Sobering Thoughts |
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Comments on politics, the culture, economics, and sports by Paul Tuns.
I am editor-in-chief of "The Interim," Canada's life and family newspaper, and author of "Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal" (2004) and "The Dauphin: The Truth about Justin Trudeau" (2015).
I am some combination of conservative/libertarian, standing athwart history yelling "bullshit!"
You can follow me on Twitter (@ptuns).
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Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a blessed and healthy 2008. I'll see y'all after New Year's Day. Monday, December 24, 2007
Santa is a conservative A cute column by John Andrews: "[C]onservatives do the jolly old elf a grave wrong in calling him the patron saint of something-for-nothing Democrats. We should claim Santa as our own. Listing who's been bad and good, naughty and nice? Warning us not to cry (play the victim) or pout (cast blame and act entitled)? There's little difference, when you think about it, between St. Nick and St. Newt. George Will himself could hardly be more stern and judgmental. Santa Claus rightly understood is a far cry from the socialist redistribution of John Edwards or the syrupy hope of Obama. Even if recast from the unnerving red-clad (red, Republican, get it?) bearded geezer of yore to the more kid-friendly persona of Mr. Rogers, as David Grimes recommended in Sunday's Denver Post, Father Christmas remains a no-nonsense apostle of good conduct, rigorous standards, and time-honored traditions. The "Santa's Coming" song, even when butchered by Springsteen, is just the opposite of that favorite left-liberal anthem, 'Anything Goes'." Preparing for Christmas edition of the quote of the day But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." -- Luke 1:30-33 The insanity of goverment From George F. Will's Washington Post column yesterday: "It raised the hourly minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.85 -- less than the $7 entry wage at McDonald's -- thereby increasing the wages of less than 0.5 percent of the workforce. Rebuffing George W. Bush, who advocates halting farm subsidies to those with adjusted gross incomes of more than $200,000, the Senate also rejected -- more bipartisanship -- a cap at $750,000. This, in spite of the fact that farm income has soared to record levels, partly because Congress shares the president's loopy enthusiasm for ethanol and wants more corn and other agricultural matter turned into fuel. Although Congress trembles for the future of the planet, it was unwilling to eliminate the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol. But our polymath Congress continued designing automobiles to make them less safe (smaller) and more expensive. It did this by mandating new fuel efficiency -- a 35-mpg fleet average by 2020 -- lest the automotive industry design cars people want. And Congress mandated a 12-year phaseout of incandescent light bulbs." That is, government does so much and so little at the same time. Stephen Taylor is right about an early 2008 election Stephen Taylor says: "I believe that the current conventional wisdom on the timing of an election is wrong. First, no party is really in a good position for an election. Consider the Conservatives; statistically tied with the Liberals in the latest Harris/Decima poll, the Tories aren't riding their traditional high numbers. Some have attributed this decline to Canada's bad press at Bali, some blame the attention that Mulroney has received. But a budget will be a bonanza of tax cuts in February, you may think, and this surely will be enough to buoy Conservative numbers. It may, but the Conservatives need the decision of at least one party to survive and three to defeat it." Taylor lays out a probable scenario regarding the 2008 budget and why the Liberals and NDP will vote against it, but the Bloc won't. Love the t-shirt This AP article highlights a series of wierd Florida stories. I liked this: "The mug shot of a 41-year-old woman arrested in Tampa on DUI charges displayed her T-shirt, which read, 'I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings'." Where are the feminists? Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby has a short and recent history of the Islamic penchant of protecting its women by killing them. For every Nazanin Fatehi that is released from prison there is an Aqsa Parvez that is killed. Or, to note, another bizarre but sadly all so predictable example, "In San Francisco, a young Muslim woman was shot dead after she uncovered her hair and put on makeup in order to be a maid of honor at a friend's wedding." As has been wondered before, where are the feminists protesting this outrage. Certainly Islam presents a much graver threat to women than the Catholic Church ever has. The morning Huckabee Deroy Murdock: "Thanks to Huckabee’s hikes on sales, gasoline, cigarette, and other levies, Arkansas’ average tax burden expanded 47 percent on his watch. Thus, one wonders how hard President Huckabee would push his proposal to replace today’s income tax with the 'FAIR' federal sales tax." Republicans in general might want to consider Murdock's opening paragraph: "The God-O-Rama that the Republican presidential campaign has become has eclipsed the GOP’s signature issue: Taxes. Assuming life still matters here on Earth, not just in the hereafter, it might help to evaluate the top GOP candidates and their executive tax records." The party is preaching to the choir -- its evangelical base -- and at the possible expense of alienating others, or other parts of the base like fiscal cons and foreign policy hawks. It is not wise for the Republicans to be thus focused and Huckabee is largely responsible for bringing theology to the forefront of the GOP debate. The media will likely focus the political debate on such matters in the general election if Pastor Huckabee wins the Republican nomination -- something the party should not want and can easily avoid. Sunday, December 23, 2007
Huh? John McCain pulls into second in New Hampshire, three points behind Mitt Romney (who has 28%), in the GOP primary there. Mike Huckabee is fourth at 10%. Demonstrations of MSM sports punditry annoyingness Nick Peters of the Sacramento Bee presents three examples in one column of everything I can't stand about most sports beat newspaper writers today: 1) He is over-nostalgic about the players of the past. Babe-Ruth-was-great-and-he-was-usually-hungover and Ted-Williams-is-the-best-hitter-period type of glorifying the past. Yes, baseball was so much better when the best white hitters didn't have to play against the best black pitchers and defensive players. Ah, the glory days of segregated baseball. 2) He doesn't care about the well-being of players or the investments of teams and thinks players and teams shouldn't either. Back when Peters was young, the players risked their arms and careers to put up gaudy numbers and that, by definition, is better: "The inflated contracts have created more risk, so clubs coddle hurlers with pitch limits, as if throwing 100 of them is a dangerous task – only to reduce the chance of an injury that would make gaudy investments look bad." Apparently, it is better if superior players have shorter careers. 3) He has problems with grammar. Consider this: "Personally, we've never seen a hitter better than Ted Williams, nor a player as instinctively great as Willie Mays." The personal we. Friday, December 21, 2007
I'm having nightmares of a green Christmas From a CSR (Corporate & Social Responsibility) Wire story: "Nearly half of Americans (48 percent) will try to buy fewer gifts or holiday products this season because they are concerned about the effect their consumption may have on the environment, according to the 2007 Cone Holiday Environmental Study. And the environment is impacting the purchases Americans do plan to make. Almost six in ten (59 percent) say they are more likely to buy 'green' products this year than in the past. More than half of Americans (54 percent) say they would be willing to pay more for a holiday gift or product if it is environmentally responsible, and an equally motivated number (55 percent) say they proactively seek opportunities to buy green gifts and products around the holidays. Americans' environmentally sensitive behavior extends beyond gifts, as well. They are purchasing gift wrap made from recycled paper (42 percent) or decorating with energy efficient holiday lighting (32 percent)." Or at least that is what they tell pollsters. They should get a lump of coal for lying but coal isn't Kyoto-compliant so those who are naughty are let off the hook. But there does seem to be some truth-telling. According to the poll, 52% "say the motivation for green shopping is to alleviate the guilt associated with holiday consumption." Silly, silly person Caller on Rush Limbaugh just made this prediction: a deadlocked convention drafts Newt Gingrich as its presidential nominee who picks Condi Rice as his veep. As the caller explained after making the incredible prediction it blurred whether he thought this would happen or he wanted it to happen. A classic case, no doubt, of the wish being father to the thought. Human rights commission strikes again This time against Catholic Insight, a magazine of ... er ... Catholic insight into current events, both in the larger society and within the Church. That upsets homosexuals who are apparently the most exquisitely sensitive people in the history of the world and hate Catholicism because it dares to speak out about homosexual behaviour. The press release: "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 20, 2007 Catholic magazine target of human rights complaint Canada’s national Catholic magazine of news, opinion and analysis has joined a range of other, prominent publications, groups and individuals who have recently become targets of human rights-based legal attacks. