The Stories and Novels By Derek Ward
For the crap of the “School Safety” gun control law, the Florida Legislature did manage to pass some worthwhile bills that the governor signed.
For those of us who support free speech, this is a win.
Florida becomes ninth state to ban restrictive campus free speech zones
Of course, there’s still the problem of the heckler’s veto in the form of aggressive “demonstrations” and high “security” fees for controversial speakers.
One step forward.
From Reason and the Volokh Conspiracy comes word that the Cato Institute is starting a new civil rights and police accountability initiative.
https://reason.com/volokh/2018/03/07/the-cato-institutes-new-civil-rightspoli
Qualified immunity is one of those things that make it hard to reform the criminal justice system. I’m even more incensed since learning that it was more or less invented out of legal whole cloth.
Police and prosecutors are supposed to be just like everyone else under the color of law. It’s why they don’t have special tribunals like the military. Hell, I’d be happier with special tribunals if I thought it would make them be held to a higher standard. With great power…
I’m really liking the idea of cops and prosecutors being required to buy and hold personal indemnification policies, like doctors or other professions. I don’t like the fact that I have to pay to protect bad apples from the consequences of their actions. Insurance companies are really good at quantifying risk. It would be interesting to see what they would do with that pool.
I’m going to try and do this on an annual basis. Part of it’’s my own curiosity at how my podcast habits change. I’m also curious what others think about the same podcasts and which podcasts come and go.
I’m going to list the podcasts into some broad groups, with any annotations about frequency I listen to them or general impressions.
I listen to my podcasts in Overcast. I use four playlists:
My podcasts as of March 2018:
Cato Daily Podcast – A good quick bit in various topics from a libertarian viewpoint. This one I use as filler on my “Daily” playlist.
Cato Events Podcast – Recordings of various panels put on by the Cato Institute. I’ve heard a lot of very interesting discussions and arguments. This one I use as filler on my “Daily” playlist. I will delete if the topic doesn’t interest me, as these can be pretty long.
Clear and Present Danger -A History of Free Speech – This is a Friday morning podcast on my “Daily” playlist. Still a little uncertain about this one.
The Good Fight – Formerly “The Liberty Files”, this one is a promotable on my “Daily” playlist. This is one I like using for hearing the conservative side of civil liberty discussions. A bit heavier on the freedom of religion than I’d like, but understandable from the hosts’ perspective.
Reason Podcast – Reason’s weekly podcast with their editors is promotable on my Daily playlist. The others are filler. Some good content and some that just don’t interest me.
Short Circuit – From the Institute of Justice, this one discusses notable cases that IJ is a part of. This is a promotable on my Daily playlist.
So To Speak – FIRE’s podcast discussing free speech issues. This is a Friday morning podcast on my Daily playlist.
Econtalk – Economist Russ Roberts does great interviews with a wide variety of guests and topics. I’ve been learning a lot. This is a Tuesday morning podcast on my Daily playlist.
GAO Podcast – GAO discussing some of their reviews. This one I use as filler on my “Daily” playlist
Hardcore History – Dan Carlin’s storytelling on various topics is spellbinding. This is promotable on my History playlist on the infrequent occasions new podcasts show up.
Hardcore History: Addendum – New one from Dan Carlin. The first two were interesting. This will be promotable if he continues.
The History of Byzantium – I only listened to a couple of episodes. It’s on my “Roman History” playlist to go after the “History of Rome.”
The History of Rome – This one is on my “Roman History” playlist. Good for amateur historians like me. It’s a finished series.
Revolutions – Really good series on various revolutions. Each season goes through one of the more pivotal revolutions in history, starting with the English Revolution. I’ve listened to the first four seasons. This is on my History playlist.
War Stories – Good military history podcast. It’s in my “History” playlist.
Black Man With A Gun Podcast – Kenn’s podcast was one of the first I started listening to, and then I wrote Zombie Strike for him. It’s a promotable on my Daily playlist.
Down Range Radio – Right now, this is my Wednesday morning podcast, but it may get downgraded to promotable. Some of Bane’s nonsense and glad standing is getting on my nerves. On my Daily playlist.
Geeks Gadgets and Guns – A recent addition after they discussed Pathfinder with Erin Pallette. Right now it’s a promotable on my Daily playlist.
The Gun Nation – This one is promotable on my Daily playlist on the rare occasions it drops.
Handgun Radio – This one I’ve been enjoying. It’s a promotable on my Daily playlist.
Handgun World – This one might go from promotable to fuller on my Daily playlist. Bob has good information, but sometimes his views annoy me, particularly when he goes off on rising evil.
Polite Society Podcast – Good information, but often too long. This one is filler on my Daily playlist
Riding Shotgun With Charley – Interesting so far, but currently filler on my Daily playlist
Safety Solutions Academy – Real good information. Paul is one of those trainers I’d like to learn from if I could scrape together the time and money. This one is promotable on my Daily playlist.
