The Second Amendment, Rights and Liberty

Say Uncle has a co-blogger now, a guy named Thibodeaux. He wrote to his (Democratic) Senator, asking him to vote against the Assault Weapons Ban in Congress. The Senator wrote back and Thibodeaux does a pretty good fisking of the letter.

There was one point I think he missed, though. The Senator writes:

I believe that the Second Amendment gives law-abiding citizens the right to own a gun.

It does no such thing. People today have a bass-ackwards view of what the Constitution is and how it works. Rights are things granted by governments. They are the province of kings, despots and dictators. America was conceived in liberty, in the idea that all power is in the People and is given by them in limited doses to their government. People who talk about rights are slaves; a free people talks of liberty.

The Second Amendment doesn't give anything. The Framers presupposed that all rights remain with the People unless otherwise delegated. The Constitution was intended to delegate some powers from the People and some from the States. The Second Amendment specifically intends to warn future generations of legislators that gun ownership -- for whatever reason-- is a right retained by the People. It doesn't give, it takes: from government the power to take our guns.

It seems a simple point, and it always surprises me how many folks get it backwards, forget that the Constitution isn't a license for the Federal government to do what it pleases unless the People stop it. It was always intended to spell out the only powers the Federal government could have. It was a limiting document.

Remember: When you are born in America, you are an individual with full and complete liberty. You can do as you wish. You agree to give up some of that liberty to the Federal government in exchange for it doing some jobs you could never do by yourself. Same for the State constitution and your City or County charters. You only give up certain, specific liberties in exchange for certain specific protections. Everything else stays with you.

Somewhere in the early 19th century that got turned around, just as the Founding Fathers feared it would. Government developed the arrogance of believing it could do anything it wanted to, if the Constitutions at various levels didn't prohibit it from doing them. It's a natural process, as the Founders knew, which the Constitution and all their writings spelled out. It finally happened to us, and has progressed ever since.

A great American once said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." He wasn't kidding. This is why you need to know your history. So as to prevent the abuses of those who would take your birthright from you for their own enrichment and security.

Naifeh Hasn't Changed

There's a story in the Tennessean about House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh's latest bullying tactic. Seems that votes in the House are almost always done by voice vote. The problem has been that, as even the Tennessean admits, many votes are called one way when it was obvious to all that it had gone the other. Efforts to get recorded votes have usually been ignored or derided. That has allowed all kinds of shenanigans, as folks who followed the Income Tax Wars can attest.

Now, Naifeh is requiring a recorded vote on every bit of business. It has brought the speed of business to a snail's crawl. He's doing it to punish those who want a record of who voted what for campaign purposes and to keep his own crooked control over the House. It's all punitive and petty; just another way to remind folks of who's the thug boss.

I'm just glad that he'll be turned out next election. It was close last time. Even though he had his district gerrymandered to bring in the strongly Democratic voters in the county next door to overcome the increasing Republican tilt of his own Tipton County, he still had to put up a fight against a last minute, write-in Republican candidate. That guy came much closer than anyone expected. Now, another candidate -- who actually started his campaign for the next election during the previous one -- is doing all the ground work to build up the voter base he'll need to beat Naifeh. It's looking good, too.

That candidate is Dr. Jesse Cannon. You can read more about him and the battle against Naifeh at Frank Cagle's site; choose the article titled "Naifeh losing his grip back home in the district."

The delicious irony of an upstart black Republican running against the old-school white Democrat isn't lost on anyone. We came real close last time. This time will be the one.

Audience

One of the many blogs I read is Rhetorica, by Dr. Andy Cline, a professor at Park University in Missouri. As he puts it: "The Rhetorica Network offers analysis and commentary about the rhetoric, propaganda, and spin of journalism and politics, including analysis of presidential speeches and election campaigns." He always has good reading there.

He had a post recently talking about audience, and how journalists need to ask themselves who their audience is when they write (or broadcast). It reminded me of something from the Commercial Appeal.

