Girls With Guns

Carnival of Cordite #78 is up at Spank That Donkey with graphic supplied by Cowboy Blob, who also has posted (just in time for Halloween) some really scary pictures on his site.

Let's Clarify That...

"You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck on stupid."

Some More Absent Than Others

The Wall Street Journal surveys the new voter ID requirements. Nearly half the states now require one form or another of identification, but...

Many of the new in-person voter requirements don't apply to absentee or early voters, a fact often derided by opponents of voter-ID laws since the most-documented type of voter fraud involves absentee voting.

I suspect that's why "we" keep "electing" Democrats here in Oregon.

Read Carefully

The Register-Guard runs an article on voter distrust:

Judy Bonn, a Walterville-area retiree, voted for measures 41 and 48, calling them fair controls on how state government spends taxes. She has scant trust in government - be it the local, state or federal level.

"There's a good percentage of them that can just go away at all levels," she said. "We are taxed and taxed and taxed, and there's never an attempt by government to explain why the taxes happen, or to try to live within its means."

Bonn directs particular ire at the Lane County income tax measure, which she called "totally deceptive."

The ballot language states that a "yes" vote would limit the government's taxing authority. Voters must read an accompanying informational insert to learn that voting "yes" also enacts the tax.

Jackson County tried the same slimeball trick on Measure 15-67.

Warm Fuzzies

From the Daily Mail. (Click to enlarge.)

Measure 45

Well, as I mentioned, we've voted on term limits before, so I figure most people will vote this time the same way they voted last time and it's not worth arguing about.

But I don't buy the argument that if term limits passes a bunch of old, experienced lobbyists will be leading the newbie congressmen around by the nose. If the lobbyists really believed that, they'd be sitting on the sidelines quietly hoping for term limits to pass. They're not. They're spending thousands of dollars to fight the measure. Obviously they've got those old, experienced legislators well trained and they don't want to lose their investment of time and money.

I'm not sure we want skilled, experienced lawmakers anyway. It depends, I guess, on how you measure the productivity of the legislature. If you measure it by the quantity of new laws they crank out, the number of new programs they create, and the speed with which they burn through our tax dollars, then you definitely want an experienced, professional, ruling class. Personally, I'd feel safer with a bunch of rank amateurs.

And finally people say that term limits on the other guy is alright, but our guy's doing a good job and we want to keep him. It's not a "three terms and you're out" measure, it's "three terms and you move up". Six years in the House, eight years in the Senate, then run for Governor or U.S. congress or whatever. The politicians can adapt to it, plan to train replacements, get the new guys going, and move up the ladder. If they can't manage that, they can always get a real job.

America Alone No Longer Available

The "seller you selected" was Amazon itself.

Mark Steyn's America Alone is #14 on New York Times Bestseller List (week of November 5, 2006) and Amazon doesn't have any copies in stock. Nor can they recommend another seller.

Fortunately you can order it direct from the author, and autographed to boot.

Whatever You Say, Sweetie

Michael Barone says that sometimes it matters who's asking.

The late Warren Mitofsky, who conducted the 2004 NEP exit poll, went back and found that the greatest difference between actual results in exit poll precincts and the reports phoned in to NEP came where the interviewers were female graduate students -- and almost all the discrepancies favored the Democrats.

Next time they should hire some cute Republican grad students and see what the guys tell them.

Politics Not Science

Bangor, Maine, Oct. 30 (UPI):

The general manager of two TV stations in Maine has ordered his news department to stop covering global warming until "Bar Harbor is underwater."

Michael Palmer told the joint news staff of WVII and WFVX in an e-mail that global warming stories are like "'the killer African bee scare' from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone's computer was going to self-destruct."

And if they don't, fire them.

The Times Demand Decision

A Wall Street Journal article talks about editorial impartiality:

Early American newspaper publishers scoffed at the idea that they should hide their political prejudices under a cloak of objectivity. "To profess impartiality here," wrote William Cobbett in his Federalist newspaper, Porcupine's Gazette, "would be as absurd as to profess it in a war between virtue and vice, good and evil, happiness and misery." The motto of the Gazette of the United States, which began publication in 1789, was "He that is not for us is against us."

And a New Jersey printer wrote in 1798, "The times demand decision; there is a right and a wrong, and the printer, who under the specious name of impartiality jumbles both truth and falsehood into the same paper, is either doubtful of his own judgment or is governed by ulterior motives."

