Me @Macworld: Hands on with Google Chrome OS

Like at least half the nerds in America, I applied to be part of Chrome OS beta testing program as soon as it was announced last week. On the surface, at least, I figured myself to be an ideal Chrome user—to a sometimes-scary extent, my life is already lived in Google’s cloud. Even on a Mac I default to the Chrome browser, where I write in Google Docs, check my feeds in Google Reader, and even sync Google Calendar and Contacts to my iPhone and iPad instead of paying for MobileMe. The company’s cloud-based operating system seemed the next logical step.

via macworld.com

Click the link to read the rest of my review of the Chrome, and what it says about the state of cloud-based computing.

The Ben and Joel Podcast: The Gift That Keeps on Giving Edition

Ben and Joel are joined by a stellar panel to discuss the books they would give as gifts this Christmas. Guests in this episode include Rick Henderson, editor of the John Locke Foundation's Carolina Journal; Pia Lopez, editorial writer for the Sacramento Bee (and Ben's weekly sparring partner in the Bee's "Head to Head" column, where they discussed books on Dec. 8); and Sam Karnick, editor of The American Culture and director of research at The Heartland Institute.

Music heard in this podcast:

• "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," Joseph Spence
• "Gabriel's Message," Sting
• "Little Drummer Boy," Los Straitjackets
• "O Little Town of Bethlehem," Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
• "Must Be Santa," Bob Dylan
• "A Holly Jolly Christmas," Burl Ives

via blog.infinitemonkeysblog.com

PolitiFact calls 'government takeover of health care' its lie of the year

"Government takeover" conjures a European approach where the government owns the hospitals and the doctors are public employees. But the law Congress passed, parts of which have already gone into effect, relies largely on the free market:

• Employers will continue to provide health insurance to the majority of Americans through private insurance companies.

• Contrary to the claim, more people will get private health coverage. The law sets up "exchanges" where private insurers will compete to provide coverage to people who don't have it.

• The government will not seize control of hospitals or nationalize doctors.

• The law does not include the public option, a government-run insurance plan that would have competed with private insurers.

• The law gives tax credits to people who have difficulty affording insurance, so they can buy their coverage from private providers on the exchange. But here too, the approach relies on a free market with regulations, not socialized medicine.

PolitiFact reporters have studied the 906-page bill and interviewed independent health care experts. We have concluded it is inaccurate to call the plan a government takeover because it relies largely on the existing system of health coverage provided by employers.

via politifact.com

Paul Krugman on the 'Wall Street Whitewash'

In the world according to the G.O.P. commissioners, it’s all the fault of government do-gooders, who used various levers — especially Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored loan-guarantee agencies — to promote loans to low-income borrowers. Wall Street — I mean, the private sector — erred only to the extent that it got suckered into going along with this government-created bubble.

It’s hard to overstate how wrongheaded all of this is. For one thing, as I’ve already noted, the housing bubble was international — and Fannie and Freddie weren’t guaranteeing mortgages in Latvia. Nor were they guaranteeing loans in commercial real estate, which also experienced a huge bubble.

Beyond that, the timing shows that private players weren’t suckered into a government-created bubble. It was the other way around. During the peak years of housing inflation, Fannie and Freddie were pushed to the sidelines; they only got into dubious lending late in the game, as they tried to regain market share.

via nytimes.com

I do wonder if the GOP is backing itself into a corner where it can never, ever acknowledge that the free market -- as wonderful as it is -- might have some shortcomings or excesses. Thoughtful conservatives (and not just the ones that liberals like) recognize that and consequently allow that *some* regulation is needed. But if the market can do no wrong that isn't caused by the government, then regulation is always and everywhere wrong.

Fred Kaplan on why we're not winning in Afghanistan

Six times in the course of five pages, the report's authors note that, unless Pakistan does a better job of controlling its borders—the western tribal areas, where Taliban leaders find safe haven and move reinforcements and supplies into Afghanistan and back again—the U.S. military successes of recent months are for naught.

For instance, on Page 1, the report defines "our ultimate end state" as "the eventual strategic defeat of al-Qaida in the region," but it adds that this "will require the sustained denial of the group's safe haven in the tribal areas of western Pakistan."

On Page 3: The "denial of extremist safe havens will require greater cooperation with Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan."

