Tragedy at Tennessee Auto Show

Via MSNBC - Witnesses question drag racer's stunt

One day after a drag-racing car careened into a crowd and killed six people, witnesses questioned why the driver was allowed to speed down a multilane highway with no guard rails, lined on both sides by hundreds of spectators.

[. . .]

The crash happened Saturday during an “exhibition burnout” — when a drag racer spins his tires to make them heat up and smoke — at the Cars for Kids charity event in Selmer, located about 80 miles east of Memphis.

[. . .]

Authorities identified the driver as pro drag racer Troy Warren Critchley, an Australian who is now based in Wylie, Texas. He suffered minor injuries and was taken by car to a nearby hospital for treatment, authorities said.

There were no criminal charges against Critchley, Browning said.

It was certainly a tragic accident, but it is important to realize that it was an accident. It is easy to look back and cast blame. It probably was not wise to have spectators so close to the show and unprotected, but there is little doubt that Critchley would have avoided the accident if at all possible. The article notes these technical details:

The AMS Pro Modified Series, which sponsors professional drag races, issued a news release saying the driver, a veteran of more than 20 years in drag racing, was performing a burnout when road conditions caused the car to go out of control.

[. . .]

“There’s a button inside the car that you hold down, and it holds the front tires down during a burnout,” said Griffin, 19. “If the throttle gets hung, or if your foot gets caught, then you’ll take off and you wouldn’t be able to stop."

We may never know for sure what caused the accident, but it is best to withhold final judgment until all the facts are in.

Mickey D's goes Angus

CNN Money reports - McDonald's tests a bigger burger, report says

Fast-food chain trying out a high-end, one-third of a pound Angus beef burger priced at $3.99, according to newspaper.

[. . .]

The Chicago Tribune said the new Third Pounder is currently available only in about 600 restaurant locations in Southern California. At one-third of a pound, the burger is the biggest on the McDonald's (Charts) menu at outlets where it is being tested.

[. . .]

Only the double Quarter Pounder with cheese compares to the calorie count of the new burgers. The Angus Third Pounder ranges from 720 calories to 860 calories, while the double Quarter Pounder contains 740 calories. McDonald's signature sandwich, the Big Mac, is 540 calories, the report said.

Angus burgers really don't do anything for me personally. I'm really just not that fond of Angus beef. And really, the only reason it merits a blog post is to ask this question:
Wouldn't a double Quarter Pounder be a half pound of meat (precooked weight, I'm sure), at least in theory? Isn't a half pound larger than a third of a pound? So how is this new burger the biggest on the menu? If there are flaws in my logic, feel free to point them out.

I'm glad to hear it

CNN - Companies to pull ads from Coulter's Web site

At least three major companies want their ads pulled from Ann Coulter's Web site, following customer complaints about the right-wing commentator referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot."

I'm glad to hear that her bigotry is costing her financially. That's the only thing has any chance of affecting her. I'm sure she won't change, because she's made a career out of acting that way and there are plenty of people out that want to hear her brand hate-based propaganda.

I did like the fact that the article credited a blogger with the withdrawal of the ads:

A diarist at the liberal blog DailyKos.com posted contact information for dozens of companies with ads on Coulter's site after the commentator made her remarks about Edwards at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday. (Full story)

"One of the best ways to communicate one's distaste for Coulter's repeated incidents of hate speech is to respectfully but firmly let her advertisers know you are deeply troubled by their indirect support of bigotry through their advertising on Coulter's Web site," the blogger VolvoDrivingLiberal wrote on DailyKos.com on Sunday.

Keep up the good work VolvoDrivingLiberal!

Property Rights and Murder

CNN - Jury takes just an hour to return death verdict

Bixby and his parents were upset that the state wanted a 20-foot strip of land near their home to widen a highway. Authorities said he and his father, who also is charged with murder, threatened to attack any officer who set foot on their property.

Wilson was shot on Dec. 8, 2003, while standing on the front porch of Bixby's parents' home. Authorities say Ouzts, who arrived to check on Wilson once radio contact with the officer was lost, was shot as he stepped out of his patrol car.

