Month: June 2007

An Atlantic archived report on the growth of the practice in the U.S. – almost entirely among African immigrants.

A post-Virginia Tech initiative in Nevada:

On Thursday, the Nevada Board of Regents gave the go-ahead to four public colleges in the state to develop policies — which would still require board approval in September — to allow faculty and staff members to become reserve police officers authorized to carry guns …

"There are lots of other things we need to do" to make campuses more safe, Anthony said, but most of them — better lighting, more surveillance, hiring more full-time police officers — "are very costly and take a lot more time to implement…. I guarantee you there are people who would like to be in a position to defend themselves and others on campus, and we will be putting more police officers on campus without paying them to be full time."

Glenn Reynolds may move West.

The internet equivalent of the Iran-Iraq war.

Brian Tamanaha vents:

I feel fortunate to have been born in the United States, but I don’t love my country. It has no love for any of us. A cold, manipulative, object of affection, the state fans patriotism, then asks those who love it deeply to prove their love by dying or sacrificing their limbs for it.

It will not happen in my lifetime, but I look forward to the day when states are no more.

Oy. Roger Alford replies here, and gets this riposte.

"No one has so far explained why it’s fine for Mr. Bloomberg to advance his own political career using his personal fortune, but it would be "dirty" for him to bankroll someone else who shared his agenda. As long as voters knew where the money came from, they’d be free to decide whether it tainted the candidate or not. Such donations could be posted instantly on the Internet," – the Wall Street Journal.

Larry Sabato gets it right:

Let’s suppose Mrs. Clinton wins in November 2008. Democrats would have to live with the consequences. There is simply no question that Senator Clinton would be the third deeply polarizing President in a row, following her husband’s divisive and partially wasted tenure and George W. Bush’s deeply disappointing turn at bat. We bet that she would have a short honeymoon and would be unable to convince her millions of critics and detractors that she had changed – or was different than they long ago concluded she was. At a time when the nation could use a unifier and a healer – to the extent that any President can perform those roles – partisan warfare would be at fever pitch from Day One.

A reader writes:

Not sure if you can swing some sort of a journalist’s early pass or something else similar that would allow you to see an early screening of Michael Moore’s new documentary, "Sicko," but – and please know how deeply it pains me to admit this – it was absolutely briliant. Twice, I was moved to tears.

I absolutely hated him after "Farenheit 9/11," and honestly, never really even regarded him previously – neither negatively nor positively. I simply never even thought of him. I believe that he has found his voice, somehow, where as before he was just so caught up in – what’s the word? – a sort of rabid, insane fixation on conspiracy theories (see his latest announcement about the gov’t. still not releasing all it knows about 9/11.

All of that aside – he has managed something that speaks to all Americans, regardless of political bent. I won’t ruin it for you and reveal too much about it – but lets say that of the four countries to which he travels and then compares to the US, I could have done without the fourth one – simply because of the propaganda aspects of it. But the punch in the gut it delivers makes it almost worth it.

I’m blown away that last month, FOX news allowed their folks to speak positively of it. So, I’m encouraged that in their so doing, it might just nudge people who have sworn never to give Moore a cent of their money after "Farenheit…" to take a look-see at his latest offering. Again – I can not believe I am endorsing this. Maybe it’s because of the major-league smack-down he delivers to Hillary about 1/3 of the way into the movie. And watching it Saturday night at an advance screening here in the very left-leaning Santa Monica, CA audience – it made my month to hear this audience initially cheer her when the segment on her began and then sit in abject, silent horror letting only the occasional, hushed, "OH NO" release.  Priceless.  And so satisfying.

Any expose of Clinton is fine by me. But I grew up with socialized medicine, and I know what a disaster it is. It’s coming, of course. You can feel it. Bush paved the way. The golden era of American medicine and research will soon cede to more and more state control. It will exchange a great deal of its excellence for more access for more people. That’s the bargain most democracies make. 

(Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty.)

A serious, new outreach program for 2008.