Just Say NO to Concealed Carry

Do you wonder how much Facebook knows about you? Or just what it knows that leads to Facebook filling your feed with ads like this:

Say NO to sweaty holsters that print and hurt. Say YES to one that carries three extra magazines and can be worn with Gym Shorts. Fall back in love with concealed carry.

Rest assured that Facebook's algorithms can't be all that good that it thought I would be a good target customer for that ad.

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P.S. The next ad Facebook decided to show me asked, "How much will a DWI cost me in Texas?" Does Facebook know something about me that I don't?

Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty

A blogger I've admired for over a decade (I think it's been that long; my memory might fail me) has recently decided to scrub the Internet of all of her old opinions. I know, I know, foolish quest. The Internet is forever. Anyway, she posits a new law: "Nobody should be allowed to put any of their dumbass thoughts or feels on the internet until at least 30."

When I was young, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the campus anti-war movement had a rallying cry, "Don't trust anyone over thirty." I'm well past that milestone now, but I still think there's a nugget of wisdom there.

Wars are still started by old men but fought and died for by young men.

National debt is still piled up by old men but inherited by the next generation.

And absolute gun rights are enshrined and defended by old men but we bury the child victims that result.

Don't trust anyone over thirty. Still sounds good.

Mega Millions $450 million jackpot

The Mega Millions $450 million jackpot was won by one lucky person. Not me. I knew that before the drawing because I didn't buy a ticket. But after the drawing, I knew that I wouldn't have won because the numbers I would have picked weren't the winning numbers. You see, I always don't play the same numbers. Once again, the numbers I always don't play didn't win. Lucky me.

 

The average American spends about $200 a year on lottery tickets, although residents of some states spend far more. According to a study by LendEDU, the average Massachusetts resident spends $735 annually on lottery tickets, while those in Delaware or New York are likely spending about $400 a year, or $33 per month.
-- CBS News

So always never playing the same numbers saves me $200/year without ever missing out on the jackpot...yet.  ;-) 

The Life Cycle in Christmas Cards

In early middle age, more and more Christmas cards you send aren't returned, because your friends' addresses no longer change so much from year to year.

In late middle age, sending Christmas cards gets more depressing as first a few and then more each year get returned marked "deceased."

Be thankful for middle, middle age. It's not a stable state of nature and it won't last forever.

May I Have a Word: Just Joking

When Al Franken defended his boorish behavior towards a woman on a USO tour, his defense was that he intended it as a joke that, in hindsight, was never funny. Donald Trump "jokes" repeatedly, for example encouraging rough treatment by police when arresting suspects. Or at least that's how his apologists explain his statements: just joking. Most people don't accept the "just joking" defense (and for the record I don't either), but I read something today that explains where it comes from:

Humor is often a kind of aggression. Being laughed at is aversive and feels like an attack. Comedy often runs on slapstick and insult, and in less refined settings, including the foraging societies in which we evolved, humor can be overtly sadistic.

Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works

So, yeah, many people find cruelty to others to be funny. For them "just joking" is not just a defense. It's the simple truth of what those people find to be "funny."

Where Is ... the Slash Pine?

Staycations in Richardson

From Where Is ...

This is the third in an occasional series of photos for which readers are challenged to identify the location where the photo was taken.

Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Richardson blog, solicits ideas for "interesting and inexpensive" staycations in Richardson this summer. His first suggestion is to visit the China Town mall on Greenville Avenue, which "includes a bunch of Asian restaurants (including one Vietnamese and one Korean), a bakery, a couple of music and book stores, a couple of beauty salons, and a restaurant supply store where you can find Asian specialties like woks." If you're Chinese-American and already frequent this mall, this may not be much of a staycation, but if you're a white-bread European-American who can't tell the Chinese character for "woman" from a Picasso sketch of a woman, then get adventurous and make a trip to China Town over the summer.

In the same spirit, I offered a couple suggestions of my own. First, take in a Bollywood movie at Richardson's FunAsiA, "an interesting eco system of theaters showing Bollywood and other Indian language movies, banquet halls, radio stations and a magazine called as DesiPages." (Jeffrey Weiss ran with my suggestion, highlighting it in his own blog post "Hooray for Bollywood.")

But if Slumdog Millionaire is as close to Bollywood as you care to get, then how about seeking out and patronizing one of Richardson's non-traditional bookstores before Amazon.com drives them all out of business? Here's what a quick Internet search turned up, but be warned: businesses come and go and some of these bookstores might already be gone.