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has advised Catholic Insight magazine that Edmonton resident Rob Wells has filed a nine-point complaint against it on the grounds of offence to homosexuals. The magazine’s editor, Father Alphonse de Valk, dismisses the complaint as unfounded and says he intends to contest it vigorously. He notes his publication adheres to the teachings of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, which are clear that persons with same-sex attraction must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity and every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. At the same time, he adds that in a democratic country respecting freedom of the press and religion, a magazine such as Catholic Insight has the right and responsibility to report on, analyze and comment on the activities of any segment of society that is involved in lobbying and activism on issues of public policy, such as changing the legal definition of marriage, adoption rights, the reallocation of social benefits and other vital questions. Father de Valk observes the text of Mr. Wells’s complaint consists of three pages of isolated and fragmentary extracts from articles dating back as far as 1994, without any context. This creates a misleading impression of the tone of the magazine’s overall coverage of the homosexual issue. Mr. Wells, he notes, has an additional human rights action in progress against leader Ron Gray and his Christian Heritage Party and in 2006, launched an action against three Canadian websites. Both complaints have been over the issue of homosexuality. Catholic Insight recently dealt with an unsuccessful attempt by a Toronto resident to strip it of its funding under Heritage Canada’s Publications Assistance Program, once again over alleged offence to homosexuals. Father de Valk says the magazine considers all of the actions against it to be trumped up and made with the intent to harass." Here's the story about their ordeal in the January issue of the Catholic Insight. Multiple choice quiz. This is an issue of ________: A) Freedom of religion; B) Freedom of the press; C) Freedom of speech; D) All of the above. All are under assault in Canada where disagreement from officious opinions are a matter for state interference. LifeSite has the story of the complaint. Don't expect to see too much other press coverage. Wait 'til they come for you. No one is immune because there is always (another pop quiz) a _______ to offend: A) Homosexual; B) Muslim; C) Visible minority; D) Woman; E) All of the above. Send letters of support and donations to help defer legal fees to: Catholic Insight P.O. Box 635 Adelaide Station 31 Adelaide St. East Toronto, Ont. M5C 2J8 It doesn't matter whether you agree with Catholic Insight, it matters whether you believe we have the right to disagree with one another. And what is Cousin Goober's job? Reading this WSJ article on the fluidity of the presidential nominations race I find out that Mike Huckabee's campaign manager is named Chip Saltsman. Huckabee? Chip? Is America ready for the Clampetts to ride into the White House? The morning Huckabee The man from Hope, Arkansas appears to be much like the previous president from Hope. Here's Kimberley Strassel in today's OpinionJournal.com: "Of more concern is what has not yet been discovered about Mr. Huckabee's time as Arkansas lieutenant governor and governor, in particular on ethical issues. There are signs that Mr. Huckabee's background--borne of the same Arkansas establishment that produced Bill Clinton--is ripe to provide the sort of pop-up political scandal that could derail a general election campaign. In Arkansas, Mr. Huckabee was investigated by the state ethics committee at least 14 times. Most of the complaints centered on what appears to be a serial disregard for government rules about gifts and outside financial compensation. He reported $112,000 worth of gifts in one year alone, nearly double his $67,000 salary. Five of the 14 investigations resulted in admonishments: Two for failing to report gifts (one was later overturned), the other three for some $80,000 that Mr. Huckabee and his wife received but failed to initially report. One of these admonishments involved a $23,500 payment to Mr. Huckabee from an opaque organization called Action America that he helped found in 1994 while lieutenant governor, and that was designed to coordinate his speeches and supplement his income. Mr. Huckabee caused an uproar when he used a $60,000 account intended to maintain the governor's mansion for personal expenses, including restaurant meals, dry cleaning and boat supplies. He also faced a lawsuit over his assertion that $70,000 worth of furniture donated to the mansion was his to keep. Sprinkled among all this are complaints about the misuse of state planes and campaign funds, mistakes on financial disclosure forms, and fights over documents related to ethics investigations. Any one of these episodes individually may appear penny ante, but they add up to a disturbing pattern. People I've spoken with who worked with Mr. Huckabee in Arkansas dispute the idea that he is "corrupt." They instead ascribe his ethical mishaps to a 'blind spot' rooted in his beginnings as a Baptist minister and a Southern culture of gift-giving; they suggest he never made the mental transition to public office." Thursday, December 20, 2007
The morning Huckabee (II) A bonus morning Huckabee. Here's Mark Levin in The Corner, asking Rod Dreher to justify (clarify?) his support of the former Arkansas governor: "And Rod, make sure you take a good look at Huckabee's change of position on states' rights vs. the federal outlawing of abortion (he has held both positions this year)." Romney the Lister Julie Ponzi at No Left Turns says: "Romney’s instincts here are dead on. And what I like about it is that he seems to show a little righteous indignation that is almost endearing. He’s also quite right to argue that Petraeus ought to have been selected--though TIME is so thoroughly discredited in its judgment that no decent human being should really want its accolades. But what I don’t like about it is that instead of pursuing the theme of righteous disgust, he moved in the end toward a more or less obscure (I mean obscure from the point of view of Joe Public) list of Putin’s abuses. He ticked them off like a Rhodes scholar on an interview . . . making sure to cite as many as possible to impress his interlocutors with his knowledge of the facts." And this, according to Ponzi, is a problem. She argues that ever since Dubya got caught being Bush not knowing the name of some world leaders when he was stupidly quizzed about it, candidates rhyme off lists to show how much they know. Ponzi says stop it! I say, if that's you, do it and if it isn't you, don't do it. My guess is that Romney, a businessman by trade, likes lists. It took Steyn ... ... but the Canadian media is finally, a little bit, waking up to the dangers of human rights commissions. Remembering those who died Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby had a great (and powerful) column yesterday criticizing New Joisey Governor John Corzine's speech that coincided with his signing into law a bill that outlaws capital punishment. Jacoby notes that Corzine acknowledged and quoted various death penalty abolitionists, including New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the American Civil Liberties Union, the New Jersey Catholic Conference, and Martin Luther King. But, Jacoby, adds: "But there were some people Corzine forgot to mention. The governor forgot Kristin Huggins. She was the 22-year-old graphic artist kidnapped in 1992 by Ambrose Harris, who stuffed her into the trunk of her car, then let her out in order to rape her and shoot her twice - once in the back of her head, once point-blank in the face. The governor forgot Irene Schnaps, a 37-year-old widow butchered by Nathaniel Harvey in 1985. After breaking into her apartment and robbing her, he killed her with 15 blows to the head, using a 'hammer-like' weapon with such violence that he fractured her skull, broke her jaw, and knocked out her teeth. The governor forgot Megan Kanka, who was just 7 years old when she was murdered by a neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas. A convicted sex offender, Timmendequas lured Megan into his house by offering to show her a puppy. Then he raped her, smashed her into a dresser, wrapped plastic bags around her head, and strangled her with a belt. In fact, the governor forgot to mention any of the victims murdered by the men on New Jersey's death row. He signed an order reducing the killers' sentences to life in prison, and assured his audience 'that these individuals will never again walk free in our society.' But he spoke not a word about any of the men, women, and children who will never again walk at all - or smile, or dream, or breathe - because their lives were brutally taken from them by the murderers the new law spares. That's the way it so often is with death-penalty opponents like Corzine: In their zeal to keep the guilty alive, they forget the innocents who have died. Their conscience is outraged by the death penalty, but only when it is lawfully applied to convicted murderers after due process of law. The far more frequent 'death penalty' - the one imposed unlawfully on so many murder victims, often with wanton cruelty - doesn't disturb their conscience nearly so much." I once wrote a column for a newspaper that made the only case I can think of against the death penalty, namely that it can lead -- and usually does lead -- the public to consider the criminal as the victim. But ultimately I am unpersuaded because I don't think society's confused decadence should excuse the deliberate decadence of the criminal perpetrator. Our pity and sadness belong to the victims of crime and their loved ones, not their killers; they, the killers, deserve the chair, the needle or some rope. Tancredo out The Washington Post reports that Congressman Tom Tancredo will abandon his GOP presidential bid today. Tancredo has highlighted illegal immigration, not just in the Republican primaries but throughout his career; however, the hardline position of other candidates (notably Mitt Romney) probably hurt his ability to gain any traction. With Senator Wayne Allard (R) not seeking re-election, the people of Colorado could do much worse than send him back to Washington to represent the entire state. The morning Huckabee James Taranto describes why he doesn't like Mike Huckabee, the most important being that Mike Huckabee is a health zealot. Taranto says that he heard Huckabee talk in New York and the former Arkansas governor said "We don't have a health care problem in America, we have a health problem." Taranto is quite rightly worried about the nanny statism that will come with a president "who is zealously trying to protect my health." Taranto also highlights a few concerns with Huckabee's fair tax plan in that it will be a less fair tax that is being sold dishonestly (that it will only hurt 'prostitutes, drug dealers and illegal immigrants'). Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Time's Man of the Year Vladimir Ilyich Putin. Not quite like picking Stalin... Al Gore and J.K. Rowling were among the runners-up. Boats fueled by fat No, it's not April 1st. The Daily Mail reports on Earthrace, an eco-boat that "will attempt to break the round the world speed record using fuel made from human fat." Sounds neat, sure, but how practical is this? Isn't there a limited supply of liposuctioned fat? Edwards takes lead in Iowa No, it's not April 1st. MSNBC has the story, but here's the takeaway: "In an InsiderAdvantage poll in Iowa, Edwards leads among (977) likely voters 30-26-24 over Clinton and Obama. Edwards is also the clear second choice winner, 42-29-28 over Clinton and Obama." Environmentalists like being in the dark Nearly 100,000 in Oklahoma cope with blackouts, a window into the enviro-nirvana of tomorrow. Rush Limbaugh yesterday: "I see that there are still 91,000 homes without power in Oklahoma City after last week's ice storm. You know, there have to be some anti-coal environmentalists in Oklahoma that could call us today relating their experience without electricity, and how enjoyable it's been in the freezing cold. This is exactly what they want. They want to get rid of coal-fired power plants. They essentially want to get rid of power plants, CO2. There are still 91,000 homes without power. This is their nirvana! Surely some of you anti-coal environmentalists in Oklahoma could call us and let us know just how enjoyable it's been, for you, the past week." What kind of moron wants to save a swamp? George Bullard blogs for the Detroit News and dispenses some uncommon sense: "It doesn't any nuttier than Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality. It proposes classifying a local boat canal as a wetland because the water's low. Of course, that'll ruin the value of the homes along the canal. The idea of protecting every little bit of Michigan swamp should be revisited by lawmakers, state and federal. Civilization rose on drained swamps. And just because some reeds grow in a damp spot doesn't make it worth saving." The paper has the story here. The case for not caring about offending Muslims Lasso of Truth discusses the human rights complaint against Maclean's and its editor over an extract of Mark Steyn's book which offended the tender feelings of Muslims. LoT concludes: "To the cry-babies of the Canadian Islamic Congress (and their confederates), when they spend a little less time fundraising and making excuses for goat-humping, self-detonating, dickless head-hackers who bomb nightclubs, malls and school buses and fly airliners into office towers -- when they denounce a culture and religion that treats me, as a female infidel, no better than uncovered cat meat and a legitimate target for slaughter -- when they devote as much dedication to instilling freedom in their own land, as they do instilling fear and slavery in mine -- when they begin shunning and eradicating the bloodthirsty, hate-filled chaos junkies among their co-religionists -- then and only then, will I even consider giving a rat’s ass about their feelings. Or when Mecca is a smoldering pit of ash and glass. Whichever comes first." Extending the bounds of 'who cares' Reuters reports that Britney Spears' 16-year-old sister is pregnant. The morning Huckabee David Limbaugh gets really nasty. After looking at Mike Huckabee's Foreign Affairs article with its near blame-America first pronouncements, Limbaugh concludes: "Republicans might overlook some of Huckabee's other anomalous policy positions, but his betrayal of President Bush, wrapped in a virtual endorsement of Jimmy Carter diplomacy, will require some real explaining." He also says the FA article might be Huckabee's 'Dean Scream.' Tuesday, December 18, 2007
What is an athlete worth? New York Daily News sports columnist Bob Raissman says: "At one point during her 60 Minutes interview with Alex Rodriguez, Katie Couric asked the Yankees' third baseman if 'he's worth' the huge salary Hankenstein & Co. are paying him. A-Rod should have answered thusly: 'Katie, considering the lousy ratings of The CBS Evening News are you "worth" all the dough Leslie Moonves is paying you'?" The obvious answer is that a person is worth what someone else is willing to pay them. Whether it is CBS or the New York Yankees or the corner store or a Guatemalan sweatshop, companies usually don't people more than they are worth. I say companies, because governments aren't playing with their own money and therefore has less incentive to pay within market value. Blame John McLaughlin In the Weekly Standard, Andrew Ferguson reflects on the 25th anniversary of The McLaughlin Group: "As on Agronsky or Washington Week, the jibber-jabber on McLaughlin was pristinely pointless, but at least McLaughlin made it seem fun. It was gasbaggery unencumbered by pretension; all you needed to appreciate it was a short attention span. By the time cable television became the main supplier of political news, the orthodoxy had suffered a lethal blow. Commentary was demystified, and fact commingled shamelessly with opinion. As McLaughlin and his panelists became celebrities and grew rich from speaking engagements and road shows, punditry replaced reporting as the dearest aspiration of would-be journalists." Take that Obama David Brooks writes, as always, a too cutesy column in the New York Times today. But even though he comes out in favour of Barack Obama as the best pick for the Democrats because of his consistency of character and the one less likely to be disastrous as president, he begins by laying a smackdown on the standard storyline about Obama by strongly criticizing this narrative about his career thus far: "Hillary Clinton has been a much better senator than Barack Obama. She has been a serious, substantive lawmaker who has worked effectively across party lines. Obama has some accomplishments under his belt, but many of his colleagues believe that he has not bothered to master the intricacies of legislation or the maze of Senate rules. He talks about independence, but he has never quite bucked liberal orthodoxy or party discipline." Getting its own house in order The Washington Post (via The New York Sun) reports that the United Nations is finally trying to clean up its peacekeeping missions by charging a handful of people involved in fraud and corruption: ""The task force identified multiple instances of fraud, corruption, waste and mismanagement at U.N. headquarters and peacekeeping missions, including ten significant instances of fraud and corruption with aggregate value in excess of $610 million." At the same time, UN officials say this is not systemic but rather a case of a few bad apples. At the same time, they have done nothing with the problem of peacekeepers raping and sexually exploiting those whose peace they are keeping. The morning Huckabee Going through the positives and negatives of the various GOP candidates before finally endorsing former Senator Fred Thompson, Pejman Yousefzadeh at RedState.com brings Huckabee down a notch or two, to where he belongs, out of the top tier of candidates: "I can nevertheless appreciate certain significant aspects of the Giuliani, Romney and McCain records. Mike Huckabee, however, has no redeeming virtues save a charming personality and a way with quips. His lack of substantive knowledge--especially when it comes to the issue of foreign policy--is stark and deeply distressing. He would need more on-the-job training than any of the other Republican candidates for President and a number of the Democrats would bring more experience to the table as well. In addition, Huckabee invites the Republican Party to go back to a protectionist, mercantilist platform when it comes to trade and his brand of populism only serves to do what Democrats have been accused of doing for years; promote and intensify class warfare. It is shocking and astonishing that Huckabee is actually a serious contender for the Republican Presidential nomination. One hopes that his appeal will soon peter out. It couldn't happen to a more deserving candidate on the GOP side." Monday, December 17, 2007
The morning Huckabee Stephen Hayes in the Weekly Standard on 'Huckaplomacy': "More problematic for his presidential prospects, when Huckabee did speak clearly he often sounded more like Dennis Kucinich than Dick Cheney, something Republican primary voters are not likely to find appealing." US feds' shredding budget increase  Fresh Intelligence has the graph and the figures on the U.S. "contracts for paper shredding services" which have increased 600% since 2000. In 2000, the federal government spent $452,807 on shredding and by 2006, that figure increased to nearly $3 million; halfway through 2007, taxpayers contributed $2.7 million (and counting) to shredding secrets. (HT: Boing, boing) New York Post editorializes about human rights complaint against Steyn How many editorials have appeared in the Canadian press? This must be Edwards bonding with the common man The New York Times reports that John Edwards will campaign in Iowa with actor Kevin Bacon, 'cuz that is what regular folk do -- hang out with actors and their guitars. And in case you are interested, Bill Clinton will campaign on behalf of his wife with Magic Johnson. (Nothing quite says back to the '90s like Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson). Not dead yet I can't recall an election cycle since 1988 where one of the favourite media narratives wasn't the decline in influence of the religious right, so I'm skeptical of the storyline this time 'round, too. Jeffrey Bell justifies my skepticism in a longish piece in the Weekly Standard that is required reading for anyone following American politics; it also partly explains the Mike Huckabee phenomenon. Perhaps women with young children shouldn't enter politics CTV reports that politicians at Queen's Park have agreed to set up a non-partisan panel to look at ways to make the provincial legislature more family friendly for its employees (read MPPs), looking at everything from the hours it sits to having a daycare on site. Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod is leading the charge while whining that it is difficult for her to travel and do her other work with her one-year-old daughter Victoria in tow. I'm not really all that sympathetic. People running for office know what you are getting into when they enter politics, few other employers would provide booster seats for employees' kids in their cafeterias, and young women need to understand, as Dani Crittenden has pointed out, that they can't necessarily have everything (career and family) all at once. Sunday, December 16, 2007
