Patterico's Pontifications

9/30/2014

First U.S. Case of Ebola in Dallas

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:53 pm



My inclination not to panic is counterbalanced by my inclination not to trust the U.S. Government when it tells me everything is OK.

You’ve already heard the reassurances from the government. But apparently the infected man was at an emergency room with symptoms and then left:

The man had some symptoms on Sept. 24. Early Friday morning, the patient went to the hospital emergency room on his own with nondescript, nonspecific symptoms. He was evaluated at the hospital and given antibiotics, then left, Goodman said. On Sunday, he was taken to the hospital by ambulance and admitted.

Goodman said they were looking into why he left Friday and were going to monitor those emergency room doctors closely. They are also looking into whether the man was asked if he had recently traveled to West Africa.

Who was in the emergency room with him? I’m guessing we have no idea. Who did he contact between the time he left the ER and the time he returned to the hospital? I’m guessing we have no idea.

Supposedly, it’s relatively difficult to transmit; it doesn’t fly through the air, but is typically transmitted through bodily fluids or direct contact. However, it’s not clear to me that touching a contaminated surface is not enough. And since a symptomatic guy was apparently walking around, the possibilities do seem scary.

My plan: don’t panic, but be skeptical of government statements.

Not Buying What Julia Pierson Is Selling

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:31 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson faced a tough grilling this morning at a House oversight hearing. She testified that she took “full responsibility” for the failures at the agency and also reassured the committee that “The president is safe today.”

Not everyone was buying:

“I wish to God you protected the White House like you protected your reputation here today,” Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch told Pierson at a public hearing that was followed by a classified, closed-door briefing. Rep. Chaffetz said afterward: “The more I learn, the more it scares me.”

Further, Darrell Issa brought up the questionable reporting of the incident by the agency:

But she also faced accusations — which she did not directly rebuff — that the agency initially gave a “false” account of what happened that evening.

In his opening statement, Issa noted that the knife-carrying intruder in fact made it to the East Room. Issa said that was contrary to an “early, false report” that claimed the intruder only got just inside the residence door.

Under questioning by Issa, Pierson acknowledged that the intruder “knocked back” an officer who was standing at the White House doorway, made it into the hallway and “stepped momentarily into the East Room.”

Ironically, just hours after Pierson’s grilling this morning, another incident was revealed:

A private security contractor with a gun and a violent criminal past rode in an elevator with President Obama during a visit to Atlanta in September, a congressional source confirmed Tuesday.

The presence of the armed man in a confined space with Obama violates restrictions blocking anyone but sworn law enforcement agents from carrying guns in a location the President is visiting.

It alarmed whistleblowers who reported the incident to Congress, the latest in a series of embarrassing missteps by the Secret Service.

But hey, the White House front door now has automatic locks!

–Dana

Julia Pierson resigned today:

“Today Julia Pierson, the director of the United States Secret Service, offered her resignation, and I accepted it,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement. He announced that Joseph Clancy, retired head of the agency’s Presidential Protective Division, would come out of retirement to lead the Secret Service temporarily.

Fundraiser for Mandy Nagy

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:41 am



Bill Jacobson has announced the official fundraiser for Mandy Nagy, also known as Liberty Chick — a fighter for justice whom I am proud to call my friend. As I mentioned to you before, Mandy suffered a serious stroke earlier this month. Publicly available details about her recovery have been posted as a series of updates to this post at Legal Insurrection. The long and short of it is that she is expected to recover, but she has a long road ahead of her. She’s going to need some help. Please join me in aiding that effort by clicking on the official GoFundMe page here and making a donation.

Three Great Evenings of Music

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:28 am



Mrs. P. and I are coming off of three unforgettable evenings of music in a row. Over the weekend I told you about Saturday night’s star-studded Big Star tribute; if you missed that post, catch up here. But that was just the beginning.

Sunday night we were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime experience: a show given by the Posies’s Ken Stringfellow in a living room in West Los Angeles. The performance could not have been more intimate — unless, maybe, he had been sitting on our laps. Stringfellow, who has a powerful, distinctive voice, performed without a PA system for his vocals, which allowed him to stand directly in front of the couch that Mrs. P. and I were sitting on. Had he taken a very small step forward, he would have stepped on Christi’s feet. Early in the show, Stringfellow said he had forgotten something. He handed the guitar to Christi and asked her to hold it while he ran to the other room.

