Did my matzos come?

Late in 2003 I exchanged some emails with Nels Noseworthy of the Nashville Scene, a free weekly newspaper published by Village Voice Media. I was considering placing a music-related ad, which I ended up not running, and he made suggestions as to wording and design.

The name of the guy I dealt with stayed with me, because, you know, it's "Nels Noseworthy." Out of curiosity I just now Googled it, and this story from 12/17/04 is what I found:

An advertising salesman with the Nashville Scene was arrested yesterday, accused of knowingly placing ads for prostitution services in the weekly newspaper.

Nels Noseworthy of Bellevue Road is accused of selling ads to undercover Metro officers who made it known they were promoting prostitutes, police said. The escort-service ads included suggestive phrases like ''XXX,'' ''Sex In The City Escorts,'' and ''$200/hr.''

Noseworthy, 29, was indicted by a Davidson County grand jury on six felony counts of promoting prostitution. He faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

Let me state up front that though I have never had and plan never to have dealings of any kind with a hooker, I think that prostitution should be legal and strictly regulated, as it evidently is in parts of Nevada. Even if I fervently opposed prostitution, however, I'd have questions about this case. The reaction of Albie Del Favero, publisher of the Scene at the time of Noseworthy's arrest, makes sense to me:

''This is nothing but a publicity stunt for a police chief who is trying to make a name for himself,'' Del Favero originally said in the statement, although the language on the Web site was toned down late yesterday. . . . ''Instead of coming after me or another manager, ([Nashville Police Chief Ronal] Serpas) went after an innocent employee trying to do his job[.]''

Do the police think that Noseworthy sneaked these ads into the paper without his bosses' knowledge and approval? On many a tv show, cops arrest a low-level criminal and pressure him to incriminate bigger criminals. That's not the situation here. The police had the names they needed. If they think Noseworthy's guilty, why didn't they arrest the people who pay his salary?

I'm neither a lawyer nor a cop, but this is how it looks to me: Nashville police want to combat prostitution, or at least look as though they're combating prostitution. They could arrest the Scene's publisher and other higher-ups, but such a move might provoke real trouble for them. Instead, they arrest an underling and threaten him with twelve years (!) in prison.

I don't know whether Noseworthy broke the law. I do have an opinion on police and prosecutors who menace the vulnerable and excuse the powerful: they're cowards, bullies and glory-hounds.
 

I have no idea who'll run for President in 2008, but I've been considering a question: How would I choose between opponents who have basically the same position on the war?

Today at least, I think I'd vote for the person expressing stronger opposition to McCain-Feingold. Ryan Sager's most recent column reminds me how contemptible that Act is, what a betrayal of core American principle.

As long as I avoid libel and slander, no just law can prohibit me from writing and speaking about a politician before, during and after Election Day. If you disagree with me, your reasoning is flawed. I rarely think in such absolute terms, but on this subject I find no meaningful ambiguity.

A candidate who defends my right to free speech will get my attention.

(Link via Ramesh Ponnuru.)
 

Jed Babbin:

For those who still doubt that very few women can qualify under the standards for combat, the 2002 British Ministry of Defense study, ''Women in the Armed Forces,'' should settle the matter. The study found that only 1 percent of women can meet the physical standards men do, that they are less aggressive and more prone to injury than men.

It also found -- in the only example where the effect of women in combat is measurable, the Israeli army in 1947-48 -- ''Israeli morale suffered disproportionately when a female soldier was killed or wounded.''

In short, standards are sacrificed and unit cohesion is reduced significantly by including women in combat arms. . . .

Retired Gunnery Sgt. Jessie Duff served more than 20 years in the Marines. Duff told me that it's not a question of physical fitness. Combat fitness is about the other tests and standards (which include physical capabilities) that have to be met to qualify for combat duty.

Duff said that the 1 percent the Brits found physically capable is too few, and imposing such a small minority of women will create internal friction. Being a woman, Duff is a pretty good judge. . . . Unless enough women qualify to compose at least 15 percent to 20 percent of a unit's strength, she believes it would be highly disruptive to unit cohesion and morale.

''If the Army's going to do this and allow people to go in [to combat units] just to have this equality, they're forgetting what their mission is. Their mission is to win a stinking war,'' Duff said.
 

They'll wear Baby Mops.

Here's a piece on the inventor, Kenji Kawakami, and other "strange tools" he's created.
 

I have one quibble with Nicholas Kristof's great piece on Zimbabwe, published Wednesday. He writes, "The West has often focused its outrage at Mr. Mugabe's seizure of farms from white landowners, but that is tribalism on our part. The greatest suffering by far is among black Zimbabweans."

