From the comments thread on this article:
(Hattip: Erin Palette at Lurking Rhythmically.)
Quote of the day.
July 19th, 2012I want my two dollars!
July 19th, 2012Back in 2008, Austin Energy (the city’s electric utility) made a deal with Nacogdoches Power LLC to purchase the entire output of a proposed new power plant. The key here was that the new power plant would produce electricity from burning “wood waste”, a renewable resource, and thus would avoid potential federal taxes on carbon-based fuels.
This was not a popular decision at the time. Even the local environmental activists were opposed to the plant. Many people felt the city wasn’t releasing all the relevant information and was rushing into the deal.
The plant went live yesterday.
More:
Austin Energy is currently paying “a little more than” 4 cents a kilowatt hour for “coastal wind” power. If I’m reading the article correctly, natural gas is running at about 2 cents per kilowatt hour.
Sometimes, the questions are hard.
July 19th, 2012And sometimes there’s not an easy answer.
What is justice?
What is redemption? How do we decide when a person is redeemed? Are there crimes that are beyond redemption?
What is the purpose of prison? What should our goals be when we lock people up? Protection of society? Punishment? Reform?
How should we treat young people who commit horrible crimes? Do we lock them away for life? Do we give them a chance to reform? What if we’re wrong, and reform doesn’t take?
Greg Ousley is serving a 60 year sentence in the Indiana prison system. He’s been there since 1994. In that time, he’s earned a degree in liberal arts from Indiana State (summa cum laude, no less). The corrections staff at his prison apparently thinks the world of Mr. Ousley.
His former work supervisor, Cindy Estes, was more explicit. “This kid has jumped through every hoop the state has put in front of him,” she told me. “He deserves to come out. There’s absolutely nothing to be gained by keeping him in there for another 10 years.”
He’ll be eligible for parole in March of 2019, unless a judge agrees to modify his sentence.
What did Mr. Ousley do? At the age of 14, he shotgunned his parents to death.
I don’t know what to do with Mr. Ousley. I don’t claim to know whether he’s reformed enough that he deserves to be let out. I don’t have answers to those questions. The only thing I have is the knowledge that I’m glad I don’t work in the justice system, because I don’t have those answers.
What the frack is wrong with you people?
July 18th, 2012Not “you people” as in my regular readers. I’m sure you’re all tall, strong, above average in IQ, and every one of your bodily functions smells like a vanilla Glade plug-in.
No, I’m talking about the rest of the Internet who doesn’t read my blog and seems to be overrun with a massive sense of entitlement.
Item 1: The existence of the GR Bullies site. “GR Bullies” is apparently a website devoted to combating “bullying” on the GoodReads website (for values of “bullying” that seem to include posting negative reviews) by…acting like misogynistic bullies themselves. Good plan, guys; I’m sure Big Fred Nietzsche would approve. Or maybe not. I commend to your attention the take of John Scalzi, an actual professional writer who gets bad reviews from time to time, on this subject. (I also recommend reading the other three writers Scalzi links.)
Item 2: The existence of ChickLitGirls, a site that takes money for reviews, only posts positive reviews, and, when it is politely suggested that their pay-for-review policy may not be 100% clear, issues bumptious lawsuit threats.
(“bumptious”. Such a great word. I need to work that into my vocabulary, along with “gargantuan“.)
Item 3: “How dare you think Dark Knight Rises isn’t the greatest thing since the invention of fire?”
Item 4: “…those like my son who have disabilities have the right to live life with access to everything people who aren’t handicapped do.” So, therefore, Netflix is obligated to closed-caption streaming video. And, no, providing closed-captioned DVDs isn’t good enough. I am so sick and tired of hearing people like Ellen Seidman talk about “rights” without making a distinction between liberty rights and claim rights.
There are some things that should require accommodation; for example, access to governmental services. And it may be good business for Netflix to make this kind of accommodation. Right now, Netflix feels that it isn’t. (As other people have pointed out, Netflix gets the material it uses for streaming from studios, that material probably does not have closed captions, and the studios would be rightfully upset if Netflix started altering their property.) If you want to prove to Netflix that they’re wrong, don’t use the service, or start your own competing service with closed captions. If Netflix looses enough business, they’ll change their mind. But you don’t have a right to closed captioned streaming video, or, for that matter, to “access to everything people who aren’t handicapped do”. Down this path lies madness: should we build a wheelchair ramp to the top of Half Dome?
[Edited to add: Hattip on item 4 to Walter Olson at Overlawyered.]
Banana republicans watch: July 18, 2012.
July 18th, 2012Joe Wolfe has either resigned or been fired from the Fullerton, CA police department. Former Officer Wolfe was involved in the (warning!) Kelly Thomas beating death (as always, graphic image warning at that link), but has not yet been charged with a crime.
Add Compton to the bankruptcy watch. With a $42 million deficit, I doubt even a tax on rap groups with platinum records will help.
…the city has consistently fallen behind on payments to vendors, including its sheriff’s contract.
Remember when Compton was talking about reopening the Compton PD and spent $1 million on “equipment” before giving up? Good times, good times.