• World Bookstore
• Richland Bookstore
• Herald Book Store
• China Books & Arts
• Keith's Comics
• Half Price Books
• Medbooks
• Off Campus Books

Finally, if you want to get outdoors this summer, then how about going on a scavenger hunt for an Elderica Pine or a Lace Bark Elm or any of a couple dozen other species of trees found in Richardson? The City of Richardson conveniently provides maps. In today's photo challenge, readers are asked to identify the location of the Slash Pine in the photo above. As before, the first reader to supply the right answer wins a year's free subscription to "Ed Cognoski."

May I Have a Word? Hearsay

Withdrawn, your honor

I was met with some objection when, in a comment to a recent blog post, I described readers' reports of what was said at a Richardson City Council meeting as hearsay. I said, "I now have hearsay from two people and still no video, audio, or transcript of any of this talk."

You would think I called the reader a liar. Which, I guess, when it comes right down to it, maybe I carelessly did, although that was not my intent. Most hearers can be forgiven if they understood the word to mean idle gossip or, worse, malicious rumor or even deliberate untruth. It's often used that way. Instead, all I intended was the neutral connotation as defined by Dictionary.com:

hearsay [heer-sey] noun
1. unverified, unofficial information gained or acquired from another and not part of one's direct knowledge

My knowledge of what was said at the city council meeting consists solely of unofficial information acquired from this reader and not part of my own direct knowledge. In other words, according to this definition, my knowledge is hearsay. That implies nothing about the truth or falsehood of what I heard, only that I heard it from another and didn't experience it myself.

Then there's the legal definition of hearsay. Wikipedia defines hearsay as "information gathered by Person A from Person B concerning some event, condition, or thing of which Person A had no direct experience." In the legal sense, the report from that reader (Person B) of what was said at the city council meeting is not hearsay. It's evidence of what the reader heard. In contrast, if I were, in turn, to report what was said by the city council members, using only the first person's report as my source, my report (as Person A) would be hearsay, because I didn't hear the city council's discussions myself.

All clear? The lesson, for me, is that hearsay is the kind of word that's OK to use by professionals in a controlled setting like a courtroom. It's also the kind of word to use to insult someone, if that's your intent. But it's not the kind of word to use in any kind of neutral sense, at least not without running the real risk of insulting someone. So, your honor, you are right to sustain the objection. I withdraw my statement.

Sonia Sotomayor is one "Wise Latina"

... and Rod Dreher is sometimes one wise Cajun

I have my differences with Rod Dreher of The Dallas Morning News (actually, lots of differences), so I feel it's only fair to recognize instances where Dreher gets it right. Like many conservatives, Dreher jumped on some out-of-context remarks by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to suggest she is guilty of racism and sexism. Today, Rod Dreher supplies the context of the remarks and admits that, in fact, the judge's remarks were "both idealistic and realistic" instead of racist or sexist. Says Dreher:

"Taken in context, the speech was about how the context in which we were raised affects how judges see the world, and that it's unrealistic to pretend otherwise. Yet -- and this is a key point -- she admits that as a jurist, one is obligated to strive for neutrality."

Kudos to Rod Dreher for putting the sound bite into context, for putting journalistic integrity above partisan political advantage. Dreher does mean well, even if his own upbringing sometimes warps the way he sees the world. ;-)

RISD court supervision; Ebby Halliday; Richardson Council recommendations

The Nightly Build

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Is Racial Discrimination Still A Problem in the RISD?

Like many cities and school districts in the South, the Richardson ISD has been under court supervision, since 1970, to ensure that racial discrimination is not a factor in district policy. On Monday, the school board voted to formally ask the federal courts to end that supervision.

My first reaction to the news was, is that supervision still in place? Richardson's diversity is one of its best features, and I believe that feeling is generally shared. The Richardson ISD is the state's largest "Recognized" school district and has achieved that distinction three years running. That can't be without focusing on the education of all students, in fact, without giving extra attention to the under-achieving students. Racial discrimination is incompatible with such results.

Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Richardson blog, reports the school board's request to the courts, then asks readers for their opinion. Twenty four hours later, there was no reader comment. That supports what I suspected, that racial discrimination is just not a hot-button issue in Richardson.

I was all set to give resounding support to the school board's request to end federal supervision. Then I read the remaining concerns cited by the chair of the Bi-Racial Advisory Committee. RISD still employs a relatively small percentage of minority teachers. Student discipline still has inequalities. There are still "racially identifiable" schools. And what might happen to the magnet schools if court supervision is removed?

It made me wonder if it's only because court supervision is still in place that the issue is even being discussed. Otherwise would the RISD try to identify opportunities for further progress? What risk is there that Richardson will slip backwards without such oversight? Richardson's diversity is a big plus for the city, in my view, but what the city has achieved probably is due, in part, to the threat of federal court intervention.

