The Razor

I hate cop funerals. I hate them with every fiber of my being. Northeast Philly shut down today for the funeral procession of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. Here are a couple of photos taken from philly.com (more there).

Liczbinski’s murderer will not be granted such a ceremonious and solemn funeral. The local mosque will not even bury him.

“We don’t tolerate that kind of behavior,” (Tariq El Shabazz, managing director of the mosque) said. “Their actions are not from Islam. You don’t dress like a woman, you don’t rob people or transgress against them or commit murder. On all three grounds, they are dead wrong.”

Two of the three bank robbers were wearing full burkas when they entered the Shop-Rite to rob the Bank of America branch inside it last Saturday. After holding up the bank and getting away with $38,000 Liczbinski was the first officer to pull them over. He was shot 5 times as he was getting out of his patrol car.

It’s tough to support the free market when you feel like you’re on the wrong side of it. After all I’m making the exact same money that I was making 8 years ago after switching careers 5 years ago and knowing more than ever; yet gas has doubled during that time, my property taxes have gone up by about half, and food and utilities have increased as well. But I can’t go to my client and demand more money. Why? Because they’ll replace me with a cheaper business analyst, most likely one on an H-1b.

But the market is functioning just as well as it always has. During that same 8 years plasma televisions have fallen by roughly 75% by my estimation (and I still don’t own one yet dangit!), and I paid less for the laptop I’m using while getting more power, storage and a wider display.

So oil is getting you down? Worried that it’s going to keep going up as we run out of it? Fabius Maximus takes a critical look at Peak Oil and writes:

…Oil prices rose from $1.80 in 1970 to $36.83 in 1980 (Arabian Light oil price, as posted at Ras Tanura). Reacting to that, global oil consumption peaked in 1979 at 66,048 million barrels/day, then dropped by 14% through 1983 — reaching the 1979 peak again only after 14 years, in 1993 (see the BP Statistical Review for details). During that period the global economy (GDP) increased at roughly 3%, slightly below the post-WWII average (using IMF data). A fourteen percent decline in consumption!

At $120, oil prices are up 6x from the 1990’s average. Almost certainly that price shock has created substantial efforts to change energy use, whose results might have not yet appeared in the data. But they will appear, I suspect. Sooner than people expect.

Yesterday the Family hit the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester PA. This museum is a gem; it’s small but packs a lot into a small space and has top-notch displays, including a complete V22 Osprey. A few weeks back the Family sans me visited the museum and discovered that it was running a “Pennies per pound” special: for $.15/lb members of the nearby Brandywine Airport would take you up in a plane for a ride.

I have to admit that I was nervous, but having grown up in a household with a dad who was afraid of storms and driving on the interstate, I’ve learned to be very careful with expressing my fears to the Kid. I don’t want him growing up with the same neuroses that I have; nope, he’ll have to get his own new ones.

The event was run by The 99’s - a group of women devoted to spreading the gospel of Flight started by Amelia Earhart in 1929. The crowd was small but extremely friendly, ranging in age from toddlers to people in their nineties. The Kid & I took to the skies in a Cessna Skyhawk owned and piloted by a guy who looked to be in his early 30’s. A computer programmer by trade, the guy handled his plane confidently and I lost the last of my nerves as soon as his plane took to the air.

Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly. It is a lifelong dream that began with model airplanes hanging from the ceiling in my pediatrician’s office and later my own room as a kid. It has disappeared in the haze of life, clouded by other responsibilities and tasks only to reappear as crystal clear like it had always been there.

I sat in the back seat behind the Kid and the pilot as he took the plane to about 1,500 feet, explaining what he was doing to the Kid over our headsets. Meanwhile I felt like a puppy in a car, leaping from window to the next, taking in the lush Spring foliage of southeastern suburban Pennsylvania gently rolling below us on a sunny and slightly hazy day. Flying this way in such a small craft is different from the commercial travel I’ve known. It is to commercial flight as a motorcycle on winding country roads is to car travel on the interstate. The fact that about a quarter inch of aluminum separated me from plummeting to my death occurred to me but didn’t trouble me in the least.