I’ve avoided blogging this next story because I felt like there was a limit to what my readers (many thanks to both of you) would put up with. Surprisingly to me, though, these banana republican updates have been among the most popular recent posts on my blog. You put up something thoughtful and original, and it gets ignored, but people seem to love California political corruption.
Anyway, there’s an ongoing case involving the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and accusations of bribes and kickbacks. The Coliseum is nearly broke, and USC is in talks to take it over.
A bunch of people have been indicted in the case. Former “general manager” Patrick Lynch has already pled to conflict of interest charges and agreed to repay $385,000 he got from a man named Tony Estrada.
Estrada is a former contractor with the Coliseum, and has been charged with “embezzlement and conspiracy”. Estrada is also a fugitive from justice.
Today’s LAT has an interview with the fugitive Mr. Estrada.
Tony Estrada, rocking the ski mask.
No joke. Mr. Estrada claims to be “somewhere in South America”; the interviews that make up the story were conducted by telephone and over Skype. (It is unclear to me how the LAT verified that the man in the mask was actually Estrada.)
And:
This just in: our old friend Cudahy City Councilman Osvaldo Conde (of the bimbo and the badge) has agreed to plead guilty to extortion and bribery. Actually, make that former city councilman: Conde resigned yesterday.
Conde is the last of the three indicted city officials (the others being former Mayor David Silva and former code enforcement head Angel Perales) to take a plea in the case.
Guns, guns, guns!
July 18th, 2012(This is also partially an Olympic watch.)
We’re the only ones professional enough…to shoot ourselves while cleaning our weapons.
The HouChron has a nice profile of Sergeant Glenn Eller, of the Army Marksmanship Unit. Sgt. Eller is competing in the shotgun double trap competition in the London Olympics. This is his fourth time at the rodeo; he won a gold medal in double trap in 2008. And he’s had an interesting time of it:
- In 2000, he got food poisoning from “an Australian ham salad sandwich” and finished 12th.
- In 2004, he finished 17th “after being informed before the competition of what proved to be a false positive drug test”.
- He won the gold medal in 2008, but the shotgun he used was stolen in 2011 while he was on his way to another competition. It took him a while to get used to the replacement gun, and he “…lost the automatic U.S. slot in double trap to his Army teammate, Staff Sgt. Josh Richmond, but won a place on the team when a second berth for the London Games opened up this spring.”
Worth noting:
You know, I like these AMU guys. It’d be fun to meet some of them and hang out. I wonder if the AMU will have a presence at next year’s NRA meeting?
(Joy! Also speaking of the AMU, Amazon says my copy of US Military Match and Marksmanship Automatic Pistols
Banana republicans watch: July 17, 2012.
July 17th, 2012Today’s tale is brought to you by the town of San Fernando, where voters are trying to recall three of the city council members.
Fiscal irresponsibility? Criminal acts? Election fraud? No. The oldest motivation in the world.
Councilman Mario Hernandez, who has already resigned (but is still up for recall), was carrying on an affair with Councilwoman Maribel de la Torre. For some reason, he decided back in November to announce this. At a council meeting. In public. With his wife sitting in the front row.
Since then, the relationship has deteriorated, to the point where police were called on June 28th; both parties have restraining orders against each other. Hernandez has asked the DA to drop the domestic violence charges against de la Torre: as you might know from watching “COPS”, or living in California, this decision isn’t up to the alleged victim, and the DAs office states they will pursue charges if the evidence warrants.
More:
Former councilman Hernandez may want to be very careful about that. I believe California still has laws against perjury.
Anyway, that’s two down. Number three on the recall parade is the Mayor, Brenda Esqueda, who is accused of having an affair with a sergeant on the police force.
I’ll have to try the “still are human beings” excuse sometime and see how it works out.
For Lawrence.
July 17th, 2012A 6-foot-long, 25 pound “Nile monitor lizard” is on the loose in a small town near Colorado Springs.
Carry your damn guns, people.
(What gun for lizard?)
A thought on application development.
July 17th, 2012As noted previously, I bow to no man in my admiration for John Moltz. It makes me very happy that he’s lined up a lucrative sponsorship deal for Very Nice Website.
But.
This week’s sponsor is a list-making application called “Ita”.
Well, that’s neat, but pretty much what I’d expect from a list-making application on the iPhone, as opposed to, say, a physical piece of paper. Indeed, I’d be willing to say this is the minimal level of function I’d expect from a list-making application.
Ita is beautiful, taking inspiration from high quality paper notebooks and classic typography.
Well, I’m kind of a type geek, and I think applications should look good…
And as you use lists, they’ll show signs of wear, just like a piece of paper.
Why? For Ghu’s sake, why? Isn’t the whole point of this application that it is superior to a paper list? Then why try to emulate the look and feel and wear of paper? What’s the point?
I’ll admit I haven’t used Ita; I don’t have an iPhone or iPad. I’d try the app if becomes available on Android. But I think the question is legitimate. Why are the developers trying to emulate some of the worst aspects of the thing they intend to replace, rather than…oh, I don’t know, maybe putting efforts into improving the app, or developing something new and cool?
Obit watch: July 17, 2012.
