All Things in Moderation

I just read on ESPN that John Terry, Chelsea’s center back and captain of the England national football (read: soccer) team, is to face criminal charges for allegedly uttering a racial slur in a match against Queens Park Rangers.

England captain John Terry will face a criminal charge over allegations that he racially abused an opponent in the Premier League.

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said Wednesday that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the Chelsea defender for his on-field exchange Oct. 23 with Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand.

The Telegraph has the history of the case.

This is complete insanity. It is not at all clear what Terry is alleged to have said (which is bizarre in itself – the “victim” is reported to have told police that he did not accuse Terry of making a racist remark), but it doesn’t really matter to me. It is just words, said on a football pitch. I’m not going to defend racist remarks, and if the league wants to punish Terry for any remarks he may have made, more power to them. But for this to be a legal matter, that there actually exists laws prohibiting the uttering of racial slurs, shows how utterly confused our good friends across the ocean have become regarding the notion of freedom that they themselves did so much to introduce to the world.

Our polticial, legal, and indeed national culture owes much to the UK, and I have long been a fan of the nation, both historically and contemporarily. But contrasting this foolishness with the recent events between the Cincinnati and Xavier basketball teams where real, phsyical harm was done, and the fact that it will lead to no criminal charges, shows how very far apart our cultures, and the role government should play in it, have grown.

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Christopher Hitchens is dead. Hitch was a very smart man, a great writer, and a bit of an enigma. He will be missed on all parts of the political spectrum, I suspect.

Back in 2005 I had my own brief “brush with greatness” with him. I was living in England, and had started my own blog, The American Expatriate, which was dedicated largely to critiquing the British media’s coverage of America. I had written a brief post about a debate on Iraq that Hitchens had with George Galloway (a truly loathsome MP who had had his own run-in with the US Congress over the oil-for-food program.) Anyway, unbeknownst to me, a radio personality in the UK named Charlie Wolf had become a bit of a fan of my blog, and when he saw my blog post he contacted me to appear on his radio show to comment on the debate, which I did. Unfortunately, my appearance was cut short when Wolf’s producer managed to get Hitchens himself on the phone in the middle of my comments.

So Hitchens managed to pre-empt my first and only radio appearance. At least he was kind enough not to remark about the bumbling, stuttering clown who preceded him on the show, for which I have forever been grateful.
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QB referenced a New Yorker piece on Hitchens in a more recent thread and while I’m not sure if I found what he was referencing, here are a couple of pieces on Hitchens from The New Yorker:

A 2006 piece on Hitchens’ support for the Iraq War.

A Postscript by Christopher Buckley that I really enjoyed.

And for those who, like myself, aren’t particularly familiar with Hitchens, here is a list (with descriptions) of some of his work.

–Ashot—

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James Taranto, in his Best of the Web column yesterday, highlights Bernie Sanders’ Saving American Democracy (SAD) amendment to the constitution.

Section 1. The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.
Section 2. Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.
Section 3. Such corporate and other private entities shall be prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.
Section 4. Congress and the States shall have the power to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spending, and to authorize the establishment of political committees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources of those contributions and expenditures.

Taranto points out, and it seems correct to me, that if this amendment were ratified, section 1 would deny corporations of literally all constitutional protections. As Taranto puts it:

Among other things, that would mean that the government (federal or state) could subject such entities to bills of attainder and ex post facto laws, impose criminal or civil penalties on them without due process, search their premises without a warrant and seize their property without compensation.

And despite section 2’s clause limiting any potential legislation against corporate acitivty to being consistent with “freedom of the press”, it seems to me the amendment itself would, by its language, eliminate freedom of the press for any corporate media outlet. Afterall, if “the rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations”, that means that, for example, neither the NYT, nor the WaPo, nor FOXNews is protected by the first amendment’s right to freedom of the press.

Granted this amendment has virtually no chance of ever getting passed and ratfied. But I am curious to hear what our resident lawyers have to say about this attempt by Sanders to seemingly eliminate freedom of the press as we know it.

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There is a very interesting article today (unfortunately behind a firewall) in the WSJ regarding the difficulty pharmaceutical companies are having reproducing results from studies published by academics in “peer reviewed” journals.

This is one of medicine’s dirty secrets: Most results, including those that appear in top-flight peer-reviewed journals, can’t be reproduced.

“It’s a very serious and disturbing issue because it obviously misleads people” who implicitly trust findings published in a respected peer-reviewed journal, says Bruce Alberts, editor of Science. On Friday, the U.S. journal is devoting a large chunk of its Dec. 2 issue to the problem of scientific replication.

Reproducibility is the foundation of all modern research, the standard by which scientific claims are evaluated. In the U.S. alone, biomedical research is a $100-billion-year enterprise. So when published medical findings can’t be validated by others, there are major consequences.

Although focused on biomedical/pharmaceutical research, I wonder how much of this problem exists in other areas, particualrly in light of this (my emphasis):

There is also a more insidious and pervasive problem: a preference for positive results.

Unlike pharmaceutical companies, academic researchers rarely conduct experiments in a “blinded” manner. This makes it easier to cherry-pick statistical findings that support a positive result. In the quest for jobs and funding, especially in an era of economic malaise, the growing army of scientists need more successful experiments to their name, not failed ones. An explosion of scientific and academic journals has added to the pressure.

Also, there was this:

According to a report published by the U.K.’s Royal Society, there were 7.1 million researchers working globally across all scientific fields—academic and corporate—in 2007, a 25% increase from five years earlier.

“Among the more obvious yet unquantifiable reasons, there is immense competition among laboratories and a pressure to publish,” wrote Dr. Asadullah and others from Bayer, in their September paper. “There is also a bias toward publishing positive results, as it is easier to get positive results accepted in good journals.”