Now I know that John Locke argued that property rights were at the very center of the formation of society and what it stands for and all that, but this is ridiculous. I can't see how 20 feet of land is worth 2 lives.

I know that property issues can cause a lot of hard feelings. My dad got in a property dispute with one of his neighbors way back before I can even really remember and I think he still hates the man to this day.

Not so easy after all

Apparently things aren't so easy in the Big Easy these days. NYT - In Setback for New Orleans, Fed-Up Residents Give Up

After nearly a decade in the city of their dreams, Kasandra Larsen and her fiancé, Dylan Langlois, climbed into a rented moving truck on Marais Street last Sunday, pointed it toward New Hampshire, and said goodbye.

Not because of some great betrayal — they had, after all, come back after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina — but a series of escalating indignities: the attempted carjacking of a pregnant friend; the announced move to Nashville by Ms. Larsen’s employer; the human feces deposited on their roof by, they suspect, the contractors next door; the two burglaries in the space of a week; and, not least, the overnight wait for the police to respond.

The story does make it sound like things are pretty rough down there. The article also points out that a lot of the people leaving are well educated, higher paid citizen, while the recent influx is from a poorer demographic. Not exactly a recipe for success. I'm sure it will take many years (decades?) for the city to fully recover from the devastation it received from Katrina, but barring another complete flooding of the area, I'm sure it will eventually claw its way back. Southerners don't give up too easily. And of course there is always the irrational attachment factor

Ms. Brite said, “If a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don’t desert it just because it can kill you. There are some things more valuable than life.”

A New Dollar Coin Series

CNN Money - Presidential dollar coin on the way

Hoping to replicate the success of the state-quarter program, the U.S. Mint tries again to make the dollar-coin work.

The U.S. Mint will issue a dollar coin featuring the likeness of George Washington this Thursday, the first in the series of presidential coin dollars.

I'm not sure that Presidential coins will have the draw that state quarters have had. It seems to me that many people that aren't normally coin collects are likely to collect quarters that represent their home state or states where they have lived, etc. But no one really has a "home president," do they? I'm not saying it won't work at all, just that I don't think it will meet with equivalent demand.

Plus, I think, the fact that it is a dollar, not a quarter will factor in as well, for this reason:

The coins, which will be the size, weight and metal composition of the Sacagawea $1 coin will feature the portraits of U.S. presidents in the order they served.

I know that I personally don't like the fact that the current dollar coin is too close in size to the quarter. People want money that is easily distinguishable so that we don't have to think too hard when we pay for things. And nobody wants to accidentally give someone a dollar when they mean to only give them a quarter.

There were some things about the coin series that I found particularly interesting:

Gerald Ford is currently the last president on the release schedule. Under the Presidential Coin Act of 2005, none of the coins will bear the image of any living former or current President. Coins of deceased former presidents won't be made until two years following the date of death.

I assume he is the last because, although Reagan is dead, Carter, who served before him, is not. And if you are going to go in order, you can't have Reagan without Carter. And there was also this fact:

Each president will be honored with only one coin regardless of the number of consecutive terms they served. President Grover Cleveland, who served two non-consecutive terms, will be featured on two coins.

Again, if you are going to do it in order, Cleveland has to get two.

The final interesting fact in the article is this:

The Mint says that the coins are not meant to be a replacement of paper dollar bills. But there is a cost difference between paper and coin dollars, which can last longer in circulation.

A 2002 Government Accounting Office report released in 2002 concluded that if dollar coins replaced the paper dollar, the government would save $500 million annually.

My question is, why the heck not? If it would save $500 million annually, why not get rid of the paper dollar? Is the paper dollar really that important?

Live fast and die young

As everyone undoubtedly already knows, Anna Nicole Smith died today. She went to all that trouble to get money and now what good is it to her? Money can buy a lot of things, but can't make you live any longer apparently. And speaking of money, CNN Money notes that Smith's death's could spell the end of the TrimSpa company that she advertised for.

He's got Hogwarts on his Voldemort

CNN - 'Potter' star Radcliffe stirs storm with naked pics

"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe, who strips for his new role in London's West End revival of the play "Equus," has ignited a bit of a media firestorm by posing for racy promotional photos for the production.

