perfidy

Late last night, power was finally restored to the Buckethead Mansion in Lower Alexandria. The linemen, a team from Georgia, were highly competent and helpful, even fixing some problems left by the electrician who "upgraded" the electrical system in the house. Thanks to Lowell and Champ and their team good work. Hopefully, they will be able to take a break and see their families soon.

And keep in your thoughts the linemen have died in the process of restoring power to the states hit by Isabel.

Last night the Goodwife and I caught a rerun of John Edwards announcing his candidacy on the Daily Show With Jon Stewart (hey... he promised he would!!).*

Observations. Edwards is at ease with himself, and understands that building the longterm goodwill of young voters is crucial. After all, he's like nineteen years old himself and can run for President like ten more times if he doesn't make it in '04. Those young voters will someday be old and responsible voters, and may think better of him due to this dimly remembered moment.

He has a great PR team, but he's not a naturally hilarious or charming guy. That's fine. Bill Clinton could charm the pants off William F. Buckley and get him to pose for photographs. I don't want that again.

Smaaaaart.

But do I want him for President? I'm not so sure. First, he's practically invisible. Second, a quick look at his website finds him pushing for a new federal law for every ostensibly "liberal" cause under the sun-- pay inequity between the sexes, affirmative action, racial profiling, one year of free college tuition for all eligible comers, etc. etc., all of which are really nice ideas (and he does have some good ones), but right now he's coming across as a carefully-calibrated pleasantly liberal bleeding-heart.

Part of the reason Howard Dean is doing so well is that he has rage, which sets him apart from the rest of the pack. Only Joe Lieberman, who rather unexpectedly growing in my esteem, has the stones to stand toe to toe with him. But Dean has made some missteps recently that make me less confident that I want him to be President. He's still the best of a runty litter, but I need to reserve my judgement for when the fight gets ugly early next year.

* Of course, Edwards than repeated his announcement last week in his home state of North Carolina. He's a lawyer.

Get your copy here, and expect lower productivity from certain ministers in the days to come. Neal Stephenson is the voice of my generation, if by generation you mean my narrowly defined psychotopographical coordinate.

Other readings of Minister Johno of late:

• Thomas Paine: Common Sense
• The Portable Thomas Jefferson
• Edmund S. Morgan: Benjamin Franklin
• Simone de Beauvoir: America Day By Day
• Peter Guralnick: Lost Highway: Journeys & Arrivals of American Musicians

Wow... America, America, America. Even when I'm reading a French writer she's writing about America. Ah, what the hell. Other countries are dirty and they talk funny and they don't have the right kind of coffee-- it's too thick and bitter-- and the beer's warm or it's too cold and the clothes fit funny and what's with their money and why can't they just speak english like normal people?

Eugene Volokh, who now works a mere stone's throw up the river from my worker-pod, reminds us to "Repeat after me: I will not believe generalizations from on-line self-selected surveys. I will not believe generalizations from on-line self-selected surveys. I will not believe generalizations from on-line self-selected surveys. . . ."

AP is reporting that an 11-judge panel has unanimously overturned the decision to postpone the California recall election.

This leaves the door open for the ACLU to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, which would have to then revisit the Bush v. Gore decision of a few years back. Hopefully, this will not happen. If you're going to have a recall, do it an be done with it, don't let it drag on in a nightmare of partisan legal and judicial wrangling. I had enough of that back in 2000.

Btw, the 9th circuit is notoriously liberal, so put your tin foil hats away.

[Update] The ACLU has decided not to appeal the decision. It is to be noted that the panel's decision did not rule out the possibility of post election shenanigans. So if there are more hanging chads and disenfranchised confused old Jewish women, we can still see a replay in miniature of the post-2000 fracas.

In the meantime, however, we have avoided a potentially very harmful constitutional issue, which Johno so astutely noticed the potential for in the comments. The problem of Court intervention in elections is indeed a big bag of stinking poo looking for a home. Nevertheless, we should remember that the alternative is worse. The last seriously contested election was resolved by a smoky room bargain - you can have the presidency if you end reconstruction. What similar bargains can we imagine today? The mind quails in fear.

An extra, double-plus evil possibility (though unlikely in the extreme) is total disgust in elections, leading to assumption of power or voter repudiation of the results. Court action, however distasteful, is still within the bounds of the system. We all think or even scream out load the Shakespeare quote, "First thing, we'll kill all the lawyers," but I believe that they save us from worse.

[Moreover] the Supreme Court action in Bush v. Gore merely ended the endless recounting, and restored the intent of the Florida Legislature. And Bush won every recount that was made. You can't, in a moderately honest republic, continue counting untill you get the result you want.

While the case in California was expected to result in a test of Bush v. Gore, I think it is a very different situation. Preventing a election mandated by the CA Constitution on the mere possibility of ambiguity in the election results is different than arguing over the results of an election that was actually held.

Australia is the "world's gayest country".

and from Drudge (who has a knack for good headlines) "Mutant Rats on Rampage in Central Asia" and "House of Filth."

[Update]"Student cuts off penis and tongue after drinking hallucinogenic tea."

Still no power in casa de Buckethead. Four and one half days without electricity gets tiresome. The first two days were fun, like camping. But you go camping with the reassuring knowledge that you can go back to civilization once you've had your fill of primitive living. It seems that we do not have that option.

Nevertheless, there is hope. A crack power company recon team examined our situation, and said that a repair crew should arrive sometime today. And our excellent neighbor Dave ran an extension cord over, so at least we have power for our refrigerator. Of all the electrical gadgets, that is the one I have missed most. 
 

The Online Computer Library Center are suing the Library Hotel in New York City for copyright infrigement. OCLC, the owners of the copyright for the Dewey Decimal System, are suing the hotel for unauthorized use because the hotel, which overlooks the main branch of the New York Public Library, organizes its rooms according to Dewey and puts appropriate reading materials in each (cool!!). CNN reports.

God. I am married to a librarian, and I tell you this: when we visit New York, it is our dream to stay in that perfidous, copyright-infringing criminal institution known as the Library Hotel. The OCLC represent the interests of libraries and librarians much the same way that the RIAA represents the interests of independent music labels. Got it? There's a lot of confusing the forest with the trees here, or more properly confusing the mouthpiece with the horn.

Go read the history of Murphy's Law. I insist.

This is London is reporting that a US research team has made some serious progress in developing a Vaccine for Cancer . The vaccines have produced dramatic results against the most virulent of cancers, such as pancreatic and kidney cancer. Typically, there is a 95% mortality rate over two years for those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, over a third of those receiving the treatment were alive after three years, and one was disease free after five.

The new treatments are tailor made for each patient, using materials from the patient's own body to create the vaccine. Researchers also have reason to believe that the technique might also make possible vaccines against other infectious diseases as well.

Given cancer's place on the list of leading causes of death, this is promising news indeed.