Richardson could be proud if federal court supervision is no longer deemed necessary after all these years. On the other hand, I won't mind a bit if it's maintained for now, if only to remind us now and then to continue on that path of a more perfect union.

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How Many Votes Will Ebby Halliday Cast?

Two candidates for Richardson City Council Place 3 both claim to be endorsed by Ebby Halliday. Sheryl Miller's Web site claims "ENDORSED BY REAL ESTATE LEGEND EBBY HALLIDAY." Chris Davis' Web site lists as her first endorsement, "Ebby Halliday-Acres [sic] -- Real Estate Icon." Either Miller or Davis is fibbing or else Ebby Halliday-Acers is having trouble keeping track of her endorsements. Not that it matters. Ebby Halliday lives in Dallas and won't be voting for either Miller or Davis.

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Richardson City Council Recommendations

Election Day is Saturday, May 9. Polls close at 7:00 PM. My recommendations for Richardson City Council are below. Reasons for the recommendations have been discussed at length on the blog over the past month. (There's even a comment where I reveal which way I will be voting in Place 7, although my "no recommendation" here still stands.)

• Place 1: Bob Townsend
• Place 2: Mark Solomon
• Place 3: John Murphy
• Place 4: Gary Slagel
• Place 5: Pris Hayes
• Place 6: Steve Mitchell
• Place 7: No recommendation

Richardson Place 7; Racist fliers; Swine flu

The Nightly Build

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Omar Joins Stewart in Going Negative

From the beginning, I've had a problem picking a candidate for Richardson City Council for Place 7. The race is between the incumbent Dennis Stewart and challenger Amir Omar. I couldn't support Stewart because of his negative campaign tactics. I couldn't support Omar because of his call for a senior citizen property tax freeze. I ended up not making a recommendation at all for Place 7.

As the campaign unfolded, I began liking Amir Omar. In the forums, he came across as an intelligent, informed, composed politician. He did not emphasize the property tax freeze. He refused to get drawn into the mud by Stewart's personal attacks. There was one question at one forum that showed the kind of positive campaign Omar was trying to run. When asked to name one good thing about his opponent, Omar had no trouble saying nice things about Stewart, after first saying the question made him violate one of the pledges he made to himself, a pledge to campaign on his own merits and not talk about his opponent at all. There is a lot to like in Amir Omar.

So, what are we to make of Amir Omar's latest campaign mailing? There, in big, bold print, Omar accuses "our Place 7 City Councilman, Dennis Stewart" of being one of "those." "Those" are "elected officials who talk 'conservative' during a campaign, but fail to vote that way when in office." Omar implies that Stewart, being one of "those," doesn't share the same values as the rest of us. Omar closes with "it's time to defend the values we share."

In one mailing, Omar reneges on his public pledge not to criticize his opponent. He makes the unsupported charge that Dennis Stewart is not conservative. The claim is questionable at best, laughable at worst, but still may play well in conservative north Texas among voters who are not familiar with Dennis Stewart. And Omar again makes the senior tax freeze the centerpiece of his campaign. This is bad public policy. It distorts the tax burden, discriminating based on age rather than ability to pay. It's pandering. It may be good politics in the short run, but it's bad public policy in the long run.

Now that he, too, is guilty of making negative attacks on his opponent, a recommendation to vote for Amir Omar is even harder to justify. D*mn. I really tried to like him, too.

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Racist Campaign Fliers In Dallas

Just when one begins to despair of the negative tone in the Richardson City Council race, one comes across news like this to remind one of what nasty political campaigns can be like. Come on, y'all. Stay classy.

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Preparing For the Pandemic

The World Health Organization has raised its swine flu pandemic warning level to 5. Rod Dreher, in The Dallas Morning News, tells how his family is preparing. He's pulled his child out of school and has stocked up on hand sanitizer and food. Is that all? I'm surprised the decline of Western Civilization didn't lead him to do all that and more long before now. In the past, news of Dan Brown releasing a sequel to Da Vinci Code would have been enough to cause Dreher to pack his truck and move his family back to Louisiana. Now, he's not evacuating for a level 5 pandemic. Kudos to the new calm, collected, unflappable Rod Dreher.

P.S. To be clear, this blog item is about Rod Dreher, not swine flu. A swine flu epidemic is nothing to joke about. Rod Dreher, on the other hand, is fair game. He asks for it. ;-)

Ron Kirk; Bando Show

The Nightly Build

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"It Ain't Undone Yet," Kirk Says

What's former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk been up to lately? I mean other than paying back taxes, kissing up to senators in confirmation hearings and preparing for his Cabinet-level position as US Trade Representative? Well, he's been second-guessing the Army Corps of Engineers.