Stringfellow is an entertaining performer in every respect. His arrangements of his songs are fresh, many of them done on the piano. His between-song (and sometimes during-song) banter is spontaneous and amusing. He did Posies songs, solo songs, and covers from Big Star and The Beach Boys. This video is from a different performance, but replicates the experience pretty well:

One lovely bonus: Skylar Gudasz, a vocalist from the Big Star tribute, was in attendance, and came up and performed Big Star’s transcendant song “Thirteen.” That had been one of my favorite performances from the tribute, and the guy who videotaped most of the songs had notably missed that one. However, I found this video from a different tribute show, with the same vocalists, to give you a flavor of what it sounded like at the tribute show:

It sounded like that at the Stringfellow show too — just more intimate and with Stringfellow doing the harmonizing. Can’t argue with that.

The Big Star theme continued last night, when Mrs. P. and I went to Largo at the Coronet and saw the Watkins Family Hour with guests Susanna Hoffs and Dan Wilson, who had both performed at the Big Star tribute. We sat 15 feet away as Hoffs and Wilson performed two of the songs that I linked in my review of the Big Star show: “The Ballad of El Goodo” and the gorgeous “I’m in Love With a Girl.” Hoffs sang a few other numbers, including the Michael Nesmith song “Different Drum” (made famous by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys) and “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles. (That last number was included to fit the Watkins’s “wildfire” theme for the night.) Here’s a video of that last song, from a different performance, to give you an idea:

We are in Music Nerd Heaven.

9/29/2014

Weighing Out Mitt Romney

Filed under: General — Dana @ 8:17 pm



[guest post by Dana]

So, Mitt Romney: will he or won’t he? He certainly remains popular and admits he is “carefully weighing the pluses and minuses of another run.”

Ross Douthat, while hoping Mitt doesn’t run, points out why he is back in the spotlight:

Part of the answer can be found in Henry Olsen’s helpful analysis, from earlier this year, of how exactly Republican presidential primaries tend to shake out. Olsen offered a four-group typology of G.O.P. primary voters — secular conservatives, religious conservatives, moderate conservatives and Rockefeller-Republican centrists — and argued that the nomination almost always goes to the candidate who can rally the moderate conservatives and co-opt elements from the other constituencies while fending of challenges from the right and (sometimes, though less often) the center. There are different ways to do this (as evidenced by George W. Bush and John McCain’s very different paths to the nomination), but the trick doesn’t change that much from cycle to cycle — you want to seem conservative enough but not too right-wing, electable but not a liberal sellout, a safe choice for donors who also makes the party’s activists feel respected. You don’t win by running against those activists (as McCain did in 2000, and Jon Huntsman did in 2012), and you also don’t win by running as an ideological insurgent; you win by straddling dispositional and ideological conservatism, raising lots of money, and promising the best chance of victory in November.

Or shorter, per commenter Dustin: “The GOP doesn’t have to live up to any standard… it just has to be less awful than the opponent.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer Rubin offers 15 reasons why Mitt should not run. Readers can decide for themselves the validity of her claims. Here is a sampling:

7. It is hard for him to make the argument that Hillary Clinton has been around forever and it’s time for someone new.

8. In promoting an anti-elitism message, the GOP has the upper hand against Hillary — unless Romney runs.

9. There are a number of fresher, more interesting candidates who would likely shy away from running against him (e.g. Rep. Paul Ryan). Even if others do run, Romney would suck up donors and operatives who would otherwise gravitate to a fresher, more electable figure.

12. With the exception of the first presidential debate against Obama, he seemed to lack the skill and desire to go for the jugular. Anyone going up against the Clintons will need that.

14. He is not well situated to break off parts of the Democratic coalition (minorities, women, young voters).

15. He is likely to widen, not shrink, the gap between the establishment and the tea party sides of the GOP.

In the meantime, Ted Cruz is playing it close to the vest, Rand Paul is waiting for his wife’s full support (and trying to figure out how to distance himself from his father), and Rick Perry is still trying to find his footing and make a comeback after the disappointment of 2012.

–Dana

President Obama Lays Blame

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:29 pm



[guest post by Dana]

In an interview with 60 Minutes last night, President Obama threw the intelligence community under the bus when discussing the swift and seemingly sudden rise of ISIS:

“Our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that, I think, they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” he said.

His accusation did not sit well with a former intelligence officer:

“Either the president doesn’t read the intelligence he’s getting or he’s bullshitting.” Or both.

