Month: May 2010

Andrew Martin attacks ridiculous little bikes.

"In the realm of practical politics, two things must happen – both of which are likely. There must be one more General Election to disillusion Labour optimists as to the measure of their political strength, standing by themselves. But equally on our side there must be a certain change.

The Liberal Party is divided between those who, if the choice be forced upon them, would vote Conservative, and those who, in the same circumstances, would vote Labour. Historically, and on grounds of past service, each section has an equal claim to call itself Liberal. Nevertheless, I think that it would be for the health of the party if all those who believe, with Mr. Winston Churchill and Sir Alfred Mond, that the coming political struggle is best described as Capitalism versus Socialism, and, thinking in these terms, mean to die in the last ditch for Capitalism, were to leave us.

The brains and character of the Conservative Party have always been recruited from the Liberals, and we must not grudge them the excellent material with which, in accordance with our historic mission, we are now preserving them from intellectual starvation. It is much better that the Conservative Party should be run by honest and intelligent ex-Liberals, who have grown too old and tough for us, than by Die-Hards. Possibly the Liberal Party cannot serve the State in any better way than by supplying Conservative Governments with Cabinets, and Labour Governments with ideas," – J.M. Keynes, in a speech given to the Manchester Reform Club in February 1926.

Behold.

The Jon Stewart generation?

A reader writes:

Your reader commented, "If there are other documented examples of this kind of behavior, they need to be compiled into a single place so we can get a handle on exactly what kind of society we are running here." There is; Radley Balko has compiled a map of botched paramilitary police raids at Cato.org. I think at this point the map might be outdated (the last year available to search is 2008), but it gives you a good idea of how often this occurs in the US. Balko has done extensive work on this subject. I suggest you point your readers to his 2006 paper on the rise of military tactics in fighting the drug war.

Another writes:

Balko's been regularly posting stories of what he calls "puppycide" for a couple of years now.  A search of the term yields 130 results.

Another:

Just wanted to bring to your attention a couple of news articles published today in Columbia's local papers: "Chief details SWAT incident" and "SWAT raid prompts police review of policy".  I think what's important to take away from this is our local police department is learning from its mistakes while at the same time explaining to the public why it acted as it did.  I don't disagree that our drug laws are sorely in need of rethinking, but people have to keep in mind that at this point the laws are what they are, and it is incumbent upon our police officers to see that they are enforced. 

We are lucky here in Columbia, Missouri to have a relatively progressive police chief (on the job for a little over a year) who has been making great strides in making our police department more receptive, and in particular accountable, to the public.  If the public wants the drug laws changed, they need to appeal to the legislators who can make those changes a reality.  Our police department will address this incident professionally, changes to procedures will be made to ensure that the serving of 10-day old warrants will not happen in the future, and the law will continue to be enforced.

What I have found most troubling in the many, many comments I have read regarding this incident is the automatic presumption that our police department did everything wrong.  Heavy-handed?  Yes.  Killed an innocent dog?  Maybe, maybe not.  I know from personal experience that very dangerous and violent people abuse pit bulls and other animals in an abhorrent manner, using them as guards and warning signals to provide cover for illegal activities, and putting them in the position of meeting a violent end when the inevitable search warrant is served.  Who is the worse offender in this scenario?

 

My reader invoked the b-word earlier. We bearded folks have endured such obloquy before. This is how beards were harrassed out of fashion a century ago:

'In the British Library I read an instruction manual for a game called Beaver. The game involves two players pacing the streets, or staying put in a café/on top of a double decker bus – wherever they fancy – spotting bearded folk. The game is scored like lawn tennis, whenever one contender spots a beard they shout Beaver! 15 / love and so on. A double fault occurs when a competitor thinks he sees a bearded man from behind, but when the two come face to face the competitor finds he is mistaken.

The book is full of pictures of different types of ‘beaver’ such as the ‘half beaver’, the ‘santa beaver’, ‘mandarin beaver’ and the ‘nanny beaver,’ which falls from the middle of the chin and must be 2 inches long. Women sporting beards are Queen beavers, which “should be exclaimed sotto voce, in a whisper. The game may have begun in Oxford, in Malta or a place of unknown origin.'

This might not work quite as well in contemporary America. But if one more well-meaning female friend asks me why I'm hiding my face. I'll lose it. I was at dinner with Laura Ingraham the other night, and she recoiled as if a small animal had attached itself to my jaw-line. My mother is pretty much apoplectic about it, but mothers always are. But, hey, I'm no Darwin.

And he didn't use Just For Men, I'm guessing. I'm just not ready for the full Santa yet.

RedState's Tabitha Hale frowns at Palin's endorsement of Carly Fiorina over the "actual conservative," Chuck DeVore:

The initial reponse on Twitter and Facebook was shock from most of the [Tea Party] activists. I suppose many were convinced that Palin was still a “maverick”… which, if we’re being honest, hasn’t been true for a while. She’s becoming the establishment, for better or worse. I fail to see how endorsing Fiorina is “shaking things up”, as she states in her post.

Dan Riehl "suspect[s] she's now lost a large part of her original base." Her Facebook fans are livid.

I’ve been apart from my beagles for three weeks now, and I’m almost missing them as much as Aaron. It’s long been a staple in our little family that Dusty, while sweet under her occasionally aloof/ornery exterior, is nonetheless far more devoted to food than humans. I’ve always suspected that if she had to choose between me and a potato chip, she’d pick the potato chip. At the very murmur of food, she leaps into action. But she squirms whenever I pick her up for a hug.

Well, after three weeks, we now have an empirical test. And she passes:

After all that beard abuse, I need some cheering up.

Dante Atkins joins the endless endeavor:

Carly Fiorina has never held elected office, so she has never cast a single vote on a piece of legislation. (She hasn't spent much time voting for anything, actually.) So how could she have a 100% record on anything? In addition, a brief check of the NRA's Political Victory Fund seems to indicate that if the NRA has graded 2010 primary candidates in California, it's certainly not public yet.

Bonus paranoia points here.