Not long after Chris Peck took over, the CA began a series of efforts to discover who their audience was and what that audience wanted. But I'm still amused at one particular tactic. The paper announced, in its pages, that it would be holding meetings around various communities in Memphis, open to the public. They were soliciting their opinions on what they wanted from the CA.

It struck me as odd then, and Rhetorica's post reminded of it, that if you face a shrinking audience, then you go to the ones who don't read you, either now or ever, and find out why, to find out what they want so you can get them back. They are the ones you want. The folks still reading your paper are either stuck or like what you're doing. No need to worry about them. Asking them is pointless, in terms of increasing circulation. Or so it seems to me.

But the CA didn't do that, so far as I know. They didn't advertise on television or radio, put up billboards, go to churches and community groups, etc. They didn't go outside their own pool, but stayed within. It's like preaching to the choir.

I've always found that funny.

Fear The Penguin

No, this isn't about some Internet Flash game, but news that Hewlett-Packard will begin putting Novell's SuSE Linux distribution on their home PC models. The move is being pushed as a way for corporate employees who work with HP servers (which run Linux) to work at home seamlessly.

Either way, this is good news. I haven't made the jump to Linux yet, but when I buy a new computer, I will. It's just all-around better than Windows.

Mucho Blogo Advico

A trio of helpful posts today on blogging.

1. Following on from her post of yeterday, about mid-list authors and blogging, Jemima Pereira now offers a follow-up on mid-list reading and price points. It makes me wish we had a Books-A-Million or Buck-A-Book store here in Memphis. OK, this one isn't really about blogging, but still....

2. From the Politburo Diktat comes really good advice for bloggers wanting to get lots of hits, become famous and rise high in the Truth Laid Bear ecosystem.

3. Over at Say Uncle, we then get some follow-up that offers more good tips. I learned that Unc is getting more hits than me by an order of magnitude! (ie. a factor of ten) Follow both of them and you can't go wrong.

Star Trek Stuff

There's a website, called Bring Back Kirk that offers a fan-made short (9 minutes) film bringing together the casts of all the Star Trek series in one slam-bang adventure, using fan-created CGI. Their premise is one that quite a few ST fans agree with: Captain Kirk should never have died the death he suffered in Generations. The trailer is available in a variety of formats and download options, but as the smallest is still 10Mb I haven't had a chance to look at them yet. But the graphics on the website are very impressive.

On a different front, the Ain't It Cool News website is reporting a bizarre Star Trek rumor. They claim that Berman and Braga are out as producers and someone from Disney (responsible for Snow Dogs and some other crap) will be coming in. Their intent is to produce a trilogy of "prequels" (to what?). It all sounds very, very wrong on nearly every level, which is why I'm not linking, but merely reporting. If this turns real, then I'll post again.

Where's Mah Money?

Whew! Another busy day at Half-Bakered. I post, you decide.

I know I won't keep up this pace because a lot of this is old bookmarks being burned off. Hey, if you haven't read it, it's still news to you, right? Right. Besides, no one pays me for this (Yet. I need to do the Bill Hobbs shameless capitalist thing and start profiteering.), so you can't complain.

Not that anyone does. Heck, I got more comments announcing I was on hiatus than I have blogging up a storm. (Is that a message? I choose not to think so.) Say something. Even if it's just "this sux, d00d."

Anyway, lots of bloggity goodness below. Read, enjoy.

And yet another reminder, because I'm still not seeing my work around the blogosphere. I made up a couple of faux Kerry campaign posters and posted them here. I really like the Kerry/UN one. It almost looks real. Feel free to hype 'em or use 'em. Please. Just give me credit. And make me famous.

So I can start charging for this.

Exposing The Lies: Priceless

The Indepundit was a soldier who saw active duty in Iraq and blogged his experiences while he was there as Lt. Smash. He's been deactivated now and has settled back into his old life. During the weekend's anti-Iraq War protests, he went out to watch one up close. His observations are drily funny but pointed. Here's his report.

