Crablaw Update Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I am pleased to note the following updates.

1. Our new logo adorns the upper left corner. The inspiration for this logo came from my wife Sunday, who imagined that turning the C into a crab would work well. One hour of cropping with Paint Shop Pro, and we seem to have it. The old crabgavel logo has not been retired, but will appear from time to time in other capacities.

2. Nine images of the reverse of the Maryland seal appear above, all linking to the Maryland government webpage. One will be removed outright since it has different effects in Firefox and Explorer (in Firefox, it doubles the width of the header in an embarrassing way.) Seven of the remaining logos will be removed in favor of other suitable links. I have not decided what to images to link there.

In Orthodox Christianity (as I understand it from Orthodox acquaintances), the icon is a sacred image greatly revered but not worshiped. It points to a spiritual reality and is worthy of admiration, reverent touching, etc., but not worship. These secular icons, as it were, serve a similar function: to point to an internet reality and to inspire thought and action (clicking?) in that general direction. Oh yes, my icons have a cultural heritage of about 12 minutes, whereas orthodox iconography has about 2 millennia of history.

3. I am considering moving the Maryland map link in the upper right into one of the sidebars, and replacing it with a photograph that may rotate through Javascript code based on date. The photos would include famous Marylanders or other persons worthy of note. Jerome Armstrong's MyDD uses a similar feature to good effect as well.

National Bohemian Blog Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

The following is a discussion of an alcoholic beverage. If you do not, should not or must not consume alcoholic beverages, this post is probably not for you. If you cannot stop drinking but want to stop, consider giving these folks a look.

I linked to this blog some time ago on the Marylandia blog roll to the lower right, but anyone who has done the decency of maintaining a regional tradition such as National Bohemian deserves a specific mention.

National Bohemian (pronounced "Na-'ee Boh-oo") has been brewed "in the Land of Pleasant Living" for many years in Maryland and has a very loyal following in Baltimore, not so much for the fineness of the beer (though fine it is) but more out of local pride. Natty Boh's owner was the owner of the Baltimore Orioles for a time, and the beer has long been associated with sports in Baltimore. It was first brewed in Baltimore in 1885 and is now a product of Pabst Brewery. The mascot of Natty Boh, "Mr. Boh," has been retired for many years but is still recognizable to most Baltimorons.

I am pleased that there is enough activity regarding Natty Boh to keep a blog going. Good on you, Shayne!

The Million Dildo March? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

The State of South Carolina, whose name we have recently taken in vain in another post, is considering a law that would apparently ban the sales of all sexual toys or devices in the state.

Really folks, is this a prudent use of limited time and public funds?

Dear Constituent: "i think you're an a------" Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Representative Jo Anne Emerson (R-Mo) sent out this letter to an inquiring constituent regarding the testimony of oil executives on Capitol Hill.

How many times have YOU wanted to write that letter?

Guess What? Miss Chinatown is Black! Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Hat tip to Steve Gilliard re this:

Angela Chao Roberson, 22, knew she did not exactly look Chinese, with her cocoa-colored skin, her bushels of curly hair and her curvy figure. But she had no doubt she belonged in the same room with 17 other young women vying for the title Miss Los Angeles Chinatown.

Sure, she ate soul food when her father's African American relatives came to visit her family in Victorville, but her family was much more likely to eat rice and stir-fried tilapia with garlic and soy sauce. And she loved Chinese New Year.

Angela scanned the young women sitting around the circle at the orientation session. There was one other girl whose complexion was close to her own. But the other girls resembled more closely the Miss Chinatowns of the past — slender, fine-featured young ladies with pale skin and silky straight hair.

"I'm kind of brave if you think about it," she said, flashing an unassuming smile. "But I've always accepted odd challenges."

I am not the biggest fan necessarily of beauty pageants per se, but I regard this as a healthy development in our society. As I learned in my East Asian Studies major in college, China (not necessarily Chinese-Americans) is one of the most anti-black societies on Earth, but without any connection to Euro-American slave-trading, Jim Crow or any black civil rights movement in China. The fact that Miss Chinatown is half black (in American society, that means Black) is pretty amazing in my view. Congrats to the winner.

