Saturday Rants and Ramblings

Freely elected?

First a note... Sorry for the disappearing act, but I vowed not to post until the actual winner of the Ukrainian election took office. Truth be told, my vow was not to post until the actual winner/winner of Washington's governor race was put into office, but I fear we may never know the answer to that. We have heard much lately about making sure that "every vote is counted", but before we get there, isn't it more important to ensure that every vote cast is legitimately cast? As John Fund persuasively argues in his book "Stealing Elections", recent efforts (such as the Motor Voter law) aimed at making registration easier have also increased the likelihood of voter fraud. So while we rightly consider ways to modernize our polling places to ensure that your vote is counted, why are we not equally (if not more) steadfast in our desire to ensure that your vote should be counted?

New meaning for "freeze frame"

I love television. More to the point I love tvs, particularly mine (when it isn't being serviced). But while looking at dishwashers in Best Buy before Christmas, I saw perhaps the most frightening "innovation" since the 8 track tape player. I'm not sure what LG was thinking in creating this, but I think it's the dumbest idea I have seen or heard since Carl Pavano dumped Alyssa Milano. And hey, this is coming from a person who at one point had a tv in his kitchen and used it regularly while he washed dishes. This is different though as this would require me to stare at my refrigerator for goodness sake. And it's one thing to pay $70-$100 for a 13" color tv for the kitchen. It's quite another to spend an extra $2000 over the cost of a normal refrigerator to get a 13" LCD in the middle of your frig.

Give me consistency... and give them death

In the last month I have seen no fewer than 10 supposedly-able-minded individuals explain that the death penalty should be banned because innocent people are put to death and/or because the administration of the death penalty is racially-biased and terribly flawed as a result of poor representation. Let me say first, as a point of integrity, that I think that innocent people are put to death, that there is a socio-economic (and probably racial) bias tied to the system, and that the public defenders who handle some of these cases are not people I would want defending me for a parking ticket violation let alone my very existence.

But the logic of these arguments applies equally well to incarceration. For surely there are innocent people are who are incarcerated and die in jail (either from natural causes or from, what I like to call, "natural prison causes"). There is bias in this part of our justice system as well, and these people are defended by the same incompetent graduates of some non-accredited law school. And yet not once do you hear these individuals call for the abolishment of prisons. If you are logically consistent, you invariably would have to. Rather than do away with our system of criminal punishment, I think the more logical/sensible approach is to continue to make efforts to improve the process so that people aren't wrongily executed or left to die in prison.

A last look back at 2004 (until further notice)

Here are some of the interesting things I learned in 2004:

* Fighting in Vietnam was somehow less noble and courageous than not (hmmm...?)
* War experience matters -- if you are Republican, this statement is only true for previous elections, and if you are a Democrat, this statement is only true for this past election.
* A mistake and a lie are the same thing.
* That it's important to remember that no matter how tragic an event may seem, it could always have been SO MUCH WORSE.
* There's more subtext to Bill O'Reilly's "Who's Looking Out For You?" than I gave him credit for.
* While an insanity defense is popular for murder defendants, "I'm gay" may be the new defense for the corrupt.

No resolutions just a prediction for 2005

* At the risk of being called a liar (as opposed to hopelessly optimistic and/or stupid) tomorrow, I predict that Pitt will win the Fiesta Bowl by 3 tonight.

Happy New Year All!