that carries more than a flame. It carries a tip of the cap to China’s political brass, which is not returning the tip but thumbing its collective nose.

A Coke spokesman last year explained the brilliance of a global relay by noting that the Olympic torch ”has become a symbol of optimism that connects people across different cultures.”

Clearly, while Beijing was an obvious choice economically for the IOC — what’s not to love about a federally funded $30 billion Olympic Games orchestrated by Communists marshalling an unlimited workforce? — and its sponsors — what’s not to love about Olympic sponsor visibility in the last great untapped consumer products and technology frontier? — it was a choice in which the risk far outweighed the reward.

The torch is being transformed into a symbol alright, connecting people of different cultures who share violent opposition to the jailing and killing of dissidents by brutally dictatorial governments.

The IOC has made risky choices before.  In fact, every Olympic host choice is a risk. They risked facing grits and collard greens in the gourmet buffet in Atlanta, then ended up with a homemade bomb attack. They risked sun stroke and collapsing venues in Athens; eroded U.S. television ratings by going many time zones away to Sydney; and the risk and reality of boycotts by sending the Games to Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984.

Looking back, we find that 49 IOC members actually voted against Beijing in the second and final round in July 2001 — 22 for Toronto; 18 for Paris; nine for Istanbul. But the other 56 votes carried the day.

A Canadian guy, who makes a living tracking and analyzing Olympic bidding and voting, reached this conclusion about the 2008 decision: “The campaign was controversial, especially for Beijing which was a heavy early favourite but the object of criticism due to human rights violations and pollution,” wrote GamesBids.com publisher Rob Livingstone. “The one-sidedness of the final vote did not fairly represent the relative quality of the bids, raising further suspicion on the IOC.”

Oh, yes. The pollution. It is of such concern for the Beijing Games that there is now talk of running the Olympic Marathon on a day other than in the end of August, when it is scheduled. Maybe months after the fact.

So as the protesters scheme in San Francisco, and as the flame flickers in an undisclosed Bay Area location (perhaps inside Nancy Pelosi’s head, where the lights are never on), we are left to wonder how so many smart, successful, savvy  IOC members made such a dumb decision.

Perhaps we need only remember that there were also a lot of smart people at Bear Stearns.  

 

 

TIME our kids heard the truth

Educators and parents carefully — sometimes overzealously — filter the books we allow our children to read, along with the television programs, films and Internet content they absorb.

We do this because children do not possess the judgment to make all of the right choices on their own, to avoid inappropriate content or to understand the nuances of messages. But in my daughter’s school district here in a Chicago suburb, the filter is not applied as rigorously when it comes to her exposure to interpretation of current events by the news media.

The status of a news digest called TIME For Kids as the District’s educational news publication of choice has concerned me for many years because of TIME’s well established reputation as a heavily biased, left-wing media entity. This is the magazine that, in 2007, made Russian President Vladimir Putin its Person of the Year, when an emerging American hero named Gen. David Petraeus was the clear and worthy choice for his masterful leadership in the war on Islamic Jihad in Iraq.

I was enraged when my daughter came home recently with a TIME For Kids issue bearing the cover story, “Still On Duty”, a review of U.S. military initiatives in Iraq since the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. The cover might have pronounced, “Progress in Iraq”, but TIME’s editors would not have allowed such optimism, even for grade school readers.

The cover featured a photo of a U.S. Army Sergeant in full combat attire, gripping an automatic weapon, his face expressing steely determination. He also looks a tad menacing (of course). In the background, we see an Iraqi girl in native dress, appearing to cower in his presence. Her image is fuzzy so that we can not be sure if she is frightened or merely curious. This is deliberate, no doubt.

It is absolutely unacceptable to send this message to our children, and it is a powerful visual message, indeed. It is wrong for our children to be given the impression that our American military service personnel are a menacing, destructive force in Iraq, or in other parts of the world where they are helping people achieve the dream all human beings desire – freedom, independence and the pursuit of happiness.

I find it abhorrent that our children are being willfully misinformed about the measurable progress that has been achieved in Iraq.

In one section of the two-page article inside the magazine, the following passage appears: “Murder, death threats and kidnappings are still commonplace in Iraq.” TIME makes no effort whatsoever to qualify this statement by pointing out that before the demise of the Hussein regime the day-to-day lives of Iraqi people encountered far more dire “commonplace” events – not murder but mass murder; not death threats but instant death; not kidnappings but brutal confinement, repeated torture and rape.