You should read this (it's not long) because he made sure to tape and then transcribe one woman speaker at the protest. She's hilariously clueless, except when she actually advocates that American soldiers be killed in order to drive them out. That's traitorous.

You'd expect Indepundit to grow furious and do something. He did. He sought the woman out and interviewed her.

Take a few minutes, go, and Read The Whole Thing.

Fun With Environmentalists

Next time your low impact, vegan, think globally act locally, anti-globalisation, protesting, Gaian, be nice to your mother environmentalist irritates you, find out if they use a computer. If they do, hit 'em with this:

According to the study, the manufacturing of one desktop computer and 17-inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor requires at least 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of chemicals and 1,500 kilograms of water. In terms of weight, the total amount of materials used is about equal to that of a mid-size car....

Users should think carefully about whether they really need a new computer, if upgrading their existing computer could serve the same purpose, he said. Actions such as delaying replacement and upgrading the memory or storage space or, if the machine is replaced, donating the old computer so that it may continue to be used offer potential energy savings of between five and 20 times those gained by recycling.

This is because so much of the energy required to manufacture a personal computer is used to make high-tech components like semiconductors and those components are destroyed in the recycling process to collect a small amount of raw materials. In an earlier study published in late 2002, Williams concluded that 1.7 kilograms of fossil fuels and chemicals and 32 kilograms of water are used to produce a single 2-gram 32M-byte DRAM (dynamic RAM) memory chip.

Make sure they writhe in guilt.

Great Minds Thinking Alike?

This week's Memphis Flyer cover story, about sex in the South, plays up "passion parties," the Tupperware and Mary Kay of the 21st century. While doing reading on another story below, I noticed that another alt-weekly, this one in Spokane, Washington, had a "passion parties" cover story as well! What a coincidence, huh?

Well...no. This is much more common than you think. If one newspaper gets an idea that plays out really well, it will always get picked up by other papers equally eager to retain or build circulation. I'm not gonna search for links, but there are national organisations for different kinds of newspapers and they all have sections which highlight just these kinds of successful story ideas.

It's also the basis for the blogosphere. When someone makes a great post, or uncovers something really interesting, then other bloggers instantly pick it up. Soon, it's all over the place. It becomes a "meme" in blogosphere terminology.

Just ask Instapundit's many readers.

Mid-List Blogging

A great post today from Jemima Pereira, of Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt blog. (That's a Star Trek joke, BTW.) She looks at publishing's shrinking mid-list and makes some comparisons to blogging. It's a short read, but thought-provoking.

As for Half-Bakered, I've never labored under the illusion of being "mid-list." In publishing terms, I'm a quirky boutique small press: not well known but treasured by the few that read it.

Chumney Redux

I didn't know how to wedge this bit into the Carol Chumney post below, so you get it here.

In all the fuffle about the day-care situation in Memphis the past few weeks, Chumney put forward her solution to the problem: another government agency! Yep, just what we need. She argued that State oversight and State and local Departments of Children's Services weren't enough. We needed a Memphis-only agency, independent of the others but working together, to watch our own backyard.

Shyeah! Part of the problem was failed communications between at least three government agencies. She wants to add another to the mix? Provide yet more opportunity for responsibility-ducking and buck-passing? Another great Chumney idea.

And now the City Council has obligated the City to a program to train and help certify day-care workers, at City cost. No one has any idea what this program will look like, its scope, how it will work, nor even the faintest idea of cost. But we will have something, and you and I will pay for it.

Every year, more children are killed, injured or maimed in automobile accidents in this city than have died in child-care in the past few years. Do we have a driver education program? Does the City actively work to make Memphis drivers safer? We do not. But it would have more and wider impact than some nebulous effort at improving the quality of day-care workers.