Partly explaining the media's herd mentality Talking about the so-called steroid scandal in Major League Baseball, CBS's Bob Schieffer relates that he wanted to be a ballplayer but a bum arm prevented him from pursuing a career in the sport: "Had I known of a magic potion that would have made me stronger and kept the dream alive, I would have been no more hesitant to try it than I had been to chew tobacco. If my heroes had done it, that was all I needed to know." So-and-so did it, so I will too. What brilliance. Also, apparently ballplayers and their tobacco-chewing examples are responsible for his ulcerative colitis and bladder cancer. Why baseball awards needs a new voting system Woody Paige of the Denver Post admits he is voting for some players because they were Rockies, friends or nice guys. Pathetic. About Andrew Dawson and Tim Raines, he says: "Both are borderline. But I was amazed by, and wrote columns about, Dawson and Raines when they played for the [minor league] Denver Bears." Raines was much better than borderline, but minor league familiarity seems a worse reason to support a player's induction into the Hall of Fame than voting for him because he's a friend or a Rockie. And not knowing that Raines is better than borderline should disqualify Paige from voting. I was confused when I first glanced at this headline At CTV: "Dion ends five-year run at Las Vegas casino." It is, of course, talking about the singer, not the leader of the Liberal Party. And then an idea popped into my head: they could switch careers. I can't imagine that either would be worse than the other, and that is without any information about Celine's political savvy or Stephane's singing ability. Harry Rosen Gods of the Copybook Headings takes note that Jim Flaherty, unlike the PMO when the prime minister was featured in such an ad earlier this year, appreciated the fact that clothier Harry Rosen pictured the finance minister in an advertisement. Publius at GCH says: "I can attest that many good sensible Conservative Party voters shop at Harry Rosen. Yes, the shirts are overpriced but the suits, given the quality, are quite reasonable." I would add that Harry Rosen and Stollery's are the only places in Toronto where you can buy a (relatively) inexpensive Oxford striped tie. (Now that's conservative.) The end of privacy Guy Gavriel Kay writes about the loss of privacy and the changing author-reader relationship this weekend in the book section of the Globe and Mail, but what he has to say extends far beyond what writers such as himself are dealing with: "At Yale, after guesting at a Master's Tea this year, I was approached by four students with questions about other writers and their books. And I looked at them and "saw" four blogs, with links to a plenitude of others. Given the ease of searching blogs now - for my name, or those of the queried writers - it was suddenly impossible to treat this as a quiet exchange of thoughtful literary opinion. I was as careful as a politician in a scrum, all of us with teacups in hand in a beautiful room. Because that room, all such rooms, are portals now for some of us. Or live microphones, if you prefer that image. This can be useful - writers and musicians use blogs and Facebook or MySpace as marketing and promotion tools. But I think we've failed to assess properly what this means for privacy, for a measure of distance between author and reader, and for limited exchanges - by which I mean those things we might say, the frankness we would offer, in smaller, defined contexts. Are we all to be made banal now, as much so as an athlete not wanting to rile an upcoming foe with real thoughts? 'So-and-so's books? Um, I'm sure he takes it one day at a time and I'm just hoping to make a contribution for my own publisher by giving 110 per cent with each book.' For some of us, no context is 'limited' any longer. That is the point I'm offering for consideration. And "some of us" can be pretty extensive. This isn't about Brad Pitt or Amy Winehouse. Ask any high school student whose pratfall is recorded by a classmate's camera phone and posted to YouTube. Or the microcelebrity (a nice term I first saw in Wired magazine) snapped while at a party looking less-than-sober, with the photo online immediately, to derision-inducing effect. We are, in other words, always 'on' now, at least potentially, always in a wider public than might appear to be the case, and it compels adjustments, and some regret. I didn't like the sense that it would be wise to be careful with those students at Yale. But neither did I relish the thought of an immediate posting of my comments online. Did I know they would do that? Of course not. Could I control whether they would? Easy answer." This, of course, has implications for everyone, but I'm thinking especially of politicians -- elected and otherwise, including those individuals who someday might want be elected. What cost to honesty, spontaneity, and candor has modern technology imposed on us? Does Kyoto cause global warming? From Mark Steyn's column in the Orange County Register: "The American Thinker's Web site ran the numbers. In the seven years between the signing of Kyoto in 1997 and 2004, here's what happened: •Emissions worldwide increased 18.0 percent; •Emissions from countries that signed the treaty increased 21.1 percent; •Emissions from nonsigners increased 10.0 percent; and •Emissions from the United States increased 6.6 percent. It's hard not to conclude a form of mental illness has gripped." A note about the rest of his column. Steyn is his usual demographer-bore self, with a pinch of poking fun at the morons who call upon humans to excise themselves from this planet. It is essential reading. Reading his column I am reminded of Horace Walpole's observation that the world is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think. Then one understands why Steyn's back-of-the-magazine column in National Review is called the Happy Warrior and why his columns, in NR and elsewhere, are so damn funny. At least to some of us. Great quote From George F. Will's WaPo column on Washington's handling of the perceived mortgage crisis: "Today's liberalism, combining tolerance and statism, cares less what happens than that it be mandatory." The Des Moines Register endorses... Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Of HRC, the paper says: "From working for children's rights as a young lawyer, to meeting with leaders around the world as first lady, to emerging as an effective legislator in her service as a senator, every stage of her life has prepared her for the presidency. That readiness to lead sets her apart from a constellation of possible stars in her party, particularly Barack Obama, who also demonstrates the potential to be a fine president. When Obama speaks before a crowd, he can be more inspirational than Clinton. Yet, with his relative inexperience, it�s hard to feel as confident he could accomplish the daunting agenda that lies ahead. Edwards was our pick for the 2004 nomination. But this is a different race, with different candidates. We too seldom saw the 'positive, optimistic' campaign we found appealing in 2004. His harsh anti-corporate rhetoric would make it difficult to work with the business community to forge change... Clinton is tough. Tested by rough politics and personal trials, she's demonstrated strength, resolve and resilience... Indeed, Obama, her chief rival, inspired our imaginations. But it was Clinton who inspired our confidence. Each time we met, she impressed us with her knowledge and her competence." About McCain, the paper says: "The leading candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president present an intriguing mix of priorities, personalities and life stories... Yet, for all their accomplishments on smaller stages, none can offer the tested leadership, in matters foreign and domestic, of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. McCain is most ready to lead America in a complex and dangerous world and to rebuild trust at home and abroad by inspiring confidence in his leadership... McCain would enter the White House with deep knowledge of national-security and foreign-policy issues. He knows war, something we believe would make him reluctant to start one. He's also a fierce defender of civil liberties. As a survivor of torture, he has stood resolutely against it. He pledges to start rebuilding America's image abroad by closing the Guantanamo prison and beginning judicial proceedings for detainees. McCain has his flaws, too, of course. He can be hot-tempered, a trait that's not helpful in conducting diplomacy. At 71, his age is a concern. The editorial board disagrees with him on a host of issues, especially his opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage. McCain foresees a 'long, hard and difficult' deployment of troops in Iraq. The Register's board has called for withdrawal as soon as it's safely possible. But with McCain, Americans would know what they're getting. He doesn't parse words. And on tough calls, he usually lands on the side of goodness -- of compassion for illegal immigrants, of concern for the environment for future generations. The force of John McCain's moral authority could go a long way toward restoring Americans� trust in government and inspiring new generations to believe in the goodness and greatness of America." Dreaming of a little less environmentally friendly Christmas Greens, the kill-joys of 21st century living, played Grinch in Concord, Mass., with their fricking LEDs. The Boston Globe reports: "As Mrs. Claus at the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Concord, Marie Foley has an obligation to be jolly. But this year, Foley admits, she was not as happy as she pretended to be when Santa flipped the switch to the Christmas lights on the town's 75-foot blue spruce. 'I faked it,' she confessed. 