Register likes Ricci -- mostly

Further reading and talking to law profs today made it clear that while the Ricci case was, as the Register pointed out, correctly decided, by remanding the case to lower courts to work out the details -- without much guidance, the Supremes left all kinds of questions unanswered. Do the white and Hispanic firefighters have the right to jobs posted in 2003, or have things changed enough in the intervening time that they have to start all over. The principle -- give your best shot at a race-neutral test (perhaps it could include demonstrating practicalk skills as well as memorizing stuff -- and live with the results. But there are plenty of details remaining, and a similar case might come to the Supremes again in a few years -- which might be what the Roberts wing of the court, devoted to gradualism, wants.

Obama and Bush not that different

Here's a link to my column this week for Antiwar.com. I argue that Obama is proving to be not all that different from Bush when it comes to foreign policy. Obama may have opposed the Iraq war early on, for which he deserves credit, but once in power he sees himself as something akin to emperor of the world -- or at least international ombudsman, empowered to straighten out recalxcitrant countries with military force. He's taking bids on a Bush inititiated program to provide $20 million to elements of the Iranian opposition, and subsidizing the mostly mythical government of Somalia. And I could have mentioned indefinte detention, military commissions, unwarranted surveillance. Presidents seldom give up dubious powers seized by their predecessors, and Obama is no exception. We would have to adopt a policy of strategic non-engagement, as I have argued for a long time, to save this country from endless expensive and generally counterproductive meddling in the affairs of other countries.

Supremes going too slow on DNA testing

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a couple of weeks ago in an Alaska case that it was not a constitutional right to have the most sophisticated DNA applied to crime-scene material after a defendant had already been convicted in what was stipulated to as a fair trial. While the court majority acknowledged the value of DNA, it said the states were evolving standards for its use and it was unnecessary and/or premature for the high court to intervene and dictate standards.

I think I can understand the court's reluctance here, but the argument on the other side is that now that we know how valuable DNA testing can be, it's time to consider such testing part of "due process," which has never been an evolving concept as technology has increased, and the constitution guarantees due process. It wouldn't have been that much of a stretch. The government is rushing to collect DNA from as many people as possible, including in some states people arrested but never charged. It's virtually a standard part of the criminal justice process already. Yet the court shrinks from letting a convict (OK, he was already out on the rape and murder charge and had committed another crime, so he wasn't too sympathetic a character, but the court is supposed abjure sympathy) order and pay for his own test and mandate that the state provide the material with DNA.

This Register editorial, I think, deals with the issue fairly but comes down on the side of as wide a use of DNA as practical in the criminal justice system.

WW II didn't end the depression

As I note in this book review, few people any more believe that the New Deal ended the Depression, but lots of people believe that the depression was ended by World War II. Robert Higgs, author of the classic "Crisis and Leviathan," in his new book, "Depression, War, and Cold War," knocks that one out of the water. Not only was unemployment reduced mainly by the military draft, production and spending on non-military items was flat or falling throughout the war. We only got significant economic growth beginning in 1946, when most of the wartime controls and restrictions were lifted.

How little we know about how much time we have left

I wasn't convinced the Register had to comment on the death of Michael Jackson, but after some discussion we had a meeting of minds (i.s., we met Cathy's mind), and here is the result. I think there's something worth pondering in the lives of three people who seemed to have everything and yet ran into unexpected troubles -- including death. So please be true to yourself.

Check out prehistoric flute

So they've found parts of and reassembled a flute made of bird bone, believed to be about 35,000 years ago. Another flute found previously was estimated to be about 19,000 years old, so this pushes manmade musical instruments further back. It suggests to me that there's something very basic about music and that human beings from early on have had a powerful impulse to make music. It beats some of our other powerful impulses.

Arvo Part perfect for writing -- for me

I just finished my column for Antiwar.com, while listening to an album of shorter sacred pieces by the Estonian composer Arvo Part (the "a" should have an umlaut but I don't know if this program will do one -- Da Pacem, by Paul Hillier and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. The CD includes a Da Pacem Domine from 2004, a Salve Regina and Nunc Dimittis from 2001, a Magnificat from 1989, and several other pieces. Part's music is deceptively simple, almost chant-like in places, generally quite calm, but with a cumulative power that at least for me really elevates the spirit. And since I understand the words only intermittently, it doesn't interfere with my thinking and writing. Not exactly just background music, but still quite soothing.

