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Prediction
Bush will nominate Janice Rogers Brown to take over the Sandra Day O’Connor slot. Three names must replace 3 names. Also she’s a black woman, and pleasantly libertarian as well.
You heard it here first. I also think she will be announced right after Roberts is confirmed.
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A pleasant surprise
For no particular reason I happened upon on the Tracy Chapman on the Tavis Smiley Show. I barely remember any of her songs, but I recall not liking any of them in particular (too earnest). So I was pleasantly surprised by her performance on the TS show. It was polished, refined and overall a very fine performance.
What struck me most was the difference her guitar made. I’ve been accustomed to hearing dreadnoughts for so long that the sound of a regular OM (I think) was striking, particularly since she did not belt out the song (she sang at a fairly moderate intensity). Now I really want to get an OM model as a third guitar, but I probably won’t.
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Observation about Clinton
I saw Clinton (Bill) on This Week yesterday. Stephanopolous was giving one of his usual sympathetic interview to his old boss. Clinton said nothing surprising, the only memorable quote was that “we should not allow the enterprise in Iraq to fail”.
The amazing thing though was his ability to turn every question into a discussion revolving around himself. Be it the Tsunami, Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, it all soon became “What I would do” in such and such situation. Every single topic. Amazing.
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Statement of no progress
The Erie PA pizza bomb case remains unsolved with no leads. It’s good people are still paying attention to it. My original post about it was here.
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Ouch
So, I finally fell off the bike. I forgot I was clipped in after I came to a stop and wound up jamming my arm a bit. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.
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Hookers for the handicapped
No, really it’s true. Be glad you don’t pay taxes in Denmark.
The Danish government is under attack for paying for its disabled citizens to have sex with prostitutes.
The official ‘Sex, irrespective of disability’ campaign pays sex workers to provide sex once a month for disabled people.
The legal guidelines advise: “It could be of great importance that the carer speaks to the prostitute together with the person in their care, to help them express their wishes.”
Via the Kaus of Slate
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Well put
From Reason’s interview with NYT columnist John Tierney
I find it ironic that after half a century of the golden age of urban planning, people all want to live in neighborhoods that were built before thenÂthat the planners are now trying to recreate. They were built by private developers and private streetcar companies, and the market guided it. I’ve heard it argued that urban planning is one area where the market really doesn’t work that well, that you find in great cities that there was a lot of central planning of the street grids. I’d like to know more. You obviously need someone to set some rules, but I still tend to think that the really successful cities and neighborhoods are the ones where there’s a lot of trial and error, people trying things on their own.
Which brings to mind the programming definition of creationism
The (false) belief that large, innovative software designs can be completely specified in advance and then painlessly magicked out of the void by the normal efforts of a team of normally talented programmers. In fact, experience has shown repeatedly that good designs arise only from evolutionary, exploratory interaction between one (or at most a small handful of) exceptionally able designer(s) and an active user population — and that the first try at a big new idea is always wrong.
It’s annoying that the current design v evolution debate consists of spastic posturing, it’s really an interesting topic.
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Thursday rapid fire
- Bush Urges End of Trade Tariffs, Subsidies – this would actually be a legacy worth remembering, and probably the first “Conservative” thing he’s done (with the exception of the tax cuts) since becoming president.
- You Don’t Save What You Don’t Own – a nice summation of the bus thing in NOLA
- Trial Of The Century: Keillor V. MNspeak.com – Someone else approximately shares my feelings about Garrison Keilor
- Via the Agitator
From Colby Cosh…if I can’t have a libertarian paradise where state power defers to social power, or use recent events to urge others to the wisdom of such a state of affairs, I’m willing to propose a second-best for America: replace the three branches of republican government with permanent joint rule by Wal-Mart and the Salvation Army. Go on, tell me you could honestly do worse.
- I can’t find a link to this anywhere, but Commie-Rocker Steve Earle sold one of his songs to be used in a truck commercial. It was quite the talk of the DBT email list (which I still read periodically)
- Since we don’t hear anything about hurricane relief in Alabama and Mississippi can we assume that state and local government did their jobs there?
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Katrina satellite photos
Google Maps has satellite photos of New Orleans from Aug 31 of this year.
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Vile
Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home
This same guy is under investigation by the FBI as well. The shamelessness of some people is without peer. Makes you wonder how much of the upcoming billions of dollars to be spent on relief is going to swallowed in outright fraud. 30% is always a safe assumption, but in the case of NOLA you have to wonder how high that percentage is going to go.