Feminist Blogs Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I am not a likely candidate for feminism. First, I am a man, a husband, a father, a mostly sole paycheck provider (though my lovely wife's eBay business doth grow in health.) Many feminists stand to the left of me on issues unrelated (at least in my view) to feminism, such as firearms policy and taxes. Like most married men, I do not really associate with women except my wife, my family and married couples. I know almost no single women, the demographic to whom feminism is most appealing. I went to an all-male Catholic high school and have essentially no close family members with an interest in feminism.

The foregoing notwithstanding, I remain convinced that we all should take a look at feminism with a fresh eye - not just bra burning, Maude, Betty Friedan and the early poor political tactics of "women's lib" but rather the daily realities of the subjugation of women, sexual violence and the exclusion of women from power and economic self-sufficiency and what feminism can say to address those social realities in the U.S. and beyond.

The British Guardian has reported that there are about 250,000 blogs on feminism on the web. You don't have time to review them all. Accordingly, the following blogs and other resources dealing with feminist issues are recommended.

Feministing.com is probably the sharpest of the feminist blogs that I read. A team effort with a LOT of daily posts, effective layout as well. (Sidenote: the more I blog, the more I respect format as well as content, since both can be a challenge.) The mudflap logo on the left with the one-finger salute comes from their site and reflects their philosophy pretty accurately.

Echidne of the Snakes is quite not as well laid out as Feministing in my view, but makes up for that and more with some of finest award-winning writing on a great variety of topics (won the 2005 Koufax award as Most Deserving of Wider Recognition. A one (bad-ass) woman/goddess effort. Echidne is a reference to a Greek goddess.

Women Living Under Muslim Laws address the effects of Sharia (Islamic law) on the lives of women in a variety of countries.

Feminists for Life represents an anti-abortion minority viewpoint within feminism generally, with actress Patricia Heaton (of "Everybody Loves Raymond") as long-time honorary chair.

Feminist Majority Foundation is associated with Ms. magazine and covers a variety of topics related to women's legal, medical, financial and educational concerns from an international perspective.

Feminists for Free Expression is a libertarian-leaning, pro-free speech organization fighting censorship both public and private.

Happy reading.

Let a Thousand Tulips Bloom Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

From the April 22nd Sun:

The light the police installed atop the pole on the corner flashes a blue warning all day and all night, so constant it has become part of the landscape. The scrubby grass that carpets everyone's front yard isn't mustering much in the way of green.

And the long stretch of highway that leads into the city?

Miles of relentless gray.

But the little surprise in the middle is something else entirely.

Pure, saturated, voluptuous red.

For the past few weeks along Edmondson Avenue on the west side of the city, beds of conspicuous crimson tulips have put on a show for commuters and lifted the spirits of more than a few residents.

It's not so much the flowers themselves - the little clusters have nothing on the posh spreads in Baltimore's high-rent districts.

It's that they're even there at all.

Donna Parker, who lives along Edmondson, considers them from the side of the street."It brings out the city, you know," she says. "Ain't too much you can do with the city. But it helps."

Government dollars buy the blooms, part of a city initiative begun a few years ago to put a better face on Baltimore's many entryways, including President Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

...

This image is from Baltimore Magazine's archives under claim of fair use, no image available from the Sun.

For the Montgomery County readership, Edmondson Avenue runs parallel with Route 40 from just outside the Beltway into the city, where it makes a sort of rough merge with 40. It is hardly the nastiest stretch into the city, but parts of it need more than just tulips, no doubt. It runs through a neighborhood called Ten Hills, a quiet, under-appreciated neighborhood of modest but well maintained single family houses. As the street runs closer to downtown, it gets rougher, more liquor stores, more half-abandoned churches and completely abandoned businesses.

The street has a lot of lights, a lot of stops. It is, more or less, one of the proposed routes for the western stretch of the proposed Red Line (of indeterminate transit vehicle). Part of what makes the neighborhood immune from gentrification is its geography and transit infrastructure. Yuppies demand Starbucks, good schools, a quick jaunt to work, reasonable taxation and beautiful scenery. The city-side of Edmondson Avenue has none of these, but the tulips are a good start. If they can get the transit infrastructure up - a quick train rather than a choice between a SLOW bus and theft-rate exacerbated car insurance rates - maybe some single people with cash will consider living there rather than Canton some day.