July 17th, 2012Some of these have been noted on FARK or elsewhere, but I want to round them up here for completeness:
Kitty Wells, noted country singer. (“It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”) (A/V Club.)
John Lord, keyboard player for Deep Purple.
I also wanted to say a few words about Donald J. Sobol. (NYT. WP. A/V Club. Patrick @ Balko.) I got a great deal of enjoyment out of Mr. Sobol’s work when I was young, and I am saddened by his death (though 87 is a good run).
As regular readers know, I generally do not solicit donations here. But I would like to note that in lieu of flowers, the family has asked for donations to the New York Public Library to support services for kids. You can donate here, if you’d like.
Olympic watch: July 16, 2012.
July 16th, 2012The LAT would like for you to know that the United States is not fielding teams in all the Olympic sports. Notable exceptions: soccer (the US team was eliminated), men’s field hockey, and team handball.
Interesting aspects:
- “Team handball” is apparently a thing.
- “…in 2006, the sport’s governing body was decertified by the USOC”.
- There is apparently such a thing as “professional handball”, at least in Germany.
- “…imagine LeBron [James] and [Derrick] Rose and others like him playing handball. It wouldn’t take long, with proper coaching and funding, to get those guys competing at a level needed to earn a trip to the Olympics.” Maybe, guy, but I’m not sure the skill set that makes you good at basketball translates to being Olympic level at handball, team or solo.
- The guy who currently runs USA Team Handball is David Gascon. Perhaps you know him better as LAPD Cmdr. David Gascon, former second-in-command of the department, and the guy who went on TV to announce O.J. was a fugitive. (I wanted to embed video, but I can’t find any on YouTube.)
The WP would like for you to consider what happens to athletes who don’t make the team. Do they defer their dreams until 2016? (Not if you’re a baseball or softball player; those sports ain’t coming back in 2016.) Do you go pro on the woman’s boxing circuit?
Claw shrimp!
July 16th, 2012Things I did not know until now:
- There is a lobster glut.
- The lobster glut is unlikely to create lower prices outside of the “lobster belt”:
Darn it. I’m not planning a trip to New England anytime soon, so there goes my chance to make a dent in the glut…
(Hattip: The Price Hike.)
(Hattip 2: Penny Arcade.)
Banana republicans watch: July 16, 2012.
July 16th, 2012Ah, San Bernardino. You may remember that the city filed for bankruptcy, and that city officials say the budget figures were falsified for 13 out of 16 years.
Yeah. Well.
More:
And the county sheriff is looking into “allegations of ‘possible criminal activity within departments of the San Bernardino city government”, just for the record.
“History can be well written only in a free country.”
July 16th, 2012(Quote attributed to Voltaire.)
A while back, there was a meme going around the gun blogs, asking “Why do you carry?” Answers to that generally fell into a couple of categories: “to protect myself/my family”, “because I can”, “because f–k you, that’s why”.
A kind of related question that I haven’t seen talked about is “why do you own guns in the first place?” Many of the answers are the same: self defense, because we don’t like people telling us what we can and can’t do, and so on. But one answer I haven’t really seen people talk much about is “history”.
Since I got back from the S&W Collector’s Association convention in Boise, I’ve been thinking about history and guns, both together and separate. There were a lot of intersections in Boise with areas of my own personal history, and there are some other things are just simply curious or interesting.
I believe an argument can be made that weapons are actually one of the cheapest ways to establish a connection to history for the common man. You can collect cars, for example, but it takes a millionaire’s pocket to collect anything historically significant. If you’re lucky, you might see a vintage warbird at an air show two or three times a year, but good luck touching one, let alone sitting in the cockpit. And flying one, again, requires a millionaire’s budget.
But I think there’s more going on than just the money element.
The mimes are food for the bums underground…
July 16th, 2012New York, New York!
This list includes Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, about which we have written previously.
On the other hand, are these hospitals better off without insurance?
Today is the 100th anniversary of the murder of Herman Rosenthal. Mr. Rosenthal was a small time crook who ran several gambling dens, and was allegedly paying off politicians and cops. One of the cops he was alleged to be bribing was Lieutenant Charles Becker of the vice squad; Lt. Becker raided Rosenthal’s establishment anyway, leading to a heated dispute between the two gentlemen.
This dispute ended with Mr. Rosenthal being shot outside a Manhattan hotel. Lt. Becker was tried, convicted, had his conviction overturned on appeal (due to alleged bias by the judge in the case), retried, convicted again, and finally executed. Lt. Becker is one of a very few police officers to face the death penalty for crimes committed while a police officer. (Incidentally, I still have not found an execution date for Antoinette Frank.)
The NYT has a retrospective article summarizing the case, and suggesting that Lt. Becker may have been innocent of ordering the Rosenthal murder. (There does not seem to be any question that Lt. Becker was a crooked cop; the main question is, did he order the murder, or were the killers acting independently?)
Historical note: one of the men who pinned the murder on Lt. Becker was Jack Rose. Yeah, that Jack Rose.
(Subject line hattip. Can I just mention that it is awesome that WikiQuote has an entire section of “Sam and Max: Freelance Police” quotes?)