MaxRedline

Casualty Of Bad Economic Times: The Death Penalty

Kansas Republican state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, who has proposed a bill to overturn the death penalty in the state, is one of a growing number of legislators nationwide who are citing drained resources and severe budget cuts as a reason to ban capital punishment.

This is a Republican?

"We're looking at any way we can to save money moving forward in the state of Kansas," McGinn told FOXNews.com. "This will save significant money -- money that could be used toward education programs and toward community corrections programs," she said.

This is a Republican?

There was a time, not so long ago, when Republicans stood for justice.  The lines have blurred to the point that Dems and Reps are essentially indistiguishable.  Forget about justice; let's spend more money on "education and community corrections programs".

No.  Let's kill the dirtbags who need killing.

Let's not feed them and house them and give them free medical care and free cable tv and free libraries for as long as medical science can keep them alive.  Something's wrong when we see stories like this: Jobless ex-con asks for more prison time.

The idea behind prison is pretty basic: it's supposed to be someplace you never want to revisit.  The idea behind the death penalty is even more basic: the threat you pose is permanently eradicated.

Bad Science And Bad Public Policy

Politicians and policymakers often rely on peer-reviewed academic research to justify public policy decisions, without realizing that academic peer-review rarely, if ever, involves verifying the data and calculations.

This is because in many cases, the authors simply refuse to release such materials in the name of confidentiality, proprietary concerns, or other issues.  While on the one hand, this all seems very noble and high-minded, the flip side is that science depends upon independent replication of results - and without access to data and algorithms, independent replication isn't possible.  Things get really sticky, then, when public policy decisions are rendered on the basis of conclusions published in peer-reviewed journals.

Oddly enough, the "peers" reviewing the material for publication tend to frown upon any conclusions that don't reinforce their own work or their own ideas.  This means that if your results are at odds with conventional orthodoxy, you will (a) likely not be published, and (b) likely be removed from grant consideration processes.  I've had personal experience in this regard:  back in the early 1980's, I worked with a prominent physical chemist on an especially intriguing issue - chemocommunication in elephants.

Her discussion of the flehmen response in elephants was thoroughly dismissed by experts, as they all "knew" that elephants do not exhibit such behavior.  Eventually, her article made the cover of SCIENCE - one of the most respected of peer-reviewed scientific journals - (but only after she altered the discussion from "flehmen response" to "flehmen-like response").  That issue opened my eyes, as it was subsequently demonstrated that the "peers" were dead wrong.  Moreover, after my observation of a behavioral correlation involving pacinian corpuscles and a chemocommunicative "gating mechanism" relating to substance placement, it is now generally accepted that chemocommunication plays a prominent role in elephant behavioral dynamics.  The much-pooh-poohed flehmen response does, in fact, occur among elephants, as do a range of other chemically-mediated behaviors.

Although humans have been living and working with elephants for some 3,000 years, the vast majority of our present state of knowledge regarding the behavioral biology of these animals has been elucidated only during the past thirty years.  And the "peer-reviewers" had it mostly wrong.

In terms of public policy decisions based upon peer-reviewed work, then, it's reasonable to go in with a healthy dose of skepticism.  AlGore and other "man-made global warming" enthusiasts routinely claim that "the science is in".  But the science is never completely in, which is one of the things that makes it such a fascinating field of endeavor.  And it is a huge mistake to base public policy decisions upon the sort of pronouncements that AlGore and his ilk so passionately promulgate, day in and day out.

AlGore and company have promoted mass hysteria by pushing - among other things - Michael Mann's 1998 "hockey stick" graph (as did the United Nations IGPC) as proof of an anthopogenic basis for global warming.  Mann, however, faked the data.

In 2006, the U.S. National Research Council investigated the issue and concluded that Mann’s study failed key tests of statistical validity. Mann’s conclusions were also deemed insupportable by an expert panel led by Edward Wegman, professor of statistics at George Mason University and chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Theoretical and Applied Statistics, which was convened at the request of the U.S. Congress.

It took eight years for the NRC to figure it out, primarily because Mann refused to identify the data and algorithms used to fudge his conclusion.  But hey - at least it was "peer-reviewed".

Street Art

Some folks refer to graffiti as "street art".  Unless they also include the typical canid treatment of fireplugs under the definition, nothing could be further from the truth.  Graffiti is simply vandalism with a catchier name.  By contrast, this is real street art:

Good News!

The recession's over; recovery is anticipated to begin in the middle of this year.  Does this mean we didn't really need to borrow a trillion dollars for a "stimulus package"?  And what are we to make of Hope'n'Change's empasis upon crisis?  He used the term some two dozen times in his last speech.  It almost seems as though he's attempting to inspire more fear, rather than "hope".

If Not The "Fairness Doctrine", Then What, Mr. President?

Last week, President Obama stated that he doesn't support a return of the "fairness doctrine".  Does he support the concept as long as it's called something else?

The Song of the Dodo

The title of David Quammen's 1996 tome on island biogeography may serve appropriately as well when considering the state of Oregon under governor Ted Kulongoswki and his merry band of Democrats.  In a surprisingly well-done article for The Zero, the fact that, despite throwing millions of taxpayer dollars into subsidizing "green" companies, Oregon stands to lose out to China (Ted's pretensions to the contrary notwhithstanding) is brought into the open.

