Sleepless in Midland

One more thing about that new watering regulation

There's no sunset provision. They've proposed a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Surely this drought will end some day, but you wouldn't know it by the council's actions. Once passed it's going to be on the books forever. For an example of an ancient ordinance see Listening in on the police radio? Shhhh, don't tell anyone about a 1953 ordinance about listening to radio scanner feeds that's still on the books after all this time.

OK, if you've just stumbled onto this blog here's what we are talking about. The other day the Midland, Texas, city council voted into place an ordinance allowing the Code Enforcement employees to issue tickets without warning to residents who accidentally allow water to run into the street. See Everyone is a potential criminal, they just don't know it previously about the omission of a requirement to warn potential offenders before issuing the $500 citation.

Residents have not yet been given access to the wording of the ordinance. Maybe the meeting minutes, once they go online, will contain the full ordinance. But so far the only thing available at the city website is the Agenda results PDF for the 9/27/11 council meeting. Here's what it says:

MISCELLANEOUS
41. Consider an ordinance amending Title VI, "Police Regulations", Chapter 1, "General Offenses”, Section 19, "Nuisance Water", of the City Code of Midland, Texas, so as to prohibit nuisance water in the public streets; containing a cumulative clause; containing a savings and severability clause; providing for a maximum penalty or fine of five hundred dollars ($500.00); and negating a mental state; and ordering publication. (Code Administration)
APPROVED

Once it's written into the code, Midland residents will be stuck with it for generations to come. On the bright side, that might generate a new source of part time jobs for school kids -- lawn watchers to warn residents if water spills into the street.

Addendum --

Reading that agenda is an eye opener. They've approved hundreds of thousands of dollars of spending on polymer, Earthtec, anhydrous ammonia, potassium permanganate, aluminum sulfate and chlorine all for treating drinking water. But here's the speck of gold in the pan of sand. They approved a resolution to advertise for bids for a raw water project. Those of us who have been conserving water for years have long wondered why, out here in the middle of the desert, every drop of water delivered to residences is "drinking water" whether it's for washing the dog, watering the garden, or flushing down the toilet. Finally, after experiencing real water shortages, they've gotten around to that.

Catching Hell

There was a documentary called Catching Hell on ESPN the other night that was truly frightening. Here's ESPN's synopsis:

In the 8th inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, Cubs fan Steve Bartman reached for a foul pop fly and tipped the ball away from Cubs left fielder Moises Alou, which caused anger and rage from fellow Cubs fans. Watch "Catching Hell" Tuesday September 27th 8pm EST on ESPN

The Cubs lost big that night, and it seemed as though every fan in Chicago blamed Bartman. They chanted, "Ass Hole, Ass Hole, Ass Hole." They threw beer at him. They yelled at him. They threatened him, and security personnel finally spirited him to a secure room until the game ended and the crowd dwindled. They disguised him to get him off the premises, and a security guard took him to her apartment until it was safe for him to go home. He has lived in seclusion ever since.

His sin was that he tried to do what everyone else around him was trying to do, snag a foul ball. Someone down the row eventually grabbed it, and later cashed it in.

But what was so astonishing about the whole event was that the crowd at Wrigley Field turned on a dime from enthusiastic fans to a ruthless lynch mob with one solitary guy as their target. It was scary.

Watch the rebroadcast tonight, 9/29/11, on ESPN2.

A dead guy on Amazon best seller list -- Shel Silverstein

So I'm scrolling down Amazon's best selling books, and there at number 10 is a book of poems by Shel Silverstein who has been dead for 12 years.  How does he do that?

It's titled Everything On It and copyrighted by something called Evil Eye LLC which probably should raise suspicions about it's source. But according to NPR many of the poems just didn't make the cut in some of his previous books. Sample from the NPR site:

"There are kids underneath my bed,"
Cried little baby monster Fred.
Momma monster smiled. "Oh, Fred,
There's no such things as kids," she said.