Many police still don't get it

Here's a report (h/t Brett) on a talk given by LA Dep. Police Chief Michel Moore, whose bailiwick is the San Fernando Valley. In response to questions he offered answers that suggest a real basic ignorance about medical marijuana and the law. He got the number of the Prop. wrong (it's 215, not 209) and pretty much everything else. He claims most of the medical marijuana dispensaries are "shams" that really sell to the general public. He totally misunderstands the reason the law says "recommendation," not "prescription." It never said "prescription" because prescriptions are governed by the feds so you can't use that term without their approval. So there's been no "loosening" of standards.

If the police charged with enforcing the law misunderstand it so profoundly, we've got a lot of educating to do. I'll work a bit on my book tonight too. Thought the one I already wrote dealt with all these issues years ago.

Beethoven and Murray Perahia

As music tonight -- I've been reading and I'll work on my Antiwar.com column a little later, I have on an interesting CD with Murray Perahia, the pianist, conducting an arrangement for full string orchestra of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 12 (E-flat major, Op. 127). It is remarkably effective. What makes it sound "symphonic," I think (besides the fact that Beethoven's string quartets in general have as many interesting tunes and ideas, and as elaborate sections of development as most symphonies) is the fact that in arranging it Mr. Perahia used double basses, tastefully, to double the cello line (and once in a while the viola), which adds depth and richness to the sound.

I suspect I still have, in a cupboard somewhere, the version of this piece I had on vinyl, acquired probably in the mid-60s, with the Budapest String Quartet, but I haven't listened to it in years. (Besides, my favorite was the 9th.) But I did recognize parts of the original in this version. Four instruments make for a much lighter sound (although Beethoven worked the lower register of the cello profitably to enhance sonority in the quartet). This richer version might not be for everybody who knows the original, but I like it. Perahia also plays the Piano Sonata No. 28 (A Major, Op. 101) in a new revision he did. The man knows how to tickle the ivories soulfully!

Sending out a nestling

Well, she's hardly a naif and she's certainly intellectually tough. Alyssia Finley got through four years at Stanford as a libertarian not only willing but eager to speak up, and to write articles for the paper deploring the politically correct climate on campus. She interned with us at the Register editorial page for a couple of summers and has submitted columns from campus during the school year. She's a fine, pungent writer and a clear thinker unlikely to back down from anybody. We've come to like her very much.

Anyway, yesterday we had a little party to wish her well in her next adventure in life. She's been hired by the Wall Street Journal editorial page to be (I'm pretty sure this is right) an assistant OpinionJournal.com editor. So it's off to New York City Sunday for her. We had cake from Zov's and wished her well. I hope she has a great time and takes the place by storm.

Cap and trade a total ripoff

Speaking of cap and trade, here's the Register's editorial deploring it. There weren't near enough votes for a pure cap-n-trade, so they've been buying votes by giving away carbon emission permission credits instead of selling them. But they'll have a market price if this abomination passes, so in fact they're giving away money, even as they're imposing an indirect tax on anybody that uses energy. All kinds of pigs, from farmers to algae biofuel producers to energy companies are crowding around the trough. As I said, they may not yet have the votes, so they're madly trading and buying votes-- about 40% of the credits are giveaways now. It's an orgy of what economists call rent-seeking -- using the political process to get favors and money.

Given our new connection to the WSJ (see next post) I compared and thought our editorial did a much better job than theirs did of explaining the hideousness of the bill. You decide.

Obama Honeymoon ending

Of course I hope it ends before he gets anything else very significant passed. The cap-n-trade is scheduled for tomorrow in the House, but I'm told it's not a sure thing. The health care mess, despite being handled very differently from Hillarycare, is starting to provoke real opposition. Here's the Register's editorial following his press c0nference Tuesday, noting that the newsies seemd a little more pointed in their questioning and Obama sometimes defensive. Obama himself is still popular but his policies -- not so much. May he face frustration getting his agenda passed, which is likely since he seems determined to "cure" the financial crisis with more hair of the dog.