Science publications are under pressure, too. The number of research journals has jumped 23% between 2001 and 2010, according to Elsevier, which has analyzed the data. Their proliferation has ratcheted up competitive pressure on even elite journals, which can generate buzz by publishing splashy papers, typically containing positive findings, to meet the demands of a 24-hour news cycle.

Dr. Alberts of Science acknowledges that journals increasingly have to strike a balance between publishing studies “with broad appeal,” while making sure they aren’t hyped.

I’m guessing that balance is not always well struck, nor is the problem limited to biomedical science. I’m sure our local scientists can weigh in on this.

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I don’t mean to step on the Bits and Pieces thread, but I saw this today and just had to put it up here. Any of you old timers remember Joe Kapp, the old quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings back in the late 60’s? Kapp is the only quarterback in history to appear in the Rose Bowl, the Super Bowl, and the CFL’s Grey Cup. Anyway, apparently the other day Kapp was being honored at a CFL alumni luncheon along with an old rival of his from the 1963 Grey Cup, Angelo Mosca. It seems that there was some kind of incident back in 1963 involving Mosca and a teammate of Kapp’s, which resulted in some hard feelings. Old grudges, it seems, die hard.

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Following our Giblets and Necks thread the other day, I got to thinking: Is there a more reliable non-political indicator of one’s politics than vegetarianism? I have never known a conservative vegetarian, and all of the vegetarians I have known are not just liberally inclined, but steadfast, politically active liberals. I’ve simply added to the list following our discussion. I would venture a guess that vegetarians vote Democrat in higher percentages than even African Americans.

ashot amusingly noted that he was easily convinced to drop his vegetarianism by his wife-to-be because he “wasn’t very committed to the cause.” And it is a “cause”, a politically liberal one at that, isn’t it? What is it about vegetarianism that attracts liberals?

And is there an equivalent, ostensibly non-political, lifestyle choice that is equally indicative of conservatism?

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The WSJ editorail page has some excellent pre-Thanksgiving Day reads today. First up is a chronicle of the Pilgrims arrival at Plymouth, as recounted by William Bradford, “sometime governor thereof”:

Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.

Next, while not explicitly a T-day piece, an interesting take on the state of the nation, and why we should be thankful for it:

Of course the stranger cannot quiet their spirits. For it is true that everywhere men turn their eyes today much of the world has a truly wild and savage hue. No man, if he be truthful, can say that the specter of war is banished. Nor can he say that when men or communities are put upon their own resources they are sure of solace; nor be sure that men of diverse kinds and diverse views can live peaceably together in a time of troubles.

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere—in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.

Finally, Thomas Fleming recounts an English Thanksgiving from 1942:

The most dramatic ceremony was in London’s Westminster Abbey, where English kings and queens have been crowned for centuries. No British government had ever permitted any ritual on its altar except the prescribed devotions of the Church of England. But on Nov. 26, 1942, they made an exception for their American cousins.

No orders were issued to guarantee a large audience. There was only a brief announcement in the newspapers. But when the Abbey’s doors opened, 3,000 uniformed men and women poured down the aisles. In 10 minutes there was not a single empty seat and crowds were standing in the side aisles. One reporter said there was a veritable “hedge of khaki” around the tomb of Britain’s unknown soldier of World War I.

Cpl. Heinz Arnold of Patchogue, N.Y., played “Onward Christian Soldiers” on the mighty coronation organ. With stately strides, Sgt. Francis Bohannan of Philadelphia advanced up the center aisle carrying a huge American flag. Behind him came three chaplains, the dean of the Abbey, and a Who’s Who of top American admirals, generals and diplomats. On the high altar, other soldiers draped an even larger American flag.

Their faces “plainly reflected what lay in their heart,” one reporter noted, as the visitors sang “America the Beautiful” and “Lead On O King Eternal.” The U.S. ambassador to Britain, John G. Winant, read a brief message from President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Across the uncertain ways of space and time our hearts echo those words.” The Dean of Westminster and one of the Abbey’s chaplains also spoke. “God has dealt mercifully and bountifully with us,” the chaplain said. “True, we have had our difficulties . . . but all of these trials have made us stronger to do the great tasks which have fallen to us.”

This last one reminds me a bit of London following 9/11. I was living there at the time, and a few days after 9/11 they held a ceremony in St. Paul’s Cathedral in honor of the victims. My office was close by to St. Paul’s, so I went over. I couldn’t get within 200 feet of the front doors, it was so packed both inside and outside, but they had set up speakers outside so everyone could hear. During the ceremony, the Queen spoke briefly, and then the Star Spangled Banner was played while the US flag hung outside the cathedral, the first and only time that a foreign national anthem had ever been heard inside the walls of St. Paul’s. I’m not a religious guy in the slightest, but I have to admit it was pretty moving.

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(Posted by ScottC, but discovered and written by lmsinca)
I was going to attempt a You Tube video here of the World’s scariest roller coaster, but I suffered a tech fail.  (tech fail resolved – SC). A few of us had a discussion a week or so ago comparing the economy to a roller coaster ride so here ‘ya go.  I thought of Ashot also, waiting for baby ashot to show up, as riding an emotional roller coaster.  I hope we hear from him soon.

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Occupy San Diego holds a moment of silence “in solidarity” with the man who shot at the White House and has been charged with the attempted assassination of the President.

Wholly apart from the, er, questionable judgement, if this is the quality of intellect leading this “movement”, it is clearly not long for this world.

(BTW…is it really that cold in San Diego, necessitating scarves and gloves and winter coats? Global warming strikes again, perhaps.)

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Just a quick note to McWing, Michi, Mark, Brent and any other ATiM veterans: Thank you.

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