You know, Shel, kids and monsters are synonymous.

Then there's this one from Amazon's page peek:

YEARS FROM NOW
Although I cannot see your face
As you flip these poems awhile
Somewhere from some far-off place
I hear you laughing -- and I smile.

Shel's smiling now.

Everyone is a potential criminal, they just don't know it

No, not criminal in the old sense, criminal in the sense that the law has expanded so much as to criminalize too many things. And especially problematic is the category of criminal laws that don't require mens rea.

Criminal law overreach is becoming too common these days, as noted in yesterday's WSJ article about the proliferation of laws in the U.S. Code making things illegal but without requiring criminal intent. In those cases the law breaker may not even know he/she is doing anything illegal. See As Federal Crime List Grows, Threshold of Guilt Declines:

This legal protection is now being eroded as the U.S. federal criminal code dramatically swells. In recent decades, Congress has repeatedly crafted laws that weaken or disregard the notion of criminal intent. Today not only are there thousands more criminal laws than before, but it is easier to fall afoul of them. ...As a result, what once might have been considered simply a mistake is now sometimes punishable by jail time.

It's not just the U.S. lawmakers. Right here in our very own town of Midland, Texas, the city council just created a class of criminals who water their lawns the wrong way. They break the law whether they know it or not, and it's straight to the $500 citation. Giving warning tickets is just too bothersome, you know. Apparently, Scott Dufford is the only council member who voted against it. See Nuisance water ordinance changed amid debate.

"This is what they want us to do," the article says the mayor proclaimed. In the summer of 2010 he proclaimed that 60% of the people with whom he spoke were clamoring for a local tax hike. The mayor needs to broaden his circle of friends.

One remark from the article was almost funny, except the joke's on us. One of the councilmen is supposed to have said, "if code enforcement becomes 'too aggressive' the wording can be changed back." Good one. Once it's on the books, it's there for good. There will be no going back.

It's all about control. Too many of the people in power want to control everyone else. And the criminal law makes that very convenient. Go lenient on an accidental law breaker, and he/she is eternally grateful. Hit 'em hard, and they learn who's boss.

If your clothes smell fresh, you are using too much water

Sleepless in Midland's highest paid reporter was scrounging for breakfast in the dumpster near city hall this morning when she discovered a discarded memo from the Colorado River Authorization Protocol to the mayor. Since it was in the garbage we can assume it's public information. So here it is in full:

To: Mayor, City of Midland
From: Colorado River Authorization Protocol
Date: September 27, 2011

Re: Midland is using too much water

The drought situation has us all concerned, and some of you have been using too much water. In that regard, we would like to offer suggestions for some new rules to help you get your citizens in line, as follows.

If your clothes smell fresh, you are using too much water. If you raise public awareness that body odor is OK people will quit wasting water washing clothes. Failing that, you could purchase trained dogs for your Code Enforcers to sniff crowds at the mall and other public gatherings for citations and fines.

Furthermore, citizens should end their use of showers and minimize their use of bath tubs. One tub of water per week should be sufficient for a family of four in the summer. One tub per month in the winter.

In California some years back there was a popular slogan regarding flushing toilets. "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." We are definitely opposed to that. All toilet flushing should be illegal. And we propose a new slogan:

"If it's yellow, water the flowers. If it brown, bury it in the ground."

Young people are always looking for unique phrases, and we believe this slogan should catch on quickly.

We feel that these proposals will result in significant water conservation. And if your citizens don't comply we will simply shut off your water.

We're from the government, and we're CRAP.

And there you have it. Straight from the dumpster to your monitor.

Free pass to Federal Prison

This sounds like a Monopoly game card. Not exactly a "get out of jail free" card, but for someone stuck in the un-air-conditioned Texas penal system it might be an upgrade.

Tex Parte Blog gives us the rundown. John Wesley Manning was cooling his heals in the state pen when he mailed a death threat to a federal judge. When a U.S. Marshal visited Mr. Manning and asked for a hand writing sample, Mr. Manning wrote,"I want to be in federal custody."

