The Stinging Nettle

On the death of Scott Carpenter

2013-10-10T23:50:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure why Scott Carpenter's passing is getting to me. He was an old man and it's certainly no surprise that 6 of the 7 men who willingly strapped themselves on top of a glitchy rocket with a known propensity to explode have now left us. But still, it's touching. It's like watching the cowboy disappear. Is it the essence of what I understood to be America fading away? I don't know. But each time one of the astronauts of the 60s dies, I wonder if we'll ever again achieve greatness.

The Mercury Seven were the best we had. They flew before I was born, but I grew up listening to the NASA records of their radio conversations, knowing all their names, knowing the order in which they flew and what happened to each one on their flights. Almost before I could read, I knew that John Glenn saw glowing "fireflies" following his capsule, Gus Grissom's capsule sank, and "for one brief shining moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen."

If you were a little boy in the early 70s, these guys were gods. Men my father talked about with awe. The last true heroes. 53 years after the Wright Brothers first placed man 15 feet above the sand in powered flight, Alan Shepherd and Yuri Gagarin went to space and back. 8 years later, we were on the moon.

In the 44 years since, my lifetime, we were supposed to follow on behind them. To the Moon, to Mars. Johnny Quest told me I'd vacation on space stations. My country would do great things because.... well, because it decided to do them. Instead, equally brave men and women flew a glorified delivery truck at great personal risk, and we sent a few robots to Mars.

I'm still waiting for my jetpack, and we can't even bring ourselves to feed the poor or stop slowly gassing the planet to death. Simple things are too hard. Great things get scrapped because they don't poll well. And somewhere, John Glenn sits alone and shakes his head. Godspeed, Scott Carpenter, and may we once again follow your example and do something grand, if only to prove we still can.

-DFL (I'm back)

BRAAAAAAAAAAIIIIINNNNNNNNNS!!!!!!

2011-04-25T10:31:00.000-04:00

The microbiology of zombiefication, or at least one potential type.

The research on aerosols made of Mad Cow mentioned in the article is truly terrifying.

Why do they hide this Obama?

2011-04-15T13:49:00.001-04:00

Obama, with his mike open, at a private dinner. MORE OF THIS, IN PUBLIC, PLEASE:

"When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure, he's just being America's accountant and trying to you know be responsible, this is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill -- but wasn't paid for. So it's not on the level."

Teddy Roosevelt: Republican

2011-04-15T00:44:00.000-04:00

Can you imagine what he would be called today if he gave this speech, say, in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, or in a rebuke to Congressman Paul Ryan's misanthropic joke of a budget?

"Now, this means that our government, National and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics. That is one of our tasks to-day. Every special interest is entitled to justice-full, fair, and complete-and, now, mind you, if there were any attempt by mob-violence to plunder and work harm to the special interest, whatever it may be, that I most dislike, and the wealthy man, whomsoever he may be, for whom I have the greatest contempt, I would fight for him, and you would if you were worth your salt. He should have justice. For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protection to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation.

The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of the commonwealth; who insists that the creature of man’s making shall be the servant and not the master of the man who made it. The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have called into being.

There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done.

* * *

The absence of effective State, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need to is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise. We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity, when exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows. Again, comrades over there, take the lesson from your own experience. Not only did you not grudge, but you gloried in the promotion of the great generals who gained their promotion by leading their army to victory. So it is with us. We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary.

No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar’s worth of service rendered-not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective-a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate."

Teddy Roosevelt, The New Nationalism Speech, 1910

Rep. Eric Cantor is a terrorist

2011-04-13T00:33:00.002-04:00

What else do you call someone who threatens devastation if he doesn't get his political way?

What Chris Says

2011-04-12T11:00:00.002-04:00

What is going on now in Raleigh in the name of "tort reform" is little more than criminality. Chris Nichols says it far better than I can. Go read it.

Defects in Legal Education

2011-04-12T10:48:00.001-04:00

So the President is going to adopt the debt reduction position of the Simpson-Bowles Catfood Commission. Wonderful.

It astounds me that a guy can become editor of Harvard Law Review and a Constitutional Law professor at the University of Chicago, let alone President of the United States, and, from all appearances, never once have learned anything about the strategy and tactics of negotiation. One class in Alternative Dispute Resolution would have done it.

Instead, we get to see the President tell his opponents exactly how far he's willing to go, which is much farther than he should go, and then fight off their intransigent opposition, get pulled to their side, and anger his base.