Todd Gillman, in The Dallas Morning News, interviews Kirk, who says, "I just find it remarkable that you would wait until you've gotten that far along with bridge construction and now raise a concern about the integrity of the levees." Like this is the first time someone's questioned those levees. Katrina should have been a wake-up call to the danger posed by those aging earthen levees protecting downtown Dallas from Trinity River floods. And this spring's floods in Fargo, North Dakota, should serve as a start reminder of the danger of river flooding far from coastal hurricane zones. Kirk pretends that the risks posed by those levees is, in fact, what was behind the Trinity River project all along. "We knew the levees needed strengthening. That was the whole purpose of this program, to restore the structural integrity of the levees."

If you thought those comments would get past Unfair Park's Jim Schutze, you haven't been following Schutze's coverage of the Trinity project. Schutze appreciates that Kirk is an effective lobbyist, but he just doesn't see the public rising up in anger with the Corps, demanding that the Trinity River project go forward, unsafe levees be damned. I'm with Schutze. The Corps aren't the bad guys here. The powers that be that have pushed this ill-conceived plan to build a tollway inside and partially on top of the levees that are all that protect downtown Dallas from ravaging floodwaters are the bad guys. And they haven't had a change of heart yet. "It ain't undone yet," Kirk says.

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Best Spring Show Yet

The Richardson Berkner High School drill team, the Bandoleras, are putting on their annual spring show. The show, titled "Save the Date," is the best in years. The calendar theme ties the dance numbers and the show as a whole together nicely. The dancing itself is, as usual, superb. The chemistry between the emcees is natural and infectious. The pacing is fast, with welcome appearances by the country dance team, the Ramblers and the Mighty Ram Band's drumline. Lighting and sound were flawless. The comedy troupe's well-rehearsed acts showed creativity and wit. All in all, a great night of live entertainment. There's on more night to catch the show, Saturday at 7:30 pm. Be there.

The Richardson Echo; Sexually oriented business

The Nightly Build

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Interview with Andrew Laska

Pegasus News published an interview with Andew Laska, the man behind Pegasus News content partner The Richardson Echo. Laska explains why he started his independent local news Web site.

"There is no real source of news in Richardson. Richardson's daily newspaper went through the usual cycle of local newspapers. They were bought up by a larger company which then paid less interest and now we are lucky if we get a targeted article or two a week."

Too true. Kudos to the people behind The Richardson Echo and Pegasus News for trying to change that fact.

Although Laska says he is more interested in news than mere opinion, I find his own opinion on the upcoming Richardson Council elections worth repeating:

"Particular races are interesting but the atmosphere of the races is more interesting. I have to say it's not a positive atmosphere despite many people's good intentions. There are various factions, formal or otherwise, that are creating a kind of political backbiting and focus away from issues. It is not so much the candidates as it is arrays of supporters and detractors on different sides. It's an issue of the whole and there isn't a one group or persons to blame."

I'm finding it hard to identify any candidates who are focused solely on the issues facing Richardson instead of distractions and wedge issues designed to gain electoral advantage. I feel such candidates must exist and I'll be looking for them to straightforwardly dissociate themselves from the factions that are fomenting division instead of unified approaches to the challenges facing Richardson, such as neighborhood integrity and revitalization, attracting businesses, regional transportation, and the current economic recession.

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Sexually Oriented Businesses in Richardson

Why am I dredging up this old topic? Didn't the Richardson City Council deal with this issue in 2007? Didn't the council adopt an ordinance that restricted such businesses as far as legally possible? It did, but as we enter another election campaign, the Richardson Coalition PAC has decided to criticize some members of the city council for not doing more.

The Richardson Echo published an editorial response by William 'Bill' McCalpin that explains well the background of the issue and argues that spending hundreds of thousands of additional dollars in legal fees fighting new cases that the city is likely to lose is not a wise use of taxpayer money.

"I believe that the Richardson Coalition should be thanking the Richardson City Council for the activities that it has done in the past to restrict such obnoxious uses as much as is legally possible in this current legislative and judicial climate, and should further be thanking the Richardson City Council for husbanding in a wise and prudent manner the scarce financial resources of the City on behalf of the taxpayers in these trying economic times.

So, why is the Richardson Coalition stirring up this issue again in this year's council race? That hasn't been adequately explained. How does the Richardson Coalition operate? Who writes and approves its editorials? Does the PAC really speak for all of the members that its Web site lists as supporters? A little independent background reporting into this PAC could serve the citizens of Richardson well.

