Rose, tar (maybe from the hot asphalt of a highway in the Missouri sun), saddle leather…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
“Ours is not too far from the system you’d design if you wanted health care to cost as much as possible.”
and
“Some government spending gives folks stuff they want. Some government spending is worse than stealing money, throwing it in a hole and burning it. This is obvious when you think about it for a second, but it sometimes seems that partisan political discourse is based on the refusal to think about it at all.”
-From Will Wilkinson
…is the ‘pill culture’ that seems to be pervasive in high schools, colleges, and youth culture.
Five Things To Remember In The Soviet Union Ruled By Stalin
1. Do not think.
2. If you thought, do not say.
3. If you said, do not write.
4. If you wrote, do not sign.
5. If you signed, recall.
Fred Schmidt writes to justify his May 16 vote to fund surveillance cameras in downtown Columbia. And justification is sorely needed: Not only did First Ward voters choose to reject the installation of surveillance cameras, but Fred himself ran for office on an anti-camera stance.
Fred’s best argument for voting to fund the surveillance cameras is that “nothing would have been gained by a meaningless protest vote”. Perhaps in Fred’s decision calculus nothing would have been gained, but perhaps we can articulate what has been lost.
To represent others in an elected, decision-making body is a difficult task. Nevertheless, Fred could have at least forced a council debate over spending priorities. The First Ward is short a fire company and lacks a competent police force, yet Fred could have represented his constituents by representing their views in open council and initiating a debate.
Moreover, there is a matter of integrity. One should not run for elected office opposing something and flip flop on that issue at the first available opportunity. Can First Ward voters trust Fred from here on out? Will any of the promises Fred made during his campaign stick or will we find that political expediency and power politics are the most important determinants of Fred’s vote?
Only time, and your pocketbooks, will tell.
More here: http://www.keepcolumbiafree.com/blog/fred-schmidt-betrays-first-ward/
Today, I thought I’d post a poem that I keep returning to; the author is Theodore Roethke, who is perhaps my favorite American poet.
In a dark time
In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood–
A lord of nature weeping to a tree,
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
What’s madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,
That place among the rocks–is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.
A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is–
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.
Dark,dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.v
Yesterday, the Hawaiian Star-Advertiser published the following opinion editorial, to which I respond below:
The national controversy about whether marijuana is a drug or medicine is being played out in Senate Bill 1458, which proposes a five-year pilot program to establish a marijuana dispensary based on the Colorado model.
While the bill ensures no prosecution to the licensed marijuana vendor, the operation is in direct conflict with federal law and could be shut down.
Also, there is potential for abuse, given this bill allows for not only Hawaii residents but tourists to use the dispensary.
Colorado law enforcement reports the lack of controls, increased crime and violence and the lowered quality of life in neighborhoods with dispensaries are hardly worth the projected tax revenues.
Most important, this bill sends the wrong message to our youth. It would erode prevention efforts by decreasing perception of harm and increasing access.
Alan Shinn
Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii
My response (emailed, but I do not yet know if they will publish it):
Dear Editor,
In response to Alan Shinn’s letter of April 17, 2011
The arguments Mr. Shinn raises against the adoption of a Colorado-style model for the regulation and taxation of cannabis in Hawaii are specious.
First, the argument that the proposed initiative is against federal law does not mean that the voters of Hawaii have given up their rights to self-determination. The American federal system allows for conflicts between state and federal laws to be resolved legally, though the courts, and politically, as voters across this brave land vote for different people and policies over time.
Mr. Shinn’s second point, that tourists may access Hawaiian dispensaries, is not an argument. In fact, this is a desirable feature, as tourism brings dollars and people to Hawaiian shores. In a recession economy, does Mr. Shinn want to pick jobs out of a hat instead?
Mr. Shinn’s third point is a dishonest one. Crime problems are invariably related to prohibition. Hawaii has the advantage of being geographically isolated, so Hawaiians should not have to worry about traffic between Hawaii and neighboring states.
Finally, Mr. Shinn assumes that parents should not have the freedom to raise their children as they please. Parents should have the authority to direct the education of their children insofar as health and lifestyle choices are concerned; the government has no duty in dictating what those choices may be.
Rather, it is our status as citizens that should empower us to dictate what our government should do to us. Liberty is America’s promise; it should not be our failure.