Shoot Him Again, Clem!

Poughkeepsie Journal:

Democrats who cast votes after they died outnumbered Republicans by more than a 4-to-1 margin.

Jeez, whatta you gotta do to kill these varmints?

How I Voted Part Two

Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.
—W. C. Fields

This year I'm voting against the Democrats.

If BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) has driven them into the Osama bin Laden camp, fine. Nuke 'em all. They asked for it.

Voting for Republicans is nothing new to me—I voted for Reagan. The story improves with the telling, of course, and the truth is I actually voted against the Sandalistas of Lane Communist College, but still. It turned out rather well, didn't it, what with the Berlin wall, and all?

What everyone wants to know this fall is will the Republicans lose the House or the Senate or both. The answer is neither and if we're lucky we'll have it settled by Christmas, but I doubt it.

Anyway Oregon's out of the loop because neither senator is up for re-election and the congressional districts are so completely gerrymandered that none will change parties. I'm voting for Greg Walden anyway, because his opponent is a Democrat.

I don't care who's running against our Democrat governor Ted Kulongoski, either. If his only opponent was an old yellow dog, the dog would get my vote. This year the dog's name is Ron Saxton. Nice boy; sit. Ted, go home. Git.

Our state representative Dennis Richardson sent us a newspaper clipping last spring about Lizzy going to Japan, along with a handwritten note of congratulations. That gesture probably won him two more votes, except I would have voted for him anyway because his opponent is a Democrat.

As for Oregon Supreme Court judges, it's pretty obvious that Virginia Linder is a liberal and anyway Gully says that Jack Roberts is alright, so I'm voting against Linder.

The office of circuit court judge doesn't really matter to me, and they're not allowed to say which party they belong to either, but it's pretty obvious that Greif's a liberal and Grensky's not, so I'm voting against Greif.

Once you get beyond that point on the ballot it's no longer partisan—it's personal.

It gives me particular pleasure to vote against county commissioner (position 3) Dave Gilmour, whom I loathe. I'm also voting for Jack Walker (position 1) because he, in turn, will vote against Dave Gilmour on every issue that comes up, should Gilmour get re-elected to the commissionariat. Which he shouldn't.

The big issue locally is civilian control of the police force, and that issue carries over into the race for Sheriff. Everyone inside the department seems to favor Tim George. Mike Winters's only friends are on the outside. That says to me that he must be doing something right.

I had intended to write a little background on the Gold Hill Police mess but the Mail Tribune has saved me the trouble by publishing a couple of articles this morning that cover it pretty well, including this timeline. In a third article they dig into the archives and note that Gold Hill's police department troubles go all the way back to 1961. Crackpot cops. A proud tradition for 45 years!

A small town of one thousand people, located on the interstate highway midway between two major metropolitan areas, does not need, and can not afford, its own three-man police force. Back in 2000 we contracted temporarily with the Jackson County Sheriff for full time on-call service at a rate of $6500 a month. That seems to me about right.

So I voted against the local option tax. I've already decided to vote for Allan Jennings for mayor. The question remains of who to put on the city council. There are four positions open and only two people bothered to file: Wolf and Silva. Four other people have put up signs offering their names as write-in candidates. Three of them clearly support the police department. The other guy, Bob Barry, I've never heard of. His one-word slogan is "Accountability". That will have to do.

Sunrise, Sunset

Can't we just leave well enough alone?

Biased?

The Wall Street Journal looks a polls and pundits and asks How Reliable Are Forecasts?

Short article, nice graphics, clear points, no conclusion. Like the polls, you can read into it what you like.

Federalism—Not Civil War

Judith Miller says one region of Iraq is doing well.

The secret of Kurdistan's relative success so far—and of America's enduring popularity here—is the officially unacknowledged fact that the three provinces of the Kurdish north are already quasi-independent. On Oct. 11, Iraq's parliament approved a law that would allow the Sunni and Shiite provinces also to form semi-autonomous regions with the same powers that the constitution has confirmed in Kurdistan. And while Kurdish leaders pay lip-service to President Bush's stubborn insistence on the need for a unified Iraq with a strong centralized government, Kurdistan is staunchly resisting efforts to concentrate economic control in Baghdad.

