Author: Kevin B. O'Reilly

A time to mourn?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

While some libertarians might want to mourn the Fourth of July, especially in light of the counter-terrorism measures passed after Sept. 11, I still think there’s plenty to celebrate. The Fourth has always been one of my two favorite holidays, along with Thanksgiving.

And while I disagree with much that has fallen under the domestic war on terror umbrella — and about half of what Dubya’s trying to do overseas — Sept. 11 did much to reinforce the spirit of individualism still remnant in the American culture at large. It’s easy to dwell on Ashcroft or the Homeland Security Department (shudder) and think all is lost, but when we consider how easily things could have turned worse, we’ve much to be thankful for.

Yes, there are some 1,200 undocumented Arabs in jail somewhere in New Jersey without access to legal representation. And, yes, the “enemy combatant” move by the Justice Department sets a disturbing precedent, but our freedoms and our way of life have remained largely untouched. People will celebrate the Fourth. They’ll barbecue in the back yard and get drunk, and a few will blow their heads off with fireworks — as is their God-given right.

But there are no internment camps. There is no national ID card. There are no tanks patrolling the streets. The blessings of liberty are still with us. We should remember that and have a good time just to spite those who’d trade liberty for security.

Here’s to our Founding Fathers. Thanks, guys! Have a Sam Adams on me.

Heritage has some hot models

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

No, not that kind. I’m talking about the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, which a group of KRT interns toured yesterday. CDA director Bill Beach gave a very inspiring and impassioned speech about data, and the many helpful models that can be formed using data.

OK, I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek here, but honestly, he was engagingly geeky. If there is one thing journalists miss is how to interpret the actual effects of proposed legislation, whether it’s taxation, Social Security or health care benefits. Crunching the data and using sophisticated models which take into account how changing one variable — say, a change in the capital gains rate — affects all the other variables, can be useful in understanding the dynamic effects of legislation.

Of course, all these models must work in some implicit assumptions about what the effects will actually be (e.g., that a tax cut will broaden the tax base thus increasing revenue rather than cutting it), but it’s still pretty cool.

Joe Camel sez, “Smoking helps government grow, kids!”

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Eerily, both Julian Sanchez and Jacob Sullum point out the idiocy of some of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent comments regarding a bill he signed to increase cigarette taxes to $1.50 a pack.

This is, of course, a nationwide trend. Bloated local and state governments first thre the tobacco settlement money down the drain, and now that revenues have gone down thanks to a sluggish economy, they return to their favorite whipping boys and girls, smokers, to make up the shortfall. But don’t do it! You may not want to quit smoking, but you don’t have to finance this ludicrousness.

There are lots of discount cigarettestores online. Here’s the one Karen recently ordered her smokes from. Puff in peace. Buy online.

If it’s broke, wait to fix it until later

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Walter Pincus reports in the Post that “Congress will put off a reorganization of the FBI and CIA to improve the performance of the intelligence community until it establishes a Department of Homeland Security, according to Bush administration and congressional sources.”

Great idea.

These two mammoth agencies couldn’t tie each other’s shoes, let alone put together the clues necessary to stop the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and now we’re going to complicate everything by creating another agency to battle over turf before even redefining how the CIA and FBI will change — if at all — and what went wrong.

Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Who will buy a wonderful voucher and put it in a box for me?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Terry Neal writes in the Washington Post that there is no constituency for school choice. Blacks and Hispanics won’t vote solely based on that issue, and support for vouchers has gone down as the rhetoric has shifted toward using choice to help low-income and minority students. Neal mentions only in passing the “intractable” opposition from teacher’s unions.

Is this argument sound? I have no idea. I sure hope not.

Demand for Old Glory not flagging

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

WASHINGTON — Americans’ demand for flags flown over the U.S. Capitol reached a fevered pitch immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks and continues today, even though the United States has settled in for a long fight against terrorism.

Since the 1950s, the office of the Architect of the Capitol has flown flags over the dome at the request of Congress members. Members make the request on behalf of constituents.

The month of September best illustrates the increased demand for flags flown over the Capitol. For September 2000, the number was 7,000. That figure doubled — to 14,000 — for September 2001.

