Likelihood of Success

Nice ox you got there

Posted by Ron Coleman on January 3, 2008

Are conservatives and libertarians now in favor of enhanced penalties for “hate crimes”? Instapundit updates this story, which has gotten a ton of play on the blogs:

JAY GRODNER UPDATE: The story of the lawyer charged with having “keyed” a Marine’s car just before the Marine left for Iraq has now made the Chicago Tribune.

Yes, the guy who seems to have done this seems to be an utter creep. Yes, he deserves, morally, for bad things to happen to him. I’d fire him if he worked for me, discharge him if he were my lawyer, and block his IP from my blog comments.

But he keyed a guy’s car. As tempting as it is to imagine what you’d do if you were the judge, how you’d throw the book at him for being such a self-hating American, how is this different from applying sentence enhancements to people convicted of assault when they are found to have committed their crimes due to politically incorrect animus such as racial or religious prejudice, which conservatives and libertarians generally oppose (as I do).

It’s a complex issue — but let’s both recognize that it’s implicated here, and that, for a change, many of us are getting a taste of how it feels in your gut when someone lashes out at you for what you are or what you believe, and they’ve been stupid enough to do it in a way that puts them in a position of being punished by the state.

UPDATE: Am I a prophet, or what? Same link:

UPDATE: Reader David Emerson emails:

Glenn- FYI. Since placing a American flag decal (perhaps 3″x5″) on the rear window of my SUV, it’s been keyed twice and has had its windows gratuitously smashed several times too. I’m here the city which so prides itself on tolerance….San Francisco….it could be the antiwar crowd or the anti-SUV crowd simply becoming more hostile. Wonder if others have experienced the same thing.

I’m no fan of hate crime legislation…but next time this happens may report it as one and see what happens.

Posted in Americana, Lex scripta, Oppression | 19 Comments »

Three’s charming!

Posted by Ron Coleman on January 2, 2008

Vodkapundit:

Bob Novak expects Hillary Clinton to come in third place in Iowa tomorrow.

That really would be something, wouldn’t it? When’s the last time you even heard the word “coronation”!?

Posted in Politics and Poker | 3 Comments »

The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes Of 2007

Posted by Ron Coleman on January 2, 2008

John Hawkins has done his homework!

Posted in Blogophilia | 1 Comment »

Slo-pitch

Posted by Ron Coleman on January 1, 2008

Ed Morrissey reports on a quickie blogger-conference-call from Huckabee:

I like Mike Huckabee, but this call was really a waste of time. It sounded like an internal conference designed to cheer the stalwarts rather than an opportunity to get asked something other than softballs. It’s not that Huckabee gave poor answers — he sounded very good, in fact — but the questions did nothing except tee up his well-known thoughts on his biography and education.

I wanted to give him an opportunity to address the fallout of his press conference in which he announced he would not run a particular attack ad against Mitt Romney and then screened it for the press anyway, as bloggers and pundits have been openly wondering what Huckabee intended with that move. I figured that if I didn’t get the chance to ask that question, someone else would — but we only got three softballs, and slow-pitched ones at that.

Chuck Norris may have been the most interesting part of this call.

Well, you’d have to say that!

Posted in Politics and Poker | 1 Comment »

B.E.L.T.

Posted by Ron Coleman on January 1, 2008

This is a new (to me) blog I’m going to be checking in on. I like this kind of stuff. I found it while looking for random links criticizing the practical side of Frank Lloyd Wright (it was not at all hard) to contribute to this discussion.

Posted in Ars Longa, Scientificus | Leave a Comment »

Just too fat

Posted by Ron Coleman on January 1, 2008

Glenn Reynolds links to this article about the latest “key” to obesity. It says that “a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is critical in mediating satiety in adult mice,” so, naturally, it’s only a matter of time till someone finds a way to put the stuff in a brightly-colored pill, and then once again we’ll all be able to fit into those molded plastic seats on the subway, right?

