Politics

Gouging

With hurricane season in force, Boortz dust off his anti-anti-gouging diatribe.

I agree with him 100%. People forget that gouging is part of the free market as well. And while it sounds good to say, “We’re going to keep people from taking advantage of the situation”, it is, in fact, extremely bad policy that creates artificial shortages of nearly everything.

Politicians never seem to learn this. Anti-gouging measures created the energy crisis of the 1970’s, price controls are creating massive delays and shortages in socialized medical systems and anti-gouging measures make bottled water, generators and hotel rooms impossible to come by during hurricane season.

But it’s for people’s own good. And we luuuuuv the peepul.

Law and Order

A Judge Demurs

Actually, I think the credit really goes to the girls involved. They demonstrated a lot of maturity in keeping the two butt slappers and breast pokers off the sex offender registry. The guys acted liked twerps and deserve to be punished. What they did was stupid, wrong and mean. But I’m glad they won’t be going to jail or ruining their lives forever by being on a registry.

(The registry being an issue for another time.)

Politics, Taxes and Spending

Porks Away!

The DHS budget has more pork than a honeymoon suite.

In 2006, Florida received more homeland security grants than any other state, $79.6 billion, followed by Texas with $34.5 billion, and Louisiana with a total of $20.1 billion, according to OMB Watch. New York — arguably the most at-risk state — ranked ninth at $4.5 billion.

I would argue that the entire DHS budget is just a massive pork barrel. The way to solve this abuse is to kill the DHS grant programs — every single one. The federal government is not responsible for making Texas safe from terrorism — the residents of Texas are. DHS should focus on broader security issues, intelligence and disaster response. So that the next time we have a disaster, they don’t go all Katrina on us . . . again.

Sports

Vick Redux

Well, he’s plead out. But I still think Easterbrook was right. It was frightening how quickly and nastily people turned on Michael Vick. Steve Hummer writes a great epitaph here.

I’m reading through Pro Football Prospectus right now and one of the things they’ve found is that QBs who come out early are more likely to flop. Actually, they don’t say it quite that way. They say that the two indicators of how well a QB will do in the professional ranks are how many games he started in college and his completion percentages. These measure, respectively, experience and intelligence.

Guys like Mike Vick and Ryan Leaf tend to come out of college early after having a magical season. They’ve never faced adversity or dealt with fame or learned how to be a real quarterback. They’ve been athletically gifted their entire lives, had instant success in college and gone straight into fame and fortune. The only difference was that Vick’s athletic prowress eclipsed that of Leaf — so it took a little longer for him to implode.

Law and Order, Politics, The Nanny State

Counting All . . . Well, You Know

Our Helen Lovejoy government know wants to register all porn stars. Ostensibly this it to stop underage porn. I guess since Traci Lords happened once, she could happen again.

Garbage. I oppose registering guns because it wastes government resources and inconveniences the law-abiding while doing nothing to stop criminals. And I oppose registering penises and vaginas because it wastes government resources and inconveniences the law abiding while doing nothing to stop criminals.

And the thing is, the Bushies know this. They know that created a federal database will do nothing to stop the exploitation of children. But this has nothing to do with kids; this is about going after perfectly legal adult pornography. And the disturbing thing is that the fundies will know little about this. This almost looks like a genuine pathology.

Haven’t they got anything better to do?

Politics

Bono

You know, I do indeed believe that Bono is full of shit.

Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan journalist and social worker, now a fellow at Stanford, made the case most strongly. He argued convincingly that 30 years of Western aid to Africa has achieved nothing at all. More, he said that the persistence of African poverty could be explained, in part, by aid. He explained that aid had convinced the brightest Africans to work for corrupt governments rather than as entrepreneurs, and it had “distorted the incentive structure.”

“What man or nation,” Mwenda asked, “has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?”

Far better, he said, is finding Westerners to invest in African entrepreneurs or businesses, which would create wealth. Mwenda, like other speakers, described at length the investment opportunities in Africa.

This line of argument enraged Bono, however, who began heckling Mwenda.

“Bollocks!” he shouted. “That’s bullshit.”

Bono is a strong supporter of intelligently managed aid. When it came his turn to speak, he said that Ireland’s current prosperity is explained by government investment in its people, particularly education. He said that listening to Mwenda was like listening to an African Margaret Thatcher.

An African Margaret Thatcher sounds fantastic to me. The whole world could use another Iron Lady. Unless, of course, your primary interest is in world revolution.

(Bono’s wrong on his own country, incidentally. The powerful Irish economy is a result of a low flat corporate tax rate.)

