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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Saturday, August 09, 2003 :::
Glenn Reynolds, who has been giving the Democrats a lot of free (and mostly good) advice, finally has some advice for the Republicans. I vote we take it.
::: posted by Steven at 1:33 AM
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Friday, August 08, 2003 :::
Dean asks how a vacancy in California's Lt. Gov. office would be filled. In some states, it wouldn't be -- Massachusetts, for example, doesn't fill vacancies in the office of governor. Jane Swift was never Governor -- she spent the last year-and-a-half of her term as Lieutenant Governor as Acting Governor.
California, however, is not Massachusetts ("Thank God," say millions of people on each coast). Article 5, section 5, subdivision b, says:
Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Lieutenant Governor [or several others], the Governor shall nominate a person to fill the vacancy who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority of the membership of the Senate and a majority of the membership of the Assembly and who shall hold office for the balance of the unexpired term. In the event the nominee is neither confirmed nor refused confirmation by both the Senate and the Assembly within 90 days of the submission of the nomination, the nominee shall take office as if he or she had been confirmed by a majority of the Senate and Assembly; provided, that if such 90-day period ends during a recess of the Legislature, the period shall be extended until thesixth day following the day on which the Legislature reconvenes.
How about that! I looked something up! The Internet doesn't just tie up my phone line, it's filled with useful legal tidbits just like that!
Anyway, I'll bet he could nominate Davis, though there may be a section elsewhere that I didn't notice. I didn't see anything in the recall section of the constitution to suggest that a recalled officer becomes ineligible for anything in the future.
::: posted by Steven at 6:56 PM
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I encountered someone wearing a VodkaPundit shirt today.
::: posted by Steven at 6:22 PM
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I ran a race yesterday, and as I came through the chute there was a tent handing out some of this allegedly fruit-flavored "athletic water". Does anyone reading this know anything about the virtues of this sort of thing versus real water? If the glucose and nutrients are valuable, how about this stuff versus real water and a piece of fruit?
::: posted by dWj at 11:11 AM
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Slate reports that more than 350 people have "signed up to run" for governor of California. One of them would probably be worse than Larry Flynt.I want to know, if Bustamante becomes governor by way of the recall process, how his replacement is selected, and whether it could be Gray Davis.
::: posted by dWj at 11:11 AM
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The almanac is pretty grim for today. On August 8 in 1974, Nixon announced his resignation; in 1977 Elvis died; and in 1988, the Cubs played their first night game.
::: posted by dWj at 10:05 AM
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Thursday, August 07, 2003 :::
Foxnews has an op-ed on a proposed amendment to Florida's constitution to limit class sizes:There have been close to 300 separate studies nation-wide on the relationship between class size and student achievement. Professor Eric Hanushek, an economist at the University of Rochester, reviewed these studies and discovered that only 15 percent of them suggest that reducing class size improves student learning as measured by standardized tests.Indeed, in 72 percent of the studies reviewed, there was no statistically significant effect on measurable student achievement associated with smaller classes. Even more surprisingly, in 13 percent of the studies reviewed, student test scores actually declined as class size was reduced. This study finds some effect, but a very small one. Smaller class sizes make much better copy than they do policy.
::: posted by dWj at 5:56 PM
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More on the California stampede for Governor: Issa is out
::: posted by Steven at 4:55 PM
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Gary Coleman is running for Governor, too, but he doesn't mean it:
Coleman, speaking shortly after film star Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he was running for governor, predicted that Schwarzenegger would win -- and Coleman said he would vote for the 'Terminator.'
'Now that Arnold is in the race, there is no race. Gray Davis needs to pack his bags,' he said. 'I'm going to stay in the race, but I'm not going to campaign.'
Larry Flynt is in, too. He wants to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants. Perhaps by the time the election rolls around, he'll learn that "governor" isn't a federal office.
Remember Gallagher, the guy who smashed watermelons in the '70s? He's in. Columnist Arianna Huffington is in, too. Her ex-husband is considering it.
California is fun to watch, but I wouldn't want to live there.