The Tony-Award-winning drama tells the story of a stable-hand who has an erotic fixation with horses. In one photo, Radcliffe, 17, dares to bare it all alongside a white horse; in another, he is pictured with a naked Joanna Christie, the actress who portrays his girlfriend.

[. . .]

Part of me wants to shake up people's perception of me, just shove me in a blender," Radcliffe said in a recent interview with Newsweek magazine.

"It's a really challenging play, and if I can pull it off -- we don't know if I can yet -- I hope people will stop and think, 'Maybe he can do something other than Harry,' " he said.

I know it is always challenging for young actors to break out of the "child star" mold. It can also be difficult for actors who are closely associated with a character with a cult following to lose that image. It is a fine line though. One doesn't want to end up a major joke like Britney Spears.

Yesterday, on the John Boy and Billy radio show they made a joke about Daniel Radcliffe and his promotional photos for the play. That is where the post's title comes from.

Record losses for Ford

BBC - Ford hit by record $12.7bn loss

Ford has reported a loss of $12.7bn (£6.5bn) for 2006 - the biggest annual loss in the embattled US carmaker's 103-year history.

A slump in sales, combined with major restructuring costs, saw the firm lose $5.8bn in the final three months of the year alone.

The iconic US carmaker has been struggling in the face of competition from Japanese rivals such as Toyota.

Ford has plans to close 16 factories in North America and cut 45,000 jobs.

The company, which is currently the second-biggest carmaker in the US, may be overtaken by Toyota in its domestic market later this year, reports have suggested.

I saw this story the other day and never commented on it. Every time I have heard a Ford truck commercial since then I've thought about this article. The commercials say "the best selling truck in America" and I think, "maybe you should stick to selling trucks, then."

Every time the commercials say "Built Ford tough" I think, "well that's just redundant, now isn't it?" Why is it necessary to say a Ford is built as tough as a Ford? Ah well, I'm obviously not the target demographic for those commercials anyway.

An interesting timepiece

CNN - 'Doomsday Clock' moved forward

The world has nudged closer to a nuclear apocalypse and environmental disaster, a trans-Atlantic group of prominent scientists warned Wednesday, pushing the hand of its symbolic Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight.

It was the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward, this time from 11:53 to 11:55, amid fears over what the scientists are describing as "a second nuclear age" prompted largely by atomic standoffs with Iran and North Korea.

It is all very dramatic indeed, but I doubt that we are seriously that much closer to atomic holocaust than we were yesterday. Now I will grant that I am no nuclear physicist, but I am a political scientist. Just because Iran wants to get nuclear weapons, it doesn't mean they will succeed, nor does it mean they would be any more willing to use them than anyone else who already has them. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see nuclear weapons go away, but until the big boys are willing to get rid of them, the little boys are going to want to get them too.

The article also notes some other instances when the hands of the clock have moved.

Since it was set to seven minutes to midnight in 1947, the hand has been moved 18 times, including Wednesday's move.

It came closest to midnight -- just two minutes away -- in 1953, following the successful test of a hydrogen bomb by the United States. It has been as far away as 17 minutes, set there in 1991 following the demise of the Soviet Union.

The Passive Personality Principle

BBC News - Spain seeks US soldiers' arrest

Spain has issued an international arrest warrant for three US soldiers accused of causing the death of a TV cameraman during the Iraq war.

Jose Couso, 37, died in April 2003 after a US tank fired on a hotel used by foreign journalists in Baghdad.

The US has admitted its tank crew fired at the Palestine Hotel but has cleared Sgt Thomas Gibson, Cpt Philip Wolford and Lt-Col Philip De Camp of blame.

How can they do that, you might be asking yourself. The person was killed in Iraq, how could Spain have any jurisdiction to file an arrest warrant?

Well, the answer is the Passive Personality Principle. This is one of the 5 customary practice principles of international law on jurisdiction. This principle holds that a state has jurisdiction when one of its own citizens or nationals is harmed, even if that harm happens in another country. The logic behind this principle is that states (countries) have the right to protect their citizens no matter where they go.