Stop me if you've heard this before. The President is going to announce a major initiative, after first giving in on a point that a significant portion of his base feels should be non-negotiable. Then he's going to propose it, and it will be met by complete rejection by the other side, who will propose some draconian ridiculousness that they will claim is the only acceptable position. Then they will bash him as a communist because he doesn't accept their position.

The President will then slowly negotiate his way to their side, using certain "moderate" Senators to float his series of cave-ins, all with the net effect of making him look like his original position is losing support in the Senate, leading to a series of stories about how he is weakening.

Then, in a last push just before a crucial deadline, he will win support of something that has the same name as what he proposed, but, because the GOP controls the House, contains things we never would support. And then the President will declare victory.

He is doing this all within two years of a major election, so that his base will be demoralized just in time to face the opposition, who will never have ceased calling him a traitor and a communist, such that his signature achievement is belittled, watered down, and ultimately politically damaging to his own party.

Sound familiar?

All for the want of a negotiation skills seminar.

Hey, how ya been?

2011-04-11T23:16:00.000-04:00

So I've been thinking that facebook and twitter, with their instant feedback and quick-shot ability to tell the world what you are thinking, are resulting in my thought processes being truncated, half-baked and aimed solely at the cheap laugh or the cutting insult.

Gone are the days of well-thought out posts about any number of issues, in long form, inviting comment and challenging readers to open their minds and weigh in.

But enough about Sharpedo and Shoveldog's posts, let's talk about mine.

I put so much of myself into this blog for so long, that I really want to get back into it. I want to keep writing, and I want to quit overwhelming my friends with my political posts on facebook.

So, if all goes as planned, I will begin again here at The Stinging Nettle, nearly 10 years after it originally started. It had become a diary of sorts. An uncomfortably public diary at times, but one in which I did much of my best writing. I haven't written a thing in two years on facebook of which I can say that.

So, let's see if we can get this started again, shall we?

Renee Ellmers's Racist Ad

2010-09-22T16:58:00.001-04:00

Congressman Bob Etheridge is the Congressman from the Second District of North Carolina. The Second District stretches from downtown Raleigh, through the suburbs of Southern Wake County, and into the surrounding suburbs and farmland of Johnston and counties south. It's a changing area, formerly rural, now rapidly urbanizing. It is the very definition of a swing district.

Now, thanks to the Tea Party, Congressman Etheridge is in a dogfight. And he's fighting a woman, Renee Ellmers, who has risen to Tea Party prominence on the back of a campaign against the Health Reform Plan, a campaign based on misinformation and gullible people who don't read for themselves.

But she just outed herself as a racist Islamophobe in her new campaign ad.

I promise you, you won't believe this one.

Today, the racist Mrs. Ellmers issued her very first ad. It's not about Congressman Etheridge. It's not even about Renee Ellmers, who she is, or why she's running for Congress.

It's a racist appeal to the worst elements of the Republican Party. Take a look:

If you want another Tea Party embarrassment to get elected, then ignore this, and let Bob Etheridge fight by himself.

But if you want to fight this kind of crap, and show the world that North Carolina and America do not reward extremists of ANY sort, then help Bob.

If you want to reward a true Democrat who cast tough votes FOR our agenda, then reward Bob. Unlike some Democratic Congressmen in this state who opposed their President's agenda (ahem, McIntyre, ahem, Shuler) or promised to support it and then voted against it (looking at you Kissell), Bob Etheridge told you how he would vote and then he supported the health care reform plan when asked to do so. He's a good man in a bad fight.

Here is Bob's wonderful statement on his health care vote.

And now you know what is opposing him. Racism. Ugliness. Extremism. Ignorance.

I think it's the worst ad ever in North Carolina politics.

And that is saying something.

Really saying something:

.I just gave money to Bob Etheridge.

.You can too.

Cross posted at The Daily Kos.

*edited. She's not a doctor. Good.

Hell No

2010-04-28T22:57:00.001-04:00

The Carolina Coast, 2009.

The Carolina Coast, 2029?

Hell no.

Interesting post showing the differences between American and non-American attitudes

2010-04-08T15:42:00.002-04:00

I'm watching the UK elections with some interest so this article, linked via Andrew Sullivan (who's starting to annoy me but that's another post), was of interest too. Background: the person who would become Home Secretary (equivalent to Secretary of the Interior) was commenting on a B&B operator who wanted not to rent rooms to gay couples. I'm not so concerned here about the subject matter of the article as about this comment:

Grayling's excuses for allowing on-going discrimination against gay people are bizarre. Nobody is forced to open a B&B. They choose to do so – and that means they can't turn away people based on arbitrary prejudices.