Voter ID; Mileage tax; Richardson SOBs

The Nightly Build...

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Making It Harder to Vote in Texas

The Dallas Morning News came down in opposition to the voter ID bill making its way through the Texas legislature. No argument from me on that subject or on the News' reasoning. Currently, a voter need only present his voter registration card at the polls. If the bill passes (and it will), a voter will need to present his voter registration card *and* a photo ID, such as driver's license.

A driver's license is the most common form of photo ID. Many poor and elderly persons don't have a driver's license because they don't own cars and don't drive. Inevitably, some of them will be turned away from the polls for lacking what most of us take for granted. Who do the poor and elderly tend to vote for? Democrats. Now you see why this is a big deal for Republicans. It's a way to help win elections. Not a big way, by any means, but every vote counts (or in this case, every vote that isn't counted for your opponent).

Perhaps as important as the effect at the ballot box is the effect on energizing the base. Republicans are using this voter ID issue in their latest fundraising appeals, documented in an email reproduced by Paul Burka.

So, why is getting a photo ID such a burden, really? It isn't, really. And how big a problem is voter fraud, really? It isn't, really. Republicans have never been able to demonstrate that voter fraud is a problem. It's not for lack of trying. The legislative battle isn't really about voter fraud or even voting rights. It's about winning elections. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says the bill moves Texas "one step closer to a more secure voting system that will help us prevent voter fraud and instill greater confidence among all Texans." The irony is that it's Republicans like Dewhurst who are responsible for undermining confidence in the first place, claiming voter fraud that simply doesn't exist. Confidence was never the goal. Stirring up the base was. And winning elections.

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Paying For Our Roads

More and more, we are hearing about serious proposals to replace the current gasoline tax with a mileage tax. On its surface, it sounds dumb. The gas tax *is* a mileage tax. The more you drive, the more gas you burn, the more tax you pay. The gas tax also encourages consumers to buy cars with better gas mileage. They still pay per gallon (which translates into per mile), but less than their neighbor who buys a gas guzzler. And the gas tax is easy to administer. You pay at the pump. There's no getting around it. A mileage tax would require the introduction of expensive new equipment to track mileage. All that makes the question of a gas tax vs a mileage tax a no-brainer, right?

That's the kind of iron-clad logic that leads people like the editorial board at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to scratch their heads and say, "We'll freely admit it -- we don't get it."

Well, there's one big reason to consider a mileage tax. Electric vehicles use no gasoline. As the industry moves to electric cars, an alternative to the gas tax to fund roads must be identified. This is not a question of if, only a question of when. A complete transition will take decades, but well before that, the number of electric vehicles on the road, completely free of the gas tax, will become significant. We don't need to replace the gas tax with a mileage tax today, but we do need to be discussing it and planning for it. And not dismissing it as a hare-brained idea like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram does.

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Dirty Politics by Richardson Coalition

Two years ago, the city council managed to change zoning laws in Richardson to effectively shut out the possibility of sexually-oriented businesses (SOBs) in Richardson. It was very challenging legally to do this, as Supreme Court rulings prohibit cities from banning such businesses altogether. Disgraceful reporting by local news media (WFAA, I'm looking at you) attempted to cast the story as the city council inviting sexually-oriented businesses to set up shop in Richardson, when the opposite was the case. Despite the black eye, Richardson did end up with zoning very unfavorable to such businesses.

What's changed now? Nothing. The zoning is still in place. The SOBs are still squeezed out. So what is the Richardson Coalition PAC complaining about in a new editorial about SOBs in Richardson? The editorial excoriates Mayor Steve Mitchell and the "new members of the Council" for treating this issue with a "head in the sand attitude." Huh?!? What did the council do to deserve this? On January 7, 2008 (over a year ago!), the council's list of initiatives for its term didn't include further evaluation of restrictions on SOBs. Never mind that the Richardson Coalition's editorial itself says the council had already taken care of the problem in 2007: "In fact the 2006-2007 City Council enacted ordinances to effectively control zoning to the fullest extent possible in light of recent U. S. Supreme Court decisions." You'd think the Richardson Coalition would be praising the mayor and the new members of the council for their actions. To cast this achievement as a failure of the council to lead, and to do it now, more than a year after the success was achieved, is puzzling, to say the least. At least until you look at the calendar and see that the campaign for the May 9 city council elections has just begun. The Richardson Coalition is slinging mud. It's using smut to wage dirty politics.

Wick Allison; Gambling

The Nightly Build...

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"Is that Clown from Dallas?"

