Monthly Archives: August 2007

The cultural legacy of politicizing religion

Posted on by
4

God%20Bless%20America%20cross.gifThe pastor of the local church that my family and I attend has used the pulpit from time to time to advocate political positions and certain politicians, which I have always viewed as a dubious practice. I was reminded of my pastor’s sermons as I read this Cathy Young/ReasonOnline article on the questionable cultural legacy of the late Jerry Falwell:

Though the movement Falwell helped launch was unable to enact much of its agenda into law, there is no question that it transformed the American political landscape. Even the battles it hasnít won, such as the effort to teach ìintelligent designî in schools on a par with evolution, are still battles it was able to force on its opponents.
More broadly, it helped create a climate in which the language of politics is saturated with references to God, a political culture in which a major political magazine (Newsweek) can ask a presidential candidate (Howard Dean) whether he believes in Jesus Christ as the son of God and the path to eternal life.
Despite these political inroads, Falwellís brand of religious conservatism has suffered losses in the culture wars. Feminism, its radical excesses mostly discarded, has become firmly integrated into Americaís cultural mainstream. (Even, apparently, in Falwellís own family: His daughter is a surgeon.) Acceptance of gays is now at a level that would have been unthinkable in 1980. Sexual content in mainstream entertainment has steadily increased, and adults-only material is more available than ever thanks to new technologies. While divorce rates have dropped somewhat, so have marriage rates; in much of America, sex between single adults is widely accepted as a social norm.

Along those same lines, this CNN article reports on a Kentucky church’s “Court Watch” program in which volunteers attend court hearings to monitor how judges are handling drug-related cases. It’s clear that the members of the church group are not interested in facilitating leniency in sentencing in such cases.
Several years ago, while sweating a jury in a civil case at the courthouse, I attended the daily initial appearance docket call in the juvenile criminal court next door. It was a heartbreaking experience and prompted me to begin doing pro bono work in the local juvenile criminal justice system. Since then, I’ve attended numerous such initial appearance dockets in the juvenile criminal justice system. I have never seen a member of any Christian organization attending one of those dockets.

In Cold Blood

Posted on by
Reply

In%20Cold%20Blood.jpgAs noted earlier here, I oppose the death penalty because of the way in which our criminal justice system administers it, but I have no philosophical opposition to it. Here is why.

Book’em Horns

Posted on by
1

texas%20longhorn%20logo%20080707.jpgAs noted last week here, it’s been a tough off-season for University of Oklahoma Sooner football program, what with more NCAA sanctions and all. But it was only a matter of time before the Sooner faithful would be in a position to fight back. A flurry of Texas Longhorn players getting arrested during the off-season has given Sooner fans their opportunity. The Mack Brown-Longhorn “All-Character” team below is the result:
Book%27em%20Horns.gif

The DOJ’s Bumbling Enron Broadband Case

Posted on by
1

The Enron Broadband trials were not the Enron Task Force’s finest hour (see also here and here).

Now that the Task Force has been disbanded, Justice Department attorneys are left to pick up the pieces of the Task Force’s shattered cases and, as the Chronicle’s Kristen Hays reports from the Fifth Circuit, it’s not an easy task.

Sort of what you would expect from cases in which the government asserted an unwarranted expansion of a criminal law intended to punish kickbacks and bribes against businessmen who did no such thing.

Criminal convictions based primarily on juror resentment of wealthy businessmen tend not to hold up well under the bright light of appellate scrutiny.

Swing to the Music

Posted on by
1

golfer%20swinging.jpgDoes this mean that I should be listening to Le Nozze Di Figaro, K.492: “Che Soave Zeffiretto” while practicing my golf swing?:

[Yale University physics professor Robert] Grober has created an instrument that gives a player an immediate response to the golf swing. A smooth, rhythmic swing with Groberís sensor emits a pleasing tone. A herky-jerky motion lets out a wail.
To create the sound of a golf swing, Grober used Musical Instrument Digital Interface technology that combined instruments like the piccolo, the oboe and the French horn. The music ó an audio interpretation of the swing itself ó is transmitted wirelessly to the golfer through a headset.
ìThis dimension that they can access while theyíre hitting the golf club opens up a whole world of information that they hadnít otherwise had,î he said. ìGetting it in this format, in a real-time basis, helps people to change on time scales which are much shorter than traditionally. It used to be if you wanted to make a mechanical change in your golf swing, it could take months to do that. But if you can hear whatís going on, you can change the sound space almost instantly.î
Grober said by having players focus on tempo instead of swing mechanics, the mechanics often followed anyway. ìReally quickly they understand itís about tempo and they forget all these complicated thoughts about position,î he said. ìWhen the motion becomes dynamic and smooth, there are some good physics behind that.î
Grober, whose product is scheduled for release in January, said he has worked with 200 golfers and teachers on his invention. While the technology is new, the idea of using physics to teach a golf swing has been around for decades.
Ben Doyle, who wrote the foreword to Homer Kelleyís popular instruction book, ìThe Golfing Machine,î said he could see benefits in a golfer being able to listen to the sound of the golf swing.
ìYou hear the thrust of centrifugal force,î said Doyle, the golf instructor at the Golf Club at Quail Lodge in Carmel, Calif. ìIf a student can hear that sound, itís very important feedback.î

Read the entire article. Also, check out this video segment demonstrating the technology narrated by the author of the article, NY Times golf columnist, Damon Hack.