But even that 100 percent increase doesn’t accurately reflect the increased demand for flags flown over the Capitol, said Bruce Milhans, communications officer in the architect’s office.

"At the end of the [fiscal year, in September] we were hampered because there was such a demand that the supply of flags available to us was exhausted," Milhans said.

For example, after flying the 14,000 flags in September, the office flew only 6,433 flags in October and 4,843 in November, even though the U.S. military was engaged in fierce warfare in Afghanistan.

Traditionally, the demand for flags has gone up during wartime. The single-year record for flags flown over the Capitol is 154,224 in 1991, the year of the Persian Gulf War. The architect’s office typically flies 130,000 flags a year.

The House Administration Committee, known by some as the mayor’s office of Capitol Hill, is charged with ordering the flags flown over the Capitol. But committee staff members had no idea how Americans would respond to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Orders that usually took four weeks to fill were backlogged for months.

"We all were overwhelmed," said Jim Forbes, spokesman for the committee. "We were definitely humbled and overwhelmed by the patriotism of all Americans. We just tried to keep up with supply, and eventually we did."

The committee sent staff members to the Internet looking for manufacturers who could help fulfill the demand for Old Glory. But it was difficult, Forbes said, because the manufacturers must be U.S.-owned and the flags must be made in accordance with official standards of the U.S. government.

"You really can’t just take anyone," Forbes said. "There are many different ways to make flags. We have strict standards that must be met."

Specifically, flags flown over the Capitol must be sewn, not silk-screened.

As the supply of flags has been replenished, the number of flags flown has risen steadily, even though the war has dropped off the front pages.

In May, the most recent month for which the architect’s office has data, 13,045 flags were flown over the Capitol. It’s unclear, though, how many of those flag orders are new and how many are backlogged orders finally being filled.

"We’re still working on a backlog of flags because we did not fully resume until spring," Milhans said. "Inclement winter weather held things up. Now we have tens of dozens of flags here right now waiting to be flown."

Flag orders through the office of Chicago-area Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., have been steady since Sept. 11, according to press secretary Nadeam Elshami.

"We’ve been getting about four or five requests every month, month after month," Elshami said. Before Sept. 11, requests for an entire year were in the single digits.

Every morning, laborers from the Capitol superintendents’ office scale the roof on the south side of the Capitol, near the south edge of the dome on the House side. Three 12-foot tall flagpoles stand there, awaiting another day of activity.

Depending on demand, workers may start as early as 7 a.m., raising flags over the Capitol. Each flag is flown for two minutes, and then lowered. Work ends at 5:30 p.m. or when the allotment of flags for the day is finished, Milhans said, though under extraordinary circumstances work may continue until dusk.

"This is a labor-intensive process, and we’re not going to put our laborers at risk," Milhans said. "If weather conditions are such that it’s hazardous, we don’t allow them to work." That is another reason, Milhans said, why the number of flags flown may have increased in the spring as the weather has improved.

Once the flag is flown, the House flag office prepares certificates authenticating the date when the flag was flown over the Capitol and inscribing any special message requested, Milhans said.

The single-day record for most flags flown was July 4, 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. Twelve temporary flagpoles were erected on the Capitol and 10,471 flags were flown that day.

Flag prices range from $17.49 to $31.91, depending on the size and the kind of material the flag is made of, cotton or nylon.

Families of Sept. 11 victims may obtain, at no cost, a flag flown over the Capitol and delivered in a special box with a certificate signed by their House representative and by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information Services

Web site of the week: Inside the teen-age brain

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

For KRTeens

It’s been said that there’s nothing wrong with today’s teen-ager that 20 years won’t cure. New evidence from the field of neurology — the science of the brain — is showing that adage is truer than we may have thought.

While 95 percent of the brain is structured by the time a child is 5 or 6, Dr. Jay Giedd of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., has found that a crucial part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex starts growing again right before puberty.

Giedd’s work was explored in a PBS “Frontline” special, “Inside the Teen-age Brain,” and a companion Web site (http://www. pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/) offers some fascinating insight into how teen-agers’ changing brains affect their lives.