He got his wish, for the next 70 months.

Meanwhile, Randall Lee Church did his time -- 26 years for killing a man when he was 18 -- but exited prison to a world unlike any he remembered. So he set fire to a house then confessed so he could get back to a familiar setting.

He got his wish, too. Mr. Manning should have counseled him on the advantages of going federal.

Sunday sweetness

Aw, a doe and her little baby fawn. They are sooo cute.

Borrowed from TheoSpark.net. Thanks!

Death row inmate didn't clean his plate

Those racist murderers who killed James Byrd, Jr., by dragging him behind a truck certainly had an impact on the state of Texas. Many Texans were wracked with the collective guilt of living in a state in which a heinous act like that could happen. Never mind the racial component, the act itself was too barbarous for contemplation.

But right behind mass guilt came meddling lawmakers and the drive to make things right. And sure enough, legislators lashed out with a new set of laws. Hate crimes. Now it's important what's in the perp's head. If it's just a routine slaughter of an innocent victim, that's that. But if the killer hated the victim, then look out. They would execute him twice if they could. But the guilty consciences were assuaged, so the mission was accomplished.

Now we learn that one of the defiant murderers, Lawrence Brewer, got in one more stab at society. He ordered his last meal but didn't clean his plate.

He ordered way too much food for his last meal and didn't eat it. Aside: Do you suppose someone took home a doggie bag? They should have given it to the next guy in line.

Like before, a politician sprang into action. And according to USAToday, Senator John Whitmire called a halt to the practice of allowing death row inmates to order special last meals. James Byrd's murderers have an impact one more time.

Every person raised in the state of Texas was taught at an early age a certain set of rules. Don't get in a car with strangers, look both ways before crossing, don't talk with your mouth full, and clean your plate. It's in the kid code. Now isn't it just like some racist killer to leave food on his plate?

Moore's law part 2

Will they call it Koomey's corollary?

The original Moore's Law held that innovation and improvements in the development of computer processors would result in a doubling of processing power every 18 months. And that prediction from Intel founder Gordon Moore has proved to be mostly correct.

Now along comes Jonathan Koomey to add a corollary. "The idea is that at a fixed computing load, the amount of battery you need will fall by a factor of two every year and a half." Link.

As processing power doubles every 18 months, the energy usage is halved during that same time span. He says the same things that improve processing power also help to reduce energy consumption. The smaller size of the processors means less time wasted communicating between the processor components, thus more efficiency. He's primarily interested in data processing facilities, but the same principle should apply to consumer applications.

As consumers, we've benefited from all that increased power -- anyone who bought one of those desktop computers in the 80s got a unit that cost a lot of money, took up a lot of space, and didn't do a whole heck of a lot. (I had pages and pages of documents stored on stacks of 5.25" floppy disks. It seemed quite efficient at the time, but even starving third world peasants would shun such an antiquated system now.)

So as the processors get more efficient and energy usage is lessened, we should expect to get a lot more mileage out of a fully charged battery. That laptop should be functioning for days instead of hours.

Lunch on the RMS Queen Elizabeth - 1950

Sauerkraut juice, thick ox tail soup, head cheese, and devilled veal kidneys. Yum! Doesn't that make your mouth water?

A glass of Bordeaux to go with it would cost 1s. Better get the whole bottle for 5s.

Those delectable selections were from the RMS Queen Elizabeth lunch menu for Tuesday, December 19, 1950. There were other items on the menu that looked tastier, but those just demanded attention -- the kind of food that could make one's eyes water before they made the mouth water. At least they didn't serve haggis.

Click lunch menu 12-19-1950 PDF to see it.

A neighbor's husband was stationed in Europe in 1950, and she brought back a box of photos and souvenirs which included a set of menus from the voyage home.

It's great fun going through old stuff, and there may be some old photos posted here in the near future. But those menus certainly do serve as a reminder that they just don't make good devilled veal kidneys like they used to.