Our kids need to know what U.S. Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Anthony J. Diaz imparted in an essay recently published by The Washington Post, not exactly known for any greater balance than TIME. Diaz, stationed in Baghdad since last August, wrote, “One often reads of the chaos plaguing Iraq. Yet the media accounts only infrequently seem to grasp the successes being achieved.”

There are dozens upon dozens of independent accounts written by people of all political stripes who have visited Iraq in the past 12 months describing progress on many fronts.  Life is improving. The Chicago Tribune recently notes that there were 261,000 Internet subscribers in Iraq in 2007 compared to 4,900, four years earlier (under Hussein).

The consensus is: The U.S. military surge succeeded. That is a far different message than TIME’s foreboding cover title, “Still On Duty”.

It is in our kids’ best interest to know that the American military is fighting for their future, fighting so that one day they will not stand in an American street peering from the shadows at a uniformed enemy of our freedoms. 

Our kids need to know that if TIME was being forthright, it would publish that same photo of Sgt. Steve Stutzman on its Feb. 29 TIME For Kids cover again in the future, next to a headline reading, Person of the Year.

CNBC’s ‘Hard Hitting’ Soros Interview

She has a history of becoming a malleable ball of putty in the presence of powerful men (especially those who own handy private aircraft), but Maria Bartiromo might have reached a new low today during her “exclusive” CNBC interview with the world’s No. 1 left wing liberal and America hater, billionaire George Soros.

It is universally understood that Soros is the lead underwriter of the very liberal underground movements (MoveOn.org and others) that have lifted an obscure junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama, to national prominence as the Democratic Party front-runner. It was Soros who was quoted as saying that he would risk his entire fortune (today an estimated $8.5 billion) if the funds would guarantee that President George W. Bush was defeated for re-election in 2004. It was Soros who wrote the ominously titled book, “The Bubble of American Supremacy”, in 2006.

Today we find the enraptured Bartiromo asking Soros to listen and respond to a video clip in which none other than Obama is heard setting the stage for the massive tax increases he would propose if (with Hell freezing over) elected U.S. President. Obama references “talking to people like (liberal) Warren Buffett” and concluding that a hike in the capital gains tax from 15% to 20-25% “is not going to distort economic decision-making.” (Occurs to me we need to fact-check the validity of the statement that Obama actually has talked to Buffett).

With nary a preface to remind viewers that Soros would move heaven and earth (and can afford to) to get Obama elected as his Oval Office puppet, Bartiromo asks Soros what he thinks of Obama’s view of higher capital gains taxation.

Soros’ reply? Duh? “What he says makes sense to me” because “paying taxes is a high-class problem.”

This is where a tuned-in journalist says, “Now wait a minute, George, are you saying that only rich people pay capital gains taxes?” Of course we know the answer, and we also know that the Obamas of the world believe that anyone earning more than $75,ooo a year is not deserving of any type of income tax cuts because those in the Above 75K Club, why, they are stinking rich folk, out of touch with real world problems.

What we have here on CNBC is a tidy set up to allow Soros to prop up his puppet in a high-profile interview, while at the same time casting lots of gloom and doom over the immediate future of the U.S. economy to support his contention that the bubble of American supremacy must surely burst, and soon, as in just on the eve of the November election. Ah, wouldn’t that be sweet, George?

As Bartiromo fawned, Soros cautioned that the U.S. is only “halfway through the fallout” caused by sub-prime’s implosion. He warned investors to be “very cautious … and nimble … because I think we are in a period of increased uncertainty.”

I think we are in a period of increased insanity when a 77-year-old egomaniac billionaire thinks he has cable networks and political candidates at the ends of his many strings, orchestrating, he hopes, the beginning of the end of America’s economic supremacy. He might indeed be the puppeteer, but his show will never make it to opening night.

Welcome to Conservative Soldier

An old friend, and I mean really old, thought he would cheer me up by advising me to find a platform for “my voice”.

This was his nice way of saying that everything else I’ve tried in my adult life has either suffered from being trivial or failed, or both, not the least of which is a current Internet retail venture that is notable for how much money it has cost to launch and how little revenue it has generated to date.

My very old friend, I assume, is worried that, if I don’t hurry up, I will soon miss my “window of opportunity”, a.k.a., the period of adulthood prior to the onset of dementia and incontinence. Since his window is narrower than mine, I guess he may know something I do not.

