Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Opinion page idiocy

I was so astounded by how much nonsense was printed on the Chicago Tribune's October 20 Commentary page that I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I haven't had a chance to write about it until now.

Above the fold is a column by Jonah Goldberg titled: "Let the population grow." Goldberg is an editor at the right wing National Review, but lately the Tribune has been kind enough to give him regular space in their paper as well. What else can I say about Goldberg other than he is an idealogue, and quite possibly an idiot? Here's an example of his stellar discourse:
These days, overpopulation is primarily a hang-up for environmentalists, though suburbanites and feminists occasionally whine about it too...

Oy, those crazy environmentalists, suburbanites and feminists. If they believe it, we must reject it, regardless of whether it's actually true or not. Wait -- suburbanites??? Don't they make up the base of National Review subscribers? There's more:
What unites today's worriers and those of yesteryear is their common allegiance to Malthusianism. The British economist Thomas Malthus argued that population will always outstrip available resources. And he was 100 percent wrong.

Because people are, in the words of the late economist Julian Simon, "the ultimate resource." Given the right policies, intellectual and economic productivity trumps biological reproductivity.

Now, if his statement that Malthus was 100 percent wrong is itself wrong, what percentage wrong does that make Goldberg? As for productivity, it would be interesting to see how productive Goldberg would be if his share of global food production were to fall below 1,200 calories a day.

The other column on the page is by Victor Davis Hanson, a man I have criticized before. It is titled: "Liberals gone absolutely wild!" and is accompanied by a rogues' gallery of left-leaning celebrities such as Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, and Jay Rockefeller. Rockefeller... what a wild man! Seriously, that's the best they could do?

The whole article is just a bizarre and grossly inaccurate rant. I could provide examples, but I'd end up tearing every word of the article to shreds. It might surprise the reader of the article to find out that Hanson publicly identifies himself as a Democrat. But he is not. He's employed by the Hoover Institution (a pressure vessel of willful ignorance) to produce flak -- in other words, to smack down anyone in politics or the media who speaks out too strongly against conservative interests. Usually he does this with a little more subtlety.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Judicial retention: Vote no for Judge Flanagan

When Cook County voters go into the voting booth on November 7, they'll be faced with the names of dozens of judges on their ballots. Most voters, even those who are very well informed about politics and government, won't recognize a single name. So the whole judicial retention part of the ballot is seen by most people as a joke. Nevertheless, I'll take a position on one of the candidates and hope I never see her in a courtroom.

Here is what the Chicago Bar Association had to say about Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kathy Flanagan back in 2000:
Judge Kathy M. Flanagan is "QUALIFIED" for retention as a Circuit Court Judge. Judge Flanagan possesses the legal knowledge, ability and integrity required of the judiciary. However, the Committee encourages Judge Flanagan to address concerns about her temperament. (emphasis added)

So the "qualified" rating came with, um... qualifications. This year, the CBA endorsed her without reservation, but I'm not sure the concerns over her temperament have been resolved. From what I hear, Ms. Flanagan has a little problem with cell phones.

Something more substantive on the Kirk/Seals race

One thing about Illinois' 10th Congressional District is that it contains suburbs such as Highland Park, Northbrook and Winnetka, in which there is a large Jewish community. Therefore, to a greater extent than in the average district, the voters of the 10th are concerned about our government's policy toward Israel. If these voters are impressed by Mark Kirk's pro-Israel voting record, they might be well served to visit Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog to read a good argument as to why challenger Dan Seals would be the better choice.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

About that last entry

You might have noticed that my last posting was a little on the linky side -- gratuitously so, even. And the content... maybe not so original. You might have seen similar talking points appear elsewhere around the blogosphere in recent days and thought my posting looks like part of a blogswarm. But it wouldn't be like me to participate in one of those, right?

[31 OCT 2006 13:48:00] Update: The posting from October 24 was part of an experiment by Chris Bowers at mydd.com to see what effect bloggers could have on Google rankings. The idea was to create associations in the internet between candidates' names (Mark Kirk) and websites containing information that might affect public opinion about the candidates (video clip from the CBS affiliate in Chicago). Then, when someone does a Google search on the candidate's name, Google will preferentially offer the website we want people to see.

Did it work? According to mydd.com, the Mark Kirk link was a dud, but actually, it did sort of work. The problem with the link is that it doesn't point directly to the video clip. The URL goes to "cbs2chicago.com/video/", which is resolved on the host side to the default web page in that directory. That page takes a parameter: "id=25835...", but Google didn't retain that level of detail in the search results. So when you search for "Mark Kirk", the CBS site shows up as hit #8, but without the reference to the desired video clip.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Illinois 10th: Time for a change

After college I spent six years living in the 10th congressional district of Illinois. This district covers the northern suburbs of Chicago from Waukegan down to Wilmette. Historically, the Chicago suburbs have been as Republican as Chicago itself has been Democratic, but the 10th district is less conservative than most suburban districts. It has been represented by moderate congressmen from both parties (Abner Mikva and John Porter).