Ask youself this: would you turn over your kids to a stranger who only made $7 or $8 an hour, expecting them to care about your kids as much as you do? How many service-oriented places do you go into (restaurants, shops, etc.) where the staff makes that level of income and get crappy service from people who don't care about you or your problems? It's just that simple. One of the best ways to improve child day-care (though not the only, by any means) would be to increase pay, to attract not the bottom of the worker pool, but interest those with somewhat more skills.

Of course, that means that a whole lot of folks suddenly can't afford day-care any more.

Just a thought.

New Year, Same Old Story

Every Spring, the media starts to fill up with horror stories about the rising price of gas. Dark hints and accusations of oil company profiteering soon follow. "It's price gouging," someone will always accuse.

Pooh.

There are perfectly normal explanations that are rooted in government interference in the marketplace. It really is your government's fault! But that doesn't make for good news stories, as the "greedy oil companies" template has been well-established by now.

From the Knowledge Problem website comes this perfectly rational explanation:

The existing EPA fuel oxygenate requirements that arise from the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 require that all refiners deplete their inventories of winter fuel before restocking the tanks with the summer fuel (something to do with reducing the probabiilty of mixing). This requirement exacerbates the seasonality that is inherent in gasoline prices because of (1) changes in the demand for gasoline and (2) the price inelastic nature of the demand for gasoline. So now in addition to inelastic seasonal demand for gasoline, we have inelastic seasonal supply of gasoline. And politicians and "uninformed newscasters" wonder why we have seasonal price spikes ...

In theory these price spikes should provide an arbitrage opportunity for some clever entrepreneurs. But the opportunity cost of inventory storage is very large; petroleum refining is a very aggressive oligopoly, so the profit margins are just not there to support carrying such a capital cost. Furthermore, constructing more tank farms is almost as much of a no-no from the aesthetic/NIMBY perspective as building more refineries (the last refinery built in the US was constructed in 1976, in Louisiana). So expanding storage is expensive and difficult to achieve.

Make sure to read the comments as well.

Do I think people will pay attention to such simple market economics? Of course not. The conspiracy theory is so much sexier. Ah well....

A Tale From Another City

A Half-Bakered reader sent me a link to a story about Commercial Appeal Editor in Chief Chris Peck, his former newspaper the Spokane, Washington, Spokesman-Review, and conflicts of interest. It was published in the Spokane alt-weekly, the Local Planet back in March 2001.

The story is a two-parter, but it's best for reasons of comprehension to start with part two and then go back to read part one. It's a very complex tale with a lot of players and difficult to summarise.

A very wealthy Spokane family, developers, also own the main daily paper. (In local terms, think if Jack Belz owned the Commercial Appeal.) That family was pushing hard for a redevelopment project that involved public funds. Where the previous generation of family had kept the walls between the newspaper and the property development pretty firm, the current young generation was less strict. That led to a blurring of lines and roles that led to a lot of questions, upset feelings and appearances of bias at the paper.

That's just the slimmest possible outline. As you'd expect, this story encompasses government officials, City Councillors, PR firms, developers, lawyers, editors, reporters and many more.

Peck is only one player in this sprawling story, but an important one. As I said, this is a long and hard-to-read article, but well worth the time for what it illuminates in Peck's behavior and thinking. I sincerely hope that whatever lessons that mess taught, they were learned. Similar public-private partnerships happen all the time in downtown Memphis and the potential for similar meltdowns exists.

Let me also be very clear here. Someone sent this to me and I'm passing it on to you. There's no "gotcha" going on. It's an absorbing story you won't hear anywhere else in Memphis.

Really and truly: Read The Whole Thing.

You Want It? You Pay For It

The Cooper-Young neighborhood is a great place. Fun shops, tons of great restaurants and aura to spare. The annual C-Y Festival is an all-day outdoor party -- a must for all Memphians. One of the neighborhood's landmarks is a "recovered and repurposed" railroad trestle bridge at the south edge of the hub of C-Y.