In the USA, that example would be turned completely on its head. It would read: "Nobody is forced to stay in a particular B&B. They choose to do so - and that means they can't force the owners to accept people they would want to turn away based on arbitrary prejudices." Because in the USA private parties are allowed to discriminate if they want to and there's not really all that much one can do about it.(*)

Americans often find it curious how non-Americans don't see the world the same way they do. This felt like a good way to show one difference in how a legal principle can set your way for viewing society.

(*) Yes I know that hotels are addressed specifically by an interstate commerce judgment whose cite I can't remember right now. But since it's the Masters and Augusta discriminates against women with no sanction, maybe you'll take the bigger point.

Here comes the science...

2010-03-14T15:43:00.002-04:00

From TFA:

The February issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review has published a meta-analysis of 55 independent studies conducted in the United States which considers surveys of over 20,000 mostly Christian participants. Religious congregations generally express more prejudiced views towards other races. Furthermore, the more devout the community, the greater the racism.
We also read this additional fascinating conclusion from the authors' summary:

"The authors failed to find that racial tolerance arises from humanitarian values, consistent with the idea that religious humanitarianism is largely expressed to in-group members. Only religious agnostics were racially tolerant."

Seriously. What the hell is wrong with you people?

2010-03-13T01:37:00.001-05:00

Republican Terri Leo, a member of the powerful Christian conservative voting bloc, called the standards "world class" and "exceptional."

Yes, those are the words I would use. But as adjectives.

Oh, Canada

2010-03-10T15:29:00.000-05:00

The effect of hockey on Canadian toiletry, graphically demonstrated.

The Jihad 7

2010-03-09T17:20:00.002-05:00

Am I the only one who thinks that, if/when the Jihad 7 or whatever the hell they're called produce a report on detainee treatment, they might not advocate for turning them all free with 40 acres and a mule or whatever we do in this country these days to people whose lives we've ruined? And if so, does that mean they were too soft on them because of time spent representing them? Or maybe it's evidence that representing them didn't make them soft?

I get dizzy from all the excitement.

Why Liberals and Atheists are More Intelligent

2010-03-01T14:05:00.002-05:00

Hey, I'm not the one saying it, I'm just the one proving it's true.

"The Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis, derived from the Savanna Principle and a theory of the evolution of general intelligence, suggests that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences (such as liberalism and atheism and, for men, sexual exclusivity) than less intelligent individuals, but that general intelligence may have no effect on the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values (for children, marriage, family, and friends)."

Market-subsidized health insurance

2010-02-28T18:38:00.002-05:00

Citing the examples of the mobile phone providers offering subsidized handsets in exchange for a multi-year service commitment and Google providing free broadband (to say nothing of tools like this) in exchange for ad sales, Mark Cuban asks whether there might be room for companies to provide health insurance to their customers and not just their employees. He goes on to suggest that perhaps for a commitment to buy all staple products from Walmart, Walmart could provide health insurance.

Interesting idea, but I'd revise a bit. What if, instead of a commitment to buy, you actually had to hook up your bank account so there would be an EFT of $X per month from you to Walmart and you'd get $X in Walmart store credit. That is, you'd get the full value of your transfer but it would only be usable at Walmart. Then Walmart would provide you with health insurance "for free" - it's free to you but not really because Walmart makes the profit from the goods you buy.

I don't know that I like this idea, but it's interesting to see someone finally think outside the box about ways the market could provide health insurance. Would the Reps actually consider recommending something like this though? Don't hold your breath: that would be suggesting a solution. That feels too much like work.

Oops...

2010-02-26T18:26:00.000-05:00

"After years of speaking publicly about her belief that MMR shots (immunization for measles, mumps, and rubella) caused her son to suffer from autism, Jenny McCarthy now faces the reality that her 7-year-old son Evan — who no longer shows any signs of autism — may likely have lived with completely different illness."

Oops. Tough break about that whole "encouraging people not to protect their children against deadly diseases" thing.

We all knew this was coming...

2010-02-26T14:43:00.000-05:00

It was then, witnesses claim, that there was a tearing of the heavens, and the skies receded as does a scroll when it is rolled up, and anecdotes about everyday middle-class Alaskan families were enunciated in down-to-earth tones.

"That's right, partner," Palin said, as every mountain and island moved from its place, and flames overtook the lakes and the rivers and the seas. "Thanks, but no thanks."

Jim Bunning is exceedingly lucky I don't live in DC

2010-02-26T10:56:00.001-05:00

Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), on his best days merely a cranky, out of touch old coot, has reached a new low.