It is a controversial principle of international law and one that the United States strongly opposed until relatively recently. In 1985, when Palestinians hijacked the Achille Lauro and killed an American citizen, the US decided that it had the right to try the hijackers based on this principle. This does not, by any means, indicate that the US will recognize the right of the Spanish to try the American soldiers. They undoubtedly will not. However, the Spanish are well within their rights to try.

Sleuthing out trouble

Washington Post - Amateur Sleuthing Lands Grisham in Real-Life Court

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled yesterday that John Grisham must face a jury for his actions in a real-life whodunit.

From what I can gather from the article, John Grisham, best-selling author and lawyer, decided to try to find out who was sending anonymous letters to his friend's wife. In so doing, he used his position on the board of trustees of his son's school to obtain confidential information from school records. He then used that information against a person who later proved to be innocent.

Both sides agree that Grisham and Alan Swanson then obtained enrollment and medical release forms from the school filled out by Almy and stamped "strictly confidential." They provided the forms to the handwriting expert, who issued a report saying the letters "possibly" were written by Almy, the lawsuit states.
. . .
The lawsuit says that Almy provided handwriting samples to another examiner, who cleared her, and that she passed a polygraph test.

I personally think that he should be called out for that type of behavior. First, he's a lawyer so he should know the law. If it was illegal, he should have known it. Second, just because you write novels doesn't give you the the appropriate expertise to carry out a proper investigation. I don't know what the possible consequences are, I'm sure they are relatively minor, but I think he deserves to feel some repercussions from his actions.

Just for the record, I've read some of his novels, and I wasn't overly impressed.

Reacting to the Carter book

Washington Post - Carter Center Advisers Resign Over New Book

Fourteen members of an advisory board to the Carter Center in Atlanta resigned yesterday in protest over former president Jimmy Carter's best-selling new book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that they could "no longer in good conscience continue to serve."

Obviously, if what the former President has written bothers them that much they should disassociate themselves with him.

The resignations were the latest episode in an escalating controversy over the book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," published in late November. It has been criticized within the American Jewish community as tilting sharply toward the Palestinians. Scholars have found fault with his fact-checking on small and large points. At least one former Mideast negotiator expressed outrage over what he called "misrepresented" history.

I haven't read the book, so I can't actually speak to its bias or lack thereof, or its accuracy. However, I have two things on this point.

1) Many people have the tendency to assume that something that is not biased in their favor is biased against them, even when it is an honest attempt at a fair, unbiased appraisal of the situation.

2) I will say, as a trained historian, that history is often misrepresented by those who record it. The winners tend to write history and they like to portray it in the way that makes them look the best. This is nothing new. I'm not saying it is right, but it is a fact of life.

The deciding factor for board member Steve Berman, he said yesterday, was a passage on Page 213 that he quoted easily from memory: It was imperative, Carter wrote, that Arabs and Palestinians "make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals" of an internationally proposed peace accord "are accepted by Israel."

"What does that say to you?" asked Berman, a commercial real estate developer in Atlanta. "It says they can stop when they get their state. He's condoning terror as a means of obtaining the objective of a Palestinian state."

I'll answer Berman's question, it doesn't say to me what it obviously says to you. It says to me that the Palestinians need to make it clear that they intend to stop when they get their state. That does not mean that they have a free pass to continue bombing until they get their state or that Carter is suggesting that they should continue until they get their state. However, many believe that they won't stop even once they get a state. This is important. Many believe that the Palestinians want the state of Israel gone and that they won't stop until it is. And my understanding is that many do feel that way. It is one of Hezbollah's stated goals. However, I think that Pres. Carter is trying to convey the idea that if Palestine wants to succeed in its goal of achieving statehood, it needs to make it clear that getting rid of Israel is not its ultimate goal.

Now, as I said before, I have not read the book and I am not defending the book, per se. I can only comment on the article and the quote that Berman offers. He asked "what does that say to you" and I simply offer my opinion.

Raising Minimum Wage?

Via WaPo: House Passes Increase in Minimum Wage to $7.25

The House yesterday overwhelmingly approved the first increase in the federal minimum wage in nearly a decade, boosting the wages of the lowest-paid American workers from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years.