I am a 40-something recovering print journalist, who has dabbled in various other “projects” as an independent contractor such as writing scripts for live television, ghost writing two really lame books for children about now-aging athletes, working as a magazine correspondent, freelance public relations and, ever so briefly, athlete management. And then there is the retail web site targeting affluent wine collectors. There are either too many entities selling premium wine online or not enough affluent wine consumers, or both.  

Since I do have fairly strong opinions about the sorry state of the world, liberals and ultra-liberals, airline employees, the suffocating march of political correctness and golf — in no particular order — and, as I do not find myself with a talk radio show, I’ve decided to start blogging. This is my second blog, for the record. The first (“www.hinsdalecellars.com/vintelligence) is alive and well and accessible by clicking here. This is a blog about my travels related to fine dining, wine and other related topics. I am planning to populate Conservative Soldier with selected posts from the Vintelligence blog, which may provide a glimpse of my kinder, gentler side. (Not my best side, for sure). 

The problem with a food, wine and travel blog is that it does not offer the latitude to let me go off on Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, and Lord knows I would rather clobber one of them than be overly critical of a restaurant sommelier who was a little slow with the corkscrew.

I debated for nearly one hour about what to call my new blog. My first choice was D.A.W.G., an acronym for Disgusted, Angry White Guys. (We are not in any way affiliated with mascots or fans of the University of Georgia, but any angry white guys who are also UGA alums are welcome to join the jubilee, such as it is).

But Conservative Soldier won the day because the numerous challenges we face require the convictions of a true conservative and the discipline of a warrior. 

Welcome to a small corner of the universe where clear thought, unabridged malice toward stupidity, and intolerance of hypocrisy and deception can thrive, and where shelter awaits fellow Conservative Soldiers (and DAWGs) of all ages.

An Italian Job on Virginia Soil

Something was in the air. Or about to be. I walked into the reception area of Barboursville Vineyards’ offices only to overhear the woman at the desk patching a call into the winemaker about “the helicopters.”

For a brief moment I envisioned some grandiose wedding, complete with choppers whisking away a love struck couple and their closest friends to a reception on manicured grounds in nearby Charlottesville. Or, perhaps, this being a vineyard owned and operated by an established Italian family, a VIP was shuttling in, fresh off a flight into Washington’s Dulles International Airport for a routine inspection of the 150+ planted acres.

It is not difficult to pique the imagination when you set foot on idyllic Barboursville, where the Old World is perfectly at home with a New World winemaking region – Orange County, Va. There is very little – other than a lack of centuries old castles – that keeps one from feeling as though he has come upon a quaint village in the Italian Piedmont.

And this sensation is only made more intense by the lanky presence of congenial Luca Paschina (right), GM and winemaker at Barboursville Winery since 1991. A classically trained Piemonte winemaker laboring here along the northern extremes of America’s Confederate South, Paschina has done more than impose European techniques across the rolling, lush Virginia countryside. He has nurtured and advanced the harvesting of Nebiollo grapes, which are at the core of the most cherished Italian red wines.

I tasted three Barboursville Vineyard reds. This was a mind blowing experience. As a Virginia native, to stand on Virginia soil and savor locally produced, authentic Barbera (2005) and Nebbiolo (2003) reserves, followed by the a classic Bordeaux blend (2004) called Octagon (a tip of the hat to the architectural signature of Thomas Jefferson) … well, it gets your attention.

Like a chopper invasion in the middle of the night. Ah, yes, the choppers. Paschina had two on call because temperatures were forecast to flirt with sub-freezing in the night or two ahead – in early April (2007), mind you. The choppers swoop out of the night sky and push warm air downward toward the vines.

“We knew about (the cold snap) five or six days ago,” he said, a ski cap over his ears. “We’re ready for it.” (The next morning, a blanket of April snow was not as readily expected).

No one could have been ready for the emergence of central Virginia as a wine destination, even though that is precisely what Jefferson, a French wine fanatic, was trying to accomplish in the 19th century. Mother Nature foiled him, but the Zonin family was not to be discouraged. Gianni Zonin unveiled his vineyards here in 1976. The first planting did not survive. Cuttings were sent (with certification) from California. A nursery came to life, growing and nurturing new vines. Paschina was recruited 17 years ago to elevate Barboursville out of obscurity. He isn’t done yet but big strides have occurred.