The U.S., Mr. Barzani believes, should leave it to the Iraqis to decide if they want "one or two or three regions." Then, he adds: "But it already exists. The division is there as a practical matter. People are being killed on the basis of identity." As for Baghdad, "it should have a special status as the federal capital. But the rest should be regions that run their own affairs. Or they should be separate. Only a voluntary union can work. Either you have federalism with Baghdad as a federal capital with a special status, or you have separation. Those are the facts."

We could use a little more federalism in these United States too.

How I Voted Part One

I've never been a fan of the Australian ballot. If you're fixin' to do something as despicable as votin' for that low-life varmint, you ought to just come right out and say so.

Secret ballots are for cowards and wimps. We didn't even have them in the U.S. until 1892. Which come to think of it is just about the time all this cowardly wimpery got started.

So without beatin' around the bush any longer, here's how I voted and why. If you don't like it, get your own ballot. They're free for the asking here in Oregon. Ask twice and they'll give you two.

Measure 39. Yes. Hell, yes. I chipped in a chunk of money to get this thing going because I believe in private property rights. Maybe you don't mind the county taking your house and giving it to Lowe's for a parking lot. I do.

Measure 40. Yes. That Multnomah County clique has dominated the courts long enough. If the courts just decided cases it wouldn't matter. But if they're going to write laws, then we deserve to have proportional representation.

Measure 41. Yes. A tax cut. Who could object to that? People who live off your taxes, that's who. Public servants is what they like to call themselves, but I personally think they're more closely related to ticks and tapeworms.

Measure 42. No. This is a dumb idea but a lot of people will vote for it because they hate insurance companies. And if it passes the insurance companies have only themselves to blame because when you lie down with dogs you get up with ticks and tapeworms.

Measure 43. Yes. I have two daughters. That's all I'm going to say about it.

Measure 44. No. I've written about this already. The State is not your mommy.

Measure 45. Yes, but I wouldn't blame you a bit if you voted No. Anyway, didn't we already vote on this?

Measures 46 and 47. No. I've written about this already. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution will not be repealed by the voters of Oregon. If you don't like what people are saying, say something different. You have no right to make them shut up.

Measure 48. Yes. Who's better at spending your hard-earned money? You or your indigent Uncle Ted? Did you say Ted? Whoa. Take it easy now. Put the pencil down. Step away from the ballot...

Measure 15-66. No. I've written about this already. I used to love libraries. I've spent a huge chunk of my life in libraries. But there comes a time when you have to say enough is enough.

Measure 15-67. No. The ballot title says "Permanent Tax Rate Limit." Bull. It's a permanent new tax. Don't take the bait.

Measure 15-72. No. I'm voting against the Gold Hill Police Department. More on that in part two.

Dixie in Denial

Florence King reviews Dixie Betrayed: How the South Really Lost the Civil War by David J. Eicher, giving her a chance to expound on one of her favorite subjects—good ol' boys.

Purcell v. Gonzalez

A week ago today the Supreme Court told Arizona it could go ahead and require voters to show ID before voting.

Given the imminence of the election and the inadequate time to resolve the factual disputes, our action today shall of necessity allow the election to proceed without an injunction suspending the voter identification rules.

Justice Stevens added an interesting note.

Allowing the election to proceed without enjoining the statutory provisions at issue will provide the courts with a better record on which to judge their constitutionality. At least two important factual issues remain largely unresolved: the scope of the disenfranchisement that the novel identification requirements will produce, and the prevalence and character of the fraudulent practices that allegedly justify those requirements. Given the importance of the constitutional issues, the Court wisely takes action that will enhance the likelihood that they will be resolved correctly on the basis of historical facts rather than speculation.

In other words, call us back when you have a real problem.

Not Suitable For Children

This blog refuses to give up its PG-13 rating, so Zeta Woof will have no comment on some of the larger political stories this fall.

But I will note that while John Hawkins and Larry Elder got their licks in early, it took Matt Drudge to deliver the knockout blow. James Webb is toast, and deservedly so. Thanks, Matt.

Ratbert Raises The Bar

Least I Think That's What I Smell

Barry Ritholtz says the political futures markets I mentioned yesterday don't really have much predictive power.

The bottom line is that there are few, if any, predictive powers of Political Futures Exchanges. Once you get past the lack of acuity markets have in general, there are simply too many additional problems with these minute exchanges. They are too small, have too little money at stake, and are therefore readily susceptible to undue "influence."

So have fun watching them, but don't bet the farm.