The 315 to 116 vote could begin the process of ending Congress's longest stretch without a minimum-wage increase since the mandatory minimum was created in 1938. In the past decade, inflation has depleted the value of the minimum wage to the lowest level in more than 50 years.

Not everyone is happy with the idea.

Republican leaders, backed by small-business lobbyists and restaurant groups, argued fiercely that raising the minimum wage would cripple the economy and must be accompanied by significant tax cuts for small businesses to lessen the effect on them. Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) predicted that a wage increase "will leave recent economic growth dead in its tracks."

There is, however, reason to believe the nay-sayers are wrong. A related article in the New York Times, For $7.93 an Hour, It’s Worth a Trip Across a State Line, suggests:

Nearly a decade ago, when voters in Washington approved a measure that would give the state’s lowest-paid workers a raise nearly every year, many business leaders predicted that small towns on this side of the state line would suffer.

But instead of shriveling up, small-business owners in Washington say they have prospered far beyond their expectations. In fact, as a significant increase in the national minimum wage heads toward law, businesses here at the dividing line between two economies — a real-life laboratory for the debate — have found that raising prices to compensate for higher wages does not necessarily lead to losses in jobs and profits.

I think a minimum wage increase is a good thing. The more money that workers at the lower end of the pay spectrum earn, the more they are going to spend. That is a good thing, isn't it?

Healthcare for all in California?

NYT - California Plan for Health Care Would Cover All

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed extending health care coverage to all of California’s 36 million residents as part of a sweeping package of changes to the state’s huge, troubled health care system.
. . .
Under Mr. Schwarzenegger’s plan, which requires the approval of the Legislature, California would become the fourth and by far the largest state to attempt near universal health coverage for its citizens. The other three states are Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont.

This seems like an odd move for a Republican governor. Now universal health care could mesh with Republican interests if it took the burden of providing health care off of employers, but this is not what Schwarzenegger's plan does.

The plan, which Mr. Schwarzenegger estimated would cost $12 billion, calls for many employers that do not offer health insurance to contribute to a fund that would help pay for coverage of the working uninsured. It would also require doctors to pay 2 percent and hospitals 4 percent of their revenues to help cover higher reimbursements for those who treat patients enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.

This does not sound like a Republican plan. And the article points out that Republicans in the California legislature are not pleased with the idea.

Mr. Schwarzenegger’s plan includes elements that quickly provoked opposition from many powerful interests, including doctors and the governor’s Republican colleagues in the Legislature.

What this says to me is that Democrats and Republican are not necessarily as diametrically opposed on all issues as some people like to think. A Democratic in one part of the country is not necessarily the same a Democratic in another part of the country, and the same is true of Republicans. (Or I guess it could say that Arnold is really a closet Democrat and Maria is rubbing off on him. )

The article also suggests that this move could put health care firmly in the 2008 Presidential debate. I hope it does. In 2008 we need to remember that while the war in Iraq is important, we still have a country here at home and what happens here matters too. There is more than one type of security to be had in the world. It is true that no one wants another 9-11 to happen, but no one wants to see their children or their other loved-ones sick and not be able to afford medical care. Health care matters. Domestic social issues matter. I hope we all can remember that, Democrats and Republicans alike.

NNSA Administrator fired

NYT - Administrator Is Dismissed From Nuclear Security Post

The Energy Secretary fired the head of the department’s nuclear weapons program on Thursday, citing a series of security failures at national laboratories, including the discovery of a computer device containing thousands of classified documents in the home of a former worker during a drug raid by the police.

The official who was dismissed, Linton F. Brooks, had been administrator of the National Nuclear Security Agency since May 2003. The agency was established in 2000 because of chronic security problems in the weapons program.
. . .
Describing the gaps revealed by the drug raid, in New Mexico, the new report on the Los Alamos laboratory, a center for nuclear weapons research, concluded, “In a number of key areas, security policy was nonexistent, applied inconsistently, or not followed.”

Obviously, security in our nuclear weapons agency should be a very high priority. We worry that if Iran got nukes they would leak info out to others, but I think we need to get the log out of our own eye first.

