Washington Post:
McCain Says He Would Put Conservatives on Supreme Court. “Here’s what McCain was really telling the party base: If you liked George W. Bush’s nominees, you’re going to love the judges John McCain will put on the bench.” Attempting to lock in in those doubting evangelicals, of course. Just remember a ‘true’ Strict Constructionist (in the anti-established-jurisprudence rhetoric of today) might limit your Second Amendment rights to flintlock Charlevilles ...
Reuters:
FDA bans certain cattle parts from all animal feed. Thank you, those who spy on prion(s) ...
Publisher’s Weekly:
New York Approves Libel Tourism Bill.
NY Times Opinion:
“The next president and Congress will have to work very hard to uncover all the ways Mr. Bush has twisted or evaded the law, and then set things right.”
SF New Mexican:
Governor appears in anti-DWI spots. To go off on a tangent, does anyone else think it is totally bizarre for a state to *announce* when they’re doing DWI checks? Even to the point of placing signs with flashing messages on major thoroughfares? It amazes me that they catch anyone ... yet there’s always a few dozen. I suppose preannouncing has a certain deterrent effect ... but how many more habitual drink-and-drivers would be caught and taken off the roads if the blitzes weren’t announced?
PDN Online:
Orphan Works Bill Would Establish Database Of Photo Copyrights.
SF New Mexican:
Man riding scooter cross-country gets mugged in Santa Fe. I assume he wasn’t wearing his helmet? You’d have to crack someone *really* hard to knock them out, otherwise.
CNN:
Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail.
The US Copyright Office
is experiencing delays. But you can help beta-test their new electronic system in the meantime.
NY Times Dining & WIne:
Smuggled grapes! Adulterated wine! Catastrophe!
Yesterday,
a cloud of smoke rose from the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus. The vid’s hilarious.
NY Times Business:
Did Ending Regulation Help Fliers? “That airline’s evolution is what some experts point to as the best proof of why deregulation, for all its troubles, ultimately is better than a regulated environment.” Given the recent disclosures of unsafe aircraft, I’d hardly say this was proof of the benefits of deregulation. It points to dangerous cost-cutting to maintain profit margin - and hinting at collusion with the regulatory agencies overseeing them. I still don’t understand why the FAA let SW slip by on inspections, when they’re so draconian with private pilots. There’s a big question mark there, that the media seems to be ignorant of.
SF New Mexican:
Police, public nab ‘polite robber’.
Times Online.UK:
I just don’t get how these violin players keep losing their rare violins. He put it on the luggage rack!?! When I travel with my cameras, much lower in cost ... the bag stays between my feet, strap over my knee. Anyone who’s commuted to NYC knows the luggage rack is ‘free game.’
NY Times:
Supreme Court Allows Lethal Injection for Execution. “Roberts said ‘a condemned prisoner cannot successfully challenge a state’s method of execution merely by showing a slightly or marginally safer alternative.’” Under the 1988 death penalty law, no method of execution is stipulated. Bush I approved lethal injection, which has turned out to be most economical for states. One or two still support gas, electrocution or firing squad (!). In this rather gruesome task, it seems states’ rights are fully upheld ... in more ways than one.
NY Times Editorial:
How to Judge a Would-Be Justice. The implication here, of course, is that Senators themselves never review the legal histories of nominees. Big mistake.
NY Times Editorial:
Immigration, outsourced. I’ll make the observation that history lies close to the surface here in the West. Do a search on ‘border lynchings’ and you’ll see the Mexican has suffered as greatly as other races, less publicly. The sentiment’s been the same for 200 years and more, for anyone considered ‘other’: “They ain’t human.”
SF New Mexican:
Feds secretly exhume bodies after looting at Civil War-era fort. “Federal officials learned of the looting in November 2004, when Don Alberts, a retired historian for Kirtland Air Force Base, tipped them off about a macabre possession he’d seen at Brecheisen’s home about 30 years earlier. Alberts described seeing the mummified remains of a black soldier with patches of brown flesh clinging to facial bones and curly hair on top of its skull. Alberts said the body had come from Fort Craig.” I would have poured concrete over the area, memorialized it with plaques, and let them rest in place.
Guardian.UK:
“For somebody who has spent 30 years in the music industry, you instinctively know this stuff is going on. But when you actually sit looking at your computer and see a number that says 95% of people are copying music at home, you suddenly go, ‘Bloody hell’ ...”
NY Times Editorial:
There Were Orders to Follow. “American and international laws against torture prohibit making a prisoner fear ‘imminent death.’ For most people, waterboarding — making a prisoner feel as if he is about to drown — would fit. But Mr. Yoo argues that the statutes apply only if the interrogators actually intended to kill the prisoner. Since waterboarding simulates drowning, there is no ‘threat of imminent death.’” This is like a perversion of purifying your karma ... you do a good deed with the intention of benefitting others, this benefits your karma (as I understand the function of karma). Now we get a legal interpretation that says deadly torture is not deadly because the intent is not to kill. Yet we live in a society where it is commonly accepted that if you are in possession of your wits, and you point a loaded gun at someone, you intend to kill - your intent is to harm. The loaded nature of the deadly weapon makes it assault, as I understand the law. Given the lawyerly interpretation above, you can see that any death by waterboarding would likely be classified by secondary symptoms ... heart failure due to tachycardia, lung damage, excess ingestion of fluids.
Yet for all this talk of waterboarding as a ‘good’ interrogative technique, we still don’t have Bin Laden, who was the original reason for flirting with the evils of torture.
NY Times:
Inspectors Say F.A.A. Ignored Violations. “Southwest acknowledged errors but maintains it did nothing unsafe. Herbert D. Kelleher, executive chairman of the company, said before the hearing began that ‘regulatory noncompliance and being unsafe are two different things.’” This is a rather old, rusty saw, this one ... but they’re turning it around the wrong way. In this case, you have a board of directors making flight decisions. Have any of them actually flown or repaired an airplane? Understand the stresses upon an airframe? This is why the FAA inspection protocol exists. A commercial flight outfit is not neutral in the go/no-go decision.
For the private pilot’s perspective, read ”A Gift Of Wings”, by Richard Bach. Particularly the stories about “Drake the Bandit.” As a general read, though, one of the most pleasant, optimistic books you’ll encounter. It’s an old friend of mine.
Washington Post:
Chinese Spy ‘Slept’ In U.S. for 2 Decades: Espionage Network Said to Be Growing. If their arms are like their exports ... no wonder.
SF New Mexican:
“An Englishman speaking on ‘thought transference’ during an international conference at La Fonda on Wednesday was stabbed in the leg by a Japanese man who seemed upset by his remarks ...” Obviously, some thought-wires must have gotten crossed.
CNN:
Inspector: FAA failures put passengers in danger. Of course they put pilots in danger. Read what standards private pilots who own aircraft are required to meet. You can’t keep flying the airplane if it’s not inspected. Commercial airlines get most of the advantages of our skies over private planes, much as cars get the highway advantage over bikes, but this was a very serious breach.
NY Times:
A Grim Tradition, and a Long Struggle to End It. Grim is right. Just north of Santa Fe, Española sustains a terrible habit. Heroin.