Opinion makers and commenters need to take extra care not to make the same mistake they criticize in others. The classic example is the blog commenter who criticizes another's "spelling and grammer." Today's lesson comes from D Magazine owner Wick Allison, who took aim at The New York Times' Maureen Dowd. Allison says "her Pulitzer Prize was not awarded for her fact-checking." What factual error did Wick Allison catch? Dowd said that Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) is from Waco. Because Session's Congressional district is in Dallas, not Waco, Allison pounced.

In fact, Dowd was factually correct. Pete Sessions *is* from Waco. He was born there. When his own fact-checking failings were pointed out, Wick Allison weakly responded, "The convention is to identify elected officials by their constituency."

Wick Allison headlined his blog post, "Is That Clown From Dallas?" "Nah, He's From Waco." Wick Allison forgot a basic rule of blogging: don't call someone else a clown until you're sure who is the one wearing the big red nose.

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Give Voters The Choice

Sharon Grigsby, commenting in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog about the newspaper's editorial in favor of giving Texas voters the choice of whether to allow gambling in Texas or not, was convinced by what I think is the weakest argument. She came around to the idea of letting voters decide as she learned, as Mike Hashimoto put it, how many "tax dollars leave Texas and are donated to state and local budgets elsewhere."

I remember, when I was growing up, when I wanted to do something stupid and used the old "Everyone else is doing it" argument on my parents, they would ask, "If everyone else is jumping off a cliff, does that mean you should do it, too?" No. The reason to allow gambling is not because everyone else is doing it, not because there's money to be made out of it, but because there's no public interest served in banning it. Louisiana, Oklahoma and other states license gambling today. Are life and morals there just as strong as in Texas? You betcha.

Michael Phelps; Stimulus bill

The Nightly Build...

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Offending Puritans Hurts Marketability

Rodger Jones, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, just can't let go of the 'Michael Phelps uses marijuana' story. Jones couldn't win the argument that the private, occasional use of recreational drugs is a moral failing of the first magnitude meriting demonization. So, today he tries the business angle, telling readers that Kelloggs won't renew its sponsorship deal with Phelps because of the controversy. If enough puritans kick up a big enough stink, sponsors will drop Michael Phelps. That proves ... what? That puritans can influence marketers? Fair enough. Michael Phelps was foolish for not knowing that if you want to market yourself to puritans, you can't offend them, no matter how unreasonable their opinions about recreational drug use might be. Lesson reinforced, Rodger Jones.

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What Spending is Good for the Economy?

Sharon Grigsby, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, asks a very good question: What type of stimulus plan spending will create jobs? We already know the Republican Party answer: tax cuts. The GOP is criticizing the plan now before Congress for not being a stimulus bill but a spending bill. President Obama gave them a primer in economics by answering, "What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point."

The GOP may not have the answer, but the Democratic bill is not necessarily perfect. Again, President Obama cuts to the chase: "The bill that's emerged from Congress is not perfect, but a bill is absolutely necessary."

So, what is the answer to Sharon Grigsby's question? All spending is not created equal. If Congress is going to shape and work this bill and then tweak it some more before it finally makes it to a vote, it might as well improve the bill in the process. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provides our final lesson for the day. According to the CBO,

"The negative effect of [increased debt] crowding out [private investment] could be offset somewhat by a positive long-term effect on the economy of some provisions - such as funding for infrastructure spending, education programs, and investment incentives, which might increase economic output in the long run."

So, there you have it. Beef up spending on infrastructure, education, and investment incentives and you get the best of both worlds: short-term stimulus and increased economic output in the long run.

Michael Phelps

The Nightly Build...

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Accused Of Murdering Mexican Children

An editorial in The Dallas Morning News mentions a "decline in stigma attached to marijuana use." But you'd never know it from an outburst by Rodger Jones on The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, in which he lambastes Michael Phelps for smoking marijuana.

"My view is this: Michael Phelps validates the world opinion of Americans as self-indulgent, self-interested consumerists engaging in a perpetual national frat party. Thanks, Michael. You have a level of responsibility you failed to recognize. I'd not shed a tear if your sponsors all cancelled your contracts before you could sprint the length of the pool. As a society we should send you a potent message about consequences -- youthful indescretions or not."

Rodger Jones questions why few other newspaper editorial boards commented on Michael Phelps' choice of recreational drug. The most likely answer? Perhaps because few other editorial boards lay the blame for the deaths of drug dealers in Detroit and innocent Mexicans killed by drug cartels on a single American young man who happens to be an occasional recreational marijuana user. As reader "jackie smith" puts it:

"When you consume the drug you have blood in your hands! Stop fooling yourself claiming that your act is a private, one that only involves you!! It is not TRUE. You are contributing to the murder of policemen, judges, journalists and their innocent family members."

