Sunday, October 15, 2006

The Beginning of the End

On Thursday, October 12, 2006 Billy Beck posted the following statement in response to Pataki’s ramblings on MSNBC regarding the Cory Lidle airplane accident.

You watch: this will be the beginning of the end of the Hudson River VFR Corridor.

Here’s a headline from the New York Times, dated Saturday, October 14, 2006.  Small-Plane Pilots Must Ask Before Flying Up East River

It took what, all of 48 hours to for the beginning to commence?

Posted by John Venlet on 10/15 at 07:11 AM
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Tomfoolery in Voting

Of all the foolish reasons individuals base their decisions on in voting for this candidate, or that candidate, I suppose the following one is as legitimate as any of the others.

Democratic Faces That Could Launch Thousands of Votes - With a Parade of Attractive Candidates, the Party May Benefit From the Politics of Beauty

Posted by John Venlet on 10/15 at 06:59 AM
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Saturday, October 14, 2006

Expanding Thoughts on Charity

In a post earlier this morning, I noted a few words spoken by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus regarding charity.  Yunus noted that charity to the poor actually holds them down, keeping the poor, poor.

In Slate this morning, Tim Harford has a piece titled Charity Is Selfish - The economic case against philanthropy, which delves into the motivations behind charity.  From the piece.

In fact, the closer you look at charitable giving, the less charitable it appears to be. A recent experiment by John List, an economist at the University of Chicago, and a team of colleagues, showed that donations are less than magnanimous after all. Using controlled trials to compare different methods of door-to-door fund-raising, professor List’s team discovered that it was much more effective to raise funds by selling lottery tickets than it was to raise funds by asking for money. This hardly suggests a world populated by altruists seeking to do the maximum good with their charitable cash.

If you consider Yunus’ approach, and thoughts, on eliminating poverty, and compare it to some of the thoughts and data in Harford’s piece, you’ll note strong correllaries as to why microfinancing trumps charity.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/14 at 07:03 AM
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Breaking Laws

Bryan Caplan, at EconLog, asks What Do You Want to Be Free to Choose? Jonathan Pearce, at Samizdata phrases the question in this manner, Which law would you like to break?

Read the comments at both of those posts, and see what state mandated laws individuals are “wishing” they could break.

If you cannot decide which law you would like to break, here’s a handy list of possibilities, via No Treason’s Dick Freely, titled Do Something. I went through the comments, and the Freely list, and tallied up at least a half-a-dozen that I break consistently.  So stop wishing, and “Do Something.”

UPDATE: At Catallarchy, Scott Scheule also notes Caplan’s question, referenced above, complete with comments.  Scheule’s post is titled Very Bad Things.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/14 at 06:06 AM
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Nobel Peace Prize Recipient's Wisdom

Muhammad Yunus on lending money to the poor, rather then providing a handout.

"Charity is not the answer to poverty,” Yunus wrote earlier this year. “It only helps poverty to continue. It creates dependency and takes away the individual’s initiative to break through the wall of poverty."

From the Chicago Tribune’s article noting Yunus’ award of the Nobel Peace Prize titled Richly deserved prize for banker to the poor

Posted by John Venlet on 10/14 at 05:58 AM
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Friday, October 13, 2006

Microfinancing Leads to Nobel Peace Prize

I first mentioned microfinancing in July 2003, in a blog post titled Without the State, But Not For Long. In that post, I noted that the New York Times was banging the drum for more state control of those institutions and individuals who put up monies to lend to the poorest of the poor, rather than recognizing the benefit such programs offer without the state sticking its nose into the equation.

Today, I read that Muhammad Yunus and the Bangledesh Grameen Bank have been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for spearheading microfinancing.

In the article reporting this development, it is interesting to note the reasoning for the Nobel committee’s awarding of this prize.

"Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development,” the secretive five-member committee said in announcing the award.

Did you catch the importance of the words in that statement?  "Across cultures and civilizations...” “...even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development,..."

It’s not the nanny state, and its constant intervention, that brings about individual and societal development, it is capitalism, the free exchange of goods and services between business owners and individuals.

