Price Gouging 101

Betsy has more faith in our legislators than I do. She thinks they are ignorant.

Prices at the gas pump must be some of the hardest prices for sellers to manipulate through monopoly and gouging. They're posted in large letters right there at the pump for everyone to see. If politicians would learn some basic economics, they would stop making these wild accusations just so they can demonize someone and make political points.

I think they are sniveling, lying miscreants who will say or do anything do get reelcted. Excluding, of course, being straight with their constituents.

If they really wanted to learn, Betsy has the introductory course from Walter Williams.

Technorati Tag politicians

We Are a Nation That Has a Government

Mark Steyn writing on the tone-deaf legislators in Washington is reminded of a great line from Ronald Reagan.

''We are a nation that has a government -- not the other way around.''

He skewers the legislative disasters produced by Congress - like the oppressive Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements that are driving businesses out of the country and then produces this zinger of a comment:

I said the other day that McCain and Specter and Sarbanes and Lott and the rest were presidents-for-life of the one-party state of Incumbistan. ... Incumbistan is a government that has a nation.

Don't miss the rest.

Bad Idea

Arizonans will consider a proposition to award $1 million to one random voter after each primary and general election. I agree with John.

Maybe Fences Do Make Good Neighbors

The illegal immigrant problem in the US is coming to a head here, but it is having an impact in Mexico too.

Ah, but there are new voices of change, of reason, of self-awareness in Mexico, in place of the hoary anti-gringo rants: the beginnings of a transformation of the debate.

Read it here.

Good Advice

In the idyllic Sierra foothills, this time of year, it's good to know your snakes.

Legal System Musing

I went to court with my son this week. He was caught in a sting at his job for selling alcohol to an under aged decoy. Naturally they had to fire him and end his six-month career as a convenience store clerk. (This could lead me into a long diatribe about the law-maker's fixation on alcohol and tobacco as the twin peaks of evil in our society but that is not where I am headed today). The court scheduled his arraignment this week and my son, in his ignorance, asked his dad for advice.

I gave him suggestions based on my understanding of court processes. Dress up, admit that you did incorrectly read the ID and that you did sell alcohol to a minor, be contrite and respectful to the judge. I was hoping that for a first offence, there might be a waived or reduced fine and a stern warning about another offence. This was based upon an understanding that the job of a judge was to make a judgment. Silly me. My understanding of the court system is based on an old vision of the courts that possibly never existed.

We get to the court, pass the metal detector and take our place in the chamber. Looking around I see two other well-dressed young men sitting with a parent. The remaining people are dressed like they just rushed in from digging a cesspool. Well, I think, so much the better for my son.

Then the judge appears. He just sidles in and sits. No "ll Rise". No robe. No ceremony. I don't think we would have noticed if he didn't start talking. He begins to tell us why we are here. What to expect and what not to expect.

“You see”, he explains, -and I am paraphrasing here-"You have two choices. You can plead guilty or not-guilty. No contest has the same result as pleading guilty." Of course he is a lawyer, so it took him much longer to say. He went on for a long time about other issues related to sentences essentially saying that he might offer something special and if he did you would have to take it now. And that if you choose 'not guilty' you had better get yourself a lawyer.

Well, my son had decided that he was guilty and unless there were mitigating circumstances regarding the 'sting''there was no way he could argue not guilty. So no problem, we sit and wait for our turn.

The first person called been arraigned for the same offence as my son (or almost, she had sold tobacco to a minor but apparently that is just as evil as alcohol). She pled guilty. The judge asked it she really meant it. She repeated that she really really meant it so he sentenced her to a fine of $724 and two year's probation during which time if she broke any other laws something bad would happen.

Well, we picked up our jaws from the floor and discussed the $724 fine. How was he going to pay it now that he has lost his job. We almost missed the judge offering payment options to the woman. It seems that he would give her payments of $50 per month until it is paid. She took his offer and the clerk called the next miscreant.