Oregon officials are betting big with taxpayer dollars to snag solar manufacturers and their pledge of high employment — just as global prices are expected to plunge.  The heavy push by Oregon's politicians to become a world leader in "green" technology, in other words, is already short-circuiting.  Millions of taxpayer dollars have been tossed around in an effort to assure Oregon's "leadership" in the field.  And while that dowry has hardly been lost on potential suitors - as the head of German manufacturer Sulfurcell commented, "I heard that if you build a factory in Oregon," Meyer says, "the government will pay for it." - it appears indisputable that Oregon politicians are throwing tax dollars away in a futile effort to establish the state as a global player.

Oregon simply cannot compete with China in this arena.  That dream might have been attainable a decade or so ago, but Oregon's pols have never been especially noted for foresight.  If they had any brains, they'd drop the courtship like the hot potato it is and instead consider ways to profit from China's increasing affluence.  Ted and his cronies should drop their mulish disdain for the forest products industries, for example, and instead work to assist them in sustainable management and harvesting practices and the development of new approaches to maximizing potential.

Tunnels Under Town?

From the "Gee, why didn't we think of that" file: having spent several billion dollars tearing up downtown Portland's streets (and running many businesses into the ground) to install light rail on the "transit mall", it's suddenly occurred to the brain trust at Metro that they should maybe do something different.  The fact that it takes 20 minutes for a light rail rider to travel three miles in downtown Portland has somehow proven to be less than ideal.  Now, as they plan additional light rail lines, they're starting to look at some alternatives.

Separately, Metro is studying how to improve connections for commuters who work in one suburb and live in another. MAX trains take more than 20 minutes to cross three miles of downtown Portland, stopping 14 times.

"We have definitely heard from the Westside employers about the employees they might want to reach across the region," Mendoza said.

The agency's options include tunneling under downtown or running a MAX express line on streets through downtown Portland. It's also studying a similar surface street shortcut for north-south trains.

Metro epitomizes the concept of government run amok, which is why after thirty years of existence, it remains the only regional government in the USA.  Metro prides itself as a "model for the nation", and it truly is: everybody else looks at Metro and says "Thanks, but no thanks".

The voters went along with a plan to build 15 miles of light rail from downtown Portland to downtown Gresham, at a cost of $214 million.  Most of the cost was federal and state tax dollars intended for highways; Portland area voters themselves ponied up a mere 5% in funding.  Ever since construction started in 1982, it's been characterized in glowing terms: Represents our region's shift toward innovative land-use and transportation planning, Catalyst for more than $4.7 billion in development and revitalization (particularly in Portland City Center and the Lloyd District), Ridership has exceeded expectations.

Despite the glowing reviews from Metro's "planners" and other governmental dweebs, voters rejected Metro's next two light rail ballot measures.  We recognize lies when we hear them, and one of the big lies, as we all know, involves the "catalyst for development".  Virtually all development along the line has been taxpayer-subsidized.  We recognized that the line was nowhere near the success story they claimed, and plainly put, we'd rather have freeways and roads that are in good repair.  Metro can't stand that.

Thereafter, no light rail plan has ever been submitted to a public vote.  They recognize that people in general don't want light rail, and they consider that view to be stupid.  Thus, they simply find ways to sidestep the democratic process, and build the things anyway. 

After all, "ridership has exceeded expectations".  That'll happen when you don't have to pay to ride.  Gang-bangers and drug dealers simply love it.

McDonald's Or Starbucks?

Overall, a recent poll indicates that Americans in general would prefer to live in neighborhoods with more McDonald's than Starbucks.  The further breakdown is illuminating: conservatives are more likely to ask "Where's the beef?", while Starbucks aficionados are liberals. 

Where to start? Well, ever heard the phrase: "latte-drinking liberal"? Evidently there's something to it. Among self-described liberals, Starbucks carries the day, 46%-33%.

Now that McDonald's has gone the gourmet route with its coffees while Starbucks is laying off hundreds and closing stores it remains to be seen whether the relationships continue.

He Won't Get Far

WASHINGTON (CBS/AP/WRC) -Police are preparing to arrest one Ingmar Guandique in connection with the Chandra Levy case.  Levy, as you may recall, was the 24-year-old intern with whom California's Gary Condit was involved.  She disappeared in May of 2001; her remains were found a year later.  Guandique has apparently been linked to the murder, and this arrest should be especially easy to carry out because police know his exact location: he's in jail for assaulting two women in Rock Park - the same park in which Levy's remains were discovered.

Kulongoski Spotted In Seattle; Zoo Locked Down

Portland Governor Ted Kulongoski apparently paid a visit to the Seattle area yesterday, causing quite a stir.  This was surprising, because Ted usually sleeps the day away, and rarely ventures out of his Mahonia Hall bedroom/office.  One can scarcely blame the good zookeepers at Woodland Park Zoo for quickly locking the place down and felling him with a tranq dart, as the Portland Governor could easily be mistaken for any of a number of monkey species.