Even those who are held out to us as the “poorest of the poor” can raise themselves up if given the opportunity to create a viable business, via microfinancing loans, rather than simply receiving handouts from the state, along with a sympathetic pat on the head.

UPDATE: The New York Times piece, written by Celia W. Dugger, which notes Muhammad Yunus’ capture of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a bit more positive than the piece they wrote on microfinancing in July 2003.  The piece is titled Peace Prize to Pioneer of Loans to Poor No Bank Would Touch. The NYT’s piece from July 2003 can be read here.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/13 at 06:48 AM
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Objection, Your Honor, Hearsay

The torture and gratuitous physical abuse of prisoners is simply wrong.  It matters not whether the prisoners are held in Gitmo, as possible terrorism suspects, or in America’s prisons as common, run of the mill, criminals.

With that said, I note that Andrew Sullivan has a post up titled The Abuse Continues, which links to an ABC News report, posted at The Blotter, which brings us the news that Marine Sergeant Heather Cerveny has submitted a “sworn affidavit” which alleges the following,

In a sworn affidavit filed with the Pentagon Inspector General, Sgt. Cerveny says she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse.

Let’s review some of Sergeant Cerveny’s statements, which I would assume appear in the affidavit.

"One sailor specifically said, ‘I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door,’” Sgt. Cerveny tells ABC News in an exclusive interview…

One of the guards “was telling his buddy, ‘Yeah, this one detainee, you know, really pissed me off, irritated me.  So I just, you know, punched him in the face.’"

So, over drinks, at the club, Sergeant Cerveny overhears a few sailors exercising braggadocio and, allegedly, we have a new crisis of abuse at Gitmo.

Unless the statements reported in Sergeant Cerveny’s affidavit were addressed specifically to her, the affidavit is mere hearsay.

Exclusive: Marine Sergeant Comes Forward to Report Abuse at Guantanamo Bay

Posted by John Venlet on 10/13 at 05:27 AM
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End Times

It’s not unusual for some religious crack pot, say like Pat Robertson, to proclaim this government’s action, or that government’s action, is heralding the second coming of Christ, but, this is a new one on me.

K.A. Paul railed against the war in Iraq on Sunday before a crowd of 1,000 at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, his first stop on what he hopes is a 30-city campaign.

The Houston-based preacher said he believes that the Bush administration has delayed the second coming because U.S. foreign policy has blocked Christian missionaries from working in Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Preacher says GOP delaying 2nd coming

Via the Opinion Journal’s Taste page.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/13 at 04:59 AM
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Comb Terrorism

In the quest to root out dangerous weapons, what ever they may be, Dayton, Ohio’s Wilbur Wright Middle School is leading the way.

A girl was suspended from a Dayton school after she brought a double fish tail comb to school.

Take a look at the double fish tail comb, which is available via Texas Beauty Supply.com for a measly one dollar ($1.00) U.S.  Looks dangerous, doesn’t it?  And if you’re in the market for this dangerous weapon, be sure to order yours soon, as the ATF will soon be conducting raids on beauty supply stores nationwide to remove this insidious threat from the purses of young and old girls everywhere.

Girl Suspended From School For Double Fish Tail Comb

Via Nobody’s Business.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/13 at 04:39 AM
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Thursday, October 12, 2006

Death by Numbers

The recent claim, made by Lancet, regarding the number of dead Iraqis (I’ve noted some media publications put the number at 655,000 and others at 600,000) since the U.S. stomped into the country appears rather outlandish.  In a post at Samizdata titled Inherently incredible, Robert Clayton Dean provides perspective.

It exceeds by 25% the casualties (450,000) , military and civilian, suffered by Great Britain in all of World War II, including the Blitz, the African campaign, the Pacific campaign, and of course the European campaign.

It exceeds by 25% the casualties (460,000), military and civilian, suffered by Italy in all of World War II.

It exceeds the casualties (562,000), military and civilian, suffered by France in World War II, including the initial battles with the Germans, the Occupation, and the reconquest by the Allies.

Dean also notes that the death rate of 2.6%, as published by Lancet, exceeds the death rate in countries where the Nazis practiced their Holocaust methods during WWII.