The Commercial Appeal ran a story in one of its neighborhood sections about Cooper-Young that featured the trestle art and its costs to maintain. The article seemed awfully boosterish even for the paper and, sure enough, turns out it was written by the Executive Director of the Cooper-Young Community Association! Hmmm.... A search turned up no other CA stories about the art installation.

The Memphis Flyer, it turns out, has the real skinny.

Marc Long, president of the Cooper-Young Community Association (CYCA), went before the City Council's Personnel, Intergovernmental, and Annexation committee last week, proposing that the city take over ownership of the art trestle and all the costs associated with it. Meanwhile, the group would retain ownership of the art.

"For the initial project," Long said later, "we had money from grants from the city and the Community Foundation [of Greater Memphis] along with matching funds from private donors and corporate donors. At that point, we took full responsibility [for the trestle] because we had the money in the grants to do it. After 9/11, the insurance went up and we started choking a little bit."

In fact, after 9/11, the insurance skyrocketed from under $1,000 to about $4,000 a year. Last year, the CYCA held its first annual Art for Art's Sake auction to cover the maintenance costs of the trestle and came close to raising the necessary amount. This year's costs will be offset by the CYCA's second annual art auction, scheduled for April 3rd.

Ahhh.... They can no longer afford it, but still want to keep it. So they'll get the rest of the City to pay for it!

The Cooper-Young area isn't rich, by any means, but certainly doesn't lack for funds. The C-Y Festival is an annual smash that could be harnessed to their needs. As the author of the CA story points out, 45,000 attend the Cooper-Young Festival. If only 10% of those folks could spare a dollar, you'd have nearly all the costs taken care of!

I oppose on principle the City being given funding responsibility for these kinds of loss-leaders. Yes, it's really neat (I do like it.) but if you want to have it, you should make arrangements to pay for it. Don't look at me, unless you'll also accept my opinions on what to do with it.

Oh? That's a different matter, you say?

This will eventually turn into a tug of war between the City Council, needing to make some kind of decision on development or something, and the "arts community," which will argue it should be left alone and that the City has no "right" to mess with it. Sorry, but who pays the piper calls the tune.

If you like the trestle art so much, prove it.

Memphis Anti-War Protest

I forgot to post this over the weekend, but Memphis also had an anti-war protest on the anniversary of the start of the Iraqi War. As reported by the Commercial Appeal, about one hundred people showed up. Take a look at the accompanying photo. Sheesh...talk about pampered and well-fed.

The protest was sponsored by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, the usual gang of idiots and whiners. MSP&J (sounds like a sandwich) are also the local force behind the "living wage" movement. They have "offices" at First Congo Church in Cooper-Young. First Congo has an umbrella cooperative community of activist organisations, so a turnout of one hundred protesters isn't particularly impressive..

Lesson For Today

Hat tip to Possumblog for Fun Facts About Classic Architecture, a quick, picture-filled look at Greek and Roman columns, capitals, bases and balustrades. It's a fun, quick read. (Note: Adobe Acrobat required.)

He Starts Here And Ends Up...Over There Somewhere

John Branston had the Memphis Flyer cover story last week, with "Policy & PR: How taxpayer-funded public relations are shaping the news." It purports to be a look at the use of PR firms by government, but mid-way through the article it veers in a whole different direction. Neither one nor the other, it ends up leaving me dissatisfied.

Branston starts with an overview of the use of PR firms across the spectrum of local government and quasi-governmental bodies. Not bad, but he neglects details like how much all these bodies are spending. He then lurches into a look at the Madison Avenue "light rail" boondoggle that dovetails with what I have to say further below.

Then, almost half-way through, things get weird. He starts talking about Federal District Attorneys and some cases that might shed light into their offices. He's talked about them before, hinting darkly of shadowy things, and does so again. I guess it's a hobby horse of his, one that he doesn't have enough evidence on yet to speak out about. But you get the sense he really wants to. Really wants to, if you get my drift and I'm sure you do.