I am not an unabashed fan of gentrification; I respect the free market but do not view as completely positive the displacement of what stability there is in poor neighborhoods with transient investors. Gentrification that happens at a moderate pace and respects community institutions is generally quite positive and is more likely to stay, providing more cash and more net stability for adults and children alike. Edmondson Avenue is a good candidate for gentrification in my view.

There is also some positive effect from beautification beyond "aw, it looks pretty." When the New York City police and transit cops began busting turnstile jumpers, crime overall went down, because someone who jumps a turnstile is a better candidate to be a thief, a drug peddler, a burglar, etc. than someone who stops to pay full fare as required by law. Business have found that playing classical music outside some businesses correlates to lower crime rates. Whether there is any "externality" to road-side tulips is unclear, but it is almost certain that tulips do not induce or facilitate crime.

Purity Balls - A Bad Idea Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

The idea of a ironically sexually-charged "date" between a father and an 8 year-old daughter to a "ball" at which he pledges to to preserve her "purity" as "high priest" of his house - that is one messed-up way to address a father's parental duty to his daughter's moral development and sexual maturation.

I like this one a lot better.

Demand for Duke Lacrosse Gear Soars Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Excerpted with permission from ESPN.com:

In the wake of publicity generated by the sexual assault scandal surrounding the Duke men's lacrosse team, sales of merchandise bearing the "Duke lacrosse" name and logo have skyrocketed.

"Historically, lacrosse has been one of our three or four best-selling sports," said Tom Craig, general manager of retail stores at the Durham, N.C., school. "But over the last month, sales have increased to three or four times our normal rate."

...

Craig said the items are generic in that they aren't identified as men's or women's lacrosse, so there was never a discussion with university officials about the possibility of stopping sales after news of the scandal broke. Duke's women's lacrosse team is ranked No. 1 in the country.

"I don't think we're taking advantage of the situation," Craig said.

Let's get real about this situation. Lacrosse is a largely white, Yankee sport. They don't really play it in the Southland except at schools filled with North Jersey and Maryland Yankees like Duke. Ole' Miss is not gonna start kicking ass in lacrosse next year. Neither will the Crimson Tide or the Longhorns. It's too damn hot down there to run on a monster-sized field for so long in April. Lacrosse was identified in the Official Preppy Handbook some 20-odd years ago as a prep sport from Baltimore, a "very prep" city. LAX is of course extremely popular in Maryland among white North Baltimore suburbanites, the Roland Park crowd. My alma mater Loyola Blakefield is probably in every top ten list of high school lacrosse factories in the nation, with Gilman, Boys Latin and McDonough easily vying for similar status. The US Lacrosse Hall of Fame is right on the Hopkins campus; the Lacrosse Hall of Shame will forever be at Duke.

This gear is not flying off the shelves to the same folks who bought Kobe Bryant's gear after his charges were filed in Colorado. It is not urban, it is not multi-ethnic, it is not Los Angeles. Lacrosse does not generate big ticket revenue for high schools except maybe at the lacrosse factories, and often not then. It does not carry the economic weight nationally or even regionally of football. Wealth, moderate-cool spring weather and lots of room for a big field seem to be prerequisites to a meaningful program and fan base.

Nobody is going to a Duke lacrosse game and deciding to buy this gear, because national champion Duke women's lacrosse team is done playing and the men's team is suspended. Nobody is buying this gear because of collection value either; while the men may be suspended for a while, Duke is not going out of the lacrosse business because it is, after all, not going out of the Yankee prepster business. But students and visitors find this gear more attractive than ever.

The upsurge in demand for this gear is sympathy with "the devil"- the Blue Devil in this case - favoring evil because it is evil.

Evil is an old-fashioned word, but what the hell do you call someone who sexually assaults a dancer such that to escape she actually leaves her purse behind with $400.00 still in it? I mean, most people don't leave their purses or wallets at the scene of a non-sexual ass-kicking. And if you have read the text of one email from one student about his fantasies of ripping the skin off of additional dancers, you have a textbook definition of evil - causing suffering for the sheer joy, the unapologetic pleasure, of inflicting it upon an innocent target.

Yet apparently this gear is flying off the shelf. Visitors and students at Duke - presumably interested in lacrosse, presumably "nice", white upper-middle class suburbanites - are so enthralled by the reports of a gang rape that they give up green money for the privilege of associating themselves with the predators and the crime they are accused of committing. Note that sales did not drop, they soared. The team's gear is literally more popular than ever - and this appears to be at least partially AFTER the boost from the #1 Duke women's lacrosse team already factored in, not before. (The gear is sold unisex but in different sizes.)