More Good News

Otto J. Reich on NRO:

This time the rumors are real: Castro is dying of stomach cancer. He may have already died, even before the funeral preparations were finished, so the news is not out. Confirmation of the terminal illness comes from the usual sources but in a non-conventional manner. The Cuban government has been summoning to Havana representatives of the major international media to negotiate the best seats, camera angles, and interviews with the despot’s political survivors, and to inform them of the ground rules for coverage of the state funeral.

Spasmodic Dysphonia

Via Language Log a link to Scott Adams's Blog, where he tells about the miracle cure for his case of Spasmodic Dysphonia, a neurological disorder that robbed him of the power of speech.

Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.

I asked my doctor – a specialist for this condition – how many people have ever gotten better. Answer: zero.

But this guy's an engineer. It's just a bug in the software. Eighteen months later he found the fix.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jumped over the candlestick.

I repeated it dozens of times, partly because I could. It was effortless, even though it was similar to regular speech. I enjoyed repeating it, hearing the sound of my own voice working almost flawlessly. I longed for that sound, and the memory of normal speech. Perhaps the rhyme took me back to my own childhood too. Or maybe it’s just plain catchy. I enjoyed repeating it more than I should have. Then something happened.

My brain remapped.

My speech returned.

Not 100%, but close, like a car starting up on a cold winter night.

I can't wait to hear what Steven Pinker has to say about this.

That Idiot Cole Reeves

The Mail Tribune has another story about Glen Bogart, the hunter who is recovering from a gunshot wound.

The accused shooter, 36-year-old Cole Reeves, was cited by police Friday on a misdemeanor charge called "unintentional wounding of another." This 20-year-old statute is what police say fits this circumstance, which is preached against regularly in hunter-safety courses that are mandatory in Oregon for juveniles but not adults.

"The reason why we have a hunter-safety program is to keep scenarios like this from happening," says Sgt. Colin Fagan of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.

"It's about knowing your target and what's beyond," Fagan says.

Reeves, who told sheriff's deputies that he took a hunter-safety course as a teenager, faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $500 fine if convicted. A conviction also would carry a mandatory 10-year suspension of his hunting privileges in Oregon.

Jean Bogart, Glen's wife, scoffs at the citation.

"A $500 fine is ridiculous," Jean Bogart says. "He probably won't do any jail time. I don't think it's right at all.

"All I know is, we're going to get stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars (in bills) because of this idiot," says Jean Bogart, whose husband owns an auto-detailing business and has no health insurance.

Programming Error?

The Wall Street Journal has a list of things that could go wrong.

In recent elections, though, the new equipment has sometimes baffled election workers, who are often retirees. In 2004, Carteret County, N.C., poll workers didn't notice the warning lights indicating a touch screen's memory was full, for example, and lost 4,438 votes....

In Mercer County, Ohio, this fall, votes cast for Democrats went instead to Libertarians because of a programming error....

Yeah, right.

I wonder. Will the FOIA allow us to "open source" the code?

Subject To Fate

VDH in Works and Days:

I wrote about the daily changing wisdom in Fields Without Dreams, and how fickle human nature is, rather than looking at things in a tragic sense that there are no great choices, but often just bad and worse, and that wisdom is predicated mostly on the perception of success. In 1982 I picked early and thereby avoided a horrendous tropical storm that ruined the industry, saving thereby 200 tons of raisins that sold for over $1400 a ton; in 1983 I picked early again, the clouds blew away, and in weeks of perfect weather I produced lousy, sour, and light raisins, selling scarcely 140 tons for $400 and lost far more than I had made the year before. I was neither a genius the year before, nor a fool the next, but rather did the best I could in both years, recognizing that we are still subject to fate, despite our vaunted technology and knowledge. I am not advising helplessness, simply some recognition that the verdict is out on Iraq, and what looks bad today, might look far better very soon—and that erstwhile supporters turned vehement critics might well reinvent themselves a third time.

Where Our Property Taxes Went

The bill arrived today; up 2.5% from last year. It could have been worse. It will be worse—about 13% worse—if Measures 15-66, 15-67, and 15-72 pass. I'm voting NO on all of them.

*Urban Renewal. Justice Clarence Thomas cited the term in Kelo V. New London.

'Sentence first--verdict afterwards.'

Somehow last week I missed this bit of news.