Next comes a long passage on the arrival of the Grizzlies, with the attendant controversial media/government hustle. This part is worth quoting:

The big announcement and press conference was three years ago at the Plaza Club with the mayors, NBA Now leaders, and officials of FedEx and AutoZone. Several downtown PR firms and the Center City Commission made sure the room was packed with a friendly audience.

Anyone who remembered the controversy over building The Pyramid knew that a new publicly funded arena would face a tough fight. The true cost would be every bit of $250 million plus the debt on The Pyramid. The well-orchestrated show of solidarity represented only a slice of the business community, much less the taxpayers. The challenge was getting someone influential to say so. PR firms for the Grizzlies and the Public Building Authority tried to keep the focus off of politics and cost concerns by taking reporters to see a new arena in Indianapolis. But sizzle wasn't the issue.

Mike Rose was an obvious call -- a big UM booster, basketball fan, longtime Memphian, and a former Promus and Holiday Inns CEO familiar with nine-digit numbers. But there were complications. Rose was long gone from Promus and Holiday Inns. He lived in Nashville, and his ex-wife, Gail Rose, was a leader of NBA Now. That left the hard questions to a few "naysayer" reporters and "mavericks" like Shelby County commissioner Walter Bailey, lawyer Duncan Ragsdale, and housewife Heidi Shafer.

I'll admit to density here and say I'm not quite sure what he's trying to get at. Rose was "an obvious call" to whom? The "nay-sayers?" The NBA Now tiger team? Branston goes on to relate and praise a Rose guest editorial in the CA that criticises the FedEx deal, showing how reporters dropped the ball, but do we know that Rose would have done as John suggests? Why couldn't the Flyer have done it? Why didn't they? Hmmm....

He's right, though, about the critics being pushed out on the fringe. The local media completely walked away from their duty, in favor of self-interest. Newpapers and television had a financial stake in getting the team here, as well as the prestige and freebies and access. That was an abandonment of duty and the clearest indictment of the local media you could ask for. But I wish that Branston had gone deeper and explained, for example, who hired which PR firms. Were they hired with City money? That would seem to be a conflict of interest -- using PR firms to influence public opinion about a matter of City spending? I'd love to see Branston fill in the story; I really would. Name names, John.

But then comes the strangest part of the article. Branston wanders into a vague, skimmy look at the Commercial Appeal (which serves to stand in for all local print and television media, I guess) and how it approaches PR before just generally criticizing the Commercial Appeal. He spends some time talking about the paper's "new direction" and its new choices in terms of coverage. Things end with a vague glare at the paper's new direction and a seeming paean to days gone by. Odd.

I agree with his points, for the most part, and he asks some good questions about how newspapers can survive and stay relevant in the media-rich age.

This passage sticks in my craw:

Peck is correct that nobody cuts out a story about the inside stuff over at the finance committee and puts it up on their refrigerator door.

Is that the purpose of a newspaper? To end up on the refrigerator? Fish, cats and birds everywhere would be saddened to know that.

Seriously, the duty of a newspaper is to get into places most citizens can't. Especially in government, where a few people in a finance committee room can make decisions that will affect hundreds of thousands of people. I couldn't care less about some arts social, but I care deeply about the agency that takes my tax money to fund that arts social. I want to know! Recipes, wine tastings, movie reviews, humor, comics, cute pictures, agony aunt columns, and a million other things like that I can get anywhere. But if the Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Flyer don't report the doings of boards, committees, commisions, Councils, etc., who will? How will I know? Yes, television will give me video, but they are time-limited and unable to do in-depth reporting. Newspapers alone can give me the whole story, in a format I can save and study whenever I want. (Though the Internet is fast catching up there. Imagine if someone had put the City Council's bashing of Carol Chumney, full and unedited, on line? No mediation, no massaging for structure, no missed context, no editing.)

