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7.27.2002 11:26 AM Here's the transcript of the House debate on expelling James Traficant. I don't have anytime right now to find the funny stuff (off to a family reunion), but I'll be digging for some good nuggets later today/tonight. UPDATE: Don't bother with the above link. Bill pointed out in the comments that it's a temporary link. He recommends going to this link and clicking on item 39. That's the closest he could get. Not the best. The Library of Congress can do better than this can't they? Thanks, Bill. Sean Hackbarth | 11:18 AM McCain hosting SNL can't possibly be worse than when Steve "Teve Torbes" Forbes hosted a few years back. Forbes tried really, really hard, but he had no sense of comic timing or any ability to be funny other than looking like a bad joke. "Sen. McCain to Host 'SNL' This Fall" Sean Hackbarth | 7.26.2002 2:24 AM Philip Morris actually supports FDA regulation of cigarettes. In the past, PM has spent millions of dollars to stop any regulation of their products. Why the change? PM wants to develop a "safe" cigarette and FDA approval would help. Also, FDA regulation would lock in PM's dominant market share. Here's a case of a company trying to use government force to lock in perpetual profits. Now, if that isn't corporate corruption, then what is? It may not be illegal, but it certainly is immoral to the values of a free market. "Smoke Screen" Sean Hackbarth | 2:08 AM Michael Kinsley on Washington's lust to pass corporate reform legislation:
"The New Bull Market" Sean Hackbarth | 1:46 AM This idea of posting one's notes from a lecture is irritating. It's cool to know that Doc Searls has the technology available to put down his thoughts about Larry Lessig's speech for the rest of the world to see. What I don't see is the added value. I don't care what points Searls jotted down into his computer. If I wanted to know what Lessig said, I'd visit his web page or the OSCon web page and hope there's a copy of his speech available. (Haven't found any.) What I want from Searls is his reaction to Lessig's speech. Was it good or bad? Was he convincing? Did Searls learn anything new from Lessig that he didn't already know? An evaluation of the speech is more important than some brief notes. "Live from OSCon" Sean Hackbarth | 7.25.2002 3:49 AM James Traficant gets the boot. No surprise. I should have watched C-SPAN to see what happened to deserve this paragraph from the story:
Could they have been "Beam me the f*** up!"? I'll never know. "House Expels Ohio Rep. Traficant" [via Drudge] Sean Hackbarth | 2:21 AM Despite the bear market and corporate scandals, most Americans believe that individuals should have the freedom to invest part of their Social Security taxes as they see fit. A more interesting question is how these people would act if their investments collapsed due to poor choices. Will the person who put every last penny into WorldCom beg for increased retirement benefits from the government to compensate for his lack of diversification? Being a cold-hearted conservative, I would say, "too bad." But if enough people were to start crying to their legislators, you could see government trying to "solve the problem." "Partial Social Security Privatization OK, Most Americans Say" Sean Hackbarth | 2:14 AM If this D.C. suburb actually is dumb enough to impose light pollution laws, expect a rise in crime. Residents will never see the bad guys coming. "No Dimming the Controversy of 'Light Pollution' in DC Suburb" Sean Hackbarth | 2:04 AM Rush Limbaugh has an answer to Apple's woes: Steve Jobs should get off his Democratic high horse and advertise on Rush's show. But that would require Jobs to actually "think different." "Apple Stupidity" [via Eat the Press] Sean Hackbarth | 7.24.2002 7:10 PM If the Supreme Court hadn't of nationalized the abortion issue with Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Wade, then a bill passed by the House that would ban partial-birth abortions would be more troublesome to me as a federalist. Questions of crimes like theft, assault, rape, and murder should be left to lower levels of government. What interest could the federal government have in a murder unless it crossed state lines? Even then, the most serious question would be what state had jurisdiction. Abortions happen in one state. As such, states should be left to define the crime (or not to define it at all) based on the values and beliefs of its citizens. While I write this, I have a qualm with my reasoning. It feels too much like Sen. Stephen Douglas' answer to the slavery question in the 1800s: popular sovereignty. That was no answer because it went against the heart of the American ethos: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." The result of Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska Act was small-scale civil war over "Bloody Kansas." I'll leave this as an open question. "House Backs Controversial Abortion Bill" UPDATE: President Ronald Reagan wrote an essay on the 10th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In it he points out the obvious, yet neglected point about the court's decision:
"Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation" Sean Hackbarth | 6:44 PM Despite the quickness of the arrests of members of the Rigas family, founders of Adelphia, a USA Today story reports that indicting and prosecuting executives is a long, arduous process. In many cases, piecing together white-collar crime takes considerable crimes. It's not like determining who broke into a house and stole the TV. Prosecutors must determine if a crime took place or if executives' actions were just poor business mistakes. Just because a business goes into bankruptcy and cost investors their investments it doesn't mean the management intended to defraud anyone. More difficulty in getting execs is their access to good, lawyers. Law professor, William Stuntz calls government lawyers facing legal hot shots "Goliath and Goliath." Despite the hurdles facing prosecutors, their efforts will give investors confidence in the capital markets. To say that people immediately phoned (or clicked) buy orders after seeing John Rigas led to a car in handcuffs is going too far. Just as some shouldn't blame the market's recent slide to to President Bush's "lack of tough talk," some shouldn't base one or a few news stories on the market's leap. Today's market rise may have more to do with a realization that corporate profits are doing alright. People may also have seen today as a good day to buy hard-hit stocks that got swept up in the bear market. What the arrests of the Rigas family members does is let the public know that the government is actively engaged in their proper role of enforcing law. Mark this date down; it could be the end of the bear market. "Former Adelphia Execs Arrested for Fraud" "Why It's Tough to Indict CEOs" "Stocks Rebound, Biggest Gain Since '87" Sean Hackbarth | 7.23.2002 4:16 AM Reason's Sara Rimensnyder points out the worth of bankruptcies:
What bankruptcies do is reallocate economic resources from owners with lesser ability to owners of better ability. Suppose US Air goes under. American Airlines, Delta, Northwest, or even someone outside the airline industry could swoop in and buy part or all of the assets. By getting them at a cut-rate price, the new owners have a better chance of making a profit. The winners are the new owners and customers who should find a better product at a better value, while the losers are the former investors who were wrong with their investment, the old management who couldn't properly run the airline, and the employees who weren't adding enough value to deserve remaining hired. Like the price system, bankruptcies are a signaling mechanism letting society know that resources are not being used effectively. "Flying High" Sean Hackbarth | 7.22.2002 1:46 PM Pollution may have played a role in causing drought in Africa. The climate is a complex thing. Just as I won't jump to conclusions about man-induced global warming, I won't quickly accept the conclusions of these scientists. But suppose that pollution from the industrialized West caused a lack of rainfall in Africa, that doesn't mean it caused a famine. There's a difference between production and distribution. A lack of rain caused a decline in production; a lack of free markets caused a distribution problem. Countries like Ethiopia and Sudan were (and still are) plagued with war and authoritarian rule. One side prevented food that was available from being transported to where it was needed. It was used as a weapon. This story shows that these scientists need to have a more wholistic view before making their conclusions. A good dose of economics, history, and political science would have done wonders. "1970-85 Famine Blamed on Pollution" Sean Hackbarth | 1:53 AM TAM has a spiffy new look that I've been tweaking for a few weeks. The now almost cliche blogroll is up instead of a portal. Maybe, that will lift me a little in the weblog ecosystem. Thanks go to Helquin for the basic template (with plenty of tweaks) and BlogSkins for offering a great service to webloggers not graphically-inclined. (Not all of us can be Photoshop whiz-bangs like Patrick.) Any problems are completely my fault. If you notice that something just doesn't look right e-mail me. Sean Hackbarth | 1:32 AM Jane Galt's easy to learn public choice economics:
Not as sophisticated as James Buchanan, but you get the drift. Oh, and read her fine examination of drug reimportation. [via Patrick Ruffini] Sean Hackbarth | 12:35 AM Howie Kurtz's "Awful Headline of the Week" is tasteless, yet funny.
Sean Hackbarth | 12:23 AM There's little real news about Janet Reno's dance party except that Gov. Jeb Bush's campaign manager got complementary tickets. Did some Miami house music bring a little Peace, Love, and Unity (PLU) to the campaign? "Reno's War Chest Is Lacking, but Her Dance Card Is Full" [via Drudge] Sean Hackbarth | 12:00 AM A few weeks ago, TAM international correspondent, Eric G. recommended "What We Think of America". It's actually an issue of the magazine, Granta, and their website has selected essays from that issue. Sean Hackbarth | 7.21.2002 11:23 PM Be very wary of altering posse comitatus. The legal prevention of military forces for domestic police work has allowed the U.S. to have a large standing army in peacetime (abhorred by many of the Founding Fathers) with little threat to liberty. "U.S. Mulls Military's Domestic Role" Sean Hackbarth | |
ABOUT When I'm not pondering the fate of the universe, I'm reading, writing, or selling books. Here you'll find comments on politics, culture, books, and music. Not necessarily in that order. MAILBOX sean--at--theamericanmind.com  Support democracy and human rights in Iraq! 
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