On Page 5: "Consolidating those gains [made in the fight against the Afghan Taliban] will require that we make more progress with Pakistan to eliminate sanctuaries for violent extremist networks."

Those italics (all mine) make the point: Clearing the safe havens in Pakistan is not just an important ingredient in achieving our strategic objectives in Afghanistan; it is a requirement. Without it, all other successes are merely tactical and, even then, probably short-lived ("fragile and reversible," as the report puts it).

via slate.com

You know what's awesome about North Korea?

Great propaganda rhetoric:

Meanwhile, North Korea’s official news agency assailed a plan by the South Korean military to stage a live-fire artillery exercise from Yeonpyeong Island, perhaps as early as Saturday.

The latest inter-Korean crisis erupted three weeks ago with an artillery barrage from the North that targeted Yeonpyeong and killed four South Koreans.

“The puppet warmongers are contemplating staging madcap naval firing exercises,” said the news agency, K.C.N.A., which also called the new South Korean defense minister “a war maniac keen to ignite a war” and “a puppy knowing no fear of a tiger.”

It's like Snidely Whiplash is in charge of North Korea's PR.

This is why Obama's failure to speedily nominate judges is so damning

I'm hoping for the moment when a federal judge picked by a Democratic president strikes down the health-care law. Or when a Republican-appointed judge upholds it.

Either way. Because the current lineup of decisions, in which two Democratic-nominated judges have ruled in favor of the law, one Republican against, is not healthy for the judiciary or the democratic process.

It is facile to think of judges as umpires robotically calling balls and strikes. But it is also dangerous to think of judges as players on a particular team, still wearing uniforms under their robes.

via voices.washingtonpost.com

Ruth Marcus is right that partisanship in the judiciary probably isn't great for democracy. But right now, that's the way the game is played. President Obama has been taking his time making nominations to the federal judiciary; the results are plain to see, and will continue to be.

It's like Charles Krauthammer has forgotten about Ralph Nader

Despite this, some on the right are gloating that Obama had been maneuvered into forfeiting his liberal base. Nonsense. He will never lose his base. Where do they go? Liberals will never have a president as ideologically kindred - and they know it. For the left, Obama is as good as it gets in a country that is barely 20 percent liberal.

via washingtonpost.com

It's possible that Krauthammer is being intentionally forgetful here, but a few liberals -- not a lot, but enough to make a difference -- cast their votes for Ralph Nader in 2000. Not because they thought he'd be president, but because they didn't think it mattered if a Democrat or Republican held office. The presidency of George W. Bush heightened the contradictions between the two major parties in ways that have given plenty of former Naderites pause since then, but there are plenty of liberals whose disgust with a centrist Democrat might cause them to A) abandon politics altogether for a cycle or two, or B) find the new Nader, or a lefty equivalent of Ron Paul. (Dennis Kucinich, I'm NOT looking at you.) The idea wouldn't be to win the presidency right away, but to begin building a serious, viable third party that could offer voters an alternative. I'm not saying it would be successful, but there *is* someplace for liberal voters to go.

The other reason Philadelphia is so walkable...

...is because it HAS to be, because nobody here knows how to drive with just a light dusting of snow. 

The State Department doesn't want its diplomats to know what every other diplomat in the world will know about American diplomacy

The Air Force may not want its personnel reading the WikiLeaks leaks on military computers, but the State Department has just made it clear that it doesn't want its personnel reading them on any computers. In a Wednesday memo to employees of the Consular Affairs-Passport division of the State Department, officials reminded their underlings that "unauthorized disclosure of classified documents in the media does not mean that the documents have been disclassified," and "accordingly, PPT employees shall not access any classified documents, including the 'Wikileaks documents,' during business hours or on their personal time."

via slatest.slate.com

Stupid.

ObamaCare and the individual mandate

Ben and I wrestle with the lawsuit against the health reform bill in our Scripps Howard column this week. My take:

Let's be clear: Conservatives didn't think the individual mandate was unconstitutional in the 1990s -- when the conservative Heritage Foundation came up with the idea, then pitched it as an alternative to President Bill Clinton's health proposals. No Tea Partiers shouted about "tyranny" just a few years ago, when GOP Gov. Mitt Romney made the requirement a centerpiece of Massachusetts' health law.