After the plane landed I spent the next 30 minutes talking to our pilot as the dream settled in, returning after its long absence. I stood at the edge of the runway watching the other planes take off and land, including a 1947 Piper Cub that the Wife and the Mother-in-law each took turns flying in. I saw the planes and knew that I could do it.

Langston Hughes wrote a famous poem about deferred dreams, yet failed to capture what had happened to mine. It didn’t fester or crust-over; it came back as new and as fresh as ever. It never died; in fact I don’t think it can die. It is such a part of me that I suspect that it won’t die until I do.

Does this mean I will run to take lessons tomorrow? No, but the time will come when I take to the sky again, and it will be sooner than even I suspect.

The Kid (disguised as George Clooney) & I and a Cessna Skyhawk 

And Mayor Nutter blames the NRA:

Mayor Nutter this morning said the National Rifle Association owed an apology to the family of slain police officer Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski.

Nutter recently signed five local gun bills into law, including one that would outlaw the possession and sale of certain assault weapons. The NRA immediately sued the city on the grounds that the city does not have the authority to enact local gun control. They obtained a temporary restraining order to keep the city from enforcing the new laws.

Liczbinski was killed with a Chinese-made assault weapon.

“I think it’s insane,” Nutter said. “The fact that we put forward a piece of legislation to prevent the sale and use and transfer of assault weapons and have a Philadelphia police officer assaulted on the streets with one, I think makes it pretty clear to anyone who is confused about this issue that there’s no reason for any citizen, any person other than in law enforcement or in the military to have such a weapon.”

The mayor completely ignores the fact that had the laws been passed, they would not have kept the guns out of the criminals’ hands. Why? Because all three were convicted felons, and under current law it is illegal for them to possess any type of firearms - let alone a Chinese made assault rifle, the SKS. Howard Cain, the shooter, had recently been paroled after doing the minimum for armed robbery:

Cain entered the state prison system on Nov. 12, 1997 to serve a 9- to 18-year sentence for robbery, said Susan McNaughton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Just shy of nine years later - his minimum sentence - Cain was sent to Lycoming House, a halfway facility at 1712 Point Breeze Ave. in South Philadelphia, on Sept. 5, 2006, McNaughton said.

That followed a decision by the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole nine days earlier to grant Cain parole at his first hearing.

On Dec. 12 of that year, Cain walked out of Lycoming House a free man.

However, Cain was subject to parole supervision until the year 2015.

Leo Dunn, a spokesman for the parole board, said Cain’s release was based on five considerations.

“First of all, his acceptance of responsibility for the offense committed,” Dunn said. “His participation in and completion of prescribed institutional programs. The positive recommendation made by the Department of Corrections. His reported institutional behavior. And his placement in a community corrections residency.”

Dunn did not know how frequently Cain was required to meet his parole officer, but Cain had to follow a series of requirements to maintain his freedom, including drug tests and avoidance of alcohol.

Overall, Dunn said, the board granted parole in 61 percent of its cases in March, the most recent month for which statistics were available.

The robbery sentence stemmed from a string of armed robberies of state liquor store in West and Southwest Philadelphia in 1996.

Cain, then 23 at the time of the robberies and listed as 5-feet 8-inches tall and weighing 167 pounds, was found guilty a year later in one case and pleaded guilty in another.

Cain also had a history of fighting and fleeing from the police, court records show.

In 1993, Cain stole a car in West Philadelphia and crashed it into a fence after a brief chase by police. He was sentenced to 11 and ½ to 23 months in city jail.

In 1996, he was stopped by police and reportedly began punching at the officers and then running away. He was caught and sentenced to no more than 23 months in city jail.

So the mayor blames the NRA for laws that would not have prevent the officer’s murder, but remains silent on the parole board that put the guy onto the streets 8 months ago. Life in the liberal looking glass in Philadelphia.

I began watching George Lopez, American Mexican on Comedy Central with high expectations. The Kid has been watching the George Lopez show on Nick at Night, and while the show is a typical sitcom, I found myself laughing more than I expected. So when Comedy Central began pushing the show a few weeks back, I made a note to check it out.

I didn’t make it through the first 10 minutes. Lopez was extremely foul mouthed and every other word was bleeped by the cable channel. Even the close captions used the term. Salty language doesn’t offend me. What annoys me is a monologue that sounds like it’s being given in Morse code. His delivery looked frenetic; he was fidgeting and wild, and really looked like he had to cut back on the caffeine.