When I was living in the 10th, there was not much of a Democratic Party organization in the area. Come election day, I'd usually have a choice between John Porter and ... well, just John Porter. The Democrats didn't even contest the seat. Good strategy for victory, guys. In 2000, when Porter retired, Democrat Lauren Gash ran against Mark Kirk, but Kirk won the seat by the slimmest of margins, 51% - 49%. This year, the Democrats have a strong candidate in Dan Seals. A recent poll (warning: PDF file) shows Kirk ahead of Seals by just 2 percentage points (46-44, MoE +/-3).

Congressman Kirk often claims to be moderate and independent, in the mold of his predecessors, but he is no maverick. In fact, he's the Assistant Majority Whip of the House, whose job it is to make sure his fellow Republicans toe the party line. In early September, the local CBS TV station ran a story on Mark Kirk that looked with a skeptical eye into his claims of independence (link to the video).

[01 NOV 2006 14:00:00] Update: In my update to the October 25 posting, I noted how the links in this posting weren't working quite as expected. The guys at mydd.com have acknowledged this and have offered an alternate link. I've replaced the CBS video clip with an article from the Daily Herald.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Kittens

A couple months ago, one of my coworkers sent out an e-mail saying he had three stray cats he had rescued and needed to find a home for them. It was a mother cat and her two kittens. The mother, under a year old, was a kitten herself.

Another of my coworkers decided to take all three. The following week, at the vet, he found out the mother kitten was already pregnant again and was expected to give birth to another litter of two kittens. Last week, the kittens were born. It wasn't two kittens -- it was five. So now my coworker has a total of eight cats in his apartment.

Ah, the miracle of life.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

A not-so-grassroots process

Yesterday I got a newsletter in the mail from Mary Ann Smith, alderman of the 48th Ward. In it, she gives herself a big pat on the back for her community process. She calls it "grassroots democracy at its best," but that hardly describes what I saw when we were rezoning Broadway. Ald. Smith had her own proposal for B1-2 zoning, whereas the developer and real estate interests were advocating for B1-3. The block clubs argued, often contentiously, and often from a standpoint of ignorance, between these two options until a decree was sent forth upon the land from the alderman's office. Ald. Smith now had a new "compromise" proposal that would leave most of Broadway with a B1-3 designation, and she expected the Zoning and Planning delegates to vote in favor of it at the next meeting, which was only a few days away.

Snow

The weather in Chicago is not always as we would like it to be, but we usually bear it with a fatalistic acceptance. Too hot? Too cold? Well, that's just how it is here in Chicago. But a snowstorm in the second week of October???

A chance of snow was in the forecast for this past Thursday, but I was so sure it wouldn't happen that when I opened my back door, my first thought was: What is this white stuff all over my porch? I couldn't remember an accumulating snowfall occurring so early in the fall. Where I live, the warmth of Lake Michigan typically keeps temperatures above freezing until the end of October.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

My name in the Tribune

This is weird. I was reading the Home & Garden section of today's Chicago Tribune, and I found the following article:
Crabapple might need to be moved

By Lee Randhava
Special to the Tribune

Q: My two crabapple trees bloomed beautifully this spring, but their leaves are abnormally small. What would cause this? -- Mark Maslov, Chicago

A: Stunted growth can be caused by lack of nutrition, root damage, disease or improper culture. Infertile soil, heavy clay or soil that is subjected to periodic flooding might not contain enough nutrients to promote healthy growth...

...And so on. So now the whole world knows that I might need to move my crabapple. I hope, at least, that my case will serve as a lesson to other gardeners.

The weird part about this is that I don't recall if I ever told the Tribune about my crabapple problem. And they never told me they were going to publish this article (not that I mind). I did bring a cutting from one of the trees into the Chicago Botanic Garden for evaluation and filled out a report there, so maybe they forwarded it on to the Tribune?

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

That's all for today

This is my eleventh posting in the last hour, and that's all I've got for now.

Chess match held up over toilet demands

It's been a rough decade in the world of professional chess. First, Garry Kasparov, the best chess player in history, broke away from the international chess federation (FIDE) and took his world champion title with him. Then in 2000, Vladimir Kramnik defeated Kasparov to take the title, but he refused to defend his title in a FIDE match for the next six years. FIDE has held their own championship tournaments, with Veselin Topalov winning the 2005 title. At long last, Kramnik has agreed to defend his title against the FIDE champion. So the fact that there is a world championship match between Kramnik and Topalov is huge news.

Last week, however, there was a discouraging turn of events. Kramnik, who suffers from a form of arthritis, kept getting up from his chair and going to the bathroom -- dozens of times each game. Topalov, understandably, thought this was a little suspicious, and his team filed a complaint. In the ensuing uproar over who could use which bathroom, Kramnik refused to start game 5. So this match, which was supposed to be this great "reunification" match, might end up being remembered for a dispute over toilets.

Don't mess with the Big Dog

The Sunday before last, Bill Clinton appeared on Fox News for an interview with Chris Wallace, and Wallace was doing the "Clinton didn't do anything to stop 9/11" narrative. Clinton smacked him down. Video can be seen at Crooks and Liars.