Sen. John McCain also pushed back today:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told USA TODAY on Monday that intelligence agencies in fact forecast the rise of ISIS, and described Obama’s comments as “the dog ate my homework kind of routine.”

McCain blamed the expansion of the Islamic State on the U.S. failure to keep a residual force in Iraq after the end of combat operations.

“When the president decided we were not going to leave a sustaining force in Iraq … those of us who knew the area well knew the situation was going to deteriorate,” McCain said.

And jumping in to defend his boss, Josh Earnest sought to clarify that the president was not blaming intelligence officials:

Intelligence analysis is “a difficult business, and, ultimately, at the end, becomes a prediction,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

At the White House, Earnest said that the president retains confidence in Clapper and the intelligence community.

“Ultimately, the president is commander-in-chief,” Earnest said. “And he’s the one who takes responsibility for ensuring that we have the kinds of policies in place that are required to protect our interests around the globe.”

–Dana

Added: Video of Josh Earnest attempting to deflect and spin the pressing questions from reporter Jon Karl who refuses to be put off (start at 26:00):

John Kerry 2014 vs. John Kerry 1971

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:59 am



Harry Shearer has this satirical debate between John Kerry 1971 and John Kerry 2014 on the reasons to go to war. The clip contrasts actual audio clips of John Kerry from 2014 supporting our action in Iraq, vs. actual clips of John Kerry 1971 protesting Vietnam:

It’s humorous enough on its own, but I was struck by this passage, beginning at 5:07:

There is no negotiation with ISIL. There is nothing to negotiate. They’re not offering anyone health care of any kind. They’re not offering education of any kind. For a whole idea, or philosophy or cult, whatever you want to call it, that frankly comes out of the Stone Age.

He finally gets around to commplaining that ISIS is “cold-blooded kiddlers” (I think he means killers), but his first complaint is that . . . they aren’t offering anyone government health care or education.

Well, of course you can’t negotiate with anyone like that!

Doctors Still Tough to Find Under ObamaCare in California

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:55 am



L.A. Times (you heard me):

Finding a doctor who takes Obamacare coverage could be just as frustrating for Californians in 2015 as the health-law expansion enters its second year.

The state’s largest health insurers are sticking with their often-criticized narrow networks of doctors, and in some cases they are cutting the number of physicians even more, according to a Times analysis of company data. And the state’s insurance exchange, Covered California, still has no comprehensive directory to help consumers match doctors with health plans.

More satisfied customers.

9/28/2014

My Musical Dream

Filed under: General,Music — Patterico @ 1:37 pm



Picture this, fellow music nerds. In this dream I had, I experience the following moment: The Bangles have left the stage. Before Aimee Mann comes out to sing with Susanna Hoffs — and before we hear from Chris Stamey of the dBs — we have on stage Jon Auer from the Posies, and Jason Falkner, formerly of Jellyfish and The Grays. Auer and Falkner are standing in front of the microphones, ready to sing the next song. Behind them, holding an electric guitar, is Mitch Easter, legendary producer of REM and front man for Let’s Active. At the drums is Jody Stephens, the only living member of Big Star. But . . . where is the bassist? There’s none on the stage. Ken Stringfellow, who plays bass, walks diffidently onto the stage and picks up a bass, his body language saying: this isn’t really a song I was going to play, but whatever. And then, the real bassist comes running onto the stage and takes the bass guitar from Stringfellow. That bassist is Mike Mills, the bassist from REM.

Yes, it’s a crazy dream to have: all these music legends on a single stage. But it wasn’t a dream. It was last night’s performance at the Wilshire Ebell Theater — a star-studded tribute to Big Star, presented as a benefit for the Autism Think Tank.

Someone has many (maybe all) of last night’s songs on his YouTube channel, filmed from a seat far better than the ones occupied by myself and Mrs. P. When I found this treasure trove this morning, I immediately looked for a video of the most magical moment of the night. And I found it. After the songs listed on the program were finished, Chris Stamey came to the stage and said that they had one more song to perform, but that legally, they had to turn off the PA system (the Wilshire Ebell is in a residential neighborhood). But they would do the song acoustically, without any amplification, and if everyone was quiet, they ought to be able to hear just fine.

And then, they played this:

I had thought this moment would live on only in my memory. Thanks to the Internet and YouTube, it also lives on right here. Watch the video. It’s worth your time.

If you like that, I have a couple more beneath the fold.

(more…)

9/27/2014

Do We Truly Consent to Be Governed?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 2:11 pm



One issue that I knew would come up in the comments to the post about The Tale of the Slave is the concept of the social contract and the alleged consent of the governed.

