Assorted Links: September 7, 2005

"This Should Not Have Happened."

Oprah Winfrey, noted talk show host and disaster relief expert, said today that she was "mad" about what had happened in Louisiana.  Miss Winfrey was touring the state with a television crew and various staffers, handing out water and filming for her popular program.  Reports are that the talk show legend was "nauseated" by her visit to the Superdome.  There is no word that anyone else might have been made ill by her smug and self-righteous display.

"Nothing I saw on TV prepared me for what I experienced on the ground," she said on Tuesday's show.

Winfrey's staffers went to Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee, looking for stories, she said, that hadn't yet made it to TV. During her travels, she became weepy, angry and sick to her stomach.

Among the most gut-wrenching: children being sexually assaulted in the Superdome, an image Eddie Compass, New Orleans' police chief, says is among those that will haunt him for life.

Mayor Ray Nagin walked away from his interview with Winfrey after getting emotional about the lack of aid. He became angry, saying that he felt other major cities would have fared much better because response time would have been swifter.

Winfrey was allowed a tour of the now-vacant Superdome, which she said had evolved from a natural disaster to a human disaster. The stench made her nauseated, even though she was wearing a mask. "This makes me so mad. This should not have happened."

Miss Winfrey's publicist later expressed how deeply she and Steadman felt that World Wars One and Two, the Holocaust, the Soviet Gulags and the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, "should not have happened."

Forgetting Your Roots

America, a nation in part founded by religious refugees, is showing the door to a victim of China's fascistic atheism.  Why aren't some of America's "compassionate conservatives" doing more to help men like this?  Could it be that compassion ends where access to the rapidly growing Chinese market begins?  Burkean comments thusly:

When William Brewster and other families organized dissenting Protestant churches -- worshipping outside the Church of England -- they were made subject to prosecution for this. All perfectly legal. The folks who became the Plymouth Pilgrims fled England for Leyden, The Netherlands, to avoid persecution, er, "prosecution." Educated at Cambridge, Brewster had been an assistant to David Davidson, formerly a favourite of Elizabeth I. When Davidson fell out of favour, Brewster was nonetheless compensated with an appointment as the local postmaster -- not an insignificant office. When Brewster worshipped in a dissenting congregation outside the Church of England he lost all that, and fled to keep his freedom. Under James I, the English refugees in the Dutch republic were permitted to organize a colony in Virginia with the backing of private investors. The captain of their ship, The Mayflower, was unscrupulous, left them to fend for themselves at a desolate point on Massachusetts Bay far to the north of warmer, Virginia climes, the Pilgrims leaders drafted a compact for their government, and the rest is history.

Curtailing Freedom to Save It

Burkean makes the following suggestion in a recent posting:

But here's Nik Nanos's poll on Canadians' participation in what he has defined as democratic things to do -- signing petitions, getting out to vote, et al. The gist is that Canadians say they want more say, but do less to have a say.

Um, is it time to make voting compulsory, as in Australia?

Is not one of the fundamental arguments of conservatism that we should be wary of the "overmighty" state?  Certainly conservatives are not libertarians, or objectivists or classical liberals, they believe that order and tradition must be balanced with freedom.  I would ask then, this old fashioned classical liberal, how either tradition or order are defended by compulsory voting?  Freedom is certainly not promoted by such a measure.  Compulsory voting at a very basic level would be a nuisance, like the bulk of government regulations on daily life.  I know wearing a seat belt is in my own best interests, I don't need the Government of Ontario telling me that.  If I disregard common sense it's my neck, head and shoulders that are on the line.  That my medical costs will be picked up by the taxpayers of Ontario only points to the insidious nature of government financed health care.  When the state gives you a "free ride" expect it to come with some very long strings. 

The logic of the state as Santa Claus carries over to electing the personnel who manage it.  The welfare state requires the sanction of its victims.  Compulsory voting would be one more step in the mandatory legitimization of Leviathan.  Jay Jardine, everyone's favourite angry libertarian, doesn't vote.  He refuses to take the effort to walk down to the polling booth every few years not because he is indifferent but because he objects to the whole process.  An old history teacher of mine used to decline his ballot, a rather tricky procedure in many polling stations he told me, as a way of protesting the choices presented.  We have a right as free me and women not participate in government.  Our reasons maybe noble or not.  We have rights, whether we use them wisely or not.   