Conservative commentators were screeching that Clinton "lost it." But as for the substance of what Clinton was saying... He's right. When Clinton was in office, everything he did to combat al Qaeda was criticized by the Republican Congress as "wagging the dog" to distract people from his marital infidelity problem. Just weeks before the end of Clinton's term, his terrorism czar, Richard Clarke, drafted recommendations for how to respond to the U.S.S. Cole attack, which were completed within two months of the attack. The recommendations, which included providing military support to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, were passed on to Bush's transition team, but the new Bush administration did not act on them.

Senn/Rickover community process

Last week there was a meeting in the neighborhood about the presence of Rickover Naval Academy on the grounds of Senn High School. The Naval Academy, in its second year now, was created without the necessary input from the Local School Council (LSC) or from the community. In fact, when it was first proposed to the LSC, they voted unanimously against it. In this spring's primaries, some of the 48th Ward precincts had a referendum on the ballot calling for a community process dealing with this issue, and it passed with about 70% in favor. Last week's meeting was part of this community process.

I went to the meeting, but I was a little dismayed at some of the things I observed. There was one long-haired, sixtyish man who wore the American flag as a cape and a big, puffy, Uncle Sam hat. The guy got up and started reading from a scrap of paper, rambling in an utterly incoherent manner. Afterward, he sat down next to my representative in the Illinois General Assembly, Harry Osterman, and put his arm around him. Osterman wisely moved to another seat. It worries me a bit that the mostly cogent discourse that went on that evening might be tainted by one man's clownish antics.

They had a woman from the CPS and a guy from the military speak in defense of the Naval Academy. They tried to reassure everyone that the students would not be singled out for recruitment, and that the curriculum would be just like in any other school. But if so, why not make a similar investment in the Senn portion of the school? Why does the Department of Defense have millions of dollars to throw at education (which is not their core mission), but not the Department of Education?

Soda constructor

I found this cool website called sodaplay.com. It allows you to construct these creatures out of virtual masses and springs, and then you can set them in motion. Here is a picture of one I made:

soda

This one wiggles around like a caterpillar.

Persons for Alderman

I've been volunteering for Christopher Persons' aldermanic campaign. He's running as a Democrat against the incumbent Mary Ann Smith (also a Democrat) in the 48th Ward. His website is at chrispersons48.org. Check it out... You might even see a picture of me in the gallery.

My birthday

I just had a birthday a little over a week ago. I'm not saying how old I am, but in base 7, it makes a nice round number. I wouldn't mind if I were to stop incrementing my age here, but as my grandfather once lamented, at a time when he was suffering some setbacks in his health, "You can't stop it... You just can't stop it."

Or can you? It got me wondering if it might be possible to reverse time, but I think this would only be possible in a universe where the following statement could sometimes be true: A caused B; therefore, A happened after B. Until someone can show me an example of this, I'll have to side with Grampa.

What I'm reading

I figured that as long as I'm ranting about urban planning, I might as well know what I'm talking about. So I went to the bookstore and got these books:

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, by Duany, Plater-Zyberk, & Speck

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam

A little light reading. Ominously, two of these books contain the word "collapse" in their titles. The other two contain the words "death" and "decline." The Diamond work differs from the others in that it concentrates mainly on environmental issues and on the sustainability of economies. It does, however, cite ex-urban sprawl as a factor in resource depletion in Montana.

Cook County Board

Last week I read on Tribune columnist Eric Zorn's website that on the Cook County Board, it takes an 80% supermajority to override the veto of the Board President. Which effectively means the president calls the shots. As Zorn pointed out, the original reason for the rule had to do with city vs. suburban politics. If the president was from the suburbs, the Chicago commissioners couldn't all gang up on him and override his veto. But this no longer makes sense, as Zorn writes:
The high threshhold became unnecessary in 1973 when a 6th suburban commissioner was added (two-thirds would have served the original purpose) and utterly pointless in 1994 when the
board expanded to 17 single-member districts -- with some districts, such as Suffredin’s district,  including both city and suburban communities.

Commissioner Mike Quigley, who represents my district, has proposed reducing the veto threshold to 60%. Zorn likes the idea, and I agree.

Spot the logical fallacy

The Wednesday (Sep. 27) edition of the Chicago Tribune had the following headline:

Bush denies war incites terrorists: Says militants would still target U.S.

Bush was making an argument against the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate report released last week that concluded the invasion and subsequent invasion of Iraq has created resentment against the U.S. that has made the U.S. less safe. Bush's argument is equivalent to saying: Tobacco company denies cigarettes cause cancer; people would still die of cancer. In the Wikipedia entry for this type of fallacy, it says, "The fallacy is often used to exploit paranoia."

Too many postings make the blogger's fingers go numb

In my neighborhood, a theatre group called the Neo-Futurists has for many years put on a show called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes. I thought I'd try and catch up on my blogging by using the TMLMTBGB model and posting as many items as possible in one hour. More to come in a couple minutes...