Around the world in 62 seconds

Over three million sets of eyeballs have watched this video. So if you haven't seen it yet, it's a time lapse video of the Space Station orbiting the Earth at night.

At about the 20 second point notice the lightening storm at center right.

Youtube link. Via.

Liberals and conservatives think alike, just differently

It's hard not to have a by-golly-he's-right reaction to Donald Boudreaux's observations in Stop the Bad Guys. His premise is that "Modern conservatives and 'liberals' are obsessively fixated on bad guys (just different ones)."

Modern American conservatives, he says:

believe the national government to be ignorant, bumbling, and corrupt when it meddles in the U.S. economy, but sagacious, sure-footed, and righteous when it meddles in foreign-government affairs.

But then he notes that modern American liberals:

believe the national government to be sagacious, sure-footed, and righteous when it meddles in the U.S. economy, but ignorant, bumbling, and corrupt when it meddles in foreign-government affairs.

Ordinary men and women seek freedom from tyrants, but conservatives and liberals disagree on who the tyrants are. For conservatives, the tyrants are foreign autocratic rulers who trample people's rights. For liberals the tyrants are big corporations and greedy rich people who trample workers' rights.

By golly, he might be right.

Professor Boudreaux is an economist at that hotbed of libertarianism, George Mason University, and his idea that liberals and conservatives should both endeavor to cool their animosity toward their respective bad guys is worth noting.

Arrests for marijuana possession -- the numbers

The FBI stats for 2010 contain some astonishing numbers regarding drug and marijuana possession.

From that report:

Total number of arrests in 2010 = 13,120,947
Arrests for drug abuse violations (est) = 1,638,846
Percent of total arrests that were drug violations = 12.5%
Percent of drug violations there were for marijuana possession = 45.8%

It is less than half, but 45.8% is still a significant portion. Marijuana could be one of the least harmful of the illegal drugs, and has the advantage of being non-addictive. And the arrest of so many people for that seems like a huge waste of resources. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) thinks so. See One Drug Arrest Every 19 Seconds in the U.S. which makes the statement that the number of U.S. cities in which Mexican cartels operate has exploded from 230 to over 1,000 in two years. Via Carpe Diem.

So for any jurisdiction wanting to experiment with legalizing a drug, marijuana seems like a pretty good starting place.

The state of California tried in 2010 with Prop 19. But it didn't pass, and at least one commentator points out that the proposition contained too much extra baggage and speculates that sooner or later marijuana will be legalized.

Go for it, California. Show us whether it will work.

But what about the hard drugs, the ones that take over the lives of those addicted to them? Let's just hold off on those for now.

Conaway wine tasting fund raiser

Don't you just hate it when your invitation arrives too late? It's Texas District 11 Representative Mike Conaway's Annual Wine Event Fundraiser which took place last week in Washington, DC. And my invitation still hasn't arrived. Dang!

Actually, I'm a mere constituent and would never be on the list anyway.

His fundraisers are for PACs representing people, companies and industry groups with issues before committees on which he serves. They put over a million dollars into his collection plate prior to the 2010 election which Conaway won with 80% of the vote against a broke, Democratic challenger whose name even Watson, the "Jeopardy" computer wouldn't remember now.

However, he's only raised $320,690 so far for the 2012 election. It's only 14 months away, so he's got his hand out. Buddy, can you spare a few thousand dollars to help out a nice congressman whose power you might need? You'll get a glass of wine.

Shadow art

Remember as a kid trying to make animal caricatures on the wall with the shadow of your hands? This is quite a few steps beyond. And the results are remarkable.

Found at TheMetaPicture.com where you can see more.

The artists are identified here as Kumi Yamashita, Tim Noble and Sue Webster.

Women of WWII

They weren't all riveters, either. Some were out there shooting. Izismile.com has 42 photos on display.

Some were on the wrong side, however. Should we hold that against them at this late date?