According to the story, Dick's Sporting Goods has discontinued its sales of the gear after customer complaints. Good on Dick's, let the free market prevail. Meanwhile, to all you local lacrosse players and fans out there - enjoy your sport, go LAX, have a blast (and "Roll Dons Roll!") but support Maryland or Hopkins or the excellent high school teams in this area. Don't wear the gear of ("accused")predatory sexual perverts and criminals who, even if not guilty, have tainted a great sport in the national spotlight through their disgraceful and quite possibly felonious conduct.

One of the best things that could come out of this tragedy and probable crime (I say probable as in "probable cause" on the indictments) would be for women's and men's lacrosse teams nationwide to unite to support their campus women's centers, Take Back the Night marches or on- or off-campus sexual assault crisis centers. In Maryland, most high schools have a community service requirement for graduation. How great it would be to see high school girls and boys lacrosse players and fans unite to support organizations like the STTAR Center, Turn Around and other agencies that do great work to help survivors and to prevent sexual violence. It would honor both the sport and the people who need the support.

Best of all, however, would be to see Duke lacrosse gear rotting in the landfills and not flying off the retail shelves, at least for a while.

The 2006 Session Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I had thought about doing a wrap-up of this General Assembly session here but would instead defer to the League's wrap-up on Free State Politics. These links imply respect but not categorical agreement in all cases.

An die Freude Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

The Crab is back in business, replete with (one hopes, non-fraying) power adapter.

Technical Difficulties Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

My laptop's power adapter frayed (just what you want: wires connecting to a transformer to fray on you, eh?) so I tossed it. Awaiting a new one through eBay: meanwhile I have no native power. Looking forward to getting back online.

Great article by Dan Rodricks Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Great article by Dan Rodricks, pointing out the moral heroism of City police officer Keith Harrison who has worked tirelessly to help dealers and users get out of drug life through the Get Out of the Life program.

You are NOT talking to ME, are you Rodricks? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

In a column regarding the serious issue of the planned State takeover under the leadership of State Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick of four failing City high school with abysmal performance records, columnist Dan Rodricks makes some legitimate points about the educational and political horserace implications of such a takeover. I think on those points, he is probably more or less right.

But that's not what I am going to focus on here.

Rodricks makes the following unprovoked comment within his essay:

Those who are convinced that Operation Nancy ... is nothing more than a cynical, election-year political move ... hey, I hear you. I can be as cynical as the pastiest, mangiest blogger in the blogosphere (emphasis Crablaw). But tell me something: When would such a move not be political?....

You can't be talking about me, can you, Rodricks?

Rodricks, I happen to like your columns. You present a humane, decent, ethically upright image to your paper in a time when your paper is not known particularly for any of those qualities. My own hope is that the Examiner will provide your management the motivation to invest in its people and to defend its market share through higher comprehensive quality. But you have been very decent in your comments encouraging men and women in the drug business to escape into a humane life. I applaud that now, as I have done previously.

But we pasty, mangy blogosphere-dwellers have some institutional advantages over you.

I have taken a good look at your photo, which I have copied here from your employer under fair use doctrine for bona fide discussion purposes only. Now whether you are or were in this photo "mangy" I cannot say, but you are one pasty-looking fellow in this shot. Not that being pasty is a crime; my own skin complexion is somewhere between Casper's ass and birdshit myself. You wanna call some bloggers pasty and mangy? Do it after your post-Ocean City vacation photo is beautifying the Maryland section of the Sun, so we lose the ability to slap you back.

Starting static with a bunch of pissed-off bloggers is unwise, including some decidedly non-pasty ones. Ask Michael Steele. Better, ask Steve Gilliard. When Gilliard got annoyed with Steele for Steele's condonation and failure to condemn Ehrlich's infamous fundraiser at the Elkridge Club, Steele did not write a letter to the newspaper or grab a picket sign. He modified a photo of Steele from the Washington Post to make Steele's image appear to be that of a minstrel, obviously a fairly severe insult (and remodified it after the Post's copyright complaints). Who won? Probably Democrats Ben Cardin and Martin O'Malley, who pooh-poohed the image while remaining above the fray. Who really won? Steve Gilliard, whose blog got additional street credibility for the ruthless hit (not that Gilliard needed a lot of cred; as a former "front-pager" at DailyKos he had already earned his bones to a large extent in the liberal blogosphere. Gilliard is now a major A-list blogger, whereas Crablaw is probably, fairly appraised, an N- or Q-lister.