While some conservatives sincerely see the mandate as an intolerable infringement upon American freedom, it's not unreasonable to think the GOP is cynically moving the goalposts in its never-ending opposition to Democratic policy ideas -- even if those ideas were originally Republican.

The irony: The mandate was an effort to leave health insurance in the hands of private industry and avoid a true government takeover of the health care system.

During the 2009 debate, after all, many Republicans agreed reform should include a rule that insurance companies couldn't deny coverage to customers with pre-existing conditions. But that left open the likelihood people would wait to get sick before buying insurance -- saddling companies with the costs of sick patients without enough healthy customers to help pay the way. That would've driven the companies into bankruptcy and, in all likelihood, triggered the rise of a government-run "socialized" health insurance system.

So there are good policy reasons for the individual mandate. But as a political matter, many liberals recognize that the mandate is a particularly ugly way to make the sausage of health insurance reform -- more likely to trigger protests against the bill rather than make Americans grateful for the welfare state.

There less-burdensome ways to replace the individual mandate. Insurers could offer financial incentives for early sign-up and penalties for late arrivals, the way parts of Medicare work now. Other, market-friendly ideas abound. But never fear: Republicans would certainly oppose those ideas, too. They always do.

 

Reading the whole dang bill

Republicans will paralyze the Senate floor for 50 hours by forcing clerks to read every single paragraph of the 1,924-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill.

Senate clerks are expected to read the massive bill in rotating shifts around the clock — taking breaks to drink water and pop throat lozenges  — to keep legislative business on track, according to a Democratic leadership aide.

via thehill.com

Mostly, I think this is cute. But if the clerks decide to skip a few paragraphs or pages here and there, who the heck is going to notice? It's not like senators -- even the Republican ones -- will be sitting in the chambers, listening to the whole thing. And I guess it's kind of funny when so much of the Congressional Record is made up of "speeches" that members never actually gave, but entered in the record. Maybe it's time Jim DeMint be forced to deliver his paeans to 3M's specialty film and media products division during actual Senate time.

About the "I (Heart) Boobies" school speech case

U.S. District Court saw some awkward moments today as a judge heard arguments about whether the word "boobies" is vulgar and therefore can be banned by school administrators.

The case came to court after the Easton School District forbid the wearing of the "I (Heart) Boobies" bracelets, and suspended two 8th grade female students who refused to remove them.

The teenagers said the word wasn't offensive to anyone, and a ban violated their right to free speech.

via philly.com

Given the Supreme Court's various precedents, I can't imagine the students will win their suit. And while I'm usually pretty staunch on the side of free speech, I do wonder what kind of *families* these kids come from -- that they'd go to court in pursuit of their right to be so flagrantly stupid. God bless the ACLU for standing up for even the most unsympathetic cases, but really: I can't muster any sympathy on this one.

NO MORE CAPS LOCK

THE END IS NIGH.

That's the message Google sent last week when it unveiled its new laptop, the Google Cr-48 notebook. The computer has all kinds of new features—Chrome OS, a simplified design, and free broadband. But perhaps the boldest change is Google's decision to ditch the Caps Lock key. In its place is a Search button, denoted with the image of a magnifying glass. Users can still designate the search key as the Caps Lock—they just have to take the time to change a few settings. But the default is that if you want capital letters, you have to hold down Shift.

via slate.com

The Cr-48 has been in my hands about a day now -- I'm blogging on it right now! -- and the lack of caps lock hasn't been an issue. I only use it for irony, anyway. And letters to the editor that end like so: WAKE UP PEOPLE!

If they want to have Jesus start waving a rainbow flag, I'm actually pretty cool with that

Anti-gay rights groups are accusing the gay rights movement of stealing the rainbow from them. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse: "We can't simply let that go by. Families put rainbows in their children's nurseries. Little Christian preschools will have rainbows...Noah's Ark and all the animals.... Those are great Christian symbols, great Jewish symbols."

via talkingpointsmemo.com

Me @Macworld: Flipboard adds Google Reader support, array of new features

Flipboard announced Thursday that it’s adding Google Reader support to its iPad application, part of a major and much-anticipated upgrade to an offering that has already been named Apple’s App of the Year for 2010.

via macworld.com

I'm pretty excited about this one.

