Salmonella-contaminated peanut products have caused quite the uproar of late. 6 people have died. 486 have gotten sick at latest count.
Will I get sick? Let’s calculate the odds. U.S. population is currently about 300 million people. Odds of death? 1 in 50,000,000.
Let’s assume 600 people get sick before the outbreak ends. Odds of illness? 1 in 500,000.
Pardon me while I continue to enjoy delicious peanut-based snacks.
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Posted in Mankind's Doom, Science
Reason‘s Nick Gillespie asks: “Can somebody invent a machine capable of fully measuring the disaster that was the Bush presidency?”
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Posted in Political Animals
There’s a new sheriff in Pinal County, Arizona. No more speed cameras on his highways: “[new Sheriff] Babeu said speed cameras created dangerous road conditions and offered little financial benefit for the county.”
He’s right. Accidents and fatalities both went up after the cameras were installed. Similar stories have played out in other camera-friendly jurisdictions, including where I live.
Still, don’t get your hopes up too much about the new sheriff. I don’t think he quite gets it. The article ends: “[Babeu] wants to bring red-light cameras to the county.”
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Posted in Security Theater
This could make things a little awkward at baseball great Mark McGwire’s next Thanksgiving dinner – Brother’s book claims McGwire took steroids
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Posted in Sports
This blog has a dim view of politicians. But intellectual integrity demands that we give praise where due, as well as criticism. And the Obama administration certainly seems to be putting its best foot forward in its opening days.
Not only is Guantanamo Bay shutting down, but President Obama has made a few other positive moves on government openness and some of the Bush administration’s civil liberties shortcomings. Radley Balko details them here and here.
More, please.
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Posted in Political Animals, Security Theater
The New York Times asks, apparently without irony, “How much does your morning glass of orange juice contribute to global warming?”
I’m supposed to feel bad about drinking orange juice now? Really? Even Catholic guilt has nothing on the New Religion.
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Posted in Mankind's Doom, The New Religion
From The Hill: Celebs compare Obama to Jesus, Gandhi
Oh, for Christ’s sake.
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Posted in General Foolishness, Media
There is a great deal of romance in politics. Why else would we spend $170 million on an inauguration? H.L. Mencken had a more sober view of political animals. They are rarely chosen for their merit, or their stances on the issues of the day. The successful candidate actively avoids such things in his speeches. No:
“They are chosen normally for quite different reasons, the chief of which is simply their power to impress and enchant the intellectually underprivileged. It is a talent like any other… [B]ut it is obviously not identical with a capacity for the intricate problems of statecraft.”A Mencken Chrestomathy, pp. 148-49.
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Posted in Elections, Great Thinkers, Political Animals
Tagged a mencken chrestomathy, h.l. mencken, henry louis mencken, mencken
President-elect Obama became President Obama today. It is worth taking a minute to reflect on the nature of his office. Exactly what has he gotten himself into?
Good men rarely become president. Good people don’t even want to be president. Once in a while, one slips through the cracks. George Washington. Abraham Lincoln. Grover Cleveland (not kidding). Maybe Barack Obama will be added to that list some day. It’s too early to tell.
I have some doubts. Here’s why: becoming president requires years of campaigning and fundraising, handshaking and deal-making — no one can possibly endure the modern campaign unless they thirst for power to their very core.
Campaigning for even minor office requires months of the candidate prostrating himself before people he’s never met. Making grand promises he couldn’t possibly keep. The things that must do to his mind. Especially if he starts buying his own hype.
Our candidate must hide his true beliefs. He has to tailor his opinions to match the median voter’s. He dares not follow his own heart or mind. He’d lose for sure.
Good people carry themselves with pride and dignity. The man or woman who voluntarily embarks on the modern campaign has neither.
And the media coverage. The spotlight so bright that it burns. Unkempt reporters always scurrying underfoot. Never a moment to yourself on the campaign trail.
Worse, the strain it puts on your family. Long weeks of separation. Unflattering exposés, revealing your relatives’ personal lives for millions to see.
Good people do not do that to their families.
Nor do good people seek power over other human beings. Morality in politics is that of Thrasymachus in Plato’s Republic; might makes right. No parent would teach that to their child. It is wrong.
Yet it is the morality that men must follow to become president.
Politicians are terrible little creatures. May our children aspire to greater things than the presidency.
Posted in Elections, Philosophy, Political Animals
I laughed when President Bush declared a federal emergency in the District of Columbia because of the inauguration.
Yes, it was only a way to get more funding to the District. More people are in town than expected, and the city needs to maintain order.
It’s still amusing to think of a simple inauguration as a federal emergency.
Now I hear on the tv that tanks are being brought in. Wait, what?
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Posted in Elections, Executive Power, Political Animals
Inertia Wins! 