Self-Defense Gun Stories – I like the analysis of what went right and wrong from a variety of professional trainers. This one is a promotable on my Daily playlist.
The Economist – This is a Friday morning podcast on my Daily playlist. It provides a different perspective and reports on areas that barely hit my normal feeds.
The Fifth Column – This is a really good roundup focusing on the issues of the day and how the media reports them. It’s a promotable on my Daily playlist.
Mad Dogs and Englishmen – Charles C. Cooke. That’s why I listen to this podcast. It’s a promotable on my Daily playlist.
Neal Boortz Daily Commentaries – I loved listening to Boortz when he was on syndicated radio, and now I get two minutes of him. It’s interesting to see how I’ve diverged from him over the years. It’s only considered promotable on my Daily playlist because I get it daily.
The One With Greg Gutfeld – Only listened to a couple of episodes, but it feels similar to Greg’s Redeye days. Currently promotable on my Daily playlist.
Part of the Problem – Rabid anti war libertarian comedian Dave Smith is interesting. He’s certainly challenging some of my ideas. Promotable on my Daily playlist.
War College – This is a Friday morning podcast on my Daily playlist. An interesting look at politics and military issues.
Clockwise – This is a Friday morning podcast on my Daily playlist. I like the format and it helps keep me up to date on tech issues and trends.
Daily Tech Headlines – Good summary of big tech stories, and the weekend history segments are interesting. It’s considered promotable on my Daily playlist only because it comes out every day.
Friendly Fire – New one about three guys watching and critiquing war films. It’s a Friday afternoon podcast on my Daily playlist.
The Incomparable Game Show – Often hilarious, sometimes dangerously so when driving. It’s a Friday afternoon podcast on my Daily playlist.
Penn’™s Sunday School – Penn prognosticating on the world. It’s a Tuesday and a Thursday morning podcast on my Daily Playlist.
Squirrel Report – It’s not a Friday afternoon drive without this one.
Unjustly Maligned – On hiatus, but I’d recommend going through the back of episodes.
The Way I Heard It With Mike Rowe – After growing up with Paul Harvey’™s “The Rest of the Story”, this one is a wonderful substitute. It’s a promotable on my Daily playlist.
Skeptics Guide to The Universe – This was my first science podcast and really helped forge my skepticism. It’s a Monday morning podcast on my Daily playlist.
Skeptoid – Another one that helped in developing my skeptical outlook. It’s a promotable on my Daily playlist.
Writing Excuses – If you are a fiction writer, I can’t recommend this one highly enough. It’s currently the only one on my Writing playlist.
This post has its genesis in the recent kerfuffle over football peoples kneeling during the national anthem to protest the perceived epidemic of blacks being killed by police. I’m not going to address the players’ complaints or Trump’s narcissistic need to inject himself into the fray. Discussing this is difficult because it doesn’t just hit hot buttons all over the spectrum – it slams into those hot buttons like a SWAT team doing a drug raid.
TL;DR – Although there are some touches on the First Amendment since the president felt the need to fling himself in with his normal wild abandon or dignity or common sense, the main issues are the people politicization / tribalism of everything and a degrading of free speech in our culture.
I’ve seen too many commentators equate the First Amendment and free speech. Although they’re linked, it’s similar to the link between the Second Amendment and the right to self defense. The Amendments are there to restrain the government from putting laws in place that would prevent people from exercising the underlying rights. Until this last week, this was not a First Amendment issue because the government wasn’t trying to stop the players. Of course, then Trump stormed in – either because he’s unable to have a national story not be about him or because he’s redirecting the media’s almost Pavlovian response to anything he does away from other stories. Before the gentle readers try to remind me that the government is not sending its agents to stop the players, I would like to remind them the incredible reach of the government. This is especially true for the NFL, since they are dependent on their current exemption from anti-trust laws (that’s a whole other rant). When the head of that monstrous apparatus decides to weigh in, there can be a chilling effect. An indirect rather than direct governmental infringement on speech. Overall, as of this writing, the First Amendment application remains the lesser of the issues. This is still more a cultural issue.
There was an old Soviet saying of “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state.” Over the past few decades, this describes the growing divide in America. Except instead of the state, it’s nothing outside the tribe. Yes, I know the dangers of over-generalizing, but it does seem most of the population is being drawn into two tribes whose members share a general worldview and values. Over the last ten years, the tribes are becoming less rivals and more enemies. I’m not the first person to make that observation, and I don’t think we’re on the brink of a second civil war.
One of the fall outs of this hyper-tribalism is a chilling of free speech, particularly in every day interactions. For example, one of the attacks leveled at the players is that it is inappropriate for them to protest at their job. Why?