Who lost? Michael Steele did. Gilliard's nasty hit reminded Black Marylanders that Steele has not done much to earn their political confidence or to bridge the historically miserable unpopularity of the modern Republican Party among black voters. How many Black elected officials in Maryland ran to defend Steele other than Steele himself? Approximately zero percent of them did. Why? Because defending Michael Steele is not politically advantageous in the Black community; had it been, you would have seen every Black delegate, every Black senator all over it, not just two white state-wide office candidates. (Had Gilliard been white rather than Black, one suspects that the reaction would have been stroner.)

The point? When you start a fecal fight - especially a gratuitous one with us "pasty mangy bloggers" - remember that we are more accustomed to throwing (and ducking) fecal matter than you are, and we don't have to buy ink or newsprint. We can take a hit and LOVE to hit back. Some of us are cynical, and some of us are vicious; I try not to be vicious but am definitely cynical.

That said, from one pasty, not-so-mangy full-time dad, full-time lawyer and part-time blogger, good on you for being decent to so many of the people who need decency the most.

The Sun Lies Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

This new blog covers the Baltimore Sun's reporting from an adversarial perspective. It exposes not so much lies as instances of actual or potential bias. My impression is that its owner is semi-new to the blogging format but is in the process of sharpening a growing critique of Baltimore's only until recently sole daily newspaper. I suspect that The Sun Lies would benefit from active reader commentary, so I will poke my head in once in a while.

A Unique Political Protest Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

My neighborhood, for the most part, gets along, but there are a few tense people and some awkward issues.

One such tense person objected to dog droppings in his yard, deposited by some dog unknown. So he, she or it put up a sign at the joint mailbox condemning the practice and signing it "Poop Patrol" or "Poop Control" (unfortunately, I did not think to steal the document or otherwise to copy it into our document file.) I do not happen to be a perpetrator or victim of this alleged dog dropping neglect, owning no dog and desiring none. My wife, our aide for Sam and I got a good laugh out of it.

Then today I went out to get the mail. Amidst the dreary day, I got this lovely vision, this sight of dog droppings slowly melting amidst the drizzle of a long, dull April day, placed there presumably by some human since no dog would likely jump vertically to land on the smooth, flat top.

The question of who placed this political protest on the mailbox of sixteen homes remains to be answered. The box belongs, I suspect, to the United States Postal Service and is in any event under their administrative and regulatory jurisdiction. I am aware of tampering with the mail, but is it illegal to deface a community mailbox with dog shit? Maryland's malicious destruction of property statute would not seem to apply, as eventually this shitpile will melt down onto the mailboxes below, i.e. no destruction. But who put the shit out? Was it the dog owner in an act of defiance against the anonymous complainer? The angry homeowner, infuriated by recidivist trespass by Rover upon his lawn? Or a third party, someone new intervening, seeking to instigate trouble?

Urban Survival Rule No. 1 is "don't start none, won't be none" but apparently the rule is less well ensconced into the political and social wisdom of suburban tract lot owners. Whoever put the shit onto the mailbox forced all of us to view it and perhaps smell it. That shit-spreader person is an aggressor, and should bear responsibility for his conduct by cleaning it up.

The drama and tension will continue, I am sure.

Two New Cases of Self-Defense Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I would recommend reading this article in its entirety. Their characterization of Maryland self-defense law appears, to my shock, accurate. Maryland courts do not go out of their way to accommodate self-defense but will recognize it in a proper case. The article also discusses two local cases of self-defense from several years back in addition to the more recent cases.

Forensic Vagina Specialist Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

The title above is a job occupation in a country where abortion is absolutely illegal, even for rape and incest, even in ectopic pregnancies.

Career change, anyone?

Mandatory Minimums for Sex Offenders? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

There is a bill before the Maryland House and Senate that would impose mandatory minimums of 25 years in jail for certain sex offenders against children. The bill has several amendments and is about to head into the Senate for consideration.