In praise of credit snobs

Posted on by
1

sub-prime-mortgages-080607.gifEarlier posts here and here noted Alex Tabarrok’s clever characterization of folks who criticized development of new lending vehicles for folks with low incomes or bad credit. Thus, this Economist article about a recent study on making loans to the poor caught my eye. Check out the conclusion of the study:

Contrary to the fears of the credit snobs, the readier access to credit did not tempt the new customers into a debt trap. Over 15-27 months, those reconsidered for a loan were more likely to have a formal credit score. And this score suffered no harm as a result of their easier borrowing.
Overall, the study suggests that profit-seeking lenders do not deserve the fate Dante reserved for them. Far from tempting the poor into unpayable debt, they help them keep their jobs, put food on the table, and build up a credit history. The authors show that poor people can make good use of borrowed money, even if they sometimes struggle to demonstrate this creditworthiness to lenders. If not hell, that is a kind of purgatory.

Read the entire article.

Next episode of Dallas Swat?

Posted on by
1

DallasSWAT800x600.jpgEarlier posts here, here and here focused on the danger of local police forces use of highly-armed SWAT teams for routine, non-violent police work, a phenomenom that spawned A&E Network’s Dallas SWAT reality show. Well, according to this Dallas Morning News article (h/t Radley Balko), one of the “stars” of the Dallas SWAT show — Senior Cpl. Johnny Baker — was recently fired from the police force. What for, you ask? DPD internal investigators concluded that Baker had sex in a Garland motel room with a prostitute while working an off-duty job in February.
By the way, Baker was not busted by Dallas SWAT. ;^)

It’s PGA Golf Tournament Week

Posted on by
Reply

southern_hills%2018th.jpgThe 89th PGA Golf Tournament is being played this week at the Southern Hills Country Club Course in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Although the least prestigious of the four major tournaments, the PGA generally fields the strongest field of any of the majors. This year, each of the top 100 players in the world rankings is playing.
The tournament website is here, but if you really want to get a flavor of the golf course, check out this detailed Jay Flemma blog post and this Geoff Shackelford/Golf World article (see also here) on the venerable Percy Maxwell-designed Southern Hills course. Take it from one who has played it several times, it is a beaut, although this anonymous PGA Tour player doesn’t agree.

The Cocktail Party Nightmare

Posted on by
Reply

Stu%27s%20Views%20lawyer%20golfer.gifMy wife contends that she has endured precisely the same experience as the woman depicted in the cartoon on the left by the incomparable Stuart M. Rees of Stu’s Views.
By the way, from several years ago, here is a short bio on Stu, who is a talented — and very clever — fellow.

Latest on the Las Vegas Monofail

Posted on by
Reply

Las%20Vegas%20monorail%20080407.jpgWith the crunch worsening over the past several weeks in the credit markets, the bankruptcy reorganization forces are gearing up and eyeing potential debtors. Well, in this Heartland blog post, Thomas A. Rubin predicts one of the probable debtors that will need serious reorganization — the Las Vegas Monorail Company (prior posts here):

In short, the Las Vegas Monorail appears headed straight down the path to bankruptcy by approximately the year 2010 with nothing on the horizon that could prevent it ñ other than, perhaps, an ill-conceived government bailout or the absolute dumbest group of investors/suckers in recent financial history.
This result should come as a surprise to no one. Over the last several decades, I know of only one U.S. rail transit system, or quasi-transit system, that has come remotely close to covering its operating costs out of fares and other operating revenues (the Seattle Monorail), and none that have made any contribution what-so-ever to capital costs. However, the Las Vegas Monorail promoters assured everyone that operating revenues would not only cover operating costs, but would also cover all the debt service costs of the bonds sold to pay for the construction of the Monorail. [. . .]
One hopes that someone, somewhere, in a public sector decision-making capacity will tell the various casinos along the right of way that, if they want to see it continue to operate, well, it is all theirs.

Read the entire post, which lays out the public risks involved in even a privately-financed boondoggle of this nature. Meanwhile, this clever Political Calculations post comes up with an entertaining solution to achieving the same benefits of a light rail system at a far cheaper cost.