::: posted by Steven at 12:47 PM
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"According to new and recent experiments, neutrons and electrons colliding with water for just attoseconds will see a ratio of hydrogen to oxygen of roughly 1.5 to 1", reports the AIP, which goes on to glibly suggest "so a more accurate formula for water under these circumstances would be H1.5O."While the exact details are still being debated by theorists, the researchers' own theoretical considerations suggest the presence of short-lived (sub-femtosecond) entanglement, in which protons in adjacent hydrogen atoms (and possibly the surrounding electrons) are all interlinked in such a way as to change the nature of the scattering results. More later if I come to understand it.
::: posted by dWj at 11:51 AM
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I seem to like repeating the final paragraphs of OpinionJournal pieces:"Those who create," Coco Chanel said, "are rare. Those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger." That is the bureaucrat's ode, illustrated again by the antitrust division's attempt to force another industry into a facile economic mold. Read it.
::: posted by dWj at 11:47 AM
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Wednesday, August 06, 2003 :::
It's been a long time since I saw the movie Demolition Man (1993). It wasn't a great movie, though it was better than the critics said it was. The story begins when a cop, played by Sylvester Stallone, is cryogenically frozen (in the near future, i.e., the late '90s) as a punishment for using excessive force. One of the criminals whom he had previously put away (played by Wesley Snipes) manages to escape from the cryogenic prison in 2032, so the authorities unfreeze Stallone to help catch him.
Shortly after the cop is unfrozen, Sandra Bullock is showing him around, and says something nonchalantly about "President Schwarzenegger". Noticing his expression of surprise, she goes on to explain that, yes, he was born outside the country, but that he had been so popular that the states had ratified the sixty-first amendment to the constitution.
As you might guess, I'm bringing this up in light of the news that Schwarzenegger is running for Governor of California. If this goes any further, just remember that it was foretold.
(Incidentally, the biggest critical complaint about the movie was that it was too unrealistic -- and it certainly was an exaggerated world. But I thought the most unrealistic component was that we were up to constitutional amendment 61 only four decades after the 27th had been ratified.)
::: posted by Steven at 10:15 PM
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As Conrad Black, owner of the Telegraph newspapers, wrote in a letter in the July 26 Daily Telegraph: "The BBC is pathologically hostile to the government and official opposition, most British institutions, American policy in almost every field, Israel, moderation in Ireland, all Western religions, and most manifestations of the free market economy." Read more over at Opinion Journal.
::: posted by dWj at 2:17 PM
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Tuesday, August 05, 2003 :::
Quoth the Instapundit:
WHO IS SCARED OF HOWARD DEAN? A lot of people, all of a sudden, it seems.
As our regular reader knows, I've been worried about him for a while now.
::: posted by Steven at 2:41 PM
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James Woolsey and some general have written about our military options in Korea. I hope that aspect of the situation is as good as they say -- I'm fairly pessimistic about Korea.
::: posted by Steven at 11:50 AM
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Monday, August 04, 2003 :::
The local six-flags park has TV-monitors for one to watch while waiting in line at some of the more popular attractions. They seem to have sound, but one can very rarely hear them. The choice of programming is mostly stand-up comics and music videos. I'm curious as to who's to blame for that.
::: posted by dWj at 5:59 PM
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I was trying to pick someone up at Midway Airport at 7:45 Saturday night (reg reqed).Police were notified of the security breach at 7:40 p.m., Frisbie said. Midway's acting federal security director opted to evacuate the airport at 8:20 p.m., when officers were unable to locate the woman, Turmail said. It took a while.
::: posted by dWj at 10:08 AM
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Sunday, August 03, 2003 :::
Alors:
An audiotape purported to be by the second in command of the al-Qaida terror group has been broadcast on an Arab television station. It warns there will be retaliation if any harm comes to the detainees from Afghanistan being held at a U.S. naval base in Cuba.
This probably goes without saying, but consider: if we line up and shoot the detainees, al-Qaida will try to attack us. If we provide each detainee with clean clothes and a Koran, al-Qaida will try to attack us. If we provide each of them with a generous lifetime pension and tickets to Disneyland and throw them a ticker-tape parade in New York, al-Qaida will try to attack us.
In short, what we do with the detainees will be based on their utility to us and on our moral limitations. Tapes "purported to be" from al-Qaida are irrelevant.
::: posted by Steven at 9:08 PM
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