This site has taken very aggressive stands against sexual violence, abuse and assault. One is tempted to glom on to mandatory minimums as a way to defeat a perception of judicial lassitude, a perception that probably does not reflect the judiciary as a whole.

Mandatory minimums take away from the bench the discretion to exercise wisdom and to make distinctions between crimes. Mandatory minimums may take away the motive to make pleas. If a prosecutor cannot recommend an 8-year sentence on a charge carrying a 25 year minimum, for example, a defense attorney may be more likely to go to a full trial, with all of the expenses and emotional trauma to the victim.

In some cases, a mandatory minimum may put pressure on a prosecutor to drop the "top charge" because the defense attorney can talk his client into a 5 year sentence, but not a 25 year sentence, on an offense that might by the facts justify a 10 or 15 year sentence, for example. In other cases, we might find that the mandatory minimum might be fundamentally unjust, for example.

In one infamous case from a few years ago, a well-known Baltimore attorney took a case of a senior citizen who discharged a weapon at teenagers who had been threatening him outside his house. Because of Maryland's 5 year mandatory minimum, the judge had no choice to sentence this gentleman to 5 years after his lawyer lost at trial, a result that no one - not the prosecutor, the attorney or the judge, seemed to want to happen. Whether the attorney erred in his professional judgment is a separate issue, but if the law had permitted a plea to probation or to 12 weekends in jail, justice may have been better served. I am not listing all of the facts here but local attorneys may recall the case.

We normally trust judges to make distinctions in criminal cases; that is their "day job." Sex offenses are so revolting that one is tempted never to make distinctions between those convicted criminals, but mandatory minimums are more likely than judicial discretion to result in a patent injustice or a skewed plea negotiation process. Emotionally, I am all for shooting all of these bastards in cold blood, but that's why judges get paid - to keep cooler heads than mine running the justice system.

Baltimore, San Francisco Top AIDS Rates for Gay Men Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

According to this report, 40% of Baltimore's gay male residents and over 25% of San Francisco's gay men are HIV positive. According to that report, San Francisco has approximately 64,000 gay men, approximately one out of 12 residents, and the percentage of HIV-positive gay men has declined in recent years due to an influx of non-infected men.

Much of Baltimore AIDS epidemic comes directly or indirectly from the heroin trade and the sharing of needles. Long known as a "nodding town," Baltimore has had a heroin scourge for many years, with as many as 65,000 drug addicts and the plurality of them users of heroin or other opiates.

Volunteering for Joe Sestak Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Dear Admiral Sestak:

My name is Bruce Godfrey, and although I live about 80 miles from your district - out of state in Maryland, even - I would like to bring myself and some Maryland volunteers to your district to help you win for at least one afternoon.

I want to help not per se as a Democrat - I am not a registered Democrat - but as someone who believes in the liberal AND conservative values of decency, responsibility and character. Your opponent has shown his colors with respect to those values, particularly with respect to his outrageous comments regarding your medical treatment decisions for your daughter, for whom my fullest wishes for rapid and full recovery and happiness. As the father of a special-needs child myself, I am intolerant of fools pretending they know enough to second guess us as parents.

I would heartily welcome your staff to refer any freelance Maryland volunteers to my website, http://www.crablaw.com to help coordinate carpools to conserve costs.

I commute from the Baltimore suburbs to DC daily by rail. Please thank your opponent for reminding me that the suburbs of Philly really are reasonably nearby for a Marylander, so I really have no excuse not to "commute" to your area to help you discard what may be the rottenest piece of meat in the House.

You made friends in Maryland before while at the Naval Academy and you have done so again, I predict. Thank you for setting a high standard for fulfilling one's duty, through your dedication to both country and family. Please let me know how I can help you win.

Very truly yours,

Bruce Godfrey
thecrab@crablaw.com

UPDATE: Response from Sestak Campaign:

We would be happy to have you come up to help. The times we will need groups to go out Door-Knocking are May 16th, Primary day, and the 2-3 weekends preceeding. Joe is unopposed in the primary, but we'd still like to get his name out there. Let me know if you can come up, and thank you again.
Maggie Dee
Volunteer coordinator

Personal Update on the Crab Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Things have been fairly busy at Chez Godfrey. I am trying to learn French but cannot find the time to do it properly. My wife's eBay business is developing, and the boys are in good health.