Branston even manages to elide an important point about the mix of government, PR and the press. He says, near the end of the article:

In some cases, CA political reporters have gotten out of their ruts by getting out of the business. In less than two years, the paper has lost three state capitol reporters and a local political columnist. Peck said he has fired only one reporter, whom he did not name.

Tie this in with something from the beginning:

Tom Jones, who started as the spokesman and wordsmith of Shelby County government, vastly expanded the role under mayors Bill Morris and Jim Rout. Jones helped make county policies as well as sell them and served on the board of several agencies. His successor, Susan Adler Thorp, has a more traditional role under Mayor A C Wharton.

You have to tie that together because Branston doesn't bother to point out that Thorp was the former CA chief political columnist! Doesn't anyone find it interesting that she would jump ship right after the election to take this job?

I've written before about her behavior in the four week period just before and right after the County Mayoral elections. She wrote ten columns in that time -- five of which were directly critical, to the point of viscious attack, of losing candidate George Flinn. She even wrote an "exit interview" with him after his defeat! She wrote two columns about obscure, hopeless candidates -- the kind she had dismissively blasted in the past -- facing strong certain-win Republicans. Not once did she write a column discussing or praising AC Wharton! Her only mentions of him were in conjunction with Flinn. Thorp was unquestionably partisan, which wouldn't be so bad if she was honest about it. But being followed by her stepping into the Communications Director role for AC Wharton, it fairly screams of ethical breach and misuse of her position.

And yet...not a word. Same for Paula Wade, whom Branston doesn't mention. She was a vociferous supporter of TennCare during her CA tenure. Where is she now? With the State of Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, which has oversight on guess which program? Yup, TennCare.

Anyway, Branston gave us a good start before he wandered into something he seems to want to say real bad, but won't quite get out. I suspect, with nothing but my own reading of his work to suggest it, that Branston's journalistic training and sense of ethics is what's holding him back from a real paint-blistering screed against government and the local press. You can see him nudging the edges of it here. I wish he'd let go. He's been around Memphis long enough, and seems more than smart and informed enough, to "connect the dots" as he calls it, in the incestuous greed-party that is Memphis government in a way I'd dearly love to read. Real "flip the rock and watch the creepy crawlies run away" stuff, I'm sure.

Remember, John, it's an opinion column. You can say what you think.

By the way, come back to this topic again, but focus on the firms, the government agencies, the money and the relationships. Most definitely the money. There's gold yet to be mined there, too.

What He Said: Gay Marriage Department

I've considered wading into the gay marriage debate, but have hesitated because I really don't have anything to add that's unique. Ultimately, my position comes from my libertarian philosophy: "Why is government even in the business of licensing marriage?" It should be a private, religious or civil matter. Questions of paternity are no longer a problem with modern medicine. Questions of inheritance can be handled in courts. Records can be kept and documents filed. The government shouldn't be in the business of promoting married life. Government is for individuals, not social units.

Personally, I find gay sex revolting. Sorry, but I do. Ick. Doesn't mean I find gay people revolting. I have many gay friends and acquaintances. Can't help it, living in Midtown; wouldn't want to. They are regular folks just like anyone else. They want homes, jobs, security, love and happiness, too. Homosexuality is a difference with only minimal distinctions, if you look at it.

Pretty much everything I'd want to add to the debate has been better said by Rev. Donald Sensing, a Nashville Methodist minister who has a blog titled One Hand Clapping. Except, of course, that I'm an atheist. But his comments about the changes our science has wrought and society has undergone in the last forty years, bringing us to where we are today inexorably, are what I'd say. Except better.

Today's History Lesson

Following on from the post further below about the election of 1884 (dirty!), we step back a couple of decades to the election of 1864 -- right in the middle of the Civil War.

A Republican President is in the middle of prosecuting an unpopular war, one with a large number of Americans calling for appeasement and bringing the boys home. His opposition is a former military man, seeing "death, debt, and destruction with no end in sight." There was an important social/moral issue creating controversy.

Strange parallels to today, yes? History is like that. Go and read it.