'I said, "Oh, my God. Isn't this beautiful"?' But deep down, Foley was troubled by what she saw. The tree, though towering and flanked by carolers, seemed somehow less festive, somehow less bright. Gone was the warm, yellow glow of incandescent lights. And in their place, the icy, bluish hue of energy efficient light-emitting diodes. LEDs, they are called. And they should have pleased the environmentally conscious souls of Concord, where the green thinking runs deep. But some in town this year are dreaming of Christmas pasts, back before the local tree went dim." Remember this tale when environmentalists promise us that with future greener technologies will not only be environmentally friendly but be just as good, if not better, than the products we use today. A call for Muslims to confront the elephant John Oakley at Full Comment: "To all those Muslims bent out of shape over the characterization of the murder of a sixteen year old Mississauga girl as an “honour killing,” chill. Your complaint of collective character assassination by an irresponsible media bent on sensationalism is a little rich; kind of a case of “methinks thou doth protest too much.” No one is on a witch hunt here trying to demonize an entire faith, but rather to get to the bottom of what seems to be a nasty little secret within a certain segment of the community; women are treated as second-class citizens. If that is, in fact, at the root of violence and abuse meted out by some Muslim men, it’s high time to take ownership and confront the elephant in the room. Those of us who are Catholics were made to feel guilt by association over the scandal of some brothers abusing young boys, even when the vast majority of priests were exemplary models of their calling. The Church had to deal with it. Now it’s your turn. Denial is not an option." Saturday, December 15, 2007
Tory success v. John Tory's legacy In a letter from John Tory to party membership, the leader says: "Quite simply, the campaign we ran in 2007 fell well short of expectations, and did not live up to our party's legacy of success." Perhaps not, but it did live up to Tory's legacy of failure: Suncorp, Larry Grossman, Kim Campbell, failed Toronto mayoral bid. He brought his reverse-Midas touch to the provincial Tories (again) with predictable results. It would be foolish to give him another chance to blow another chance. Worse than media bias Gerry Nicholls: "I used to think the CBC was the PR arm of the Liberal Party; but I now realize the Liberal Party is simply the political arm of the CBC." So is the government violating the gag law by giving more than $1000 to the CBC? Say it ain't so, Tom Thomas Sowell succumbs to a for-the-children argument. He says that steroid use in baseball is horrible because it sets a bad example: "Steroids are dangerous and sometimes fatal. Yet, if some players use them, others will feel the pressure to use them as well, in order to compete. Most important of all, many young people will imitate their sports heroes -- and pay the price. Those young people are far more important than asterisks. You might think that athletes who are making a million dollars -- not per year, but sometimes per month -- could spare some concern for the kids who look up to them. But too many think only of themselves, and not always wisely, even for themselves." Friday, December 14, 2007
Some more thoughts on the Mitchell Report Curt Schilling wrote on his blog yesterday, before the report was released: "There will be no shortage of media opinions, castigating, berating and blaming all the names involved. Just remember that this will be coming from the very same people who, like many, turned a blind eye to what many of us believed when we were smack dab in the middle of all the things the Mitchell Report will say." So here's a question for the baseball beat writers and team-mates who had to know about the use of PEDs: why didn't you say something at the time. And Schilling seems to agree with me that players should sue Mitchell and MLB; talking about Roger Clemens with MLB.com: "I'm hoping to hear a very large legal team has been assembled and that Roger is suing everybody." That said, I don't entirely agree with Schilling that players who were falsely accused will set the record straight by suing Mitchell and MLB because sometimes the issue is not clear cut: what about the legitimate medical uses of PEDs. Also, Will Carroll makes a great point on Baseball Prospectus radio: there is a difference between regular PED users and players who have used PEDs. He uses an analogy of asking university students if they've smoked pot. Many would admit they have but many fewer would have smoked marijuana in the past week and only a handful would be found to have smoked a joint that day. Wally Joyner, for example, has admitted to trying steroids, not liking it and immediately cease using them. That is something different from regular users who have benefited from years of PED use. Lastly, in that same interview, University of Iowa's Dr. Gary Gaffney, who blogs at Steroid Nation, who said that more has to be done to ensure the integrity of the whole gamut of trainers. Of course, we'd care less about these nameless clubhouse employees than the stars who were named by Mitchell. It is a lot less sexier, but a much more valid point of inquiry. Gaffney also suggested that one way to fight PEDs in sports is to hold management responsible and, possibly, for laws to make it easier to sue for sports fraud. Something worth considering. He hasn't quite got this blogging/pundit thing down yet Hack at Hacks and Wonks notes of the Mulroney testimony yesterday: "Arrived home late and missed the news, so I haven't really paid much attention to the day's events. Not ignoring it, just not knowledgeable enough to comment intelligently yet." Why would that stop anyone? If intelligent commentary were the criteria for column or blog writing, many pundits would be out of job and many bloggers would have all kinds of free time on their hands. And nobody's home Toronto Mayor David Miller has endorsed this: "New program launched by WWF-Canada and the Toronto Star aims to send a message to political leaders to take global warming seriously. Join the movement by turning off the lights for an hour on March 29." Apparently the idea is that everyone should spend 60 minutes like an environmentalist. This is as dumb as it sounds. As environmental reporter Catherine Porter explains: "Frustrated by Canada's stalling as the climate change negotiations head into their final hours in Bali? Then join a movement to let political leaders know you are worried about global warming and willing to do your part. Turn off your lights and electrical appliances for one hour one evening in March. It's called Earth Hour and it will bring a brief wave of darkness spreading around the world to symbolize people's commitment to tackle global warming." But what if, like the urban legend about increased birth rates nine months after the great blackout of '77, there is a massive spike in population? According to green ideology, isn't it wrong to bring more children into this world? And considering the (real) crime that came with NYC's blackout, Torontonians might want to have their blackout during daylight hours. With Muslims there is always a 'but' The National Post reports: "Muslim leaders yesterday denounced as un-Islamic the murder of a Toronto-area teenager who had clashed with her family, but said some parents would view themselves as having failed in their duty if their child chose not to wear the hijab." Sheikh Alaa Elsayed who convened a press conference to make perfectly clear where Muslims stand on honour killings, condemned the killing of Aqsa Parvez but added: "We cannot let culture supersede religion. If we stay away from the teachings of Islam, we will pay for it." In Parvez's case, the price is life. The morning Huckabee (II) Michael Gerson is upset that Mike Huckabee seems to be flip-flopping and the Washington Post columnist doesn't like the mean-spirited conservatism he is seeing in the former Arkansas governor's evolving position on immigration and Huckabee's acceptance of an endorsement from Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project. The morning Huckabee While he will no doubt tout this as a good thing, conservatives shouldn't consider such an endorsement an invitation to move on to other candidates: "The New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Association has endorsed Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee in their parties' primaries, sources said Wednesday. This is the first time the 16,000-member group has endorsed a Republican candidate." The Mitchell Report My major concern with the travesty that is George Mitchell's smear campaign, er, 'investigation' into baseball's problem with performance enhancing drugs is the complete absence of due process; it is a violation of the rights of ballplayers that is this particular 'report' was allowed to see the light of day. But this is being well covered by the likes of Tim Marchman in the New York Sun. For now a few random thoughts. Speaking of Marchman, he had a column that touched upon the violation of due process earlier this week but which really focused on the absurdity of letting former senator George Mitchell, a part owner of the Boston Red Sox -- or at least a paid director of the team -- conduct the investigation. It is worth reading. I hope a good many players sue George Mitchell and perhaps Major League Baseball. They have been defamed and slandered, their reputations smeared on the flimsiest of evidence. It is sad that few sports writers and even fewer members of the public understand that being fingered by Mitchell in this report is not the same thing as being guilty of using PEDs. This is not just a matter of being innocent until proven guilty; in some cases, if this was a court of law, the case would never had made it to trial. The court of public opinion has lower standards, which is all the more reason to get the facts straight. Mitchell was determined to name names no matter what, and in almost all cases he shouldn't have. If this report is entirely true and justified, instead of the players suing Mitchell for defamation, fans should sue baseball for fraud. The more important question is what to do now. MLB and commissioner Bud Selig should focus on how to reduce and punish future drug use rather than go after players for alleged use in the past when 1) it wasn't necessarily a violation of baseball's rules or 2) the allegation is far from provable. I think some of the recommendations should be adopted but I have to give them some more serious thought. Maury Brown of Biz Of Baseball on the two major problems with the Report: "1) A large majority of it is based currently upon nothing more than hearsay. I understand that Mitchell had no power of subpoena, but if you’re going to hang your hat on something, at least don’t make the majority of it based upon the Radomski testimony. 