The logic is as flawed as saying that Rodger Jones and "jackie smith" personally have blood on their own hands for supporting laws against innocuous recreational drug use. Unlike the legal production, distribution, and consumption of beer and wine, it's the illegal status of recreational drugs that gives power to the outlaw drug cartels. Rodger Jones and "jackie smith" will not reduce drug violence by making outlaws of athletes like Michael Phelps. Rodger Jones' rant against Michael Phelps emphasizes the absurdity of our drug laws and reinforces the need for reform.

Refinery strike; Belo layoffs

The Nightly Build...

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May I Have a Word? Scab

Tod Robberson, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, reports the threat of a strike by unions at Houston oil refineries. Robberson is no fan of ExxonMobil, especially after what he calls its just posted "obscene" record profits, but he warns that refineries are in a good position to break any strike with "scabs" and the public is not going to be sympathetic with workers who still have a job in this bad economic environment, no matter what their complaint.

So far, no quibble from me. Striking when the economy is flat on its back is folly. I think Robberson has analyzed the situation well. It's the reader response that I find noteworthy. "Trey Garrison" asks, "isn't 'scab' derogatory?" Indeed it is. Many ExxonMobil fans would probably take offense to calling strikebreakers "scabs." To be politically correct, writers probably ought to use the neutral term "strikebreaker." I just find it deliciously ironic that the person who raised this issue of political correctness is Trey Garrison.

Trey Garrison also asked Robberson why he defines ExxonMobil's profits as "obscene." I think dictionary.com's definition number 4 is applicable: "So large in amount as to be objectionable or outrageous." This is a subjective definition and I expect Tod Robberson and Trey Garrison to disagree on how "large in amount" ExxonMobil's profits need to be to be judged "objectionable." For Robberson and many Americans, ExxonMobil's $45.22 billion annual profit, the largest yearly profit in American history, is objectionable. Alternatively, for Trey Garrison, it isn't. It would be interesting if Trey Garrison could name any profit level that he would consider objectionable. My guess is no. After all, Trey Garrison isn't easily offended. Unless it's by calling a strikebreaker a scab.

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What's a Newspaperman To Do?

Rod Dreher, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, bemoans another round of layoffs at A.H.Belo. Everyone's an armchair business genius, and I'm no exception, so here are my thoughts...

• Newspapers are doomed. The cost of paper, ink and delivery is what is going to kill the business, given the cheaper production costs of online.
• There are efforts to preserve online content. The first notable effort was archive.org (originally known as the WaybackMachine). But funding for this effort is unlikely to match the funding for public libraries in decades past for their newspaper archival efforts.
• Concentrating on local news is probably only a delaying tactic. Economic survival depends on growing economies of scale, and covering suburban city council meetings and school board meetings is moving in the wrong direction. Besides, people may live in, say, Richardson, but work in Dallas and send their kid to UT-Arlington. There's no way a printed product can be produced that will cover that person's interests. Going local sounds good, but is devilishly difficult to implement in a way that makes money.
• The way forward? I'm out of time and space. That is left as an exercise for the reader.

EightMaps.com

The Nightly Build...

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Rod Dreher Comes for You

Last week, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, Rod Dreher defended the free speech rights of an anti-Islamic politician, Geert Wilders, who is being charged with inciting hatred and discrimation against Muslims. This weekend, in a Viewpoints column in The Dallas Morning News, Rod Dreher stands up for the contributors to the anti-gay Proposition 8 in California that discriminates based on sexual orientation. So far, Rod Dreher is being consistent, supporting the bigots in both cases.

It's the logic Rod uses in each case that twists his principles into knots. In the case of Geert Wilders, free speech is the overriding principle Rod defends. No matter that Wilders is considered to be a despicable bigot (a point Dreher never makes), I agree with Dreher that he has a right to speak his mind, no matter how much civil, enlightened people disagree with his vile politics (Rod Dreher excluded).

In the California case, however, it's the people exercising their free speech rights who Rod condemns and wants to suppress. California law makes public the names and addresses of donors to political causes. Someone has taken those long lists of names, sorted alphabetically, and reformatted them geographically, using Google Maps. He published the result on a web site EightMaps.com. How would such information be useful? Grass-roots organizers can use it to drive get-out-the-vote efforts, avoiding the strongholds of the anti-gay faction. Activists can use it to identify the locations of people to lobby to change their position. And everyone can use it to identify which neighbors might be a danger to their civil liberties. After all, if today they come for gays, tomorrow they might come for you.