Yesterday, on the floor of the Senate, he stood alone in objecting to unanimous consent to continue Federal Unemployment Benefits. And then he complained that the effort and time he was putting into starving some Americans of needed support was costing him a chance to attend the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game. The man deserves to have a ball from that game jammed somewhere where he would have an exceedingly difficult time extracting it without surgical help.

"Why so angry, DFL?" you ask? Because this one senile sunuvabitch is depriving a member of my family of unemployment benefits he needs to survive, that's why. I have a family member who lost his job last Spring, and has two teenage boys and a mortgage. He's in his late 50s and lives in a part of the country with more than 20% unemployment. The day before he was laid off he was a successful salesman. The next day, no job. No hope for a job. And two kids heading to college in the next two years.

So pardon me, Senator (and I use that word only in the sense that the people of Kentucky were stupid enough to entrust you with Henry Clay's seat, not because you deserve any respect), if I don't give a rat's hind parts whether you go see Kentucky's semi-professionals take on South Carolina. In fact, I'm glad you didn't get to go, since your evil, combined with that of Coach Calipari, might have been too much for Rupp Arena to contain.

The Internet still hasn't repealed Treaty of Westphalia

2010-02-24T15:36:00.004-05:00

Very interesting lawsuit in Italy results in Google execs being convicted for 6-month suspended sentences, according to C|Net. Google Video users uploaded a video of a kid with Down's Syndrome being teased, and when notified Google took down the video, but Italian law appears to consider this a criminal invasion of privacy. Google, not surprisingly, is appealing.

The Google argument in the press is hardly surprising: that the Internet is built on principles of free speech, that the notice-and-takedown provisions of EU law should have insulated them, and similar arguments that we've heard before from others and also from Google in other contexts (e.g. the AdWords trademark infringement suits).

I had the opportunity to speak recently with some people from the Department of Commerce about Internet regulation and raised this point with them: that protections like notice-and-takedown exist to protect ISPs but that they should be a shield, not a sword, and maybe you shouldn't build an entire business based on the existence of a defense. Google is making this same mistake. They will have no copyright infringement liability for a video if they take it down, sure: maybe I agree with that and maybe I don't but it's at least an arguable position. But this doesn't mean they escape all liability for everything.

The fact that their business model would break if they had to pre-review all videos: that's unfortunate, but no one forced them to make this their business. I may have an awesome idea about how to monetize the distribution of medicinal marijuana but that doesn't mean I get to do it. They have decided to go into the business of allowing people to post videos and only doing takedowns if they get complaints: fine, that's their choice. But Italy has decided to criminalize distribution of information that violates a person's privacy in the way that their courts have found this video did, and that's their choice too. And since 1648 states have been allowed to make laws inside their own jurisdictions, so in a dispute between a company and a government it's not like anyone should be surprised who wins.

Put a Tiger in your tank

2010-02-19T18:27:00.002-05:00

Is there anyone else out there who thought Tiger's news conference was about as interesting as taking two Ambien and watching your grandfather tell stories about the old country? Seriously, it was as well-staged as a grade school play: in front of a big blue curtain with your mom in the front row.

Pathetic. His wife should have pulled out the 9-iron of Thor and killed him where he stood. At least that would have been interesting TV.

Chips hating chips

2010-02-17T20:38:00.002-05:00

In keeping with my penchant for (a) The Economist and (b) The Book of Revelation, a great story about a VA law to prohibit involuntary implantation of microchips in humans so they won't have the mark of the Beast upon them. Added bonus: the law was sponsored by State Senators Chip Pearson and Chip Rogers.

America, folks. You can't make this stuff up.

How long was she governor again?

2010-02-11T01:06:00.002-05:00

Oh yeah, 3 and a half years. Now where have I heard that before... I know it's familiar... tip of my tongue...

[Revelation 13] 1And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. 2And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. 3One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. 4They worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’

5 The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.

6It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.

Oh yeah, that's it. I knew I had heard of her before.

Ladies! I'm Back!

2010-02-11T01:01:00.003-05:00

After an extended trip AWOL, I'm back like a cold sore. It's been a fun year hasn't it? To give just one example, we've seen:

- People get all excited about government-run health care without thinking about the awesome new taxes it'll bring (when I left Quebec I was paying 52% income tax and 15.56% sales tax).

AND

- People get all excited about killing government-run health care because they think it'll raise their taxes too high, without considering that if their employer is paying $6,000 CPH/year for health care then, unless they're making over $50K/year, that's the exact same thing as paying those taxes above to the government except that you're paying it to some random health insurance company.

The awesomeness is killing me. I have my snark on. This should be a fun ride.