For most of my life, I accepted rather unquestioningly the notion that there is a “social contract.” Sure, it’s obviously impractical to have every person in a country explicitly consent to be governed by some authority. But, as John Locke argued, lack of explicit consent does not make the government illegitimate — because there are ways that we display our tacit consent to be governed. We accept and use the benefits that we receive from government, such as driving on government roads. We vote (at least many of us do), which is a display of our desire to affect public decisionmaking. All of these actions show that we are engaged in a “social contract” — and that our government (to quote Jefferson’s words from the Declaration of Independence) is one “deriving [its] just powers from the consent of the governed.”

And without the concept of “tacit consent” or the “social contract,” there would be a free-rider problem. If we had no justification to tax citizens to provide for necessaries such as the common defense and fighting crime, only some would pay for that which is necessary for all.

That’s the argument that I have accepted most of my life. And, to be clear: I’m not dead convinced that this argument is absolutely wrong, at least in theory. But as I watch our country moving away from our original “social contract,” the Constitution, I’d like to challenge some of these assumptions.

The argument that accepting government benefits means accepting the government itself proves too much. Let’s invoke Godwin’s Law right off the bat: if you drove on the Nazis’ roads, did that mean you accepted Hitler’s legitimacy? Under this ridiculous theory, anyone who accepts any government “benefit” from any totalitarian regime necessarily recognizes that government’s legitimacy. To state this argument is to reject it.

The other problem I have with tacit consent resting on government “benefits” is that there is a socialist assumption built into the argument: that we could not enjoy these benefits if the free market were allowed to handle the situation that the government has taken over. Take the roads, for example. The assumption, I guess, is that if the government didn’t build roads, people would just stand around in the fields looking at each other and shrugging. Somehow, I think the free market could come up with a way to build roads, if it came right down to it.

Another argument says that if you don’t like your own country, you are free to move to another. If you stay, that means you accept the “social contract” — whether your signature can be found on a document or not. Really? What other contract on earth requires you to pick up all your belongings, uproot yourself and your family, and move to another part of the world — just to show that you don’t consent to the “contract”? Courts won’t enforce a contract for the sale of land without a signature. Why, then, would we consider people bound to a “social contract” with no signature — especially when that “social contract” involves the prospect of confiscatory taxation, and even possibly involuntary conscription to fight a war we don’t believe in?

Ah, but what about the vote as tacit consent? Nice try, but no sale. Imagine you told me that I could withdraw my consent to be taxed and subjected to laws I disagree with, simply by refusing to vote. Guess what? I will never vote again. As it stands right now, my vote is generally an act of self-defense. I’m either voting against some ridiculous bond issue that is going to cost me and my children money — or I’m voting for the person who is least likely to increase government and ruin my children’s future (which is the same as saying I am voting against the person who is most likely to screw my family). I usually don’t like the person I am voting for, and I usually expect that their decisions will be ones I would never make and consider absurd — but hopefully slightly less absurd than the decisions that would be made by his opponent. Does this mean I “support” the candidate I am voting for? Hardly ever.

So where does this consent come from? What justification does this government have to tax me to pay for the health care of people who are leeches on society? Or, on a more mundane level, what right does this government have to tell me whether I can use my iPhone to call an Uber car and share the ride with other people to make it cheaper?

I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t sign a contract.

Again, I’m not sure I absolutely reject the idea of a social contract, but the arguments against are not so easily dismissed as I assumed for most of my life. And those arguments seem to gain force given that we have discarded the Constutition.

The closest thing we ever had to a true social contract was the Constitution of the United States. That was a governing document that actually was signed by representatives of the People. True, the time came when all those signatories were dead, but the document did provide a mechanism for its alteration, which provided a way for the People themselves to have their say in what the Constitution means. But now, unelected judges say what the Constitution means — and their diktats bear no relationship to the words written in the document. What’s more, we are increasingly governed by a President who does not consider himself bound by the Constitution, but rather by his sense of what he can get away with. (I’m sure that formulation has been used by others, but it rings so true that I feel like it is original with me.)

More and more, I find myself wondering: what legitimacy does this government have? And, more and more, the answer seems to be: none.

What it does have, is power. If I run afoul of it, I can be locked in a cage. If I criticize it, I can be audited by the IRS.

But legitimacy? With a dead Constitution, tell me the source of this government’s legitimacy. I don’t see it.

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