A Lawyer Knows Soccer

David Post at Volokh Conspiracy made a bet at 23  to 1 odds that Spain and the Netherlands would be in the World Cup final.

Immigration and Housing Prices

I still have a bee in my bonnet about the relationship of immigration to housing prices, and the tightening of enforcement to price drops.  I found another bit of support in these paragraphs from a Calculated Risk post:

I can add a little to this story: I know of an individual investor (through a close friend) in the Phoenix area who has bought almost 100 homes over the last 18 months. The investor has shared with me his portfolio. He has only bought single family homes, no condos. His average purchase price was under $35,000 and most of the homes are 3 br / 2 ba.

He is renting the homes, many by the room. Yeah, they sound like flophouses! The investor is starting to have a vacancy problem that he attributes to the new Arizona immigration law that takes effect on July 29th.

 Incidentally the housing prices in Manassas Park are now about half what they used to be.

Questions on Reading "Revolutionaries"

I've started reading Jack Rakove's "Revolutionaries,  A New History of the Invention of America".  It's not doing well on Amazon's ratings, except when you look at the one-stars you find people complaining, not about the book but about the Kindle price. So far I'd recommend it--it reads easily. I'm reasonably familiar with the period but it has triggered a couple questions/observations so far. 

• I wasn't familiar with Edmund Burke's speech on conciliating the colonies--Rakove quotes enough that I've looked it up on line.
• I wonder why none of the Canadian provinces attended the "First Continental Congress".  I grew up reading Kenneth Roberts, whose historical fiction included the attack on Quebec/Montreal led by Benedict Arnold and Gen. Montgomery, which was an attempt to get those northern provinces to join the revolution.
• although Americans don't usually like having the national government exercise powers over individual citizens, that's exactly what the First CC did--establish local committees to enforce the boycott on British goods.

Obama Uses Poles for His Tomatoes

That's the takeaway I got from this Obamafoodorama post, which includes a photo of the President showing off the White House garden to Biden and Reid.  It's good to see Obama involved with the garden; look what my better half has done. Although, just to carp, I've yet to see any of the Obamas doing any actual work in the garden other than the first plantings and harvesting--who is doing the weeding, since they don't use mulch down the rows?

So Much for the Myth of the Loving Bonobos

Beneath the velvet glove lies an iron hand, according to this article in today's Times:

Once, while in the Congo, I witnessed Tatango, this young male bonobo, start to do what the chimps in Uganda regularly did: he went up to the alpha female, Mimi, and backhanded her across the face. She gave him the most withering look. Within seconds, five unrelated females chased him into the forest. Poor guy. They almost took his testicles off. After that, he never made another problem. Bonobo females seem to know that if they stick together, the males can’t dominate.

Ohio Compromise--How to Treat Livestock

It's not the Missouri Compromise of 1820, but Gov. Strickland probably faced some similar passions: the Farm Bureau protecting current methods of raising livestock, particularly cages for hens and farrowing  crates for sows, while the Humane Society wants to end both.  Farm Policy has a description here. 

If I understand, they took a standard approach in these sorts of disputes: grandfather in the existing operations and apply new rules to new operations. (Same tactics have been used in lots of labor union-employer disputes; keep the old-timers whole and make the newbies suffer.) John Phipps has a slightly jaundiced, dare I say cynical evaluation.

Given the proliferation of outlets, the bottom line for farmers and processors is: if you and your customers wouldn't like seeing it on-line, don't do it, because it will be on-line.  Just ask Dave Weigel about the ability to keep data private.

Those Regimented French--Govt. Prescribed Sales Days

From Mr. Beauregarde:

France being France, shopkeepers just can’t hold sales when they like, sales are national évents with precise dates set for when they start and finish. So, they started yesterday and will go on for five weeks. Bargain hunters were out eary yesterday morning. Some stores were offering réductions of up to 40% on some articles. [fixed typos]

Words of Wisdom from the President

Obamafoodorama reports on the picnic the Obamas had for 1100 military and dependents.  To quote:

He noted that due to the sweltering heat, he and Mrs. Obama had advised the troops not to come in uniform. But the President pointed out one fellow, a corporal, who was attired in a dark suit.
"I said man, you must be hot," President Obama said. "And he said, I'm sorry sir, I know you're my Commander In Chief, but my grandmother said I had to dress up."

"You can't argue with Grandma,"  President Obama said, to laughter.

FSA, MIDAS, and ARRA

It took over a year (from May 30, 2009 to June 16, 2010) but FSA finally updated the link from its page on the ARRA to MIDAS (i.e, from the Recovery Act to the project to redo FSA computer systems.)  I have to say the data they provide doesn't do much for me.

The Age of Blogging: Bellesiles

The American Historical Association included a link to a piece by Michael Bellesiles on teaching military history in time of war.  It's well-written, with the key being the serious injury to the brother of one of the class.  It got a good reaction in the comments, until one commenter asked why Bellesiles was only an adjunct at Central Connecticut.  Other commenters jumped in, recalling the scandal over his sourcing of Arming America, and loss of his Emory U job and his Bancroft Prize.

Moral?  These days it's hard to escape your past