By the slimmest of margins and with even the majority divided over the reasons, the Oregon Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision reached on Oct. 19, ruled that Measure 3—approved by voters in November 2000—is constitutional.

You may or may not recall that Measure 3, approved by 67% of the voters, required a criminal conviction before property forfeiture. Some law enforcement agencies found this sort of due process inconvenient, preferring instead to seize and sell property first and deal with all that evidence gathering and courtroom stuff later—if at all.

Six years later four judges on the Oregon Supreme Court decided that 952,792 Oregonians just might be right. If just one of those judges had changed his mind...

That's why the election of Jack Roberts matters.

Vigilantes

Frederick Turner says death squads are roaming the streets of Baghdad and that's reason to hope.

This Isn't Personal

William F. Buckley Jr. on Nancy Pelosi:

Her directness of speech was a subject Lesley Stahl of CBS's 60 Minutes elected last week to emphasize, asking just how did she intend to achieve her goal of bringing civility back to Washington given the language she tends to use about Republicans. Pelosi, viewers were reminded, has called her Republican colleagues "immoral" and "corrupt," suggesting that they were backing a criminal enterprise. Stahl said: "I mean, you're one of the reasons we have to restore civility in the first place."

Pelosi says it isn't personal.

"It sounds personal."

"This isn't personal."

"[You say] he's incompetent—"

"Well, I think he is."

"Well that's personal."

"Well, I’m sorry, that's his problem."

"How does this raise the level of civility?" Stahl is yielding to despair on the point.

"Well, we’re in a political debate here. We didn't come here to have a tea party together, and toss a coin to see who would win on an issue. I have very thick skin. I don't care what they say about me."

Hey, we don't either.

Heading North

mAss Backwards:

I'm done twiddling my thumbs, [gripin'] about it. I'm taking my family, my guns, and my tax dollars (and, oh yeah, my Beavis bobblehead) off of this sinking ship and heading north to cast new roots in the fertile soil of freedom and personal responsibility. My final vote as a Massachusetts resident will be in the form of one [big] moving van....

Yes, someday in the not-so-distant future, I'll be able to drive an uninsured vehicle, without my seatbelt on, to a gas station, and buy a six-pack of beer, while openly wearing an unlicensed handgun on my hip (not to mention the five-dollar, plastic Tom Reilly Memorial Slingshot I'll have tucked away in my back pocket), and not be in violation of at least five state laws, if I so choose.

Sounds nice.

Horse Race

Barrons predicted that the Republicans will retain control of the House 224 to 211 and the Senate 52 to 48. Their methods were a little unusual:

We studied every single race -- all 435 House seats and 33 in the Senate -- and based our predictions about the outcome in almost every race on which candidate had the largest campaign war chest, a sign of superior grass-roots support. We ignore the polls.

The most scholarly of the psephologists, Michael Barone, who predicted last April that the Republicans would retain control, now says that his numbers show a Democrat majority of 219 to 216, but

...we probably won't know it on election night. There will be some races too close to call, others where the absentee votes remain to be counted, and, as John Fund has suggested, others where the result will be litigated.

Dick Morris, who keeps his ear to the ground 24/7 (ask Sherry Rowlands why he does that) says that as of October 24th, it's a toss-up:

The latest polls show something very strange and quite encouraging is happening: The Republican base seems to be coming back home. This trend, only vaguely and dimly emerging from a variety of polls, suggests that a trend may be afoot that would deny the Democrats control of the House and the Senate.

What about the smart money? Intrade still says the Republicans have a 68.5% chance of retaining the Senate, and a 32.3% chance of keeping the House. But they appear to be bottoming out.

And in a futures market it's the trend that counts.

Recurrent Nightmare

Hail, friends of all that's grand and good,
Hail, foes of all that's wrong—
Come join our world-wide brotherhood,
And help our cause along.
Together we will win the fight
With strength drawn from on high;
Dispel the wrong, enthrone the right,
And make the whole world dry.

Chorus:

We'll work for Prohibition
Wherever men are found;
We'll fight the liquor traffic
In earth's remotest bound;
Come, join this mighty army,
Help raise the battle cry!
Rally now with us,
Be up and ready,
We'll make the whole world dry!

From all the lands below the skies
Where liquor still holds sway,
Prayers and petitions daily rise
That God will speed the day
When from the drink they may be free—
That day is drawing nigh!
We'll live that glorious time to see
When all the world is dry.