Will this move fix the problem? Probably not:

Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement on Thursday evening, “While it may be appropriate to begin to address the incessant string of security, safety and management lapses at Department of Energy nuclear weapons facilities with the removal of high-level managers, I am afraid that it will take more than a new boss to fix the problems, which are far more systemic and pervasive in nature.”

It is easy to change management, it is much more difficult to fix problems. With this, as with the Iraq issue and the intelligence community issues, more than just a cosmetic change is needed. However, when problematic behaviors become ingrained over time, change can be next to impossible to achieve. Firing Brooks may be necessary and a step in the right direction, I don't know, but certainly more needs to come with it.

Saddam Executed

As we all should know, Saddam was executed last night (or this morning, the time difference still confuses me). I thought about blogging about it last night, but I really didn't have anything to say about it. But after what I over heard today, I do.

I was in Wal-mart today and I was walking through the fabric department. I overheard the woman who cuts the fabric talking to a customer about the people who had died in the last few days. I hear her say James Brown and Gerald Ford and then she says another name, which neither I nor the lady she was actually talking to caught. The other lady asks her to repeat the last name and she says "Osama Bin Laden". The other lady then says "Oh yeah" as if she now knows exactly what she's talking about. Now either I missed something REALLY HUGE while I was away or they both meant Saddam Hussein. It was a temptation to correct them, but I just walked away.

I have to wonder if she really didn't know the difference or if the names just got confused in her mind. I've seen that sort of thing happen before, where a person says one name when they mean another and everyone seems to know who they mean and not really realize that they've misspoken. But it seems just as likely in this case that neither one really knew what they were talking about. If so, that's really pretty sad. Let's hope that one misspoke and the other was just being polite.

Judith Regan FIRED!

Via MSNBC - O.J.’s would-be publisher Regan fired: Former insdustry force sacked in wake of canceled ‘If I Did It’ book

O.J. Simpson’s would-be publisher, Judith Regan, was fired Friday, her sensational, scandalous tenure at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. ending with the tersest of announcements.

“Judith Regan’s employment with HarperCollins has been terminated effective immediately,” HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman said in a statement.

I know she expected the O.J. book to be a big deal, but I'm quite sure this is not what she had in mind.

Prenatal programming or just a bad example?

MSNBC - Future smokers may be programmed in womb

Future smokers may be programmed in the womb to take up the habit later in life, research published on Tuesday said.

Scientists in Australia have discovered that children of women who smoked during pregnancy were more likely to become smokers than other youngsters.

They suggest nicotine from cigarettes passes through the placenta and may act directly on the developing brain of the unborn child.

. . .

The researchers studied the smoking patterns of more than 3,000 mothers and their children who took part in a long-term study in Brisbane, Australia.

Children of the 1,000 women who had smoked during pregnancy were three times more likely to start smoking by the age of 14 and twice as likely afterwards compared to other children.

I really feel like this report is missing some vital information. What is the nature of the "other youngsters"? Are these other children ones whose mothers smoke now but did not smoke while pregnant? What about if the father smokes and the mother is exposed to second-hand smoke while pregnant, but does not personally smoke? What if she only smokes in the first few weeks of pregnancy, but stops as soon as she finds out she is pregnant?

It seems fair to me to think that if a woman smokes while she is pregnant, she is likely to continue to smoke after the child is born. If these are the only cases that were tested against the children of women who were never smokers, it seems hard to defend the idea that it is "preprogrammed in the womb" and not just picking up the habits of the parent.

I have never been a smoker. However, when I was pregnant with my middle child (now 15 years old) I was around second-hand smoke a lot. That's why I would be interested in knowing the real results of such a survey that was really scientific and had appropriate control groups.

Again I say, more information in the report would have been helpful.

It was all a hoax - I'm not surprised

Lurid details part of Karr's hoax - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com
I never actually blogged about the arrest or the confession (although I did comment on it over at Poliblog), but I never really believed it was true. When I first heard that someone was going to be arrested I didn't believe it was the real killer and then as the details surfaced I doubted it even more. I agree that it is possible that he has been in contact with the real killer, but I don't think it is an absolute given that he has. However, if he is fantasizing about this type of behavior, something should be done about him. I'm glad to hear that he still faces charges and is not just being released to go on his merry way.