Politics

Atheists, who see prayers in Congress as unconstitutional superstitious appeals to a fictional deity, have fought against them with arguments and lawsuits, observing that the First Amendment prohibits government establishment of religion. Some Christians, on the other hand, when they see unconstitutional superstitious appeals to a fictional deity that they don’t believe in, attempt to disrupt and silence the invited speaker doing the praying. These individuals apparently think that there already is an established governmental religion of Christianity. It does seem like we’ve moved a long way in that direction under the Bush administration. And whatever happened to Matthew 6:5-6? Has it been removed from some Christians’ Bibles? “And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (NASB) (Also see Pharyngula’s take.) ...

Yesterday’s New York Times reports that two or three guards at the Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad successfully engineered the theft of $282 million in U.S. dollars from the bank. It’s not been explained why the bank had that much money in U.S. dollars. Historical Comments Trott (2007-07-14): Looks like it wasn't actually anywhere near the amount initially reported. News reports are now saying that the value was in dinars and not dollars as originally reported. If true, it was actually less than a million dollars stolen, which seems a more plausible figure. ...

Originally, he said that he would take action if he found that someone on his staff was responsible for leaking the fact that Valerie Plame was a CIA covert agent to the press. Then, he said he couldn’t comment because an investigation was underway, then, that he couldn’t comment because a trial was underway. Now that the trial is over and he can comment, he pretty much comes right out and says he doesn’t give a damn.

Blogger Jon Swift observes how a number of conservatives have stated that if only we have another successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil, George W. Bush will regain popularity, public support for the war in Iraq will be restored, and all will be right with the world. Rick Santorum, Michael Fumento, Alexander Cornswalled, Jonah Goldberg, Rudy Giuliani, and Arkansas Republican Party chairman Dennis Milligan are quoted. Milligan’s quote: “At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ],” said the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan, last month, “and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country."The 29% of Americans who support Bush should apparently pray for terrorist death to be rained down upon us. Perhaps they can all join Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church, whose members also believe that God hates America and that terrorist attacks are in support of his will. (Via Radley Balko at the Reason Blog.)

Department of Justice civil appellate attorney John S. Koppel has written a scathing editorial in The Denver Post: As a longtime attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, I can honestly say that I have never been as ashamed of the department and government that I serve as I am at this time. The public record now plainly demonstrates that both the DOJ and the government as a whole have been thoroughly politicized in a manner that is inappropriate, unethical and indeed unlawful. The unconscionable commutation of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s sentence, the misuse of warrantless investigative powers under the Patriot Act and the deplorable treatment of U.S. attorneys all point to an unmistakable pattern of abuse. ...

Peter Leeson, an economist at West Virginia University, is writing a three-part series on the economics of pirate behavior and institutions. The first two parts are available online. Part 1, “An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization," describes how pirates solved the problem of predation by captains that was common among naval and merchant ships by a system of checks and balances involving written constitutions and democratically elected captains and quarter-masters–in the 1670s, before England and a century before the United States introduced similar political developments. Part 2, “Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices," looks at the reasons for the use of the “Jolly Roger” as a pirate flag and the practices of pirate torture and pirate conscription. Part 3 has been promised for the fall of 2007… These papers are an addition to the literature about non-governmental institutions of law and order that arise within criminal organizations, in the fringes between government jurisdictions, and in areas of governmental neglect. Some other works addressing these topics include Diego Gambetta’s excellent book The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection, Robert Neuwirth’s book Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World, Ian Lambot and Greg Girard’s City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, and the HBO series Deadwood and The Wire.

Nathan Zamprogno has put together a nice list of the craziness that Kent Hovind purports to believe. (Via Pharyngula.) Historical Comments Nathan Zamprogno (2007-07-06): Thanks. Although I am sure that Hovind could be nailed on a lot of these kooky beliefs himself, I should point out that my analysis is confined largely to what Hovind's entourage believes. Hovind himself was a veritable fountain of nuttiness, as is extensively detailed at sites like http://www.kent-hovind.com/If I had to go into all the woo-woo Hovind spouted over the years, the article would be three times as long. ...

Fred Thompson was minority counsel on the House committee investigating the Watergate break-in. In that role, he regularly leaked information about the investigation to the White House–in effect, he was Nixon’s “Deep Throat." Ragin' Cajun (2007-07-06): If you do not have a factual source other than that liberal link you have in your article, I suggest you do not publish kindergarten grade insults to about a man you could not compare yourself to in fear of being embarrassed. You apparently do not have much knowledge of the Watergate scandal due to the fact your source is written by democratic ninnies who spend their life criticizing others while they themselves are nothing more than idols of personal assaults conducted by the liberal section of the media. Your article was written purely out of emotion, no facts. So, the next time you go about on the Internet calling people weasels because your afraid to say it to their face, think again and check facts. ...

Historical Comments Einzige (2007-07-07): "The Ambient President"(-ial candidate)If his videos are any indication of how he plans to run things, he'd clearly be our best president ever. He'd blow Van Buren out of the water!Alas...

David at Blue Mass Group offers comment on the Boston Globe’s story which reveals that Mitt Romney used to strap his dog’s carrier to the roof of the car and put the dog in it for 12-hour trips from Boston to Ontario (the specific story takes place in the mid-1980s). In the story, the children are disgusted because the dog, Seamus, has emptied his bowels in his crate, and the animal waste is dripping off the back of the car: As the oldest son, Tagg Romney commandeered the way-back of the wagon, keeping his eyes fixed out the rear window, where he glimpsed the first sign of trouble. ‘‘Dad!’’ he yelled. ‘‘Gross!’’ A brown liquid was dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who’d been riding on the roof in the wind for hours. As the rest of the boys joined in the howls of disgust, Romney coolly pulled off the highway and into a service station. There, he borrowed a hose, washed down Seamus and the car, then hopped back onto the highway. It was a tiny preview of a trait he would grow famous for in business: emotion-free crisis management.David at Blue Mass Group, quoting Ana Marie Cox: Massachusetts’s animal cruelty laws specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal “in or upon a vehicle, or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner or in a way and manner which might endanger the animal carried thereon.” An officer for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded to a description of the situation saying “it’s definitely something I’d want to check out.” The officer, Nadia Branca, declined to give a definitive opinion on whether Romney broke the law but did note that it’s against state law to have a dog in an open bed of a pick-up truck, and “if the dog was being carried in a way that endangers it, that would be illegal.” And while it appears that the statute of limitations has probably passed, Stacey Wolf, attorney and legislative director for the ASPCA, said “even if it turns out to not be against the law at the time, in the district, we’d hope that people would use common sense…Any manner of transporting a dog that places the animal in serious danger is something that we’d think is inappropriate…I can’t speak to the accuracy of the case, but it raises concerns about the judgment used in this particular situation."In the comments, several people correctly observe that a crate-trained dog won’t relieve itself in its own crate unless it absolutely has to or is under extreme stress. Not surprising from a man who wants to double the size of Guantanamo.