Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Buffett, Proposition 13 and the Wall Street Journal Reading this exchange again makes the point that California needs to fix Proposition 13, which has done -- and continues to do -- real damage to this state. (It also makes clear what a different universe the folks on the WSJ editorial page inhabit.) [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] 10:28:46 PM

Should universities permit free speech? The October 10, 2003 issue of MIT's student newspaper, the Tech, carried some articles about a group of unfortunate students who decided to hold a ghetto/rap-themed party in their dorm. The invitation email started "Callin all you playas, pimps, hos, gangstas, and bitches...". Various campus functionaries indicated their displeasure at what they viewed as an assault on the sacred principle of diversity. The students immediately issued a craven apology to the community but nonetheless Chuck Vest, the president of MIT, responded by noting that his administration would "deal swiftly and fairly with those responsible for the event." Today's issue of the Tech carries some more invective from the administration directed as these allegedly racist students. There was no actual evidence of racism by the students holding the party and in fact the only people involved in this dispute who are known to judge others by the color of their skin are the MIT administrators themselves. A very similar situation occurred in the 1990s at University of California Riverside. A fraternity held a "South of the Border" party advertised with a poster featuring a sleeping Mexican, complete with sombrero and tequila bottle. The frat boys were harshly disciplined until a lawyer sued the school, pointing out that (a) half of the fraternity brothers were Mexican-American, and (b) the First Amendment prohibited a state institution from editing the fraternity's party posters. A federal judge sided with the students. So many university administrations have tried to muzzle their students that an entire non-profit organization, http://www.thefire.org, exists to fight back. Perhaps, however, the university bureaucrats are doing the right thing after all. The U.S. Constitution guarantees that the government won't interfere with your right to free speech. Private employers, however, are free to say "You will continue to receive a paycheck so long as you stay in your cubicle with your head down and your mouth shut." Only a tiny fraction of Americans have a practical right to free speech and these are primarily the very rich and the very poor. A primary mission of a college is to prepare young people for the real world. Does it really make sense to delude kids into thinking that they can say whatever they want and still have a paycheck and health insurance? Perhaps it would be better for a university president to address the incoming freshmen thusly... "This is my plantation and if you want to stay here for four years you'll learn to say 'Yes, Massah'". [Philip Greenspun Weblog] 10:13:33 PM

Who is James R. Bath? James R. Bath, it turns out, is a Texas businessman, a sometime aeronautics broker whose firm, Skyway Aircraft Leasing, LTD., was a Cayman Islands front amassing money for use by Oliver North in the Iran-Contra affair. Bath also served as an agent minding American interests for a quartet of Saudi Arabian billionaires, one of whom was Sheik Salim bin Laden, the oldest son and heir of Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, father of fifty-four children including Osama [via Burke and Wells, Travelling.] 9:51:47 PM

Mission demolished Bush and Co.'s Iraq adventure grows bloodier by the day -- thanks to the delusional hawks who planned only for a victory parade. [Salon] 9:37:43 PM

Clark blasts the poseur in chief Wesley Clark says Bush "pranced around in a flight suit" with no long-term strategy for Iraq -- and as U.S. soldiers die daily, there's still no plan. [Salon] 9:37:11 PM

Ashcroft selectively prosecuting Greenpeace? Greenpeace, has been charged with crimes by the Federal Government. Some Greenpeace members boarded a vessel that was carrying an illegal shipment of mahogany from the Brazilian rain forest to Miami. They hung a banner that read, "President Bush, Stop Illegal Logging." Is Ashcroft abusing his authority as attorney general? Would the current administration retaliate against someone that has publicly spoken out against them in the past? (No, this isn't a story on leaking the names of undercover CIA agents who happened to be married to administration critics.) [Kuro5hin.org] 9:25:26 PM

Man Arrested for Offending US Embassy Bruce Hubbard, a left wing peace protestor in Auckland, New Zealand, has been arrested for emailing the US embassy to complain about U.S. foreign policy. Local authorities will charge him with misuse of a telephone because police claim an American worker at the US Embassy was "offended" by Hubbard's comments on her country's actions. [Kuro5hin.org] 9:24:24 PM

US falls 14 spots in press freedom ranking Reporters Without Borders recently released its second world press freedom ranking. With North Korea and Cuba forming the bottom two rungs and Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Norway all tied in the lead, the European countries did considerably better than the rest of the world, especially the Arab world. While the US, despite no major domestic changes affecting reporters in the last year, fell to a 31st place tie with Greece, down from 17th. The ranking was compiled by asking "journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists to fill out a questionnaire evaluating respect for press freedom in a particular country" from September 1, 2002, to September 1, 2003. The study "does not look at human rights violations in general, just press freedom violations" and is not a ranking of the quality of the press, just its freedom. [Kuro5hin.org] 9:23:03 PM

Why George Bush Sr. didn't occupy Iraq George Herbert Walker Bush from his memoir, "A World Transformed" (1998) Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible.... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq.... there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. I wonder if his son read this? [Joi Ito's Web] 9:09:03 PM

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