Is it because our culture has conditioned us that we don’t discuss politics in the workplace so as not to alienate customers or fellow workers? I know that’s one of the reasons I don’t discuss politics with my coworkers. I can easily see how in this day of weaponized speech, a firm would try to protect itself with a blanket culture of no speech on controversial topics.
Unfortunately, I don’t see sanity breaking out among the chattering class that define the cultural battles between the tribes. I can only hope that we do so on the day to day level – and for that I’m optimistic.
Reason has an article on the release of the new Uniform Crime Reports from the FBI.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/25/violent-crime-rose-again-in-2016-for-sec
My favorites parts from this:
Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts, pointed out that only five years since 1971 have had lower violent crime rates than 2016. In 2005 and 2006, the U.S. also experienced a similar two-year rise in violent crime. “There were dire warnings from police, only to have crime then continue to drop,” Gelb said.
And
John Pfaff, a professor at Fordham University Law School, cautioned that crime is a complex, geographically concentrated phenomena, and that it can’t simply be attributed to how many people are or aren’t being sent to prison.
He noted that Chicago, which has been experiencing an unprecedented spike in murders over the past several years, was responsible for about 20 percent of the national net increase in homicides. However, half of Chicago’s rise in murders were confined to five neighborhoods with 9 percent of the city’s population. “So in other words,” Pfaff said, “five neighborhoods in Chicago explain 10 percent of the national increase in homicide rates.”
Contrary to world stereotypes, America is still mostly peaceful – even while being having a heavily armed populace. Moreover, almost all of the violence is found in cities, particularly impoverished neighborhoods.
There aren’t any easy answers to helping those neighborhoods. Most likely, the solutions will require a multitude of approaches that will anger both of the major camps.
Time for another unpopular opinion –
Felons who have done their time should have all their rights restored once they have completed their sentence. This includes Second Amendment rights. There are a few reasons:
Here’s what it boils down to IMHO. Currently, we are over-criminalized AND that over-criminalization is selectively enforced. Hence, it is very easy for the state to deprive people of their civil rights, but very difficult for a person to get his/her civil rights restored. Furthermore, because the state is inefficient, other people are having their rights delayed because we do not restore people’s rights when their sentence is completed.
You’re a county code enforcement person whose county has just been hit by a hurricane. And not a little Cat 1, but a pretty decent Cat 3. A lot of people in your county are without power and most businesses are closed. What is the best way you can serve those taxpayers who pay for your salary? Well, if you work Miami-Dade, you trundle out in your vehicle and start handing out “warnings” to homeowners.
http://www.wftv.com/news/local/want-solar-panels-you-still-have-to-pay-florida-utilities/276475576
I really do love my state, but it has some flaws. No, not the weather or the bugs. Most of the issues reside in the legislature. More to the point, with the legislators who seem to think that cronyism is how an economy is supposed to run. This is particularly true of the utilities sector. Case in point:
http://www.wftv.com/news/local/want-solar-panels-you-still-have-to-pay-florida-utilities/276475576
I’m sure the utilities, or their PR firms, have some reason for working to deny people the choice to be completely off the grid. It may even sound somewhat plausible. Yet it still comes down to private firms using government force to make people use their services.
H/t McThag
Reason magazine is reporting on a copy of remarks Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is going to give about the infamous “Dear Colleague” letter that sent college campuses on rape witch hunts.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/07/betsy-devos-rape-ocr-title-ix-campus
Here’s my issue: Why are college administrators conducting trials on rape allegations? There is no jurisdiction in these United States where rape is not a felony. Guess what? We already have a system for investigating and trying felonies. It’s called the criminal judicial system.
Rape is an ugly crime. It’s also a messy one when it’s between friends/acquaintances, not to mention when alcohol is thrown into the mix. The presumption of innocence and the confrontational nature of trials means that real rapists are not brought to justice. That does not mean you hand it over to kangaroo courts with ridiculously low burdens of proof and rules that would bring a raised eyebrow to a dictator.
Across the bay, the city of St. Petersburg wants to force homeowners to add solar panels anytime they put on a new roof.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/08/31/st-petersburg-wants-to-force-you-to-put
They might make an exception for existing homes, but any new buildings, the city council at wants panels. And the homeowner or building owner gets to foot the bill. For another $10K. That’s about three times what I paid to put a new roof on my house last year. It’s about double what my mom paid for her roof.
All the council wants to focus on is all the energy they think this will generate. They refuse to think about:
Solar isn’t as efficient as they expect.
The cost to upgrade the grid to handle all that new energy generation.
It will slow down development in St. Pete due to rising costs.
People will have to take on more debt to do roof replacements. This will most likely lead to an uptick in foreclosures because some people will be unable to pay.
Those who have to save up the cash will forgo necessary roof replacements, which will lead to even more problems, and more drains on people’s limited resources.
Of course, it’s not their money. So why should they give a damn if their brilliant idea hurts people.