Corporal punishment?

Anyone else notice the tendency of some bloggers to anthropomorphize their blog? — By which I mean something like if I would write, “Masson’s Blog wonders if anyone else has noticed the tendency of some bloggers to anthropomorphize their blog?”

To me, it seems to be a stylistic tendency drawn from editorial pages where the editors write in the name of the newspaper. “The New York Times endorses . . .” And, I suppose on blogs where one or more writers is/are writing on behalf of the entire organization after some sort of collaboration, that makes sense. And, I certainly have nothing against bloggers using pseudonyms. But, individual bloggers writing as if they were an organization seems a little off somehow.

Not a big deal by any means. Just something that occasionally distracts me while I’m reading various blogs.

Abraham Lincoln was born 199 years ago, on Feb. 12, 1809. What would he say if he were alive today? Probably something like, “HELP! HELP! IT’S HOT IN HERE! I CAN’T BREATHE!” Sorry. I couldn’t resist.

I have a bit of hero worship with respect to Lincoln. I went so far as to name my first born son after him. (His first name is “Lincoln,” but his walking around nickname is “Cole”). His presence at the helm of the Union was, to put it mildly, fortuitous. He was a gifted politician and a deep thinker with a common touch who loved his country dearly. A buddy of mine who wasn’t an overly zealous student and went to a parochial school used to joke that, when he was stumped in a literature class, he could usually get through it by describing one figure or another as the book’s “Christ figure.” Well, Lincoln is America’s Christ figure. With extraordinary gifts and appealing humility, Mr. Lincoln saved the country from itself and was killed for his efforts.

I know that, upon close review, Lincoln had his warts like we all do. But history has dimmed the negatives and enhanced the positives, and I’m o.k. with that. After all, a boy needs his heroes. So far, I have Abraham Lincoln and my grandpa. I’m not prepared to go looking for faults in either one of them.

Happy birthday Mr. Lincoln!

Just passing along word I received from a tax professional on the subject of the recent property tax rebates.

#Whatever you paid in property taxes for 2007 (without considering the rebate) is the amount you itemize on your 2007 tax return.

#The 2008 rebate check will be “other income” in the year 2008 if you itemize your taxes (and assuming your county actually issues the rebate in the year 2008).

#There is apparently still an issue with respect to Indiana taxes on which there has not been a clear opinion.

I am not a tax professional. I very well may have garbled the information that was conveyed to me. By way of disclaimer, I encourage you to regard everything I write here as lies, damned lies, and/or statistics; but certainly not legal advice.

Slashdot has an entry that ought to give us pause before betting the farm (literally in some cases) on biofuels as a replacement for fossil fuels. (The main link is to a Seattle Times article).

The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These plant-based fuels were originally billed as better than fossil fuels because the carbon released when they were burned was balanced by the carbon absorbed when the plants grew. But that equation proved overly simplistic because the process of turning plants into fuels causes its own emissions — for refining and transport, for example. These studies… for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.

In short, the studies suggest that the biofuels might produce more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Even if these studies are accurate, there might be short term reasons to prefer biofuels to fossil fuels – shortages of the latter, geopolitical reasons – our oil is buried under some pretty unstable countries; etc. But, we should keep looking for better energy sources.

The ACLU is suing the Bureau of Motor Vehicles seeking to enjoin the Bureau from unilaterally revoking licenses that don’t match information in a database maintained by the federal government’s Social Security Administration. Many of the mismatches occurred because of typographical errors and name-changes following marriage. There are apparently about 206,000 mismatches.

The ACLU’s suit asks that no licenses be suspended without hearings. I haven’t read the suit, but this seems to be a due process question to me. Specifically, how much process is due before the Bureau revokes a license? The BMV probably wants to run a mass computer check, spit out letters whenever the BMV database doesn’t exactly match the SSA database, and revoke the license in a certain number of days if the citizen doesn’t take it upon him or herself to resolve the mismatch between the two government bureaucracies. To me, it seems that if the Bureau wants to take a citizen’s right away, it bears the burden of proving to an impartial third party — presumably a court or at least an Administrative Law Judge — that the discrepancy is more than superficial. That, of course, requires more effort on the part of the BMV. But, the burden exists either way. I don’t think the BMV should be allowed to shift that burden to the citizens just because doing otherwise is a hassle; particularly where, as here, a valid license is a prerequisite to exercising one’s right to vote.

In Kirkwood, Missouri, six people are dead, including the gunman, after a disgruntled nutjob started firing his gun at a city council meeting. Aside from the normal level of interest, this story caught my eye because a big chunk of my grandmother’s family still lives in Kirkwood.

I think Atrios is right with respect to the issue of superdelegates and the Michigan & Florida delegates in the Democratic primary race:

It is a bit weird worrying that things are going to be messy going forward. There might be a fight over the Michigan and Florida delegates. There will issues with superdelegates.

I guess my basic take is that MI and FL delegates shouldn’t be seated, though if they want a do over with another caucus or primary that’d be fine. As for the superdelegates… well, I guess I’ll be a bit annoyed if they swing this one way or another, but not that annoyed. I’m annoyed by the system. There are just too many superdelegates relative to the total. But that is the system.

Someone by the name of Sarah Robinson who uses both the Canadian and U.S. health care system addresses some of the assertions about the Canadian system that are routinely raised by people who oppose a national health care system for the U.S.

Go read the whole thing, but, a very abbreviated version:

1. Socialized medicine? False. Doctors are not employees of the state. It’s more of a single-payer insurance system. Kind of like Medicare for everyone.

2. Doctors don’t make as much? True & False. They don’t take in as much revenue, but they don’t have as much overhead devoted to wrestling with insurance companies. As a result, they also tend to work fewer hours.

3. Wait times are bad? True & False. Mostly depends where in Canada you are. Rural areas tend to be worse than suburban areas.

4. You don’t get to choose your own doctor? False. You do.

5. Coverage is limited to basics? Mostly true. But it doesn’t end up being as big a deal because without big insurance premiums and the expensive basics mostly covered, the extras are more affordable.

6. Canadian drugs are not the same? False. They’re often made by the same companies in the same factories.

7. The taxes to support such a system are unsustainable? False. They’re less expensive than health insurance premiums.

[tags]health care[/tags]

Former Representative Dick Mangus (R-Lakeville) has passed away. He served 32 years in the legislature and retired a couple of years ago. I don’t have any details as to the particulars of his death, but he was an esteemed public servant and will be missed.