Welcome to Nuevo Laredo

One trait the Mexican narcos and the Islamic terrorists have in common is an absolute lack of a sense of humor. There are other traits, as well. However this news item certainly highlights that one.

According to the article, here's what the sign said:

"This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet," one sign said. "You better (expletive) pay attention. I'm about to get you."

The scene is too gruesome to describe, so go to Bodies hanging from bridge in Mexico are warning to social media users to read about it yourself.  (Bad link before.  Corrected.  Thanks JH.)

Bienvenida a Nuevo Laredo. Remain strong, bloggers Mexicana.

Via.

Globe trotting for the odd story

France -- Sometimes an Apple App can get just a little too personal. No, we aren't talking about spontaneous cell phone pictures of people doing embarrassing things. This one, called "Jew or not Jew," would tell the user whether someone on a list of 3,500 individuals is Jewish.

Anyway, the App was just banned in France due to a possible violation of a law against compiling information about religious affiliation without permission. Link.

Now who would want an App for that anyway, someone besides a Nazi or an Islamic extremist, that is? Well, maybe a New York Democrat, but really, who else?

Sweden -- "Agency forces amputee to prove leg still gone." That's the taunting headline suggesting socialism run amok. But the issue involved handicap parking spots, and it seems that a permit holder in Sweden has to get recertified as a cripple periodically, even amputees. Link.

The handicap parking spots in the U.S. are usually in the best possible locations. However, who among us hasn't seen a healthy looking person with a handicap placard park in one then saunter to the store? But if a person without a placard parks there, look out. It's a $500 fine in Texas. It seems reasonable to require regular recertifications.

Of course the guy's leg didn't grow back, but whether he was ambulatory was a different matter.

Back in the good old days only drunks got liver disease

Maybe it was a narrow, prejudiced view of the situation. But there was a time when news of someone with liver disease created a suspicion of alcohol overuse. No more.

Now it's a legal drug people consume to help them make it through the day: Acetaminophen. According to Illinois Poison Center Blog:

Acetaminophen is one of the most common over-the-counter (OTC) medications, appearing in over 600 OTC products. It is an effective pain reliever and fever reducer when used as directed, though it can cause severe liver damage if overused. In fact, acetaminophen overdose is the most common cause of acute liver failure requiring a liver transplant in the United States. Although many of these cases of liver failure are the result of intentional overdose of acetaminophen, it is not uncommon for patients to receive too much acetaminophen in the form of multiple OTC and prescription products. [Emphasis mine.]

I'm getting a liver ache just thinking about it.

Walk a mile in her shoes

One sure way to stop sexual assaults in their tracks is for potential assailants to see men in high heels.

There must be something very unstimulating about a man in women's shoes. How else to explain the purpose of these Walk a Mile in Her Shoes parades? There's one scheduled in Dallas on 10/1/11, and it's a place where men can put on women's shoes and pay $25 to march in a parade to demonstrate opposition to sexual assaults.

It must be working. Sex crimes have been on a decline at least since 2006.

But here at Sleepless in Midland we ask the important questions, like what would Joe Namath wear? Besides pantyhose.

Michael Mukasey on Obama and terrorists trials

Former Federal Judge and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was interviewed by James Taranto recently, and Saturday's Wall Street Journal had Taranto's writeup titled Two Decades of Pursuing al Qaeda. It is an interesting article.

In the 90s Judge Mukasey believed that terrorists were basically criminals, and federal court was the appropriate venue for trying them. But ... here's a quote from the article:

He ultimately changed his view, in part because al Qaeda acquired valuable intelligence from the trial over which he presided. In a conspiracy case, Mr. Mukasey explains, "the government is required to name all the unindicted co-conspirators that it knows about, and it serves a list. It was later found that that list had found its way to Khartoum within 10 days after it was served." The Sudanese capital was then home to one of those unindicted co-conspirators, Osama bin Laden. "So bin Laden knew not only that they knew about him but also who else they knew about." ...

