:: walterindenver ::

:: Saturday, November 02, 2002 ::

ILTE of the Day

This letter from C. DeMarco is found in today's Houston Chronicle, asking for voters to approve more money for the local school district. Excerpt:

I know $808.6 million seems like a lot for the Houston Independent School District to be asking for, especially since Houstonians just passed a $678 million bond issue in 1998. But before voting, please consider that HISD has shown it can be fiscally responsible with taxpayers' money.

This problem is not confined to Houston, school districts around the nation ask for similar budget increases on a regular basis. So I looked up the Houston school budget numbers (pdf file) and found the predictable figures.

Students : 210,670
Expenditures for 2002: $1,410,428,699.

As in 1.4+ BILLION dollars. That works out to $6694.96* per student. You don't often see school district spokespeople trumpeting those kind of numbers when they agitate for tax increases.

The sad fact is that the typical U.S. school district is overfunded while it underperforms.

* That's slightly under the Denver school district budget numbers, per pupil. Denver boasts a higher cost of living. And a similar crummy school system.

:: Walter 8:04 PM [+] ::
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Happy Birthday to Sammy's Data

Hard to believe that the blogging phenomenon is only a year old. Head on over there and toast to their continued success. Which is what I'll do, too.

:: Walter 6:48 AM [+] ::
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For Colorado Voters

From the Colorado Freedom Report:

Unfortunately, one judge up for a retention vote, Henry Nieto, who now sits on the Colorado Court of Appeals, has done considerable damage to the checks and balances that ensure our liberty. Thus, voters should oust him on election day...
Enter the present case. Laura Kriho has a drug conviction on her record, but was nevertheless selected to serve on a drug-trial jury. She was not asked any direct questions about her past, but was urged to "comment" on the proceedings of the jury selection process. She did not refuse to answer any direct questions to her, but she did not volunteer any information. Thus seated on the jury, she exercised her power of nullification, refused to convict, and the case resulted in mistrial.
Immediately thereafter, Kriho herself was criminally charged, ostensibly not for the act of nullification itself, but with contempt of court for not volunteering her position on drug laws, or her knowledge of jury nullification, during the jury selection process.
The judge who ruled against Kriho was one Henry Nieto, who refused to grant Kriho a jury trial. Judge Nieto clearly opposes the Constitutional power of jury nullification and employed his power as a judge to oppress those who would dare exercise it. In order to be consistent, Nieto, if transported back in time, would also have to charge jurors who released defendants accused of witchcraft or harboring escaped slaves.

:: Walter 7:31 PM [+] ::
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Badly Drawn Boy

...played an exhausting two hour set last night. The poor weather and road conditions left the theater half empty, and allowed us to take a spot only an arm's reach from the stage. Good for us, bad for ticket receipts. A pleasant suprise - Andy Rourke is playing bass on this tour. I didn't recognize him. He was introduced toward the end of the show, and I thought, 'Andy Rourke, isn't that the name of the Smiths' bassist?' After the show I did some searching on the internet and found that they are indeed one and the same.

:: Walter 6:45 PM [+] ::
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Talk Left

...has the latest FBI national crime stats. Twice as many people were arrested for marijuana posession last year as just ten years ago. From a NORML press release:

The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

YEAR MARIJUANA ARRESTS
2001 723,627
2000 734,498
1999 704,812
1998 682,885
1997 695,200
1996 641,642
1995 588,963
1994 499,122
1993 380,689
1992 342,314

:: Walter 6:38 PM [+] ::
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I'm Off

On my way to see the Badly Drawn Boy concert tonight here in Denver. That is, if it's not cancelled. We're under a thick layer of snow and ice, the roads are near impassable. Thankfully, I live close to the concert venue. Mrs. Indenver and I might skate to the show.

:: Walter 7:10 PM [+] ::
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Well Meaning People

Senator Wellstone's death has brought out a flurry of eulogies in the past days, from friend and foe alike. Most praise him for having been a man of principle. The obvious question, to those who disagreed with him, would be, 'If having principles is a good thing, and Sen. Wellstone was a good man for having principles, why do you argue so vehemently with those who share his principles? And doesn't that make you who don't share his principles something less than good?'

James Lileks wrote a bit on that subject yesterday.

What sticks in some people’s craw is the idea that principle = virtue, as though dedication to an idea is, of itself, a laudable thing. Of course it isn’t; the world is full of people filled with terrible certainties. You can quickly Godwinize the argument down to nonsense: Hitler was full of conviction; is then Hitler to be mourned? It’s a valid question in another context. But not here. You have to judge the motives and character of the person who has the convictions. Do they seek something which any objective civilized mind would find evil? One caller to a weekend show insisted that Wellstone believed in Socialism, just like Lenin and Stalin. The host - a rock-ribbed Christian conservative - batted the idea away like an outhouse fly, because it’s tiresome, useless, and counterproductive. Wellstone didn’t want the Gulag, the Purge, the forced transplantation of whole populations, the formation of the faceless masses into a fist directed by cold-blooded elites. He may have been on the fringe of American politics, but his ideas were the outer edge of a dominant political party; he sought change through democratic means; he meant well.

Not all principles are created equal. Let's leave Wellstone's beliefs aside, I'm not aiming my criticism at him as much as anyone who thinks that it's OK to confiscate peoples' property to achieve social goals. The average American is forced to spend somewhere around half his income on taxes, in essence working as a slave for others as much as for himself. That's not as severe as sending that worker to the Gulag, but is it good? Is it in any way honorable for one to favor such a thing?

Political judgements should be based on basic morality. If your principles are good, how can your opponents principles also be good? Motivation means very little then. Anyone can mean well, statists of all stripes, even the most craven, believe they are doing society, and the world, a favor by mandating racial purity/ economic slavery/ religious piety/ or whatever's in vogue that year.
Andrew Olmsted has more on the subject.

:: Walter 6:12 PM [+] ::
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Drug Warriors Dealt a Setback

The Ninth Circuit court of appeals has upheld a ruling prohibiting the feds from revoking the licenses of doctors who prescribe medical marijuana.
Dale Amon responds with this lovely paragraph:

"Come the Revolution", the DEA will be one of the first organizations to go. I'd suggest they all keep their CV's current, but I'm not sure what sort of productive jobs they could get. There's not a lot of call for their skillset in a Civil society, and I don't believe Saddam will be hiring after this winter.

Heh.

:: Walter 5:48 PM [+] ::
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