In an older Opinion blog posting, Rod Dreher suggested he might become sympathetic to striking down the law that allows sites like EightMaps.com to exist. In his latest essay, Dreher has the effrontery to quote Robert Bolt's play "A Man for all Seasons" to support his inclination to suppress sites like EightMaps.com.

Roper: Cut a road through the law to get after the Devil? Yes. I'd cut down every law in England to do that.

More: And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned on you where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? ... I give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety's sake.

If there's a William Roper at work in Dallas, it's Rod Dreher himself. He may think the gay rights activists are devils, but he ought to give his devils the benefit of the law for his own safety's sake. The bigotry he aims against gays today may someday be aimed against bigots like himself.

Sportsmanship

The Nightly Build...

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Covenant 100 - Academy 0

Rod Dreher, in The Dallas Morning News tells us that the headmaster of The Covenant School apologized to Dallas Academy for the school's 100-0 victory in a girls' basketball game, which the headmaster called a "victory without honor." Rod Dreher says "Bravo" for the way the school is trying to make amends, including a request to the league to have the win erased by forfeiture. I second Dreher's response to this situation. I don't endorse many of the reader responses.

"angi" says the apology is "too little, too late." It's never too late to apologize. It's never appropriate to snub an apology, even a late apology.

"PaulC" says "Apologize and stop parading the apology before the public." If the Academy girls were embarrassed by the loss, then publicizing the apology only exacerbates the embarrassment. But "PaulC" is assuming that Covenant is the one "parading the apology." I'm more inclined to believe the media is doing the parading and the story is out of Covenant's control now. But there is a lesson there. An immediate apology, coach-to-coach, the night of the game, might have prevented the story from escalating out of control.

"David" says "Here's what bothers me the most. The school, coaches, and team responsible for the run-up come from a well known Christian School." Christian schools aren't the only schools that teach sportsmanship. Secular schools do, too, and just as seriously. When any of them fall short, it's equally disappointing.

"jim mitchell" asks "Would 40-0 be beter? Or 10-0?" In a word, yes. Coaches understand how to keep from running up the score. Other teams appreciate the courtesy. When a coach does run up the score, he demonstrates poor sportsmanship. For most fans, poor sport is synonymous with loser, even when the scoreboard reads 100-0 in your favor.

Opening inaugural concert

The Nightly Build...

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We Are One. No, We're Not.

Hundreds of thousands turned out Sunday afternoon on the Mall in Washington, DC, for "We Are One: Opening Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial." A good time was had by all. Well, not all.

Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, grouses (his word) that the only television coverage of the concert was on HBO. He asks what if Martin Luther King, Jr, sold exclusive television rights to his "I Have a Dream" speech to the highest bidder in 1963.

The analogy is not all that apt. This year's event was entertainment, a celebratory concert. 1963's was the culmination of a protest march on Washington. Obama's speech was covered by free broadcast television. Only the entertainment portion was reserved for HBO. To cover some of the costs of putting on such an extravaganza, the inaugural committee sold exclusive television rights. Even with that, HBO made the concert available to cable providers for free presentation to their cable customers. HBO also made the concert freely available on its Web site, HBO.com, for anyone with an Internet connection. Should Obama have paid for his inaugural festivities by holding some private $1000 a plate dinners for well-heeled donors? Or worse, held the concert indoors where only those well-heeled donors would have heard U2, Springsteen and the rest of the entertainers? I don't think so. The inaugural committee balanced the demands of paying for the concert against the desire to open it up to as many people as possible. Jeffrey Weiss' grouse is only that, a grouse.

Another controversy erupted over the invocation prayer by the Rev. Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church. First, the prayer was offered before the start of the show televised by HBO. Second, there was a sound system malfunction that prevented even the people on site from hearing the bishop's prayer, which included this passage:

"Bless us with anger - at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people."

The blogosphere lit up with conspiracy theories. Obama invited Robinson, but made sure no one would hear him. Obama deliberately suppressed the prayer. Reader "Mark" is certain it's a snub:

"I am horrified that once again 'WE' are to stay in the background, ignored and unrecognized. I am canceling my HBO service. I EXPECT AN APOLOGY from Barack Obama to all Gay people. This is not an acceptable CONSOLATION PRIZE."

Even before Obama takes office as the President most openly supportive of the LGBT cause in history, the LGBT community has decided that Obama has rejected their cause. They are now rejecting him. Politically, this is stupid, except that Obama is that rare politician who will do the right thing whether a constituency is for him or against him. He will continue to welcome and listen to all voices and promote equality and justice, whether the LGBT community appreciates it or not. The LGBT community would do well to take to heart Bishop Robinson's words:

"And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people. Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times."