Even the far lower-profile 1995 trial was burdensome for members of the jury, who were kept anonymous to protect their safety: "The jurors had to be picked up every morning at a different pickup point and then dropped off in the evening by the marshals, who were careful to make sure nobody followed them. And in spite of that, we found that two of them had reporters sitting on their doorsteps the day the verdict was delivered. They were terrified."

One might conclude that Mr. Mukasey believes the Obama administration was seriously misguided when they considered trying KSM, one of the most famous terrorists in captivity, in a civilian court in New York City.

"Think about the lesson: If you follow the rules of war—which is to say, you wear a uniform, you follow a recognized chain of command, you carry your arms openly, and you don't target civilians—then you can be held until the termination of hostilities. If you violate all of those rules, we've got a better deal for you. We'll give you a trial, and a platform in open court, and the possibility of an acquittal. That's a perverse kind of logic."

Of course, most of us who have observed Barack Obama for the past three years have come to believe that a perverse kind of logic is the norm with him.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

One instinct most humans possess is the desired to be remembered the way we want to be remembered. Few of us can control that memory as well as we would like. And some are remembered in ways that they couldn't have possibly imagined. Take the people in these copper cans, for example.

The substance of the story is that the bodies of people who died in an Oregon insane asylum in and around 1913 and whose bodies weren't claimed were cremated. And their ashes were stored in copper cans.

The psychedelic image below is one of them, taken by a photographer named David Maisel for his book, Library of Dust.

Aunt Sally looked better in her younger days.

Via Mentalfloss.com via MissCellania.com.

Missing from the 9/11 anniversary -- The Path to 9/11

There was a wonderful TV movie titled Path to 9/11 which was based on the real events leading to the attack with actors portraying the players -- Harvey Keitel played John O'Neil very persuasively. But the movie did not put the Clinton administration in the best light and was especially harsh on Madeline Albright.

Unfortunately it was a little bit too much for the powers that be, and soon after it aired in 2006 it was locked up tighter than the vault at Fort Knox. The reason, according to the director of Blocking 'The Path to 9/11', was that ABC was afraid it would hurt another Clinton's political aspirations. See 9/11 Cowardice: Simple As ABC for details. Excerpt:

THE suits at Disney-owned ABC are too chicken to re-air or release on DVD their $40 million docudrama that accused Bill Clinton of squandering many chances to capture Osama bin Laden before the Twin Towers attacks.

That's the charge of John Ziegler, director of a new ABC-bashing documentary titled "Blocking 'The Path to 9/11.' " It focuses on why ABC delayed airing and severely re-edited its ambitious miniseries "The Path to 9/11" in 2006 after a furious Clinton and his cronies strong-armed the network.

Ziegler alleges that ABC's grand plan was to re-air the show, which starred Harvey Keitel and Donnie Wahlberg, every year around 9/11 but dumped the idea in 2007, fearing that it would hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations - and will now never air it again. He charges that Disney chief Robert Iger told shareholders that it was "simply a business decision" not to issue a DVD - an "odd declaration" because a home video would help recoup the company's $40 million investment.

Next year we'll get a very flattering movie about Obama's path to killing Osama.

My favorite 9-11 cartoon -- reposted from 2003

My all time favorite 9-11 cartoon.

(In case it doesn't load properly, the cartoon shows a group of horrified mullahs reading a note saying "To the Taliban, give us Osama or we'll send your women to college.")

Drought Porn

Pornography -- visual images of things the viewer will never have the opportunity to do.

To thirsty Texans in the drought zones and the wildfire areas this video of a giant water balloon fight might well be pornography. Youtube link.

175,141 Water Balloons.

Via UKCSF.org via Newslite.tv.

Blame Nixon

The incumbent president is fond of blaming the economic situation on his predecessor, George Bush, but Roger Lowenstein says the blame should go back much farther.