The monologue itself was terrible. It was extremely partisan, focusing attacks on Bush, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the failed Comprehensive Immigration bill that died late last year. I don’t mind that as long as it’s funny, but telling the governor to go f*** himself isn’t a joke. He was playing to what I assume was a heavily Latina crowd, and I know enough Spanish to follow along, but “We’re here; deal with it” isn’t an immigration policy. And it isn’t funny.

I don’t know if Lopez felt that he had prove that he wasn’t a sellout for the George Lopez show, or if he felt he had to prove that he still “has it.” But I’ve watched Carlos Mencia who shares many of Lopez’s political leanings and sentiments and laughed. I don’t know what George Lopez’s problem is but he sure isn’t funny.

Link

Best of all London mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone received a sound thrashing, losing to conservative candidate Boris Johnson.

Labour officials were amazingly clueless about the burden these green taxes placed on ordinary Britons and merrily proposed more.

“If someone drops litter, they should be arrested,” Livingstone threatened during his campaign, thinking his resolve would impress rather than infuriate voters with its ecologically correct pettiness in a city otherwise awash in real crime.

Every tax and intrusion imposed by Labour in recent years was justified as being for voters’ “own good.” Ending global warming, reducing carbon footprints, lowering carbon emissions and raising public funding of renewable energy — all were excuses used to hit the voters’ pocketbook with more taxes.

Yet none of these taxes improved the quality of life. Instead, just a few of them — the same ones the green lobby wants here — showed British voters this was a puritanical scheme to reduce the quality of life and substitute a Roundhead feeling of virtue as its own reward.

“In other words, don’t even think about enjoying yourself,” wrote Malcolm Davis on Reuters’ site.

But in the meantime, crime rose, state services declined, the bureaucrats proliferated, the National Health Service deteriorated and British purchasing power evaporated. “Many feel the government is creating a green fear for monetary gain,” Mark Hodson of Opinium Research told the Independent newspaper.

Worse yet, government’s only strength seemed to be in harassing its own citizens. Britain, for instance, had been covered with security cameras — which no doubt would be used by Livingstone to nab litterbugs — but have done little to prevent terrorism. It’s telling that last year a car full of bombs was detected not by anti-terror cameras, but by over-active tow trucks looking for illegally parked cars.

I’m just waiting for pundits to blame the loss on conservative US president George Bush.

It used to be that you would receive gift cards or other compensation for filling out these things, but not anymore. Instead they dangle the chance at winning a cash prize. I mention this because I participate in a product evaluation panel and it appears likely that they are moving towards that sweepstakes model. I just filled out a questionnaire that asked if they did move to it,if I would quit, and I answered ‘yes’.

First, I don’t gamble. I don’t participate in the stock market; I don’t even have a 401k. I’ve been in a casino once in my life and refused to play anything; in fact I felt more uncomfortable there than I have just about anywhere, and that includes the Japanese sento. I don’t gamble for philosophical reasons. I cannot profit from the misfortune of others is about the best way I can describe it, but it also involves a supernatural element of risk that is irrational and illogical, but it’s part of who I am.

Second, if the market research firm doesn’t value my opinion enough to pay for it, why should I give it to them for free? These firms are paid money by their clients to evaluate services and products; why should I help them? I’ve participated in market research where my earnings were donated to charity, and that’s fine, but giving me the chance to win $500?

I’m sure there are others out there like me who are being missed by market research. Unfortunately it’s not enough to make the clients of market research firms tell them to get a broader market sample. But until that happens I’ll throw away every survey request that’s printed on my receipt or comes with a product.

Source: xkcd 

Eleanor Clift in Newsweek has an excellent piece on Hillary Clinton. Amazingly enough for the MSM it’s not a hit piece.

If she does get the nomination, it will be one of the greatest political comebacks since Reagan.

