Best Sentence of April 26

From Dan Drezner, discussing Stephen Hawking and dealing with aliens (or not):

If aliens crave either sea water or bulls**t, then the human race as we know it is seriously screwed. 

Clayton on Small Rural Towns

A couple paragraphs from Chris Clayton's blog:

I found the Vilsack-Lucas exchange interesting considering I spent the better part of Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning in Southeastern Arkansas. On Tuesday night, in Monticello, Ark., at a political candidate forum, one older man complained about the lack of jobs for people in small towns. All of the manufacturing jobs were gone. A spec building built by the town a decade earlier was never used. The man said, "We got fast-food jobs, though. We have a every kind of burger in this town you want it, but people can't live off those jobs."

(I thought that also dovetailed nicely into the obesity debate.)

On Wednesday, I traveled a little way farther southeast. The blight really was surprising. There were a couple of towns with almost completely boarded former business districts. Any kind store other than liquor or convenience was gone. There was just nothing there in terms of work or economic development. It was depressing and made me wonder just how in the world you return jobs back to these small towns.

My answer is: you can't return jobs and people to small towns. At least you can't consistently and on a national basis.  Small towns have been declining for over a century and there's nothing on the horizon which would change the process.

Speculation on Safety: Companies Safer Than Family Farms?

That's John Phipps:

"It may take a legion of lawyers and hard-nosed insurance companies to make this happen, but as the number of family-only operations slides and those with employees (and their concomitant legal exposure) increase, I suspect these numbers [fatal accidents] will begin to drop rapidly."

Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations. I think I agree with John, by the same logic as believing "commercial agriculture" produces safer food on the whole than smaller operations.  Commercial aviation is safer than private aviation. 

Driving While Burqaed (in France)

Dirk Beauregarde has a long post on the arrest of a woman for wearing a burqa while driving.  Seems the French have a law saying the driver's ability to drive must be unimpeded.  But was that really the issue?

Master Gardeners in Fairfax

I blogged recently about the Extension Service's Master Gardener program (its blog) and noted its absence from the Reston library.  In fairness I should note other branches of the Fairfax library do have Master Gardeners in attendance.

Convergence of Capitalism and Communism, Circa 1931

From the News from 1930 blog:

Editorial by T. Woodlock: Sen. Nye intends to modify antitrust laws to “protect the small manufacturer ... and merchant.” This is a misunderstanding of the laws, whose purpose is to preserve competition and competitive prices, not guarantee success; competition “means ... a winner and a loser.” Our attitude toward antitrust law comes from the dominant theory early in the industrial revolution that “free and unlimited competition of individuals” assures “the greatest good of all”; this contrasts with the Socialist principle of complete cooperation. However, our much more complex modern economy requires cooperation to a large degree; “so far as the visible structure ... it is well on the way to the structure contemplated by orthodox Socialists. ... The modern problem is to reconcile” these principles; “somehow, the necessary planning must presrve the largest freedom possible for individual action ... so as to bring into play the largest possible percentage of the existing individual ability-potential.”...

Note that the Wall Street Journal is not voicing a full-throated defense of the free market and capitalism.  "Cooperation" was a popular concept in the 1920's with Hoover and the early 1930's.  The idea was that human intelligence, which had accomplished so much in innovations and technology, was up to the challenge of creating social arrangements which were better than those arising out of the chaos of the market. That's the sort of thought which led to the creation of the Federal Farm Board and then the Agricultural Adjustment Administration .

Will Spouses of Presidential Candidates Compete in Gardening?

That's the question raised in my mind by this piece on the different gardens of the wives of the candidates for Prime Minister in Britain. It seems it's the "in" thing to garden there.  Now in the US Michelle may have given more prominence to gardening with her White House garden.  But I don't remember in past elections there was any direct competition among the candidates wives.  There's always speculations about what they'll do in the White House, and comparisons of their lives and careers before the election, but no further. 

Why Judge Garland Shouldn't Be the Nominee

The prediction is the Dems will lose about 5 Senate seats this fall, maybe more. So what happens in 2011 and 2012 if one of the current Supreme Court Justices retires? Obama needs a strategy, and the Reps are giving him one.  The commentary on his list of possible nominees to fill the seat of Justice Stevens says Judge Garland would have no problem getting confirmed.  That means, to me, that Obama should hold the Judge in reserve for a possible future vacancy. The Reps would have trouble opposing a nominee in 2011 or 2012 if they had no problems with him in 2010.

Congress and E-Government

The Golden Mouse awards were announced, recognizing excellent Congressional websites. Unfortunately neither agriculture committee nor either of my Senators was recognized.  My representative, Joe Moran, did get a silver award.  I'd hope some people will do as I just did: write their Congresspeople commenting on how well or poorly they did.  The more feedback they get, the more likely they are to improve. However, don't do as I did--read about the methodology used before writing..  I assumed, and was wrong, that the rankings were on the usability of the sites.  Turns out there's lots more involved.  So my comments were fine, but they could have been better.

Typo of the Day

Only expose your baby to true and FDA-approved heroines.

From the Freakonomics RSS feed (not in the actual post): " Infants exposed to this heroine substitute in utero experience vision problems. "