Of course not. It’s a little more complicated than that. On the way home from afternoon shul that I heard this on NPR. Bear with me — it’s a little long, but really very interesting, and it hits all the notes:

Cox: This is Donny Wong. He’s a London-based pharmaceutical analyst who specialises in the obesity field. He says drug companies are throwing huge portions of their R and D budgets at obesity-related research.

Wong: “There are over 400 compounds that are listed in databases that are in some point of development.”

Cox: Pfizer and Merck are working on their own versions of cannabinoid receptor antagonists. Other companies are trying to improve on a drug that prevents fat absorption. There’s also research into a gut hormone that may control appetite.

But all these drugs come with concerns about side effects. In fact, Acomplia is not available in the United States because the FDA is concerned that the drug may cause psychiatric problems. In clinical tests, a handful of people on Acomplia developed depression or suicidal thoughts. Wong says those kinds of outcomes are a real risk for drugs that tinker with the brain.

Wong: “The centrally acting drugs oftentimes have centrally acting side effects, and that’s really a huge area of concern for physicians. “

Cox: Some day there may be a drug that that produces significant weight loss with no serious side effects. But Barry Popkin thinks that’s still many years off. Popkin heads a global obesity center at the University of North Carolina. He says a person’s metabolism depends on so many internal and external factors; pharmaceuticals will never be able to address them all.

Popkin: “These drugs, if we find them, are going to be very expensive and have to be targeted in very complex ways, possibly related to your genetic makeup and affecting small populations at a time. And the world can’t afford that. “

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Americana, O Mores!, Scientificus | 6 Comments »

Evening descends on the place

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 31, 2007

It is the last evening of this turn of the calendar, and it need not have any special significance. But not surprisingly we cannot resist looking back — as, really, we should every day (but this we do resist!) of the year.

At this time last year I was in another place, watching the sunset from another vantage point. It was very pretty from there, but it was not the right place.

I have been in a lot of places. I have had a lot of places. Perhaps this one is the right place. (The picture at left is, as the one I link to above was at the time, the late afternoon view from my office window. The new one overlooks 42nd Street in Manhattan, but barely.)

But of course there are places that are not only identified by zip codes, and these are the places we really are, no matter where our mail goes. I have been a lot of places in 2007, including ones I thought I would never be in again, and ones I never dreamed I’d be in at all. Sometimes I struggle to understand why God — one of Whose Hebrew names, Ha-Makom, best translated as “the Omnipresent,” literally means, “the Place” — has led me to some of them. Undeniably, however, I am far richer not only for having been to them, and out of them, but for this wondering, too.

I am grateful that there has always been a place for me. Some people would do anything to have a place, a real place, of their own tonight, notwithstanding their mindless reveling or pointed pondering. And because of my journeys this year from place to place, my heart is with them, in ways I could never have known.

Perhaps, in fact, this is the answer to not only my wondering, but my wandering. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Heart and spirit, Metropolis | 2 Comments »

Another narrow bridge

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 31, 2007

Walkway over FDR Drive

Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman.

Walkway over the FDR Drive to the East River, sometimes one of my favorite places, at around 50th Street.

Posted in Heart and spirit, Metropolis | 4 Comments »

The color chain

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 30, 2007

Rabbi Meir used to say: How is Techeles [blue color used in Tzitzis] different from all other colors? The Techeles looks like the sea, and the sea looks like the sky and the sky looks like a sapphire stone and the sapphire stone looks like the Throne of Honor (of the Almighty).

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Chullin 89a. One of the leading orthodox lecturers on Jewish thought, Rabbi Yissocher Frand, explains why we are given this relatively long chain of association: Because we all must take one step at a time. Brilliant color and light can stimulate us, inspire us, and like all things that compel the soul make us want to absorb them and transcend. We are swept up by beauty and want to meld with it. This after all is a kind of love. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Faith and Works, Heart and spirit | 4 Comments »