She was a nicely dressed woman appearing for DUI. Same script, only her fine was $1,000. Then my son was called. Same script again. Same fine as the first woman. We picked up the paper work, left the court house and drove home.
The whole process leaves me with several thoughts, not one of which is favorable to the justice system.

First, what was the point of the judge? There was no 'judging' going on in that courtroom. Everything was black and white, yes and no. There was no reason for the judge to be present, particularly since his salary and office expenses were probably costing $150/hour or more. There was no justification for a person of any sort. The process could have been handled by a computer program or even a dumb form. There was no reason to even go to the court house.

Second, if you insist on making people appear in a courtroom, then give it some posture. Dress the judge in a robe. Have all rise when he enters the court and treat the court process as something important rather than a borinh administrative excercise

Third, what is really important here? Do we want people to respect the law and the legal processes? Or is this just another excuse to pad government revenue? What is happening to our legal system? The only experience most people I know have with the legal system is to extort money. The only time you see a cop is when he is ticketing you for a seat belt violation or other trivial nanny state offense. And when you go to court, it is just to grind you through the process and take money. It won't be long before normal citizens start resenting the money spent on law enforcement because you can't find a policeman when you actually have a crime but you know he is right there hiding behind a tree when you forget your seatbelt.


Technorati Tag judges justice

Phil Ochs Remembered

One of the reasons that I enjoy Shrinkwrapped is that we share coming of age in the seventies and the perspective it gives to understanding today. First of all, many of the leadership shared this with us although most seem not to have graduated to the real world after leaving the shelter of college. Second, he is a smart guy, trained in understanding the human mind and a clear writer.

Today he ties a recent appearance of Anthony Weiner, a congressman from Brooklyn on the O'Reilly Factor with the anti-Viet Nam War protest activists of the 60's and 70's and specifically Phil Ochs, about whom he says:

The signs of the Narcissistic egocentricity so much a part of the Baby Boomer generation were unmistakable in his music, but at the time we were relatively unaware of our provincialism, safe in our anti-War moral superiority and unconcerned about the fate of our brown brothers in Vietnam who we were all sure would be much happier with us gone and the country under the peace loving and justice committed Communists of the North.

Weiner told the nation that the "War is Over" and that in so many words we should leave now. So little has changed. Shrinkwrapped deserves a full read. Find it here.

Working with the Senate

Jay Tea thinks the Senate has it almost right.

...if this proposal is good enough for illegal aliens who broke our laws coming here, and break other laws by working under the table, why isn't it good enough for Americans like me who obey the laws and follow the rules? I'd gladly pay $2,000 a year for those kind of salary and job security guarantees. In fact, I'm already paying it.

After all, I'd hate to think that the government would engineer a situation where it's actually better to be an illegal alien than an American citizen...

No kidding!

More Here.

President Carter

Wins second book award.

....the conservative panel that annually awards the J. Gordon Coogler Award for the Worst Book of the Year has conferred the 2005 prize on Jimmy Carter. Jimmy published a book; he wins the Worst Book of the Year Award -- once again. This is not Jimmy's first Coogler. He has now won the award twice. No other literary impostor can make that claim.

To this point I have always inserted 'arguably' when I describe Jimmy as the worst President in our country's history. Now that I find others who agree, I will never qualify that statement again.

Be sure and read more about this nasty man like this:

In fact no prior president has spoken as rudely and dishonestly of his successors or of his country as has Jimmy. The acerbic Harry Truman came to loathe President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In public, however, Harry minded his tongue. Jimmy's presidential achievements were even more modest than those of Bill Clinton and of Gerald Ford, and his blunders on the domestic and foreign policy fronts are unsurpassed and possibly unsurpassable. What is more, he writes bad books.

And don't forget that son Jack is running for Senate in Nevada. We can have too much of a bad thing. And Carters are a bad thing!