I met Mitch Richards last May speaking against the use of paramilitary policing tactics by the Columbia Police Department. The particular SWAT raid that had brought us to City Hall had happened in February, to a family who lived about 5 miles from my downtown abode; the cops had obtained a warrant based on specious paid informant testimony and gone in at night, guns blazing. They shot the dogs, manhandled the suspect, and videotaped the entire affair for training purposes.
In the crowd that came to Columbia’s City Hall that May night to protest the raid, Mitch stood out. Above the angry, sometimes incoherent clamor that night, Mitch spoke in measured, eloquent language about individual sovereignty, natural rights, and the freedoms protected for Americans by the Constitution of the United States.
In these times such a voice speaks loudly. There is great yearning in America for our lost Liberty; across the country, the political landscape is experiencing an upheaval as citizens find our political structure inapt to meet their demands. Much of this energy is unfocused. In this environment opportunists, charlatans, and fringe elements proliferate; witness the incoherence and sheer ignorance of Sarah Palin.
And the establishment is not much better. We are asked by our leaders and our governing institutions to give up many of our most basic freedoms in the name of security and liberty. Both political parties are perversely invested in the status quo; this is often reflected in the transition that happens between (relatively independent) candidate and (beholden) elected official.
American politics has been defined by powerful institutional players and vested interests for decades. In this morass one may lose one’s way and spend an eternity adrift far from the borders of hebetude. Consider Barack Obama, who ran on an anti-war ticket in 2008. Now he is President Obama. War-monger Obama.
Reasserting our stakeholder interests in American politics may be a Sisyphean task. I may be delusional for thinking that Americans can successfully challenge the political structures that seek to enslave us with debt and barter away our freedoms. But I know it is possible to try, and that there is virtue in the struggle. It is hard to remain independent, and speak truth to power about the realities of America’s governance, about the insanities of our Wars on Drugs, Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Mitch has never been afraid of confronting these realities; in his approach he represents an honesty and integrity that has been lacking in our politics since before I was born in 1984.
I look forward to tonight’s vote as Mitch seeks election to Columbia’s City Council in the First Ward. The outcome is uncertain, but I know that tonight’s election is an opening move, not the endgame.
Please visit Mitch at http://mitchrichardsforfirstward.com/
15 March 2011
Online at http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=45226.
Contact: Beth Riggert, communications counsel, Supreme Court of Missouri,
(573) 751-3676
Commission seeks applicants for Baker vacancy on Missouri Court of Appeals,
Eastern District
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Appellate Judicial Commission announced today
that it is accepting applications for vacancy on the Missouri Court of
Appeals, Eastern District, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation
of Judge Nannette A. Baker, who was appointed as a federal magistrate judge
after serving more than six years on the appeals court, including a term as
chief judge, and five years as a circuit judge on the St. Louis circuit
court.
Citizens are encouraged to nominate well-qualified candidates for the
commission’s consideration. The Missouri Constitution requires that a judge
of the Missouri Court of Appeals be at least 30 years old, licensed to
practice law in Missouri, a United States citizen for at least 15 years and
a qualified Missouri voter for at least nine years next preceding
selection, and a resident of the court of appeals district in which he or
she serves. Nominations should be submitted to the commission by e-mail at
EDjudgevacancy@courts.mo.gov or by postal mail to Eastern District Judge
Vacancy, PO Box 150, Jefferson City, MO 65102.
Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Friday, April 29, 2011.
Interested persons may download the application and instructions here:
http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=45226.
The commission will meet May 17 through 19 at the Missouri Court of
Appeals, Eastern District, in St. Louis to interview applicants and to
select a panel of three nominees for the governor’s consideration. The
interviews will be open to the public. The names of those to be interviewed
and information relating to the number and characteristics of all
applicants will be released publicly prior to the beginning of the
interviews May 17.
I’m happy to announce that over the next several months I’ll be contributing part time to The Prothro Review, a blog started by my friend Trey Prothro. My first contribution will be a post about the economics and politics of the popular comedy show The Office, which I’m pretty excited about.
I am also glad to note that I will now be contributing work on police corruption and asset forfeiture issues to Hawaii News Daily.
I was very excited to find Feathers and Light, a poetry blog by Chelsea Reynolds. Her writing is hard for me to pin down, but it is elegant and precise. I am reminded at times of poets as diverse as Paz, Plath, Sexton, Roethke, Bogan, or even Soyinka, though I have no idea if that is by intent or correspondences drawn by my own imagination. Wonderful stuff.