Along with interviews with Giedd and other brain experts, you’ll find lots of interactive goodies, including a virtual map of the teen brain that highlights the parts that experience dramatic change just before puberty.

You’ll also find out why many teens have trouble getting to sleep at night and why teens’ emotional reactions often differ from those of adults.

Teens are often a mystery to their parents, sometimes they’re a mystery to themselves as well. Check out the clues to solving that mystery at this cool Web site.
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information Services

This summer, keep busy by keeping score

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

For KRTKids

There are lots of neat things to do at a baseball game besides eat hot dogs and peanuts. And keeping score is one of them.

Next time you go to a game, pick up a program — the scorecard is included. Each program comes with instructions on how to keep score, but here are some basics.

The scorecard includes spaces for each player on both teams. Their positions on the field are numbered one through nine, like this: pitcher: 1; catcher: 2; first baseman: 3; second baseman: 4; third baseman: 5; shortstop: 6; left fielder: 7; center fielder: 8; and right fielder: 9.

Across the top of the scorecard you’ll see a number for each inning, first through ninth. The box in the top left corner is for the first batter in the first inning. Fill in the next box for the next hitter, and so on until the inning ends. Then move to the next column for the second inning, and so on.

So to mark an out, you keep track of which position on the field the ball was hit to. For example, a ground ball to the shortstop (6), in which he throws out a runner at first (3), would be marked 6-3. A fly out to center field would be marked by the number 8 with a circle around it.

Here are some common abbreviations to make scoring easier: 1B — single; 2B — double; 3B — triple; HR — home run; K — strikeout swinging; backward K-called out on strikes; BB-base on balls; HBP — hit by pitched ball.

If a player reaches base, you show how he did it by using one of the abbreviations above and tracking the runner’s progress around the bases. Some scorecards already having a diamond drawn for you. Other times, you’ll need to draw it yourself.

Once you’re done scoring the game, you’ll see that you can tell what happened on any play just by looking at your scorecard.

Even if you don’t get every detail right, keeping score is cool and you’ll enjoy the game much more than you did before. Plus, you can relive the game over and over when you get home!

To learn more about scoring baseball, visit The Baseball Scorecard Web site (http://www.baseballscorecard.com/).
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information
Services

I’m pleding my time to you, hoping you’ll come through too

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Julian Sanchez has some fine posts on the Ninth Circuit Pledge of Allegiance decision the other day. He writes:

In short, getting rid of the Pledge isn’t an act of pettiness perpetrated by atheist bigots. It is the absolutely necessary removal of a subtle but potent kind of religious indoctrination — and a state-supported means of ostracising children with unorthodox beliefs — from our school systems. Hallelujah.

As I wrote in Julian’s comments section, “under God” irrefutably has a religious connotation. Because almost everyone in America believes in God and raises their children to believe in God, it doesn’t receive much attention, but that doesn’t change the facts of the situation. If the pledge said “under God, father of Christ,” or “under Yahweh, protector of his chosen people, the Jews” or “under Vishnu,” people might understand that a little better.

The one part I’m not sure about is whether it’s actually coercive. Any student who doesn’t want to say the pledge is under no obligation to do so. So what we’re left with is this argument that any student who doesn’t say the pledge will feel ostracized by fellow students, teachers and school officials. I’m not sure if that’s a strong enough link to qualify as coercive state establishment of religion.

Anyway, the thing was cooked up by a socialist. Oh, and here’s what Gene Healy has to say:

I think the Pledge is unseemly, collectivist, slavish, and stupid. But not everything that pisses libertarians off is unconstitutional.

He’s the lawyer of the bunch, so take that for what it’s worth.

In the crossfire

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

I went to Friday’s taping of “Crossfire” along with a group of students from the Fund (everything’s about the Fund, isn’t it?). As you could see from the transcript, it was a pretty boring show.

It was mildly interesting to see how they film the show and a little bit of the behind the scenes stuff. I still think having a studio audience for a political discussion show is stupid, though. The price of going to one of these “free” tapings is applause. We had to clap about a gazillion times — going into commercial, coming out of commercial, when Tucker “I think that they like the bow tie” Carlson wiped his nose, and on and on.