Technorati Tag jimmy carter

This Isn't Funny

Neon Cruise

Mark your calendars for a once in a lifeline event. It's the third anniversary of LA Observed, the blog that keeps you up to date with LA and you can celebrate with a two-hour tour of neon masterpieces in LA after a tour of the museum. Details here.

Problem Solving

I will bet that the Senate will have trouble with this.

Finally

Mr. Wehner is deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House's Office of Strategic Initiatives. Today he writes on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and online to refute the four assertions that the fever swamp and MSM has made against President Bush.
1. The president misled Americans to convince them to go to war.
2. The Bush administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgment
3. Because weapons of mass destruction stockpiles weren't found, Saddam posed no threat.
4. Promoting democracy in the Middle East is a postwar rationalization.

If you have not read it yet, get over there now and prepare to respond to the political parrots who repeat the mantra.

And let us hope that the White House is ready to defend itself more readily in the future.

Vicente Fox to Campaign in US for Immigation Reform

The Fat Guy is not amused.

What the hell?! This is where I ask, what the freaking hell? Do I need to go down to Mexico and start fomenting political turmoil to try to get the Mexican citizenry to fix their OWN broken-ass country? I mean, that’s kind of the deal here, right? Mexico is so unfixable that their politicians are coming to America to stump for Americans to shoulder the burden of their political and economic failures that drive the ir citizens to our country.

And he has a suggestion.

Einstein Rolls Over in Grave

In the past few years, scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed limit, but now researchers at the University of Rochester have published a paper today in Science on how they've gone one step further: pushing light into reverse. As if to defy common sense, the backward-moving pulse of light travels faster than light.

But its not as bad as it seems because..

"no information is truly moving faster than light," says Boyd. The explanation is here.

Hybrid Sense

"When you have technology that costs $6,000 but the customer is willing to pay $2,000, you have a problem. We are not ready to mass-market a technology where you are losing your shirt on every car" -- Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn answering a student's question about why Nissan doesn't produce hybrid cars, quoted in Forbes.

HT OpinionJournal

Our Troubled Universities

Ward Churchill may be on the way out at Colorado but anti-semitism is way in at Irvine.

This may explain it.

Why are we having so much trouble getting our conservative policians to perform? Maybe this is it.

I'm Back

I'm a 'glass is half-full' kind of guy. I can almost always look at the long-run and believe that we are getting to a better place. Part of this is long years experience with life. I have lived through some pretty bad times - Jimmy Carter's Presidency for example and learned that the sun is still coming up each day. I have listened to various left-wing loons over those years lamenting that the end of the world as we know it is near. Paul Erlich or the Club of Rome have been regarded as serious by shallow media and an unthinking public and are now gone without ever having to say they were all wrong and apologize. So I should have been better able to put the caving of our supposed conservative leadership to the siren call of the left in perspective.

What brought me back from my funk?

First of all, I have to thank Aaron who finally drank the Kool-aid he has been warning his readers about. I have depended on Aaron to educate me about California Republicans, encourage me to get involved and not just complain and support the first Republican congressman I have had in a long time despite my concerns that he won't act on Social Security.

Up until this time, I could indulge my funk, have a good pout and count on soldiers like Aaron to fight the good fight for me. With Aaron od'ed on Kool-Aid and threatening every incumbent, I have no choice. I have to pull my own weight.
So here I am ready to put some money to good use in the elections and willing, for the first time, to invest some time as well. Times are serious. Politicians are poor implements for moving this country forward but they are what we have and like mules they can be persuaded to do what you want once you get their attention (usually with a 2X4).

And so, having a positive attitude again, and taking charge of my destiny rather than whining and waiting for someone to do it for me, I find that this country may be on the right track after all and Bush may not be finished. Now if I can just keep Aaron off the Kool-aid.

McCain on McCain

When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent, well-informed, and wiser than anyone else I knew.

and he hasn't changed.