Gail Collins on Boehner's tears

Besides the crying gap between men and women, there’s also one between Republicans and Democrats. On the one hand, you have the folks who can’t afford tears because it makes them look weak, and on the other, the people who are presumed to be tough and hard-nosed, for whom crying is an attractive sign of complexity.

Boehner is opposed to extending unemployment benefits for the jobless, and he wants to kill off the law that guarantees health coverage to all Americans. So you know when he starts weeping when his wife says she’s “real proud” of him, it’s not a sign of softness.

In 2007, he cried while delivering a speech on the floor of the House, in support of funding for the war in Iraq. “After 3,000 of our fellow citizens died at the hands of these terrorists, when are we going to stand up and take them on?” he sobbed.

Then this year, he voted against providing money to take care of our fellow citizens who became ill while doing rescue and reclamation work at ground zero after the terrorist attack.

Twice.

via nytimes.com

Afghanistan quagmire watch

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — This city, once a crossroads in the country’s northeast, is increasingly besieged. The airport closed months ago to commercial flights. The roads heading south to Kabul and east to Tajikistan as well as north and west are no longer safe for Afghans, let alone Westerners.

Although the numbers of American and German troops in the north have more than doubled since last year, insecurity has spread, the Taliban are expanding their reach, and armed groups that purportedly support the government are terrorizing local people and hampering aid organizations, according to international aid workers, Afghan government officials, local residents and diplomats.

The growing fragility of the north highlights the limitations of the American effort here, hampered by waning political support at home and a fixed number of troops. The Pentagon’s year-end review will emphasize hard-won progress in the south, the heartland of the insurgency, where the military has concentrated most troops. But those advances have come at the expense of security in the north and east, with some questioning the wisdom of the focus on the south and whether the coalition can control the entire country.

via nytimes.com

You're seeing here, on a micro level, the bigger problem with trying to combat Al Qaeda by planting troops in Afghanistan: Wherever your troops go, the enemy goes somewhere else. And sometimes they go places -- Pakistan, say -- you can't really go all that easily.

We're about five years from Facebook killing us in orbit around Jupiter

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it would launch facial-recognition technology that identifies people in uploaded photos and suggests tags, reports AFP. The technology will be rolled out in coming weeks, with Facebook engineers claiming it will save time. "Now if you upload pictures from your cousin's wedding, we'll group together pictures of the bride and suggest her name," read a Facebook blog post announcing the move. "Instead of typing her name 64 times, all you'll need to do is click 'Save' to tag all of your cousin's pictures at once." The feature actually enhances privacy, say Facebook staff. "Tagging is actually really important for control, because every time a tag is created it means that there was a photo of you on the Internet that you didn't know about," Facebook Vice President of Product Chris Cox told CNET. "Once you know that, you can remove the tag, or you can promote it to your friends, or you can write the person and say, 'I'm not that psyched about this photo.'" Those who object to automatic tagging can disable the feature

via slatest.slate.com

Slow blogging today

Late night, late morning, nothing much is happening in the order it should today. Blogging will be light.

Bill Pullman joins 'Torchwood'

 Bill Pullman has just signed on to star as a series regular in the fourth season of Torchwood, the Starz-co-produced continuation of the Doctor Who spinoff that’s airing next year. Pullman will play Oswald Jones, a clever convicted murderer “boiling with lust and rage,” who becomes a celebrity after escaping a prison sentence on a technicality. (Pullman is actually the second film star to join the show in the past few days, with Mekhi Phifer recently signing on to play an ambitious CIA agent.) Of course, Pullman has ample experience with alien encounters, so he should fit right in. 

via avclub.com

I'm starting to have doubts about this new Americanized version of "Torchwood."

Walkable Philadelphia

A bit of blogospheric hubub about Richard Florida's post at The Atlantic about walkable cities being the post-recession future of America. "The great economic reset we are in the midst of extends even to Americans' choices of places to live," he write. "The popularity of sprawling auto-dependent suburbs is waning. A majority of Americans--six in 10--say they would prefer to live in walkable neighborhoods, in both cities and suburbs, if they could."