“I came with a mandate,” he said. “We are now to the point where we can claim this is a wine region. It only comes with time. This is one of the most historically significant regions in America.”

In addition to the vineyards, the tasting room and a new museum opened just last year, Barboursville is the site of charming 1804 Inn and an adjacent guest cottage with two suites. Plus, there is an acclaimed Italian restaurant, Palladio, which offers a four-course prix fix menu ($70 not including wine). Short drives away are the historic homes of Jefferson (Monticello) and fellow Virginia icon James Madison (Montpelier).

History was made here before and will be again, it seems.

Blissful Bacara

For the uninitiated Santa Barbara County is an eye- and mind-opening experience. It opens your eyes to the reality that 100 miles north of Los Angeles might just as well be 1,000 miles. This truly is a get-away destination, whether you’re driving up from Long Beach or flying in from Chicago.

The Santa Barbara area opens your mind to a California “wine country” that is not yet overwhelmed by limousine tours and grandiose gated winery compounds (despite the enormous popularity of Hollywood’s take on wine fanaticism in the Santa Barbara-based film Sideways).  Sure, thanks to the movie it is nearly impossible to stroll into The Hitching Post restaurant in the town of Buellton without a reservation, and there are definitely crowded stops worth avoiding on the “Sideways Tours” that came into existence after the film.

But, largely, my mind’s eye now associates Santa Barbara County with beautiful ocean views, rugged terrain, narrow two-lane roads that ribbon their way through vineyards and unspoiled open spaces, and memorable dining. And, of course, Bacara (left).

Lodging: Inside Bacara Resort & Spa

Less than 10 years old, Bacara has the look and feel of a venerable, established resort that might have attracted generations of overworked Hollywood moguls. It is certainly attracting the current mogul generation. The numerous high-end import autos lining the circular entryway are one sure sign. Bentley meets Rolls-Royce meets Porsche. (Our rented Town Car was parked by the valet in the lot out back!)

Bacara’s spa, according to the spouses, is exceptional and expansive, and its rooms are comfortably appointed. Even a non-suite feels reasonably spacious. We were surprised, however, that some of the invigorating bath soaps for sale at the spa were not placed, as a courtesy, by the tub.

Bacara is a series of three-story buildings tiered on a hillside above the Pacific Ocean, 10 minutes from the Santa Barbara airport. You will get plenty of exercise just walking from your room to the expansive lobby, where one evening a white-haired gent attending a conference sat down at a grand piano and performed a killer vocal rendering of Don McLean’s “American Pie”.

If you go during winter, expect to share the tranquility (or impromptu piano concerts) with corporate conferences and couples planning June weddings. The bellman told me the guests in spring and summer tend to be families and kids hanging out by the enormous pool (ringed by 26 private cabanas). There is an adults-only pool adjacent to the spa and the spa cafe.

For wine country explorers, you can begin with Bacara’s 12,000-bottle cellar. But the resort is located ideally for the more adventurous. Just west of Santa Barbara’s city limits, Bacara is within 30 to 60 minutes of the many premium wineries and vineyards in the region, including Bien Nacido, Brewer-Clifton, Dierberg, Fiddlehead, Foxen, Melville, Sanford and Sea Smoke.

Napkin Notes: The favorite dining stop was Bouchon on a side street in downtown Santa Barbara. (There is little reason to go downtown by day as Main Street is now lined by national retail and fast-food chains). Bouchon is casually elegant. The wine list is loaded with local gems. We loved a 2004 Foxen Julia’s Pinot Noir ($90). Try the Rack of Lamb. The fine cheese selection is worth a look, too. Our waiter David was efficient and hilarious. … Another A-list choice is The Stonehouse at San Ysidro Ranch, where diners are greeted by a lounge decked out in Ralph Lauren furnishings. We devoured delicious pork and veal chop dishes with a juicy ’04 Tantara Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir ($120). The plump “Iowa Pork Chop” is enhanced by a decadent helping of Colcannon mashed potatoes blended Irish style with cabbage and caramelized onions. Authentic. But you won’t regret choosing the braised veal chop atop herbs from the Ranch’s garden, gnocchi and butternut squash tossed in a light cream. … When you are out touring vineyards and tasting wines and lunch beckons, head to Sissy’s Uptown Café in Lompoc, where large sandwiches reign, and Los Olivos Café (Los Olivos) for fresh, fresh salads.