A band of brethren here are we,
United in one aim,
To bring a joyous liberty,
To ev'ry land the same;
Against King Alcohol we fight—
"Forward" our battle cry;
We move in God's eternal might
To make the whole world dry.

(Chorus)

For God and home and native land
And for our neighbor, too,
We pledge ourselves, as hand clasps hand
We'll see this struggle through.
Then up and ready let us be,
Prepared to do or die,
Until there comes the victory
When all the world is dry.

(Chorus)

Nobody Wants It, It's Too Popular

Steyn Online has a note to Canadian readers:

We have had hundreds of complaints today from would-be customers unable to find copies of the book in Chapters, Indigo, Coles, SmithBooks or any of the other aliases of Canada's multi-appellated monopoly bookstore chain. It's not our fault and I'm afraid there's nothing we or the publishers can do about it. Heather Reisman doesn't want to sell it and that's that. And that's what happens in as coercively regulated a cultural environment as the decayed Dominion's. Try Amazon Canada, where it's been Number Two on the bestsellers all weekend, even though, as one Calgary Chapters clerk told a thwarted customer, nobody wants it. If you're weary of listening to excuses from Canada's monopoly retailer as to why they didn't order a book that hit the Top Ten 24 hours after publication, try the SteynOnline store's premium fast-track UPS shipping option for Canadian customers who'd like the book within a few days.

Mark.... Mark, if I can just interrupt for a minute....
Mark. Shut up.

Media Time and Blog Time

John Podhoretz, October 24, 2006, 08:11:59:

For those who follow political news, there are now two kinds of time: Mainstream Media Time and Blog Time.

If your clock's set to Mainstream Media Time, you believe for a certainty that the Democrats are poised to win 20 to 40 seats in the House of Representatives, thereby taking control of that body for the first time in 12 years....

If your clock is set to Blog Time, you believed all that at the start of last week. By last Thursday, however, those of you on Blog Time began to discern a change: Suddenly, things weren't quite so bad for Republicans or quite so great for Democrats....

By definition, Blog Time is fast. Very fast. The advantage blogs have over the mainstream media is speed - commentary coming at a furious pace. And a blog addict's sense of political time speeds up as well.

For example, most people who follow the news probably don't know much about Harold Ford's blunder last week. But blog readers have already inhaled thousands of words and multiple interpretations of it.

To them, the Ford news is already old. They probably assume Tennesseans have already seen footage of it, drawn conclusions from it and changed their voting strategies because of it. But have they? Are the Tennessee voters paying attention? Or do they exist on a slower and more deliberate pace - the pace of Mainstream Media Time?

In his science fiction novel The English Assassin, Michael Moorcock's character Jerry Cornelius wore two wrist watches. They ran at different speeds, and sometimes the hands on one turned backwards while the other moved forward.

Toward the Good Life

Paul Johnson:

In the Oct. 2 issue of FORBES I learned that in the five years since the attack on the Twin Towers, America's GDP has increased by $3 trillion. This increase alone is roughly equivalent to the entire output of the world's fastest-growing economy, China. Clearly, scores of millions of Americans are doing better than ever before....

At the same time China and India — once the world's two poorest big countries — are making giant strides toward affluence, each year pulling tens of millions of their citizens into the lighted circle of the good life. I believe that in due course the really wretched parts of the world will learn more from the India-China experience than they have ever been able to absorb from the West. The once poor can teach the still poor. I take an optimistic view of these things.

So do I.

Holocaust Survivor Wants Paintings Back

The Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Dina Gottliebova Babbitt owes her life to a series of stark watercolors she painted more than half a century ago while imprisoned in the death camp at Auschwitz....

Babbitt made a dozen facial images of Gypsy inmates from 1943 to 1945 at the behest of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who discovered her artistic bent after she painted for inmate children a mural of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" on a camp wall, drawing the attention of guards and Mengele.

Her mural was based on a fleeting memory after seeing the animated classic by hiding her Jewish star patch and sneaking into a movie theater in her Czechoslovakian hometown. It pulled Babbitt into Mengele's agenda: He had her do color renderings as part of his study of Aryan racial theory. The subjects of the art were then killed.

"I painted very slow," she said.

Pictures at the link above. More background and recent developments at Jewish World Review.

Shut Up

Candidate Dennis Richardson took a stand on all ten ballot measures today, which is a pretty gutsy thing to do considering most politicians try to say as little as possible about anything controversial.

