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Published on Leave a comment on Time for a Road Trip

Apparently, President Bush is persona non grata in the otherwise friendly and welcoming town of Brattleboro, Vermont. From this morning's Associated Press, courtesy of The New York Times:

A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put on the agenda of a town meeting in March a measure that would make Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they ever visit the community. As president, Mr. Bush has been to every state except Vermont.

The town meeting, an annual exercise in which residents gather to vote on things like fire department budgets and municipal policy, requires about 1,000 signatures to place a binding item on the agenda.

The measure asks, “Shall the Selectboard instruct the town attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities?”

That's appalling--there is so much worth seeing in Vermont that there is no excuse for not visiting. I suggest that the President and Vice-President make a public appearance in Brattleboro. Perhaps they could invite the petitioners out for lunch. Even better, do gourmet take-out from the legendary Vermont Country Deli.

Published on Leave a comment on A New Way to Regulate Local Monopolies

Neely Tucker of The Washington Post brings us the story of Mona Shaw. The plot summary:

Fear not, fellow Americans! In these dark days of war, pestilence and Paris Hilton, a new hero has arisen. She is none other than 75-year-old Mona "The Hammer" Shaw, who took the aforementioned implement to her local Comcast office in Manassas to settle a score, and boy, did she!

Enjoy!

Published on Leave a comment on Perhaps Michael Moore Should Run a Taxi Service

I don't know which of the following statements is more surprising. From the AP:

A 35-year-old Canadian woman has given birth to rare identical quadruplets, officials at a Great Falls hospital said Thursday. Karen Jepp of Calgary, Alberta, delivered Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia by Caesarian section Sunday afternoon at Benefis Healthcare, said Amy Astin, the hospital's director of community and government relations.

The four girls were breathing without ventilators and listed in good condition Thursday, she said.

Wonderful. And this part:

The Jepps drove 325 miles to Great Falls for the births because hospitals in Calgary were at capacity, Key said.

"The difficulty is that Calgary continues to grow at such a rapid rate. ... The population has increased a lot faster than the number of hospital beds," he said.

For those of you unclear on the geography, their trip looked something like this and would take about five hours at the posted speed limits. About halfway through the trip, they would pass through Lethbridge, which is home to Chinook Regional Hospital, which claims to offer a "high level neonatal intensive care unit." Not good enough? No beds there either? When they were in Lethbridge, they were about an hour away from Medicine Hat, home to this fine institution and its NICU, or two and a half hours plus a border crossing away from Great Falls. They chose the latter.

UPDATE (8/20): At the prompting of a commenter, I found that the doctor's statement about them driving the 325 miles is incorrect, and so too is my travelogue in the last paragraph of the original post (now italicized). Here is a report from the BBC that explains:

A medical team and space for the babies had been organised for the Jepp family at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary but several other babies were born unexpectedly early, filling the neonatal intensive care unit.

Health officials said they checked every other neonatal intensive care unit in Canada but none had space.

The Jepps, a nurse and a respiratory technician were flown 500km (310 miles) to the Montana hospital, the closest in the US, where the quadruplets were born on Sunday.

My apologies for the hasty and incorrect post, though this notion that "every other neonatal intensive care unit in Canada" had no space is more of an indictment of the system than my original remarks.

Published on Leave a comment on The Perp and the Copter

I find it fascinating that homicide charges are even being considered in this case. In a nutshell, two news helicopters collided and crashed as they were covering the police pursuit of a suspect fleeing by car. The four occupants were killed. Here's what the story says:

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said Tuesday his office will continue reviewing whether to file murder charges against Christopher J. Jones, 23, who police were chasing when the two news helicopters crashed while taping the incident.

Jones will face two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of theft and one count unlawful flight related to the car chase, Thomas announced at Tuesday’s news conference. If found guilty on all charges, he could face 127 years in prison.

Jones, 23, is being held in Maricopa County jail on $1 million bond.

Thomas said his office is continuing to work with the Phoenix Police Department and that the department has insisted he seek murder charges against Jones, who was leading the police chase when two helicopters crashed, killing four news crewmen.

“These people were doing an important job and that is providing news to the people of this community,” Thomas said.

Thomas has not said whether he will pursue homicide charges. He said much will depend on the results of the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. “The facts we need to complete this investigation just haven’t been complete,” he said.

Regardless, legal experts cautioned that could be a tough legal road to go down. Arizona law allows a criminal to be charged with murder if someone is killed while committing a felony.

The law assumes the criminal should have known there was a chance someone could have died while committing the crime. For example, if someone robs a store at gunpoint it’s reasonable to assume the gun could accidentally fire and kill an innocent bystander.

Legal experts also said the robber should presume that the cashier of the store could fire their own gun and kill an innocent customer.

I fully support the law (and, in general, harsh sentences for convicts) but not the application in this case. The helicopter occupants were not innocent bystanders. They chose to be in the vicinity of the felony knowing that it was in progress. It's tragic that they died in the crash, but it seems farfetched to hold the perp legally responsible for that.

Published on Leave a comment on Eric Francis Gets a Voxy

Brad DeLong frequently asks, "Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?" Perhaps the answer is that he doesn't subscribe to our local Connecticut Valley Spectator. In this week's edition, contributing writer Eric Francis dissects our local Ruby Ridge in the making. A teaser:

PLAINFIELD - Alice in Wonderland said it best: "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't."

On Monday, two dozen reporters from as far away as Boston and Washington, D.C. were treated to a first-hand look at the parallel universe of Ed and Elaine Brown when the couple called a press conference on the front porch of their Plainfield home and vowed not to be taken alive by the U.S. Marshals who have been tasked to bring them into custody so they can start serving their five-year federal prison sentences for tax evasion.

Let's give him a Voxy and get him in the White House press corps.

Published on Leave a comment on Hitting the Links

Interesting study, plausible results, but how did they randomize the concussions?

The harmful consequences of preaching "energy independence" are now evident as corporate welfare for coal miners becomes the latest bipartisan Capitol Hill porkfest. A note to all of you coal producers: if you really think liquefied coal is the future of energy, then mine it, clean it, liquefy it, and sell it to me at the highest possible price you think I'll pay for it. You are entitled to that, not subsidies and guarantees from your clients in Congress.

Being a headmaster doesn't have to be this difficult. It is almost never a sensible move to suppress the writing in the student newspaper, but you are well within your authority to not renew the contract of an instructor who derides your institution in his novel.

Laugh or cry, it's your call.

This is one of the most fascinating videos I've seen in a while. Those lions need a refresher course, no?

Published on Leave a comment on Things I Don’t Understand

1) Why every Boston cabbie thinks that the most direct route to/from Logan Airport and the North End is through the Ted Williams tunnel ...

2) How people can be taken seriously as candidates for President with exactly zero experience as an executive in prior public office and zero significant pieces of legislation to their credit at the national level ... Don't they have to, at least at some prior point in their political careers, have made a decision for which they were directly responsible for the consequences? Are we really that desperate?