It's not just a lifestyle preference, though: It's also economics. We sold our car when we moved to Philadelphia in 2008 -- lured, yes, in part by Philadelphia's high ranking on Walkscore.com's list of cities. But our yuppified desires would've been somewhat restrained had we not figured that the high cost of living in the city could be offset, in large part, by going autoless: the money we don't spend on gas, parking, maintenance and car replacement has (at times) proven to be the critical and necessary edge we've needed to be able to afford to stay here.

It has also worked in reverse: Adding the cost of a vehicle -- or two, realistically, depending on where we would end up -- makes the idea of moving to a less-walkable city that much tougher to swallow. Would the lower rent and mortgages back in Kansas offset the hundreds of dollars a month we'd spend on getting around? Unlikely. And that's ok. It's a good excuse for us to stay in a town and Center City neighborhood where we can be at the grocery store in five minutes, or the coffee shop in two, or the pizza joint in six. We like life like that.

 

Inky: Police find woman’s body in Kensington

Philadelphia police found the body of another woman in Kensington Wednesday evening and the task force investigating the strangling of women in that area was on the scene.

Police were searching a weedy, vacant lot in the 100 block of East Tusculum Street, which is not far from where other women have been found dead.

"It is a suspicious death," said Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, who arrived on the scene about 6:30 p.m. "She appears to be, maybe, in her 20s, Caucasian. She is nude from the waist down."

via philly.com

Google just sent me an early Christmas present

Yup. I'm testing the new ChromeOS. Yeehaw!

Are Marines too prejudiced against gays to fight effectively?

"Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines lives," he said. "That's the currency of this fight."

"I take that very, very seriously," he added. "I don't want to lose any Marines to the distraction. I don't want to have any Marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda [National Naval Medical Center, in Maryland] with no legs be the result of any type of distraction."

via voices.washingtonpost.com

That's Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos, discussing his opposition to repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell.

As others have noted, though, there are certainly gay men and women serving in the Marines -- DADT only prohibits them from being *openly* gay. So it's certainly the case that gay troops have *already* demonstrated the discipline not (as some have inferred from Amos' remarks) to come onto their comrades-in-arms in a combat situation.

I'm not sure that was what Amos is trying to imply, though. It seems to me that what he's really saying is that his own Marines are simply far too prejudiced to be able to fight effectively with an openly gay colleague at their side. That seems an uncharitable judgment, to say the least -- "I'd like to take aim at this Taliban member with the machine gun, but Tony likes dudes!" -- and moreover, it would seem to reflect an extremely poor assessment of the commanders (like Amos) whose job it is to instill discipline and battle-readiness in those Marines.

And not to let my Mennonite background shine through too clearly here, but that's astonishing when you think about it. The Marines can teach young men and women to put aside thousands of years of civilization and lifetimes of moral training so that they can *kill other human beings* -- which is a huge, huge training challenge -- but their commanders don't trust them to simply *be cool and professional* around gay colleagues who share a commitment to defending the country. Are our armed forces really that fragile? I don't think so.

I don't understand Netflix's recommendation engine sometimes

Me @Macworld: Friends syncs social networks with iPhone contacts

The market for iPhone apps that combine a user’s social networks grew more crowded Wednesday with the debut of Friends, an offering from San Fransisco’s Taptivate.

via macworld.com

Mike Vick wants a DOG?

The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, interviewed by NBC News and the website TheGrio.com, said he and his family miss having a dog. He said he wants to show people that he can be a responsible pet owner and that he would not take the opportunity for granted.

"I would love to get another dog in the future. I think it would be a big step for me in the rehabilitation process," Vick said, according to NBC News and TheGrio.com. The full interview was scheduled to be shown on TheGrio.com on Wednesday.

via sports.espn.go.com

Whatever else you think of Mike Vick, this at least proves that he's really, really not media savvy. He's had such a good year for the Eagles that people were focusing on the positive side of the story -- his comeback from a layoff to return to elite NFL status. Now he'll have people reeling and asking themselves about his judgment all over again. The wise thing to do? Accept your doglessness as a consequence, and above all *don't lament that punishment in public.* Most people regard him as lucky to have his career back. Michael Vick as a dog-owner would be a bridge too far for most of us.