I don't need to be told that, and I'd guess that most other readers don't either. Ninety-eight percent of Zimbabweans are black, so plainly blacks have the most to lose from Mugabe's land grab. Especially troubling is that, no matter how grave the shortages are now, far worse ("most of the farms transferred to black owners have never been used") are likely to come. (Via Instapundit.)
 

From the Ottawa Citizen, 11/22/01:

The Ottawa Citizen and Southam News wish to apologize for our apology to Mark Steyn, published Oct. 22. In correcting the incorrect statements about Mr. Steyn published Oct. 15, we incorrectly published the incorrect correction. We accept and regret that our original regrets were unacceptable and we apologize to Mr. Steyn for any distress caused by our previous apology.

(Via Regret The Error, via Britain's Press Gazette.)
 

Thirteen scientific puzzles.
 

Dave Barry on SUVs and the people who drive them:

In the real world, what people mainly do with their Sport Utility Vehicles, as far as I can tell, is try to maneuver them into and out of parking spaces. I base this statement on my local supermarket, where many of the upscale patrons drive Chevrolet Subdivisions. I've noticed that these people often purchase just a couple of items -- maybe a bottle of diet water and a two-ounce package of low-fat dried carrot shreds -- which they put into the back of their Subdivisions, which have approximately the same cargo capacity, in cubic feet, as Finland. This means there is plenty of room left over back there in case, on the way home, these people decide to pick up something else, such as a herd of bison.

Then comes the scary part: getting the Subdivision out of the parking space. This is a challenge, because the driver apparently cannot, while sitting in the driver's seat, see all the way to either end of the vehicle. I drive a compact car, and on a number of occasions I have found myself trapped behind a Subdivision backing directly toward me, its massive metal butt looming high over my head, making me feel like a Tokyo pedestrian looking up at Godzilla.

I've tried honking my horn, but the Subdivision drivers can't hear me, because they're always talking on cellular phones the size of Chiclets (''The Bigger Your Car, The Smaller Your Phone,'' that is their motto).
 

Jeff Jacoby:

Of course the United States must hunt down terrorists and find out what they know. Better intelligence means more lives saved, more atrocities prevented, and a more likely victory in the war against radical Islamist fascism. Those are crucial ends, and they justify tough means. But they don't justify means that betray core American values. Interrogation techniques that flirt with torture -- to say nothing of those that end in death -- cross the moral line that separates us from the enemy we are trying to defeat.

The Bush administration and the military insist that any abuse of detainees is a violation of policy and that abusers are being punished. (So far 109 soldiers have been sanctioned, 32 of them in courts-martial.) If so, why does it refuse to allow a genuinely independent commission to investigate the matter without fear or favor? Why do Republican leaders on Capitol Hill refuse to launch a proper congressional investigation? And why do my fellow conservatives -- those who support the war for all the right reasons -- continue to keep silent about a scandal that should have them up in arms?
 

You'll probably like Wimbledon. It follows the NH formula amazingly closely—into the life of a charming, handsome, self-effacing, single, not-especially-successful Englishman walks a famous, attractive, single, fabulously successful American woman whose career complicates her romantic life—but Paul Bettany is very appealing, and NH is one of my favorite movies, so I consider it a rental well-chosen. Not that anyone asked.
 

BBC Science/Nature news:

A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, a physicist has said.

It was generated at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in New York, US, which smashes beams of gold nuclei together at near light speeds.

Horatiu Nastase says his calculations show that the core of the fireball has a striking similarity to a black hole. . . .

Ten times as many jets were being absorbed by the fireball as were predicted by calculations.

The Brown researcher thinks the particles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation, just as matter is thought to fall into a black hole and come out as "Hawking" radiation.

However, even if the ball of plasma is a black hole, it is not thought to pose a threat. At these energies and distances, gravity is not the dominant force in a black hole.

Okay, trying to feel reassured . . .
 

    Knowing within myself the manner in which this Poem has been produced, it is not without a feeling of regret that I make it public.
    What manner I mean, will be quite clear to the reader, who must soon perceive great inexperience, immaturity, and every error denoting a feverish attempt, rather than a deed accomplished. The two first books, and indeed the two last, I feel sensible are not of such completion as to warrant their passing the press; nor should they if I thought a year’s castigation would do them any good;—it will not: the foundations are too sandy. It is just that this youngster should die away: a sad thought for me, if I had not some hope that while it is dwindling I may be plotting, and fitting myself for verses fit to live.
    This may be speaking too presumptuously, and may deserve a punishment: but no feeling man will be forward to inflict it: he will leave me alone, with the conviction that there is not a fiercer hell than the failure in a great object. This is not written with the least atom of purpose to forestall criticisms of course, but from the desire I have to conciliate men who are competent to look, and who do look with a zealous eye, to the honour of English literature.
    The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted: thence proceeds mawkishness, and all the thousand bitters which those men I speak of must necessarily taste in going over the following pages.
    I hope I have not in too late a day touched the beautiful mythology of Greece, and dulled its brightness: for I wish to try once more, before I bid it farewel.