Death by numbers indeed.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/12 at 11:20 AM
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Reading the Good Book, A Cautionary Tale

A young girl, who attends Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School in Prince George County, was, allegedly, cautioned she would be disciplined for reading the Bible during her lunch hour.  A lawsuit has been filed.

Though there seems to be some confusion as to who actually did the cautioning, the Washington Post reports it was the vice principal of the school, while the complaint itself indicates some ambiguity about the identity of the individual who cautioned the young girl, it should go without saying that it is not the school’s business to dictate what may, or may not, be read by a student during lunch hour.

Via The Raving Atheist.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/12 at 05:33 AM
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Time for a New Acronym, MILF

Here’s the headline, as posted at INQ7.net.

Governor filing complaint vs MILF for bombings

I wonder, if the Moro Islamic Liberation Front realizes what the acronym MILF represents for many individuals here in the good ole USA?  Though, if MILF, the Islamic one now, has a website, they may draw a good bit of traffic if they can incorporate their MILF acronym into their web address.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/12 at 04:12 AM
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Toll Road - A Private Property Right

In Indiana, Goings Road, at Ludwig Road, is going private.

The man who bought Goings Road at Ludwig Road from a tax auction… sent residents a letter claiming the drive is private property… and may be enclosed with a chain link fence.

He says he’s going to charge the residents $50 a month—per vehicle—to use the street.

Which isn’t going over real well with Frank and Carol Cocherham, residents of Goings Road.  Carol Cocherham has this to say.

"I’m not lining his pockets with anything but dust,” says resident Carol Cocherham.

And Frank Cocherham chimes in with this to say.

"Well, I’d say one thing, I imagine if he put up a gate down there, it’s going to be tore down by somebody. ‘Cuz them people won’t put up with it,” Frank Cocherham says.

Them’s almost fightin’ words.

The article, posted at IndianaNewsCenter, is titled He Can’t Do That, Can He?

Via The Owner’s Manual.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/12 at 03:54 AM
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

"Drunken Comportment"

Over at Hit and Run, this morning, Jacob Sullum has a few words to say regarding the alcohol defense.  You know the one, “It’s not my fault because I’m addicted to the demon alcohol.” Why is it, Sullum wonders, that this defense seems to immediately negate culpability, or a least ameliorate culpability, for acts committed outside the bounds of decency.

From Sullum’s piece.

Even if some people are predisposed to drink heavily, that tendency does not explain how they act when they drink. Does anyone really believe that alcohol made Mel Gibson temporarily anti-Semitic, causing him to rail against the Jews when he was pulled over in Malibu for drunk driving? Or that Bob Ney, the Republican congressman from Ohio who mentioned “a dependence on alcohol” when he pleaded guilty to corruption charges, was driven by demon rum to accept lobbyists’ goodies in exchange for official favors?

Drunken Power. The piece is subtitled How alcohol became the all-purpose excuse for bad behavior.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/11 at 04:24 AM
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There Are Long Odds and REALLY Long Odds

Life is a gamble, they say, whoever they may be, but what about the new Mickey D’s Monopoly game, what are the odds of winning more than, say, a burger or a fry?  Pretty long, evidently.

Next up is the $50 prize. Odds of winning: approximately 1 in 91,697. Not great.

Odds of winning a Sony Platinum DVD Dream System Home theater and Flat Panel HDTV: about 1 in 91,697,000. Yipes.

Trip for two to Vegas? Odds are 114,621,250 to 1 against it. Start walking.

It’s about 3.5 billion to 1 against you getting a $50,000 prize. As for the $5 million prize of all prizes: “Odds of winning are approximately 1 in 41,497,391,309."

And for those who think they’re lucky, Richard Roeper pens a real world example on just how lucky you would have to be to win the Mickey D’s Monopoly big prize.

In other words, you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning while on your way home from purchasing a winning Lotto ticket with your wife, Jessica Alba, the first lady of the United States.

Fine print on $5 million contest: You don’t have a McChance

Via The Obscure Store.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/11 at 03:21 AM
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