And I'm happy to report that he and I agree 70% of the time.

He is wrong however, and dangerously so, in favoring a YES vote on Measure 46.

Article I, Section 8 of the Oregon Constitution, ratified in 1857, states:

No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever; but every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right.

Measure 46 would append a new section to Article II:

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution, the people through the initiative process, or the Legislative Assembly by a three-fourths vote of both Houses, may enact and amend laws to prohibit or limit contributions and expenditures, of any type or description, to influence the outcome of any election.

The "other provision" notwithstood is the freedom of speech.

The problem, Richardson says, is that campaigns cost too much. But consider this: in 2004 the total spending on U.S. House and Senate races was a little over one billion dollars. In a country of 300 million that's about 30¢ each per month.

The problem can't be that we're blowing the price of a candy bar debating the issues of the day. It must be that the wrong people are buying the ink and the pixels and the radio time, and the supporters of Measure 46 want desperately to find some way to make them shut up.

But consider for a moment what a law is.

If you don't obey the law the judge will fine you, and if you don't pay the fine the sheriff will take you to jail, and if you don't go quietly he will put a gun to your head, and if that doesn't convince you he will put a gun to your best friend's head.

The law is not advisory. The law is a gun to your head.

Hindsight

Victor Davis Hanson in National Review:

Iranian-style theocracy has not spread. For all the talk of losing Afghanistan, the Taliban are still dispersed or in hiding — so is al Qaeda. Europe is galvanizing against Islamism in a way unimaginable just three years ago. The world is finally focusing on Iran. Hezbollah did not win the last war, but lost both prestige and billions of dollars in infrastructure, despite a lackluster effort by Israel. Elections have embarrassed a Hamas that, the global community sees, destroys most of what it touches and now must publicly confess that it will never recognize Israel. Countries like Libya are turning, and Syria is more isolated. If we keep the pressure up in Iraq and Afghanistan and work with our allies, Islamism and its facilitators will be proven bankrupt.

In contrast, if we should withdraw from Iraq right now, there will be an industry in the next decade of hindsight exposés — but they won't be the gotcha ones like State of Denial or Fiasco. Instead we will revisit the 1974-5 Vietnam genre of hindsight — of why after such heartbreak and sacrifice the United States gave up when it was so close to succeeding.

Mr. Eric Johnson

James Lileks (Jamus Dakotus) has an amazing story.

Shaq Attack

The Agitator reports that the Bedford County Sheriff's office swore in Shaquille O'Neal, gave him a uniform and a sidearm, and sent him out on a SWAT raid — to the wrong house!

The victim of the botched raid tells about it in his local paper:

I am a local farmer; my wife teaches elementary school; our three children are well-adjusted, “A” students.

We go to church, work hard, and pay our bills and taxes.

We are law-abiding, responsible members of society; we have never had reason to fear the law.

On Saturday morning, Sept. 23, 2006, many police vehicles appeared in our driveway. Men in black with flak jackets ran to and around our house.

My wife was at home alone. I drove up and asked, “What's going on?”

Men ran at me, dropped into shooting position, double-handed semi-automatic pistols pointed at me, and made me put my hands against my truck.

I was held at gunpoint, searched, taunted, and led into the house. I had no idea what this was about. I was scared beyond description. I feared there had been a murder and I was a suspect.

My wife and I were interrogated about Internet crime. We are not avid computer users; we do not even e-mail.

Oops, sorry. Wrong IP address.

What, No Crank?

Scappoose, Oregon, October 22:

A 69-year-old pilot and a 15-year-old boy were not injured when their experimental plane crashed Sunday afternoon at the Scappoose airport.

Manfred Alexander of Camas, Wash., realized the plane had electrical problems immediately after taking off from the airport with his grandson, Brent Alexander, according to the Scappoose Rural Fire Protection District.

Alexander, who built the 1994 Lancair model 320 plane, returned and landed safely without landing gear, electricity or radio capabilities, avoiding another plane on the runway. The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the crash.

Call me old-fashioned, but shouldn't a plane have a backup system for lowering the gear?

Cold War Nostalgia

Dave Barry swears he is not making this up:

According to an Associated Press story sent in by many alert readers, the Army recently admitted that in 1963 and 1964, Army scientists went to stockyards in six American cities and "sneaked up on cows and sprayed them with deodorant."