2) I keep reading and looking for the nugget. The recommendations are all good and well, but where are the examples of failure in the system? Yes, it is referenced, but if Mitchell could not investigate the players via the power of subpoena, he could have expended some energy in looking at the cause more closely. Where are those quotes? Where is that interview material?" And King Kaufman of Salon wonders what the fallout will be: "Whatever it was the Mitchell Report was supposed to do, the fallout is that it's put in jeopardy the labor peace that in large part has been responsible for the unprecedented financial success baseball's enjoyed for the last few years." Baseball has broken the record for attendance in each of the past seven years and more than doubled (to $7 billion) its annual revenue. Why they would jeopardize it in the way they have is unfathomable. Howard Bryant of ESPN.com has a very long, thorough and balanced article on the whole 'investigation' that is worth reading. But consider this before jumping to conclusions about the 'findings' in this Report: "But a combination of factors -- players stonewalling the investigation, and the information from Radomski -- increased pressure on Mitchell to produce a blockbuster document instead of one that was simply educational. Expecting their interviews with the investigators to be solution-oriented, at least in part, many strength coaches said they discovered instead that only one thing seemed to matter to the questioners: the names of players that the coaches thought were using steroids. One coach said he recalled an investigator asking him outright to guess. 'The problem was, what did they want us to say?' said a team trainer who was interviewed by Mitchell's investigators in 2006. 'They wanted us to speculate. And I wouldn't do that. They wanted me to say who I thought was using steroids. And when I said, "I don't know," they would say, "Well, you work most closely with these guys. You work on their bodies every day. You weren't the least bit suspicious when you saw their bodies change"?' 'This was the kind of stuff I was most afraid of, because they didn't ask me about specific people with specific information that they had. They asked me to guess. I said my guess was no guess at all, because what would happen to me if I said a guy was using steroids who wasn't? What if I guessed wrong? Then my name is out there, I get fired, and I'm easily replaceable.' As the investigation unfolded, the interviews took on a consistent shape. Those present, in addition to the interviewee, included one to three of Mitchell's investigators, a team attorney and, according to some sources, a representative from Major League Baseball. Interviewees wer"e told they could have a private attorney present. According to sources, the interviewers read from a prepared script, and investigators offered little in terms of follow-up questions. It is unclear if any of the interviews were taped. As ESPN.com spoke with baseball people interviewed during the investigation, a common theme emerged: Investigators, while generally cordial, often revealed an alarming lack of knowledge regarding the day-to-day workings of baseball. Instead of focusing on the elements of the game that might make drug use appealing, investigators asked surface-level questions such as which players suffer from back acne and who underwent the most dramatic body changes. One interviewer, for example, read off a list of players and asked the interviewee to say if he believed the player could have used steroids. No questions were asked, the source said, about the root causes of steroid use." George Mitchell wasn't interested in the facts, he was interested in names. So, too, I would wager, is the public. That's sad and unfortunate and a fact of life. UPDATE (1:38 AM): Tim Marchman has another excellent column in today's New York Sun. As Marchman notes the Report, "in its sheer weight seems to confirm both the most salacious speculation about what Mitchell would uncover and the massive scope of the drug problem. More closely examined, it does neither, and in fact it shows how shockingly little Mitchell found." Marchman adds: "[T]he real takeaway here should be that Mitchell has presented no evidence of his key claim that 'the use of steroids in Major League Baseball was widespread.' This assertion is stated flatly, as fact, but the entire report contradicts it." As Marchman notes: "At one point, for instance, Mitchell references several lurid estimates of how many ballplayers have used steroids, ranging from 20% to 'at least half,' to illustrate the scale of the problem. On the same page, though, he notes that a 2003 survey test showed just five to seven percent of players were on steroids. Perhaps more to the point, his own investigation found credible evidence against 77 players — less than 2% of nearly 5,000 who took the field from 1988 to this year, roughly the time under consideration." I'm tempted to say that as a Democrat, Mitchell is inclined to make wild exaggerations, damn the actual facts. But one wonders about the mindset of a supposedly sane and judicious individual (a former senator, judge and prosecutor) who only finds supposedly 'credible' evidence against 2% of ballplayers yet makes a claim that one-fifth to one-half of all players used PEDs. Marchman also points out that Mitchell calls for the use of more "non-analytical evidence" in determining who might be using PEDs; this is tantamount to condemning players to punishment, loss of pay and less respect from fans based on hearsay and circumstantial evidence. How is that fair? Marchman calls Mitchell's Report 'propaganda' and it should be treated as such. The more I consider the Report, the more detrimental to baseball it seems to be -- and for no good reason. The sport was already making enormous strides in reducing steroid use and will no doubt also tackle HGH when a reliable scientific test is developed to catch it. The naming and shaming that is going on is unhelpful and is below the dignity of the game. Thursday, December 13, 2007
Human rights commission overstretch The Toronto Star reports: "The Ontario Human Rights Commission will issue a report in January that will include recommendations on affordable housing, the commissioner of the human rights organization told a memorial service today for the Rupert Hotel fire in which 10 people died on Dec. 23, 1989. These recommendations will be about both broad responsiblity as well as action, Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Barbara Hall said this morning at the northwest corner of Queen St. E. and Parliament - the spot where the Rupert Hotel once stood... Hall didn't reveal what the Human Rights Commission Report on Affordable Housing will say, but she told the crowd that it would give new tools to people working in the area of affordable housing." Not being able to afford a place to stay is a human rights violation? Landlords watch out. As Barbara Hall, the head of the OHRC says, "Many tenants are not aware of their rights ... Many landlords are not aware of their obligations. We think many instances of discrimination against tenants come under the code." My advice to landlords: sell your buildings now. '90s rappers gets second 15 minutes I learn from the Boston Globe: "Yes, that Vanilla Ice. And yes, the early '90s rapper will sign your body parts at McFadden's." McFadden's is the kind of place that runs a sexiest Santa outfit contest. Baseball's scandal The Mitchell report will name players that are merely accused of purchasing/using performance enchancing substances. These accusations are not proven. Furthermore, there are players who apparently used some of the now banned drugs for legitimate (rehabilitation) purposes before they were prohibited by MLB. As the Bergen Record's Bob Klapisch noted that former senator George Mitchell, "had to rely on two questionable information streams": "The first was Kirk Radomski, the former Mets' clubhouse attendant who pleaded guilty in April to illegally distributing steroids, HGH and amphetamines to players from 1995-2005. Part of Radomski's plea agreement required him to cooperate with Mitchell, but his testimony created no direct link between the sale of the banned substances and actual use." That such a flimsy basis of the report is allowed to stand as something for serious consideration is itself scandalous. The real scandal, though, will be that the investigation did not look into the role that teams and MLB itself had in subtly encouraging and then turning a blind eye to the use of such drugs. How could Mitchell, a paid consultant to both MLB and the Boston Red Sox, not be a shill for organized baseball? It's called CYA and Mitchell was precisely the man to do that. Sadly, players' reputations will be sullied by this report. I'll have more on this later, but a little perspective is necessary, especially from the baseball punditocracy that simply cannot fathom that the report is not proof of a player's guilt or if there is anything to be guilty about. UPDATE: The National Post reports that Toronto Blue Jays catcher Greg Zaun is highly critical of MLB and Bud Selig for conducting this kangaroo court of an investigation (to mix metaphors). Says Zaun: "Unless there's smoking guns, unless there's failed drug tests, it just goes down to he-said-she-said accusations, innuendos. I don't know what the report says, but if there's not hard evidence like a failed drug test or somebody got caught purchasing drugs or anything like that, it seems like they're opening themselves up to a whole lot of negative press for really no reason at all. It baffles me. It really does." The morning Huckabee Lisa Schiffren in The Corner after Mike Huckabee told CNN that he won't comment on Mitt Romney's religion while complaining that if he does he looks like he's attacking Romney and if it doesn't it looks like he is avoiding an issue: "Hey, Huck, welcome to the show. Stop whining and face the music. You're not just a warm up act anymore. People want to know what you think. Everyone wants a real opinion from you. Some substance. It's not