He penned an article for Busniessweek.com titled The Nixon Shock which lays out the behind-the-scene details that led to Nixon's action to disconnect the dollar from gold in 1971, an action Mr. Lowenstein contends played a major role in getting us to the current economic situation.

Lowenstein provides the background. Arthur Burns warned Nixon in 1960 that the Federal Reserve's tightening efforts could result in a Kennedy victory over Nixon in the Presidential election. Nixon lost that election but cemented his respect for Burns. Nixon eventually won the Presidency in 1968 and promptly named Burns Chairman of the FED. Then, according to the story, Nixon was so afraid of the political implications of a faltering economy that he applied relentless pressure on Burns to keep the economy juiced even as inflation became a major concern.

“You see to it,” Nixon said. “No recession.”

But by the end of 1969, Nixon's first year in office, Burns kept a tight grip on the money supply in an effort to battle inflation which was at 6%, a very high rate for the time. Nixon was not happy. The economy weakened, but inflation remained -- a recession with inflation -- a situation which defied the prevailing economic theories.

However, by 1971 the economy seemed to be getting a little better, and with Nixon breathing down his neck, Burns let the money supply grow. This made inflation worse as exemplified by union demands for 30% pay raises over a three year period.

Foreign countries were facing the same inflationary problems in addition to the problem of having accumulated too many dollars in an effort to beef up the dollar to honor the Bretton Woods agreement which fixed the currencies of 44 countries to the dollar with each dollar redeemable in gold at a fixed price of $35 per ounce.

As more holders of dollar exchanged them for gold, the U.S. gold supply shrunk to the point that the U.S. wouldn't have been able to face a run on gold. Burns thought they should adjust the price of gold to make it worth more in dollars. But he lost the argument.

On August 12, 1971, Nixon summoned his team of 15 economic advisers to meet at Camp David to hammer out a plan. What they came up with was wage and price controls, an import tax, and an end to the U.S. commitment to exchange gold for dollars.

The Bretton Woods agreement was dead, and gold and foreign currencies floated freely and sometimes wildly. However, the wage and price controls worked long enough to get Nixon reelected in 1972. He eventually resigned in 1974 by which time the inflation rate was at 11%. By 1978 inflation had reached 15% when Carter appointed Paul Volker as FED chairman. Volker was independent enough to hike interest rates enough to eventually snuff out the runaway inflation the world economies had faced up to then. Of course, a recession followed. But the runaway inflation was stopped.

Lowenstein ends with this:

[In 1978 Burns said in a speech] that central bankers around the world were failing because elected leaders were unwilling to risk displeasing constituents. The new Fed chief, Volcker, did tame inflation; unlike Burns, he had the fortitude to subject the country to a brutal recession. But the dilemma faced by Burns—how to withstand the demands of the public for limitless monetary expansion—did not go away. We see it now in the troubles of nations from Greece to Ireland to the U.S. And the anguish that Burns felt is Ben Bernanke’s unfortunate inheritance.

Blame Nixon.  And weak FED chairmen.

Lowenstein provided an excellent history lesson and made some good points. People have warned against fiat money for decades. But what kind of shock would result if our government attempted to return to a gold standard? And is that even possible today?

The most famous proponent of a return to the gold standard is Ron Paul who quipped just the other day that a silver dime would buy a gallon of gasoline. You know, he just might be right. At a weight of about .08 ounce and a price of silver of $41.60 per ounce a silver dime would be worth right around $3.33.

Can't get enough of Roger Lowenstein? Watch him discuss his article on CSPAN.

Texacutions -- Rick Perry and the death penalty

The Texas Tribune has an interactive tool they've put online to help their readers see how many executions have taken place during Rick Perry's term as Texas governor. They neglect to explain what his responsibility was to those condemned inmates. So as a reminder, they each received at least one trial consisting of a guilt/innocence phase and a punishment phase plus an automatic expense free appeal.