Hat-tip: @lexfri

Me @Macworld: Humble Indie Bundle 2 lets gamers choose their price

Just in time for the holidays, the people behind last spring’s Humble Indie Bundle have returned with an all-new grab bag of pay-what-you-want games, with proceeds going to independent developers and charity.

via macworld.com

Bradley Manning: Locked up, key thrown away

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime.  Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months -- and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait -- under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.  Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems.  He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "Maximum Custody Detainee," the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement.  For 23 out of 24 hours every day -- for seven straight months and counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell.  Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions.  For reasons that appear completely punitive, he's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch).  For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs.

via salon.com

I understand military life is different from civilian life, but I do wonder what legal basis the Army has for holding Manning in extreme isolation. I don't contest the Army's right to hold Manning: He has been charged with a crime, and a serious one. But why the solitary confinement? That seems like it should be reserved for people who are a physical threat to their guards and other inmates.

The Air Force deprives its officers of important intelligence

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is barring its personnel from using work computers to view the Web sites of The New York Times and more than 25 other news organizations and blogs that have posted secret cables obtained by WikiLeaks, Air Force officials said Tuesday

via nytimes.com

There's an outfit at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas that few people know about that does something called "open-source intelligence." Reputedly this unit predicted the demise of the Soviet Union -- while the CIA and other "secret" intelligence agencies were reporting the regime's strength -- using a very simple technique: Its offers read Russian papers and books. And that's pretty much all they did. They could see the end coming because of the publicly available information.

And, of course, most of the American government learned about nuclear testing in Pakistan and India from ... CNN.

I'm reminded of these stories for some reason in reading about the Air Force's decision to block its officers from reading the New York Times online. It's not just a show of weakness disguised as a show of strength; it is literally a way of keeping intelligence -- and not just the Wikileaks kind -- out of the hands of its officers. That doesn't seem to be the kind of thing a smart military would do.

Philadelphia smarter, poorer

Philadelphia has become more diverse and better educated - but poorer - than it was in 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released yesterday.

The findings aren't based on data from the 2010 Census count, which attempted to tabulate everyone in the country. Instead, they're from five-year American Community Survey estimates, which the Census Bureau released for the first time yesterday.

"In some ways we're doing better, and in some ways we're challenged," said David Bartelt, professor of geography and urban studies at Temple University, adding that the statistics show "the persistent story of Philadelphia."

via philly.com

Unsurprising.

Philly tax reform is dead, long live Philly tax reform

A bill to turn the city's business-tax structure on its head is dead for now, as its Council sponsors agreed Tuesday to instead work with the Nutter administration in the hope of preserving at least some of their ideas.

A critical Council committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed indefinitely, and Mayor Nutter has scheduled an afternoon news conference instead.

In a letter to City Council members Bill Green and Maria Quiñones Sánchez Tuesday, Nutter's chief of staff, Clay Armbrister, outlined the areas of agreement that the two camps would collaborate on.

Those include finding a way to exempt the first $100,000 of a company's sales from taxes and close loopholes that allow national corporations and out-of-town companies to avoid paying city business privilege taxes even as they do business in Philadelphia.

via philly.com

I think Council members Bill Green and Maria Quiñones Sanchez are right to pursue an overhall of the city's business tax system. But since this effort appears to have hit a temporary dead-end, they might want to take aim at the other part of Philadelphia culture that new- and small-businesses find so discouraging: the regulatory thicket.

I think good regulations are good for a community and its businesses, protecting consumers and leveling a playing field so that conscientious merchants aren't at a disadvantage against less-scrupulous rivals. I'm not sure that's what we have in Philadelphia right now. Does anybody talk about L&I in glowing terms? I haven't heard it. But I have seen business startups delayed by months as entrepreneurs navigated the regulatory bureaucracy with often-frustrating results. Some smart council person could probably advance their career -- and do Philadelphia a lot of good -- by advancing the cause of regulatory reform in this town.

Tragic

Instead of helping her prepare for a solo singing performance Saturday, a Chester County couple was grieving the loss of their 11-year-old daughter as police investigated her shooting death.

The West Chester Area School District posted memorial service information on its website Tuesday for Katherine "Katie" Jane Kolinger Urban, a sixth grader at G.A. Stetson Middle School who enjoyed soccer and music. She was the daughter of Paul Barry Urban Jr. and Jane Lantz Urban.