Early And Often

Here in Oregon we don't have Election Day, we have Election Season. The polls opened yesterday and will close on November 7th, although for safety's sake, you'd better put your ballot in the mail a few days early. You can't count on the USPS.

There are advantages and disadvantages to voting by mail. On the plus side, it makes voting cheap and convenient. On the minus side, it makes vote fraud cheap and convenient. Register half a dozen times and you get half a dozen ballots, delivered to your doorstep, which you can fill out in the privacy of your own home. What could be simpler?

Tip to fraudsters: Don't forget to sign each envelope with a different name!

Like anyone checks.

Factions

By a faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

—James Madison, The Federalist No.10

Can't I just vote for "None of the Above"?

Carnival of Cordite #77

Is is possible to have too much ammunition?

Not if you're Han Solo. Wait. That's not Han Solo. What was that guy's name, anyway?

The debate continues in Carnival of Cordite #77 over at Spank That Donkey.

Fall Colors

We hiked the Takelma Gorge trail today to take in the colors. Beautiful weather—an Indian summer.

More People Means More Progress

Opinion Journal:

Around the time the country's population hit 200 million, biologist Paul Ehrlich, always good for a bit of doom and gloom, compared "America's pride in her growing population . . . to a cancer patient's pride in his expanding tumor," according to Time magazine. Stewart Udall, a former Secretary of the Interior, thought 100 million sounded like a better number than 200 million. Messrs. Ehrlich and Udall are still among our 300 million, but their population bomb has conspicuously failed to explode, which may go some way toward explaining why, in the popular imagination at least, this week's milestone did not prompt widespread anxiety about the future.

Dominating The Debate

One of the advantages of not watching the television is that I don't get tempted to discharge firearms in the living room. The disadvantage is that I can't get a sense of who's dominating the debate, especially with local and state candidates who don't get national coverage.

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.

Will Rogers said that. With the internet he'd have a second alibi.

The cartoon is from Gary Brookins of The Richmond Times Dispatch.

Jack Roberts

Oddly enough, the left-wing Willamette Week has endorsed Jack Roberts for the Oregon Supreme Court:

The rap on Roberts, besides his chromosomal challenge, is that the former business lawyer hasn't been an active member of the bar for more than a decade. That shortcoming is obviously worth noting, but we believe Roberts' brainpower and political acumen are more important....

As for the diversity issue: Without showing disrespect to Linder's impressive pedigree, the Supreme Court already has three justices who spent significant portions of their careers in the attorney general's office, as Linder did. And it has three justices who came from the Court of Appeals, where Linder works now.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court's role is to select those cases for review that justices believe will have the broadest impact. Such work requires a sharp intellect and an understanding of how law affects everyday citizens. The court is stocked with justices who have backgrounds similar to Linder's; it has nobody remotely like Roberts.

Don't take the bait; vote for him anyway. Gullyborg says he's OK.

Thanks to Upper Left Coast who reads Willamette Week so I don't have to.

Kennedy, Hatfield and the USSR

Kevin Mooney of CNSNews.com:

In his book, which came out this week, Kengor focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan's foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts....

In Kennedy's view, the main reason for the antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1980s was Reagan's unwillingness to yield on plans to deploy middle-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe....

"Kennedy was afraid that Reagan was leading the world into a nuclear war," Kengor said. "He hoped to counter Reagan's polices, and by extension hurt his re-election prospects."

As a prelude to the public relations strategy Kennedy hoped to facilitate on behalf of the Soviets, Kengor said, the Massachusetts senator had also proposed meeting with Andropov in Moscow -- to discuss the challenges associated with disarmament.

In his appeal, Kennedy indicated he would like to have Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) accompany him on such a trip. The two senators had worked together on nuclear freeze proposals.

Thanks to Never Yet Melted. Paul Kengor's book is available at Amazon.

Epidemiology Meets Moral Idiocy

Christopher Hitchens lancets a boil.

In its latest edition, the Lancet publishes the estimate of some researchers at Johns Hopkins University that there have been "654,965 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war." The figure is both oddly exact and strangely imprecise: It does not clearly state, for example, that all these people have actually been killed...

Thanks to Some Poor Schmuck.

State Senator 3rd District

What chance does a woman and a minority have in ultra-liberal Ashland?

A snowflake's chance in hell: she's a Republican.