Time is the most precious thing, more so than money. Getting enough time to do things big and small, difficult.

I have resigned from an official role in the Mishonda Baldwin campaign after I concluded that I could not do that and participate effectively in a Republican local race, about which I will be blogging more in the future. I still support Baldwin; she is what the 3rd District needs.

Not much else to say.

Even if you are a conservative Republican Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

This should infuriate you to no end, especially if you are the parent of a child who has been seriously sick or has special needs.

I may have to take a road trip to Philadelphia and do some door knocking for the Democratic challenger in that race.

A Marylander's Peeve Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

We live in Reisterstown, and across and down the street from us live what must be a very nice couple with, I think, two boys maybe. We are not really acquainted. Their townhouse is an end unit, ours across the street and in the middle of the row.

(These are not rowhouses but are comparable, differing by being more genteel, slightly more plastic and, unlike most rowhouses, not even with the street, i.e. the lots are dead-on even with the street but the contiguous houses are slightly offset, yielding different depths of back and front yards, but the same net area total for each. I digress.)

Our across and down the street neighbor has made three political statements on his property that I can observe or recall.

One was the placement of an American flag out front. Obviously without objection, we have one too.

The second was an ordinary Bush campaign yard sign: I am no fan of George W. Bush (shocker) but the sign itself did not offend me and should not offend anyone.

Then that thing. That unspeakable thing flying on the southeast corner of this home, protected and taxed by the State of Maryland.

Here in the heart of Maryland flies a navy blue flag with what looks like a palm tree and a crescent moon in the center.

The flag of the first Confederate State, where debates today rage as to whether one form or another of the Confederate battle flag or "Stars and Bars" should fly above or near that state's capital.

The reddest of red states, the home of right-wing buncombe, the home of Bob Jones University, that veritable horoscope chart of an academic institution.

South (ahem) Carolina's flag flies in Maryland, without even the slightest nod to the sensibilities of proud Marylanders by flying Maryland's distinctive flag in the vague vicinity

I am sorely tempted to buy a Maryland flag for these suffering Southerners, but I expect it would be sold on eBay or trashed. Even if they were to fly one, they would still probably maintain that to'evah -- that abhorrence -- on Maryland soil as well.

Perhaps I could get large photographs of Generals Grant and Sherman and mount them on my front brick wall, replete with shrine-style evening lighting.

BGE deregulation Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I once participated in a legal case involving the commissions owed to a sales rep in the wholesale/secondary natural gas market, and learned.from that case a small amount about that market. I have no other practical knowledge about energy deregulation or markets.

Politically, however, I can note that my first budget bill arrived from BGE for the spring, and it had an increase of $38.00 from the usual same flat budget bill. News reports indicated that budget billing customers would be hit first with the rate increase in anticipation of future actual charges. I have a hard time believing that the feeling I.got when seeing the increase is what incumbents in Annapolis wanted me and the rest of Central Maryland to feel, now or on election day.

One of the general theories behind deregulation is that it decreases prices and encourages a greater volume and diversity of competitive supply. It is not self-evident that BGE is anything other than a monopoly, state-sanctioned and enforced. High prices, monopoly supply. In what sense precisely has deregulation been a success other than for BGE's stcokholders?

I uinderstand that petroleum is getting more expensive, but nuclear power at Calvert Cliffs has presumably not suffered from the vagaries of oil shocks.

A price increase by a legally protected monopoly is effectively and morally a tax, i.e. money extracted through one-sided state power. If I remember correctly, Governor Ehrlich is usually anti-tax, so why does he favor this tax? If I am wrong folks, please somebody correct me.

Maryland Blog - Talbot Today Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Take a glance at this blog from our compatriots on the Eastern Shore. Interesting commentary from a part of Maryland that maintains a more humane pace of life, mostly focused on very local issues but with some broader commentary as well. Enjoy!

Crablaw, Toddler edition Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

This site is not for children, but my children get the benefit of my disrespectful political satire also.

We say the word "stop" to our son Sam often; all parents do to their toddlers, but Sam is autistic, so that has certain implications. He is more likely to get into trouble, more likely to keep doing something that needs to stop, and we use the word consistently because kids with autism require more consistency in everything. So "stop" is a frequent word, followed by a quick time out and count to ten if ignored or incarceration for a major violation, such as biting or striking someone. He hears it a lot and is getting better about following it.