But here's the problem with the Tribune's tool. It only covers Perry's term in office, which has been quite long -- Thrice as Long as Average Texas Gov's, the Trib told us in January. If the number of executions mean anything other than as a club with which to beat up Perry, then they should have provided a year by year count as far back as the records are available from the source of the Trib's info, the TDCJ. The original intent of this post was to provide that yearly count for a more accurate comparison.

But along came Brian Williams to refocus the issue. Here is Brian Williams' question to Governor Perry at the broadcast debate last night:

WILLIAMS: Governor Perry, a question about Texas. Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. Have you...

(APPLAUSE)

Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?

I'm no expert on sleeplessness -- an advanced novice, perhaps -- but let me state for the record that the death penalty isn't a cause of insomnia, except perhaps to someone on the receiving end of it. The anti-death penalty movement is a false cause with which liberals try to attack conservatives, much like the anti-war movement.

In the old days opposition to the death penalty was based on the moral issue -- it was simply wrong to kill another human being. But the moral issue was too hard to argue when the condemned person was so notorious that no reasonable person could make a moral case for keeping him alive. Timothy McVay muted the anti-death penalty movement for a good while.

So now the argument is that the justice system is imperfect, and some on death row may actually be innocent.

DNA analysis has become more accessible, and numerous wrongly convicted inmates have been exonerated. And there are other imperfections to that part of the justice system that determines guilt or innocence. But it doesn't make sense to try to balance an imperfection in that part of the system by an adjustment to the penalty. If there's an adjustment needed it should be at the conviction phase of the trial, not the punishment phase, so that observers will be satisfied that a guilty verdict means the defendant is guilty.

The penalty assigned to a defendant who is found guilty shouldn't be tempered by a feeling that maybe he/she isn't really guilty. If enough people see a problem with the justice system then the code should be rewritten to make it harder to get a conviction.

That's not likely to happen, though, and it's not just in Texas. We live in punitive times. The general public is much upset by the thought of a guilty person going free than an innocent person getting convicted. Look at the outrage over the Casey Anthony not-guilty verdict. And compare that with the yawning epidemic that breaks out upon news that some innocent person has spent decades in prison for something he didn't do.

But as for the Texas Tribune and Brian Williams, the issue isn't about guilt, innocence, or punishment. It's all about politics. The wind that blew Barack Obama into the White House is now blowing against Rick Perry.

Lefty civility -- computer game where players kills Tea Party people

Jimmie Hoffa would enjoy this game.  It would be unbelievable if the game "Tea Party Zombies Must Die" were not available for anyone to see. Copy and past this into your browser to see it for yourself: http://teapartyzombiesmustdie.com/

The player walks through a dark courtyard encountering zombie Tea Party people, slaughtering each one with an ax to progress to the next level. Then once the courtyard is cleared the player moves into the Fox News office. You see where this is going. The screenshot below shows a couple of the zombies the player will kill:

Here's a writeup at MRCTV.org.

Via BigHollywood via GraniteGrok.

Don't you just love this new civility from the left?

Flash mob New Zealand style

The Haka is an unforgettable dance. And tourists in Auckland, New Zealand, the other day must have been stunned when a flash mod Haka dance broke out.

Check it out at this Youtube link.  While you don't see it in this vid, the body part that really gives this dance an image to remember is the tongue.

No refusal Labor Day weekend

The local paper calls it "no-refusal" weekend. But the politically correct phrase is Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over. The "or" implies sober drivers won't get pulled over, however each of us can draw on our own experiences to decide whether that's the case. But the catch phrase probably sounded a lot more palatable to the focus group than "forced needle stick."

The no-refusal process is a fast track to an involuntary blood draw in which a Judge or Justice of the Peace is on call to sign a warrant against anyone refusing to blow. They had one in Houston earlier in the year, and here's a writeup of a cop car ride-along, including a description of the field sobriety test.

Speaking of field sobriety tests, we can't leave this without a link to Clementine Johnson of Reno 911 demonstrating the dance version of the field sobriety test, which in that case, resulted in a confession.

Party hard and drive sober.