While Carlson and Begala pretended to fight for most of the evening, they both agreed that the Dubya’s daughters repeated violations of the law should not be reported by the press. They both hammered the Post’s “Reliable Source” columnist Lloyd Grove for reporting that the 20-year-old twins had a gay old time in D.C. drinking Buds and chain-smoking cigarettes.

The funniest part about it is that they did it at a place called Stetson’s, a Texas-themed bar in D.C. Just like daddy, Texas is never far from their minds, even in Washington.

I thought Grove had the best response after Begala and Carlson piled on. “Remember,” he said, “I’m a gossip columnist.” Exactly.

Walter’s weak argument

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

George Mason University economist and syndicated columnist Walter Williams spoke to the Fund’s students last Thursday night. His topic, “The role of government in a free society.” His answer, “Extremely limited.”

Which is the right answer, of course, but his argumentation was a little less than stellar. While Williams made his points in a humorous and engaging fashion, explaining how greed — when placed in a market context — can create good, a surprising amount of his discussion centered on moral rather than economic or utilitarian arguments. Kind of odd, seeing as how he’s an economist and all.

Early on in his talk, he argued that any government transfer is necessarily theft and therefore morally wrong. So I guess that’s the end of the discussion, right? Why bother with all of the evidence for how markets make us better off? Of course he went on, sliding right over how and why he would distinguish between the justified force required to provide a national defense, courts and police (all of which he said were kosher) and the unjustified force involved in creating and maintaining the welfare state. From his argument (or lack thereof), one might think him an anarchist.

Not that there’s anything wrong with being an anarchist, though I’m not, and though I know Williams is not. The problem was with stating this blanket moral proposition and not backing it up or bothering to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate uses of government. It really diminished Williams’ persuasiveness and made it seem like his answer to any possible government intervention was, “No!”

Now, the libertarian answer to almost any government intervention that gets discussed is “No!”, but without giving the audience a sense of how and where he (and, consequently, a libertarian) would draw the line, it made the libertarian or free-market view seem more like dogma than a well-considered, empirically and morally sound worldview.

Sarge Jr., Delino memorabilia and a blowout

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

I attended last night’s Orioles-Phillies game as part of a Fund outing. Aside from getting us to the game late, parking the charter bus about five miles away from the park, and seating us in a reserve section only slightly closer to the field, the game was a complete blowout.

The Orioles were led by, of all people, former Cub Gary Matthews Jr. He went 5-for-5 with two runs and two RBI. He batted third in the lineup, which tells you something about the quality of the Orioles’ lineup this year. After struggling to stay above the Mendoza line for parts of two seasons with the Cubs, Sarge Jr. is hitting .292 with three home runs and 15 RBI. Not great, but not terrible either.

After about the fourth inning, with O’s up 5-1, I decided to take a walk around the park, heading downstairs and toward Eutaw Street by the brick warehouse which serves as the backrop for the right field bleachers and also houses a few stores and pubs. I’ve been there once before, in 1994 with the Stris. I had my camera and took lots of pictures, at least a few of which might turn out decent.

I bought a turkey sandwich and beer at Boog’s Barbecue and stopped by the Orioles Baseball Store in the warehouse. I remember I bought a beautiful Orioles cap when I was last at Camden Yards, before I developed my policy of not wearing any sports paraphernalia for teams I don’t actually root for.

I wandered around the store, and what did I see? Encased in glass was a variety of autographed baseball and Orioles memorabilia, including some things signed by Alex Rodriguez and, of course, Cal Ripken Jr. But the prize item? Without a doubt, it had to be the autographed 8-by-10 inch glossy of none other than former Oriole and current Chicago Cub Delino DeShields. As you may recall, I don’t much care for Mr. DeShields.

I thought briefly of buying the picture only to perhaps burn it or shred it or use it a dartboard at home, but I decided against it. I try not to let petty hatreds occupy so much psychic energy. That’s what the blog’s for, after all.

A so-so fireworks display after the game did little to redeem the evening, but the nachos were good.