I was unfortunately unable to vote for former Missouri prosecutor Kenny Hulshof during his 2008 gubernatorial race. Fortunately I now have the chance to vote for Mr. Hulshof; over at The Agitator, Radley Balko has a poll up for worst prosecutor of 2010. You may recall that several of Hulshof’s murder convictions have either been overturned due to egregious prosecutorial misconduct or are likely to be overturned in the future.
From the NYT:
Earlier, he had held up a warning: a local village chief who had squandered a $120,000 windfall.
A short drive away, Hamon Matipe, the septuagenarian chief of Kili, confirmed that he had received that sum four months earlier. In details corroborated by the local authorities, Mr. Matipe explained that the provincial government had paid him for village land alongside the Southern Highlands’ one major road, where the government planned to build a police barracks.
His face adorned with red and white paint, a pair of industrial safety glasses perched incongruously on a head ornament from which large leaves stuck out, Mr. Matipe said he had given most of the money to his 10 wives. But he had used about $20,000 to buy 48 pigs, which he used as a dowry to obtain a 15-year-old bride from a faraway village, paying well above the going rate of 30 pigs. He and some 30 village men then celebrated by buying 15 cases of beer, costing about $800.
“All the money is now gone,” Mr. Matipe said. “But I’m very happy about the company, ExxonMobil. Before, I had nothing. But because of the money, I was able to buy pigs and get married again.”
This past month I spoke to the Boone County Pachyderms, the local Republican organization, on the anti-taser ballot initiative facing Columbia voters, in a forum with Dwayne Carey, the Boone County Sheriff. Here are a few thoughts.
The “ban tasers in Columbia” ballot initiative was brought forth after the Columbia Police Department was involved in a series of highly publicized Taserings that resulted in lawsuits against the city and significant public outcry. Moreover, Columbia Police Department has been involved in numerous instances of civil rights violations and tends to deny wrongdoing in almost every instance where a complaint is lodged. There is a basic lack of respect for citizens by the police of Columbia, Missouri, and it shows in some rather ugly ways.
I don’t agree with the entirety of the “ban taser” ordinance. I think the ordinance is unconstitutionally overbroad in banning defensive civilian use of Tasers, and I think that the real problem with Tasers in Columbia is that we have a bad police force, not because the Taser is a bad tool.
I do think that Tasers represent unpredictable force, because you can’t predict how different people will react to being Tasered, and you risk killing someone who has an unobservable heart defect or other health problem. Generally speaking, I think this means that Tasers are inappropriate for disciplinary uses, and represent excessive force in those scenarios. So while I don’t think law enforcement shouldn’t have Tasers, I do think that the Taser is a tool for very specific defensive situations, and you should never let someone who is poorly trained use a Taser in an official capacity.
The discussion in front of the Pachyderms crystallized around those two contentions. Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey was polite and well-reasoned in his discussion. Carey noted that his department has had Tasers for far longer than Columbia Police Dept; Boone County got Tasers in 2002 and CPD got Tasers in 2008. BCSD uses Tasers infrequently, and it appears in far more appropriate situations than CPD does. If one uses the simple metric of lawsuits per Taser usage, this is a defensible claim; I am unaware of any complaint or lawsuit filed against BCSD for Taser usages, whereas CPD has managed to generate several million dollars worth of lawsuits over the last 3 years (that taxpayers end up on the hook for).
The reporter from the Columbia Tribune posted this comment to his blog regarding the story:
Dan’s comment: I thought this was a perfectly fair story. The Sheriff on the one hand defending the use of Tasers by law enforcement, and the opponent, who is adamantly opposed to the CPD having Tasers, although he’s OK with the Sheriff’s Dept. having them. I caught a lot of guff from the CPD for using him as a source because of his obvious bias, but the guy spoke in a public forum, and was invited to do so by the Pachyderm Club. I had to cover his comments, and I had to ask him questions afterward. It was my job and my assignment. CPD didn’t see it that way. The Sheriff, by the way, thought my story was fair and accurate. – Dan
And of course this comment captures everything that I am saying about CPD perfectly. Of course I have a bias. But CPD won’t elaborate on what that bias is (I believe in the rights of individuals to be free from torture and police brutality). Nor are they making the argument that I am wrong or providing any warrant for why my comments are unfair. But when you have Eric Dearmont or the other hacks from the Columbia Police Officers Association commenting on any allegations against CPD, you have to understand that their first allegiance is to their paychecks and pensions, not justice or public service.
PS. I should thank Mike Zweifel and Tom Seagraves for their gracious invitation to speak to the Boone County Republicans and their commitment to open and vibrant debate.
Ducks and Economics 