Iran interventionist morons

Here's a link to my most recent column for Antiwar.com. I deplore the self-satisfied but heedless jerks who keep calling on Obama to declare himself firmly on the side of the protestors in Iran. Few things could be more damaging to them -- and they just might not win this time. As for dealing with the regime, it might be fruitless. But people forget that Reagan dealt extensively with the Societ Union after calling them the Evil Ampire and saying "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Political discussion, especially on the conservative side of thibngs, is at an unusually lowbrow and juvenile level just now.

Garden Grove loses on medical marijuana

I really shouldn't feel Schadenfreude because it's city taxpayers who are suffering, not the arrogant officials responsible for frittering away as much as $250,000 trying to evade the state's medical marijuana law. In 2005 they found medical marijuana on one Felix Kha (I've met him and talked fairly extensively) during a routine traffic stop. The cop said he couldn't verify Felix's recommendation, so he confiscated the medicine and issued a citation. The DA did verify the marijuana recommendation was valid and declined to prosecute. As this Register editorial explains, even when a court ordered the police to return his medicine they refused, and the city filed an appeal that they took all the way to both Calif. and national supreme courts after losing. Both declined the case. So the city had to pay $139,000 in attorney fees to Americans for Safe Access. Too bad it doesn't come directly from the pockets of the police chief and city council.

State workers' sense of entitlement

Just watched a segment on local LA news (ABC7 I think) featuring a demonstration in LA against any cuts in the state budget, with the usual "children will die" slogans. The newscast noted that almost all the demonstrators were state employees and some other union members. Didn't seem to note the sheer effrontery of workers demanding no cuts when the state faces a $24 billion budget deficit and gridlock in Sacramento. I think we may well be in something close to a terminal phase for the Empire. Government on the current scale is simply not sustainable, but the privileged classes (government employees are that these days) want no changes at all.

Chapman thinks the upturn is coming

Chapman University's economic forecast was one of the first if not the first to call the current recession. Now it's saying we're pretty close to the bottom and the upturn may already be underway -- though we'll still see unemployment rise at least through the summer of 2010.

The Southern California Seven

For this week I might be the most popular journalist in Southern California (and perhaps beyond) among Iranian-Americans. In Sunday's Commentary section of the Register we ran my piece on a group I've called the Southern California Seven ( a little 60s appellation). These people raised money for the Mujajedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian resistance organization of long standing (started to oppose the Shah) that in 1997 was declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The designation was a political move to curry favor with the Iranian regime then headed by Khatami, whom the Clintonited hoped would be a "moderate" with whom they could do business. That hope died but the designation stayed.

These seven were charged with aiding a terrorist organization in 2001 and the government stayed after them despite twists and turns until now they face the possibility of 20 years in the pen -- they hope to win on appeal. Anyway, my phone message system was full of effusive thanks from people with Iranian names caling me an avatar of truth and integrity, a rare beacon of light in a dim journalistic landscape and so on. A few more called during the day today. That love might last a week.

Injustice to Iranian-Americans by US government

Here's the piece I did for this Sunday's Register Commentary section. It involves 7 Southern California Iranian-Americans who supported a resistance movement that had, in a political gesture in 1997, been declared a terrorist organization as a sop to Khatami when people thought he was the Great Moderate Hope.. These 7 face up to 20 years in prison unless their verdict can be overturned on appeal.

More marijuana progress

New Jersey is making progress on a medical marijuana bill, and it appears this one would be signed without delay by the governor. In North Carolina -- North Carolina! -- the legislature is just beginning to consider a medical marijuana bill -- it seems unlikely this year, but it hasn't been put to death, and there is media support. And some stirrings are beginning in Georgia.

Barney Frank and medical marijuana

In various previous posts I've referred to Mass. Dem. Barney Frank as introducing a bill to legalize possession of up to 3.5 ounces of marijuana for "recreational" use. As of today I haven't been able to confirm it -- it was too late to call his office by the time I started working on it.

What he has introduced is a Medical Marijuana Patients Protection Act, which would change federal law to make it clear that patients in states with medical marijuana laws were also not violating federal law --and move to marijuana to Schedule II, which might be de facto national medicalization. A good proposal but not legalization. I'll pass on what else I learn Monday.