        Teignmouth, April 10, 1818.

John Keats, Preface to Endymion

Omar reported Sunday 3/13:

According to radio Sawa and Iraq Net, the negotiations between the "United Iraqi Coalition" and the "Kurdish Alliance" have collapsed this afternoon.
The prominent Coalition figure Ahmed Chalabi explained the reasons for the failure of the negotiations in an interview on Al-Sharqiya TV. He blamed the Kurdish leaderships for this failure describing their demands as "unrealistic".

Omar adds,

I have always sympathized with the Kurds for what they have suffered from under the Ba'ath regime; all Iraqis were victims for that murderous regime and the Kurds have relatively suffered more than some other segments but this is all gone and now we're looking forward to building a new Iraq void of ethnic and sectarin differences and when it comes to disrupting the national unity in a critical time like this then such stubbornness is totally unacceptable especially when the demands are not that urgent.

I prefer not to talk anymore about this and I don't like to judge anyone until more details are disclosed but generally speaking, our politicians seem to have a lot more left to learn.
They have lived and operated as an opposition for a very long time and the time has come for them to learn how to think and behave as leaders.
 

From USA Today, via NCPA:

Mercury from China, dust from Africa, smog from Mexico — all of it drifts freely across U.S. borders and contaminates the air millions of Americans breathe, according to recent research. . . .

Pollution wafting into the USA accounts for 30% of the nation's ozone, an important component of smog, says researcher David Parrish of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. . . . While the United States is cutting its own emissions, some nations, especially China, are belching out more and more dirty air. As a result, overseas pollution could partly cancel out improvements in U.S. air quality that have cost billions of dollars.
 

And it is so always with me now; it is the distance that charms me in the landscape, the picture and the past, and not the immediate today in which I move.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson  

Mark Steyn:

A couple of years back, I went to hear Paul Wolfowitz. I knew him only by reputation — the most sinister of all the neocons, the big bad Wolfowitz, the man whose name started with a scary animal and ended Jewishly. In fact, he was a very soft-spoken chap, who compared the challenges of the Middle East with America’s experiments in democracy-spreading after the second world war. He said he thought it would take less time than Japan, and maybe something closer to the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe. I would have scoffed, but he knew so many Iraqis by name — not just Ahmed Chalabi, but a ton of others.

Around the same time, I bumped into Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister and man of letters. He was just back from Egypt, where he’d been profoundly moved when he’d been asked to convey the gratitude of the Arab people to President Chirac for working so tirelessly to prevent a tragic war between Christianity and Islam. You don’t say, I said. And, just as a matter of interest, who asked you to convey that? He hemmed and hawed and eventually said it was President Mubarak. Being a polite sort, I rolled my eyes only metaphorically, but decided as a long-term proposition I’d bet Wolfowitz’s address book of real people against Villepin’s hotline to over-the-hill dictators. The lesson of these last weeks is that it turns out Washington’s Zionists know the Arab people a lot better than Europe’s Arabists.
 

Glenn Reynolds has it right:

It seems to me that the best hope for the Democrats is for Bush to be so successful at foreign affairs and national security that by 2008 nobody cares anymore.

As Kerry learned, the Democratic presidential nominee can't please both the anti-war wing and the pro-war wing. Let the international scene calm down between now and the next election, and voters may well choose the candidate who seems less likely to stir it up again.

New Scientist:

Life, according to the British band The Verve, is a bittersweet symphony. But for one musician in Switzerland who can "taste" sounds the symphony is also disgusting, and tastes of mown grass and low-fat cream.

The musician, known as ES, is a synaesthete, a person who involuntarily experiences a crossing over of the senses for certain types of stimuli. But not only does ES see certain colours when she hears specific notes - which is quite common among synaesthetes - but she also associates specific tastes with different pairs of notes, or intervals. . . .

Most modern forms of music have so few clear and distinct tones and intervals that the colours and tastes they evoke are somewhat muted. So ES tends to prefer simple harmonies such as renaissance music. Bach, for example is particularly creamy, she says.