like being a preacher, or a local politician. These people, they have cameras and voice recorders. They listen to the words.They assume a correlation with your likely actions in reality. They aren't gonna give you a break because, you know, it came out a little wrong. Because, Huck, what the President of the United States says — about weirdo religions that believe odd things, (how about those Wahabis? Hindus? Kinda makes the Mormons look like, well, Christians.) or taxes, or college tuition breaks for the children of illegal immigrants — those comments can start wars, move markets, or encourage more illegals to move here. This is serious. You're not in Little Rock anymore. It's hard Huck, when your decisions matter. Like back home, you were just trying to be nice to that castrated guy who had raped a few women. He had served some time. Why couldn't they forgive him? You could. You have a good heart. Lots of Christian love. So you pardoned him. And what did he do then, Huck? What if you make a call like that on Iran, Huck? Or Iraq? Or Osama? Or some guy from China who is very civil and polite at the State dinner, and has a little plan for dominating Asia? Everything that happens, Huck, all those reporters are going to want you to say something, everywhere you go, 24/7. And lots of people will act based on what you say. And not all of them have lots of love in their heart, Huck. That bait shop on the lake — it's looking good. You'll be surrounded by nice neighbors, real Christians, and you can be the smartest guy in the room. You can go out running every morning. Remember Huck — Jesus wouldn't be dumb enough to go into politics.You were right on that one. Maybe it's not what he wants from you either." Huckabee is not ready for The Show. He's the GOP equivalent of Barack Obama with better positions on moral issues and a sense of humour. Wednesday, December 12, 2007
National Review endorses Mitt Romney As per their advice to all conservatives to support the most conservative viable candidate, the magazine backs Mitt Romney: "Romney is an intelligent, articulate, and accomplished former businessman and governor. At a time when voters yearn for competence and have soured on Washington because too often the Bush administration has not demonstrated it, Romney offers proven executive skill. He has demonstrated it in everything he has done in his professional life, and his tightly organized, disciplined campaign is no exception. He himself has shown impressive focus and energy... More than the other primary candidates, Romney has President Bush’s virtues and avoids his flaws. His moral positions, and his instincts on taxes and foreign policy, are the same. But he is less inclined to federal activism, less tolerant of overspending, better able to defend conservative positions in debate, and more likely to demand performance from his subordinates. A winning combination, by our lights. In this most fluid and unpredictable Republican field, we vote for Mitt Romney." He has the right combination of competence and principles. I still prefer Rudy Giuliani because I think he is more likely to shake up Washington by going after vested interests (especially at Foggy Bottom and in tackling entitlements), but were the former New York City mayor not in the race, I'd be supporting Romney. Why is the only choice between immigration and no immigration? From a Speaker's Forum at the Daily Telegraph: "The population of Britain is rising at the fastest rate since the 1960s baby boom, fuelled in part by immigrant mothers who are having more babies than their British counterparts. One in five babies born in Britain last year belonged to a woman from overseas, according to the first official analysis of the impact of migration on fertility. Almost 70 per cent of the 10 million rise in population increase over the next 20 years will be attributable to immigration, either directly or via higher birth rates, figures from the Office of National Statistics have revealed." Those are staggering numbers and cause for no little anxiety among the Brits. The discussion, as most discussions do, gets a little silly at times but this comment by 'Tina Jones' struck me: "If the population was declining, you'd be even more worried. 'Who's going to pay our pensions in the future?' would be the wail. 'Who are we going to teach?' teachers in schools with declining numbers of pupils would wail. 'Who will buy our products?' - the shopkeepers and manufacturers would be facing closures. 'Who will read our newspaper?' the journalists would cry." All these questions could be answered by Britons having more kids. The funny thing about Dr. Walter's proposal to tax families who have more than two kids (see next post) is that most families in the West have already voluntarily decided to do this. Too often economists, politicians and pundits see the choice a country must make as between having lots of immigration and none at all, but few consider measures that will increase fertility by encouraging couples to have more children. The environment versus the people, Or, Of taxing kids and carbon credits for condoms In a letter to the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr. Barry N.J. Walters says families should be financially punished for having more than two children and rewarded for trying to prevent pregnancy: "What then should we do as environmentally responsible medical practitioners? We should point out the consequences to all who fail to see them, including, if necessary, the ministers for health. Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and thereby rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a “Baby Levy” in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the “polluter pays” principle. Every family choosing to have more than a defined number of children (Sustainable Population Australia suggests a maximum of two) should be charged a carbon tax that would fund the planting of enough trees to offset the carbon cost generated by a new human being. The average annual CO2 emission by an Australian individual is about 17 metric tons,4 including energy usage. As the biomass of trees in a mature forest sequesters about 6 metric tons of CO2 per hectare (104 m2) per year, each child born should be offset by planting 4 hectares of trees, to allow for the time they take to reach maturity, and attrition through crop losses, bushfires, dieback and so on. This infers a levy per child of at least $5000 at birth (to purchase the land needed and plant trees) and an annual tax of $400–$800 thereafter for the life of the child (for maintenance of the afforestation project) (based on 1990 figures, and probably much more now). By the same reasoning, contraceptives, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, condoms and sterilisation procedures should attract carbon credits for the user and the prescriber that would offset their income taxes, and lead to rewards for family planning clinics and hospitals that provide such greenhouse-friendly services." Repeat after me: the Earth is good, man is evil. This is nothing more than Earth-worship, the idea that the planet is a good in and of itself. Also, when you get right down to it, Dr. Walter's suggestion is extremely greedy for what he is saying is that we will make a better, more livable planet but fewer of us will get to enjoy it. The other problem with his suggestion is that while initially any program will be based on incentives (taxes and carbon credits) the logic of population control and absolute necessity (in the minds of climate change worriers) will eventually lead to involuntary measures such as forced sterilization and abortions. It must because the Earth is good and man is evil. The morning Huckabee Philip Klein of The American Spectator looks at Mike Huckabee's Willie Horton problem: "Much of the discussion about Huckabee's record on clemency has centered around the release of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond, who went on to murder a woman in Missouri after being let out of prison under Huckabee's watch. While there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Huckabee played a role in Dumond's release, Huckabee denies it. But even if one were to give him the benefit of the doubt in this instance, it does not explain away the rest of his record. Over the course of his 10 and a half years as governor, Huckabee granted a staggering 1,033 clemencies, according to the Associated Press. That was more than double the combined 507 that were granted during the 17 and a half years of his three predecessors: Bill Clinton, Frank White, and Jim Guy Tucker. In many cases, Huckabee's actions set loose savage criminals convicted of grizzly murders over the passionate objections of prosecutors and victims' families. 'I felt like Huckabee had more compassion for the murderers than he ever did for the victims,' Elaine Colclasure, co-leader of the Central Arkansas chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a group that works on behalf of victims' families, told TAS. "He was kind of like a defense attorney'." Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Have yourself a shitty little Christmas Ananova reports that some Polish youth are upset with a company selling Christmas-themed toilet paper: "The festive toilet paper on sale in Lublin by pharmacy chain Rossman has been branded 'repulsive and base'. It features pictures of reindeers and stars and little messages in English saying 'Merry Christmas'." Global warming: been there, done that Terra Daily reports: "Two researchers here spent months scouring through old expedition logs and reports, and reviewing 70-year-old maps and photos before making a surprising discovery. They found that the effects of the current warming and melting of Greenland 's glaciers that has alarmed the world's climate scientists occurred in the decades following an abrupt warming in the 1920s. Their evidence reinforces the belief that glaciers and other bodies of ice are exquisitely hyper-sensitive to climate change and bolsters the concern that rising temperatures will speed the demise of that island's ice fields, hastening sea level rise. The work, reported at this week's annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco , may help to discount critics' notion that the melting of Greenland 's glaciers is merely an isolated, regional event. They recently recognized from using weather station records from the past century that temperatures in Greenland had warmed in the 1920s at rates equivalent to the recent past. But they hadn't confirmed that the island's glaciers responded to that earlier warming, until now." The article warns that there are extreme dangers involved with not acting on global warming; the real lesson, however, is that the climate is not static and that it is folly to the point of narcissism to believe that man alone is responsible for climate change. This seems over-the-top I'm all in favour of the right of individuals to bear arms and that it is dangerous to leave the protection of oneself and one's family to the government or others, but Joseph Farah's conclusion in his column about the Colorado Springs shooting seems a little much: "Next time you go to church, pack your Bible … and your gun." Pro-choice, anti-private property rights The Winnipeg Free Press reports: "AN Osborne Village church has been desecrated with pro-choice abortion graffiti, but the pastor says the vandalism is just a cry for attention and will not lead the church to remove a controversial statue outside. The graffiti -- a spray-painted message outside the church reading 'My Body, My Choice' -- has been on the south side of Holy Rosary Church at 510 River Ave. since at least earlier this week. It's located behind a stone statue outside the Catholic church dedicated to the lives of unborn fetuses, which was installed in 1998, according to a metal plate affixed to the statue." It is the fifth time in the past year the church has been vandalized with pro-abortion graftiti. The morning Huckabee (II) Townhall.com reports that Mike Huckabee's comments as a senate candidate in 1992 are coming back to haunt him: "The mother of Ryan White, an Indiana teenager whose life-ending battle with AIDS in the 1980s engrossed the nation, wants to meet with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to discuss his comments 15 years ago that AIDS patients should have been isolated. The former Arkansas governor and GOP front-runner in the important Iowa caucuses said Sunday that he stood by the comments. That has infuriated Jeanne White-Ginder, who said: 'It's so alarming to me'." To be fair, Huckabee no longer believes this. But it is these kinds of comments that will haunt and distract Huckabee's presidential campaign if the GOP elects him their candidate in 2008. The morning Huckabee Yesterday Ramesh Ponnuru asked at The Corner, "how much is left here for conservatives to beat up?" Nachama Soloveichik answers the question at the Club for Growth's blog: "There is Huckabee’s support for a minimum wage increase, farm subsidies, a federally mandated and funded arts and music curriculum, and NCLB, his opposition to school choice and free trade, his CEOs-make-too-much-money diatribe, his national smoking ban, his Arkansas record that mirrors Bill Clinton’s, and on it goes." The Club for Groth's white paper on Huckabee has much, much more, such as support for internet taxes, a tax on private nursing home beds, and the federal medicare prescription drug plan. Just imagine a President Huckabee -- for a moment just imagine a President Huckabee -- with a Democratic Congress. Monday, December 10, 2007
There is good money in globaloney From the Daily Mail: "Al Gore has come under fire for making personal gain from his mission to save the planet – after charging £3,300 a minute to deliver a poorly received speech. The former American Vice-President was also accused of being "precious" at the London event, demanding his own VIP room and ejecting journalists, despite hopes the star-studded gathering would generate publicity for the fight against global warming. Many of the audience at last month's Fortune Forum summit were restless as Mr Gore, who has won both a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his campaigning work this year, delivered the half-hour speech that netted him £100,000." As one source said: "Al uses his position for great personal gain. He goes from event to event delivering a similar speech, earning a large fee, and a lot of the time he doesn't actually inform the audience." And those fees add up. As the (London) Times reports, in the past seven years, Al Gore has made more than $100 million scaring people about global warming in his speeches and books and through his green investment (indulgence) schemes. Nutbars  Jumping from airplanes without a parachute. The New York Times reports: "'All of this is technically possible,' said Jean Potvin, a physics professor at Saint Louis University and a skydiver who does parachute research for the Army. But he acknowledged a problem: 'The thing I’m not sure of is your margins in terms of safety, or likelihood to crash.' Loïc Jean-Albert of France, better known as Flying Dude in a popular YouTube video, put it more bluntly: 'You might do it well one time and try another time and crash and die.' The landing, as one might expect, poses the biggest challenge, and each group has a different approach." Okaaaay. It could be fun to watch. The Times story concludes: "'Everybody wants to be the first one to do it,' Mr. Haggard said. Which leads to an obvious and inevitable question: Why? 'Because everybody thinks that it’s not possible,' Mr. Corliss said. 'The point is to show people anything can be done. If you want to do amazing things, then you have to take amazing risks'." And for their next trick, they will try to revitalize Stephane Dion's Liberal Party. Jumping without a parachute seems an apt metaphor for the party's decision last year to take Dion as leader. Disaster prep: private sector does it better The Oregonian reports on how Wal-Mart and Home Depot were prepared for floods that hit the northwest last week, but that is too be expected. Reports the paper: "In cases of extreme weather and natural disasters, some of the nation's largest retailers now behave like municipalities -- sometimes better. Spurred by the Sept. 11 terror attacks and rough hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005, more retailers have created specialized divisions -- or hired outside firms -- to gird for emergencies. The goal: to speed recovery for customers, employees and ultimately sales. It's a measure of the times. Mega-retailers going global with huge distribution networks face more frequent and varied disasters. Yet as leaders in the business of moving goods and information -- Wal-Mart's famous for daily crack-of-dawn conference calls detailing real-time sales -- some have found they can react more quickly than local governments. For them, disasters have become just another cost of doing business." The morning Huckabee Introducing a new feature that will run until I get bored of it -- a piece of Mike Huckabee criticism from the conservative (and perhaps mainstream) press. Today's comes from the editors of NRO: "Mike Huckabee, by contrast, cut his teeth on typical state-level fare in Arkansas and on weight-loss and wellness programs. This is probably why he felt compelled to quip to Imus, “And the ultimate thing is, I may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.” (Powerline also points out that he used the exact same line on Imus a year earlier when foreign policy came up.) This won’t do. Huckabee did give a long speech on foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in September. It combined a superficial rendering of conventional foreign-policy wisdom — which of course included many unfair criticisms of President Bush — with Huckabee’s inimitable folksy delivery. The former governor’s bottom line was that we should be nicer to other countries... This is the kernel of Huckabee’s foreign policy. He wants to anthropomorphize international relations and bring a Christian commitment to the Golden Rule to our affairs with other nations. As he told the Des Moines Register the other day, “You treat others the way you’d like to be treated. That’s to me the fundamental issue that has to be re-established in our dealings with other countries.” This is deeply naïve. Countries aren’t people, and the world is more dangerous than a Sunday church social. Threats, deception, and — as a last resort — violence must play a role in international relations. Differences cannot always be worked out through sweet persuasion. A U.S. president who doesn’t realize this will repeat the experience of President Jimmy Carter at his most ineffectual." Sunday, December 09, 2007
Giving Tyler Cowen gave a talk to Google employees that is available on YouTube. At the 32 minute mark he gives the four minute version of the speech he was going to give during which he notes that considering direct mail costs (50 cents to $2 per piece sent) and the fact that once you give to a charity they will continue sending letters begging for more donations, giving $30 to a worthwhile cause never to give again drains the charity over time and you have actually harmed them financially. On the other hand (because he is an economist) if there is a charity or political party you really don't like, send them $10. Shocking news From the (London) Times : "Most murders in London this year were committed by foreigners, according to Scotland Yard figures obtained by The Times. Of 47 killings between April and September where the nationality of the accused is known, 26 of the suspects — 55 per cent — are not Britons. In 19 cases the killer is believed to be British. In a further 23 cases the nationality of the killer has not been determined." Of course, many of the victims are also foreigners. And this has a financial cost: "There is evidence in police budgets of the increased workload of dealing with crimes committed by foreigners. Chief constables are having to pay more for the services of interpreters and translators. With spending at £9.7 million, Scotland Yard is £1 million over budget for interpreters." But, in typical politically correct fashion, the paper tries to poo-poo the figures: "The figures from Scotland Yard cannot be presented with scientific certainty as proof of a definite trend. They exclude killings being investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Command and by the Operation Trident team which handles gun crime in the black community. Nor do the figures suggest any migrant-fuelled wave of killings." Do you think these two units -- black crime might include a few foreigners and child abuse investigations might be looking into not a few Muslim abuses committed against daughters who dishonour the family -- are likely to find more foreign criminals. |