Tradition is violated by compulsory voting.  In the thousand year development of the British Constitution it was never required by law that registered voters did in fact have to vote.  Voting was seen as a civic duty, but one voluntarily assumed.  Order comes off little better from this bit of paternalism.  A well ordered state requires obedience to the laws, but it is also understood that higher values must at times prevail.  If I don't want to vote because I find all the candidates obnoxious, and have no desire to lend my moral support to the proceedings, that is my right.  Not voting can be a form of dissent as much as gathering signatures for a petition. 

On a purely practical level, do you really want people who cannot summon up the energy to mark an "X" on a ballot anywhere near a polling booth?  We don't force people to become candidates in elections, as was done in Ancient Greece, because it is understood that the job of an elected representative is extraordinarily demanding.  The reluctant made poor officials, as they do soldiers and jurymen.  Don't expect any better from conscripted electors.

Risk Management and Centralization vs. De-Centralization

Babbling Brooks works in insurance.  I didn't know that.

One of the big points of discussion in our class last night was whether a centralized or decentralized Risk Management approach was best for large organizations. The instructor and most of the students work in the private sector - only a couple of the students work for the government. The class was generally of two minds on this point. While everyone present understood the value of having local people who know their own situations intimately drive Risk Control at ground level, we all also agreed that some aspects have to be top-down initiatives. For example, it's reasonable for a head office or a federal government to insist branch offices or local governments have a risk management plan that covers the major bases, but it's counterproductive for the central authority to write that plan. Local people know local problems and are the best resource to deal with those problems. Pretty much everyone in the class agreed that oversight and support are the most important functions of a central authority, but that management of the loss has to be done at a local level if it is to be effective.

This isn't just an issue for governments but for private companies as well.

A Blue Velvet Republican

The wonders that Ronald Reagan worked on the American electorate never cease to amaze.

The 69-year-old EASY RIDER icon became a registered Republican in the 1980s, supporting late US President RONALD REAGAN's administration.

And he's remained faithful to the political party ever since, even though many of his Hollywood counterparts strongly oppose Bush.

He says, "I've been a Republican since Reagan. I voted for Bush and his father. I don't tell a lot of people, because I live in a city where somebody who voted for Bush is really an outcast."

Some of the hippies grew up.  Not all, just some.

Katrina Timelines

Does Debris Trail have a job?  I ask because he's been following this story like a bull terrier on a T-bone. 

Rumsfeld on Fox (Tuesday Evening): Claims that State regulations prevent Federal agencies from entering states without being asked. That many state regulations prevent some Federal agencies from acting as “first responders” and that even specific timelines are given before Federal agencies can enter the fray. ( 72 – 98 hours) Is this true?

Is it true that Governor Blanco did not sign the appropriate documents authorizing Federal Agencies to intervene directly until Wednesday?

Is it true that Governor Blanco did not authorize marshal law until 4 days after Katrina hit, even though Mayor Nagin was requesting she do so immediately?

Was Governor Blanco limited by state regulations that did not allow immediate entry of Federal relief assets?

Rumsfeld claims that assets were literally piling up, “leaning forward”, outside Louisiana, but had no green light from the state to proceed. Is this true?

Admiral Keating claims that military preparations began 5 days prior to Katrina hitting Florida. Is this true and what preparations took place?

Political Pearl Harbor

Beware the desperate Liberal Leader!  Like a corner rat in more ways than one.

The Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party said Tuesday that his party is expecting the minority Liberal government will attempt to orchestrate their own defeat in the House of Commons and force an election this fall before the findings of the Gomery report are released.   
   
In an interview with PoliticsWatch, Conservative MP Peter MacKay said preparing for a possible early election will be a priority at Wednesday's Conservative caucus meeting in Halifax.

He said MPs will discuss election readiness and how to make sure they're not caught off guard by a "sneaky and disingenuous" Liberal attempt to collapse their own government and blame the opposition parties.

The Liberals could orchestrate their defeat by introducing a financial bill or other item that "will put the opposition parties offside," according to MacKay, who added that he did not think that was out of the realm of possibility for Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Describing Martin as the "most disingenuous opportunistic prime minister we've ever had," MacKay said Martin "would blame us for Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance" if it helped him stay in power.

More disingenuous than MacDonald over the Pacific Scandal?  Or Sir Charles Tupper over Manitoba Schools?  Or WLMK during the second Conscription Crisis?  Or Pearson over the Bomarc?  Or Trudeau over....well.....a lot.  We history majors are always wary when political leaders say "worst ever" or "most" this or that.  It invites actual historical comparisons which typically reveal that previous generations of Canadian politicians could be just as vile and corrupt as those today.  The difference between now and then is that the moral and intellectual average has been lowered considerably.