However, we make fun of the house "government" too.

I have a fairly low voice, but if I pinch my nose and tighten my voice, it sounds like Woody Allen on helium. So when I want to get Sam into hysterics, I do the nasal high-pitched "Stop!" and he loves it. Sometimes in the tub, sometimes with a sock puppet holding my nose.

So when people think I only kick George Bush around, I also mock the government of my own house, even when I am half of that government.

("STOP! STOPPYSTOPPYSTOP!")

More Left-Wing Opposition to Bush Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Commies.

Quote for the day Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by rulers as useful. -- Seneca the Younger

Another anti-American leftist terrorist sympathizer? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Bruce Bartlett, Bush I official and conservative author, nails Bush II administration for its lack of openness, its unwillingness to justify its positions factually and its lack of civility.

Kinda makes you wish Bill and Monica were still ... employed at the same location.

Another anti-American rant Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

from what must be a left-wing, terrorist-sympathizing rag, daring to criticize our president during a time of war.

They call themselves "Stars and Stripes," but I'll bet it's really Osama bin Laden's publishing house.

Globalization - a free trader's comments Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

At the risk of standing at variance with my colleagues and friends who view globalization as a negative development, I will defend the growing interconnected, international economy with the following, mildly scattered comments.

I accept as a given the following facts:

Average wages and per capita incomes differ broadly among different countries and within different countries, and workers have some limited ability worldwide to flow across borders to increase wages.

World-wide capital - including without limitation American, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Thai, Korean, German, Barzilian, Canadian, Mexican, Swiss, Taiwanese, Indian, Japanese and Australian capital- flows freely across borders, generally to where it is least burdened and most free to earn a profit.

Goods and, increasingly, services flow from points of lowest cost/price to points of highest price, relatively freely across borders and increasingly so for services, which can be delivered electronically more and more literally every month.

Since the first ship or caravan moved across a harbor or through the desert, we have had globalization in varying degrees. The spice merchant who trekked down the Silk Road from China, the Caucasus, the Central Asian desert and steppe and Northern India nto Istanbul, Tehran, Damascus and Jerusalem did so to take comparative advantage over local producers, if any, on the products that they traded. Whether the comparative advantage came from climate, soil conditions, local labor costs, diversity in local demand and taste or whatever, those merchants bought low and sold high, or frequently died in the attempt. Fortunately today, container ports and cargo ships are a bit safer today than camel and mule packs were from bandits in 1500, though not infinitely safe in an age of terrorist violence. But globalization has not arrived in recent years; it has expanded as the world economy has expanded and technology has made international competition more efficient.

It is true that many U.S. manufacturers have moved into northern Mexico, for example, though many others have moved into Canada or expanded facilities there. Part of the difference is wage differentials, particularly with Mexico. One asks, however, why all of high-priced San Francisco - residents and businesses alike - have not moved to Tijuana to save money, and why much of Tijuana would like to move to northern California or Los Angeles. After all, if northern Mexico is a cheaper place to do live and business, and businesses are moving there at a massive clip, why not give up the condo in the Castro? Why have high-tech businesses not all moved to India? Seriously, why doesn't Bill Gates just pick up and move to Bangalore? India would probably welcome him....

The answer is that wage differentials are neither static nor the only source of comparative advantage.

The United States is mostly non-corrupt, meaning that most businessmen have not paid anyone a bribe in the last twelve months, meaning that tax collection is relatively stable, predictable and administratively fair. Few nations are less corrupt than the U.S. The U.S. has a large, well-educated workforce and transportation infrastructure (ports, rail, Interstates) among the world's best. It happens to have 300 million domestic customers as well, increasing the efficiency of local production over a country like Canada with about 1/10 the population.

Wages likewise rise, like every other product and service, when demand rises and supply stays the same. Mexico's GDP and average income have been rising, most notably in Tijuana and Monterrey at or reasonably near the U.S. border. There is a town outside of Monterrey called Garcia Garza, home to many Mexican subsidiaries of international mega-corporations. Garcia Garza has the highest local per capita income in Latin America. How does a place like Garcia Garza happen? By Mexican participation in the world economy. Is it good for the U.S. that Garcia Garza exists?