Immediately after work I nipped over to the shooting range before it got crowded. Unfortunately I got behind a group of guys who came to fire a bunch of handguns including a .357, a .45 and a .460. I hadn’t realized there was such a thing as a .460; it turns out there’s even a .500. Anyhow I was in the slot two gates down from them with my dinky .22 Beretta Neo, and the first time they fired the .460 it was obvious. I felt the shockwave and the muzzle flash lit up the indoor range. While they were shooting the .460 I couldn’t fire; the blast was simply too intense. When they were firing the other guns it wasn’t a problem; there was a significant difference in blast between each gun.

There were four guys, and one of them was on the small side. Watching him wrestle with the .460s kick was not nearly as bad as it was for the bigger guys. They all were wrestling with it and although they joked about it, none of them tried firing the thing one handed.

Here’s a review of a .460 including videos. Here is another video including a joker firing a .460 and a .500 at the same time. And one more .500 video. The sound in the videos does not do justice to the weapon being fired in an indoor range. Even with full ear protection it was one of the loudest things I think I’ve heard.

I suppose if you wanted to drop anything with one shot that was charging at you, this would be the gun to have. But honestly, I’ll stick to my dinky small calibers. I ended up shooting a very tight 3″ 30 shot group at 10 yards, so I felt pretty good when I left the range.

Looks like China wants to burnish burn its human rights reputation by propping up Robert Mugabe with mercenaries in Zimbabwe.

April 24, 2008: Concurrent with China’s latest shipments of arms and munitions to Zimbabwe (see), two dozen uniformed and armed Chinese soldiers were seen patrolling the streets of the eastern border town of Mutare, with Zimbabwean troops, during a strike by Mugabe’s political opposition. The Chinese Embassy denied that there were any Chinese troops in the area, but suggested that local Chinese-owned companies hired contractors to protect their interests.

Tibet. Darfur. Burma. Wow these guys really get around.

This is pasted from Babalu, which I found after Dave Price cited it in this post.

IT IS THE SOLDIER

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

(? Charles M. Province)

UPDATE: I received this in an email and it raises some important points about the poem:

For some reason this poem strikes me the wrong way.
Although I strongly sympathize with what the author is
trying to convey (proper respect due to our military),
it is a disservice to suggest that the rights
enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the
Bill of Rights, both civil documents, were somehow
“given” to us by the military. They are, in fact,
among the unalienable rights either endowed to
humanity by a “creator” (if you are so inclined) or by
the simple fact that we exist as humans. The military
protects these freedoms under the direction of a
legitimately constituted government, to be sure, but
it does not grant them. Perhaps this is a subtle or
semantic difference, but an important one.

Indeed, a critical aspect of our presence in Iraq and
Afghanistan is to promote the concept of “good
governance” and the notion that it is legitimate
government structures (both civil and military) which
are the sources of the common good.

One of the beauties in our system is that the military is controlled by elected civilian leadership - another example of the rock/paper/scissors balancing act that the Founding Fathers built into the system. The writer’s last point is especially worth noting. Iraq will be all the more successful if it maintains civilian control over the military. Having it ruled by another dictator, even one who supports our policies in the region, would tarnish our efforts there.

Al-Qaeda’s #2 Ayman “Z-man” al-Zawahiri is pissed about Iran’s recent spreading of 9-11 theories blaming the Jews or the American government for that day’s events.

“The purpose of this lie is clear — (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it,” he said.

“Iran’s aim here is also clear — to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.

Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell take note.

This post at Dean’s World reflects the common view that ethanol is driving up the price of corn. However from what I’ve read all commodities are in a bubble due to the declining dollar, the threat of inflation, and the impact the subprime crisis has had on business earnings. I suppose the money has to go somewhere, and right now that place seems to be commodities. Here are some comparative charts taken from Seeking Alpha:

Note that with the exception of orange juice, all the commodities are moving in tandem, spiking in February (and doing the same this month - but the charts don’t go that far).

If ethanol demand is driving the price of corn, wouldn’t the price be rising faster than the other commodities? While ethanol is no doubt partly to blame for the rising price, how much ethanol do we produce from wheat or platinum?

I’m not an economist, but I think the commodities bubble can be blamed more than biofuels. Unlike the housing bubble or the internet bubble, the commodities bubble is really quite painful, so the sooner it bursts the better - at least for my pocketbook.

If you have to go through all that to “provoke a discussion about the link between art and the body” then you really must suck at communication.