Jesus, why do we even listen to celebutwits? Why do Bono’s opinions on anything other than music matter more than the opinions of say, Paris Hilton? In fact, I’d say Paris has probably done more for Africa. At least she gives them someone to look down on . . . or to look at on their cheap laptops.

Sports

Sympathy for the Devil

Gregg Easterbrook express some sympathy for Michael Vick:

There’s something deeply sick about the fact that you can go to the NFL’s official shop and order a Bills jersey with No. 32 and SIMPSON on the back — go here and try it yourself — or a Panthers jersey with CARRUTH on the back, the NFL system actually says “Great choice!” in response, but if you go here and try to order a Falcons’ jersey with Vick’s name or number, you’ll get a message saying your order cannot be processed.

…

Vick has no serious prior offenses and does not stand accused of any act of violence against a person. He grew up poor in the crime-and-drugs plagued Ridley Circle housing project of Newport News, Va., yet unlike many around him there did not succomb to the temptation of lawbreaking. If Vick goes to jail and loses his NFL career for a first offense of cruelty to animals and gambling, while [Ray] Lewis essentially got off scot-free for watching two human beings stabbed to death, that wouldn’t be “sending a message.” That would be a travesty of justice.

I must say, knowing the racial overtones of this phrase, that there is a whiff of a lynch mob in the anti-Vick screamers. Yes, what he is alleged to have done is terrible, but there’s an irony in PETA, of all people, claming the moral high ground. And having lived in a city that cheered the murder-watching Ray Lewis and the drug-dealing Jamal Lewis, I’m inclined to have a modicum of perspective.

And considering that our own cultural history includes this and this and various public brutal forms of this; considering that a vast swath of the American public thinks this and this are appropriate to treat human beings, we should be a little humbler before we brand someone as a violent psychopath.

Let’s condemn Michael Vick, yes. But let’s not get too far up that high horse.

Politics, War on Terror

That’s It?

Jose Padilla has been convicted of conspiracy.

That’s it? That’s the best they could do? They imprisoned this American citizen for 3.5 years without access to an attorney and without charges. The used sensory and sleep deprivation to turn him into a shambling wreck of a human being. And in the end, they convicted him of something they could have charged him with the day he was arrested.

And so it goes.

So what was the point of raping his civil rights? What was the point of treating him like a second-class citizen? Why do we need secret trials if this conviction was so easy to get?

Expect Bush’s supporters — his few remaning supporters — to crow about this. I can just hear Limbaugh now: “See, you libs! We gave him a fair trial and he was convicted!” But this is a tragedy. The civil rights of all Americans were trampled for nothing.

More from Sully here.

Law and Order

No Justice, No Peace

Murder a sleeping man? 67 days in prison.

Smoke some pot because you’re sick? 1.5-4 years in prison.

Cato has the details.

Read up on the Winkler case here here and here. It seems to me that the defense’s story changed quite bit until they finally latched onto the battered wife defense — apparently verbal criticism and pressure for kinky sex now qualifies for homicide.

The jury convicted on voluntary manslaughter, which means it bought the “I was just pointing the gun at him to make a point and it went off!” defense, never mind the technical impossibility or the fact that Winkler was asleep at the time. But the foreman’s comments make it clear the jury wanted to completely acquit her – because of the alleged abuse.

The articles do not make it clear how much evidence was presented of spousal abuse but it seems entirely anecdotal. And it seems to me you need some pretty convincing evidence of pretty significant abuse because — let’s not mince words — Minister Winkler was effectively tried, convicted and executed for spousal abuse.

Funny me, I think there should be some evidence to back that up. I’m OK with the battered wife defense – a man who abuses his wife deserves what he gets. But there has to be some, you know, evidence before we allow someone to kite checks and shoot her sleeping husband. And I’m sorry – criticism and demands for kinky sex are not the same thing as beating the shit out of someone.

Cue angry screaming from feminists.

One other note. When I was in college, I would get into vociferous arguments on this subject. Women, particularly feminist women, would go on about how many men abuse women; how many men rape or sexually assault women; how many men oppress women — as though this were relevant. The unstated implication was that a woman murdering her husband was a “blow for the sisterhood” that was justified by the behaviour of men. (The particular case this logic was applied to was the Lorena Bobbit case — another assault on a sleeping man.)

But Winkler was not “men”, he was a man, an individual whose life was abruptly and brutally ended. He shouldn’t suffer for the crimes of his gender and more than I should punish my wife because so many women broke my heart or hurt my feelings.

No one is responsible for the crimes of his ancestors, his gender or his race. He is only responsible for the crimes he has comitted. If Winkler beat his wife, then — possibly — his killing was justified.

Astronomy, Sports, Mathematical Malpractice, Whatever Else Pops Into My Head