Authorities say she was the victim of an apparent accidental shooting by her 14-year-old brother at the family's Westtown Township home in the 500 block of Coventry Lane at 3:26 p.m. Friday.

via philly.com

Scenes from a City Council hearing on Philly Police corruption

According to city officials, there were 725 civilian complaints against police officers between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30. Last year, there were 697 complaints.

Every witness acknowledged that there are plenty of good officers on the city's 6,500-plus police force, who do hard and dangerous work. But several asked for more transparency in police investigations and their disposition, for an end to stop-and-frisk, and for more officers to be reprimanded, fired, and convicted in cases of misconduct.

Since March 2009, 15 officers have been arrested, including two on murder charges stemming from off-duty shootings. One officer was fired this year after admitting that he fabricated a story about being shot; the officer had shoe himself. In September, three police officers were arrested on federal charges of robbing a drug dealer. And Kenneth Crockett, on the force 26 years, was charged with stealing $825 from a Northeast Philadelphia bar.

The department also has faced a string of tragedies, with five officers killed in the line of duty since 2008.

via philly.com

Let me suggest that the number of civilian complaints against the police is probably something of a significant undercount. There are lots of people who probably don't bother to make the complaint because the investigation process is slow and often unsatisfying, and because maybe it's not worth it to draw additional attention from the department.

Commissioner Ramsey seems to be taking the challenges seriously. And one does have to acknowledge that the vast majority of Philly officers are honest. But it's good that City Council is poking around now. It'll be interesting to see what -- if any -- action develops from the inquiry.

Pew: Suburbanites don't want to live in the city

According to a new Pew Charitable Trusts poll, many residents of the Philadelphia suburbs think the city is a nice place to visit, but they don't want to live there.

Aside from that, the survey of 801 people from seven suburban counties - Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester - found mostly positive views of the nation's sixth-largest city.

via philly.com

I suppose that's why they *live in the suburbs.* If you took a poll of (say) Lancaster Country residents, I bet they'd say the suburbs are nice but they'd rather live in Dutch Country. People -- especially the kind of people who might be inclined to respond to a Pew poll -- tend to live in the kinds of places they want to live.

Yes, I once owned Live's 'Throwing Copper'

And all of you can go to hell for judging me. But seriously: The AV Club's series on '90s music has been pretty great. If you lived through the decade and listened to its music, you should check it out.

Maybe Obama's just not a very good president

As of last week, there were 38 judicial nominees approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and waiting for a floor vote. Twenty-nine of those nominees left Judiciary without opposition, and at least three came with significant bipartisan support. Given the huge number of lower-court vacancies and this level of support, it's ridiculous that Reid is poised to accept a deal that confirms half of the nominees.

Of course, if there's anyone to blame, it's Reid for his inaction and Obama for his unconcern with the judicial nomination process. At any point during the last two years, Reid could have forced a showdown with Republicans over secret holds and their obstruction of judicial confirmations. What's more, Obama could have been much more diligent about making nominations to fill the large and growing number of vacancies on the lower courts.

via prospect.org

Understand, that criticism above is coming from the left. And you've got to wonder *what* the priorities of the Obama White House actually are. Because everybody who pays even a little attention to politics knows that one of the big reasons capturing the White House is so important is because it's a chance to leave a lasting mark on the judiciary -- not just the Supreme Court, where Obama could hardly avoid doing his duty, but the appellate and district courts as well. *Conservative administrations are very eager to fill judicial vacancies.* And well they should be. It was a low-level George W. Bush appointee, after all, who this week put the health care bill into play by declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional. This stuff matters. And certainly, the GOP is being obstructionist. But it doesn't appear that Obama is trying very hard.

I'd love for Obama to bring about a liberal utopia. Short of that, I'd settle -- after the Bush Administration -- for simple, quiet, competent nuts-and-bolts governance. We're apparently not getting either. Where *is* the president's head?

Philly cop convicted on sex charges

A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury this afternoon convicted a retired, 23-year Philadelphia police officer guilty of multiple sex charges for carrying on a sexual relationship with a woman that began when she was 12 and continued into adulthood.

The jury returned about 2:30 p.m. after finding Tyrone Wiggins, 51, guilty of four sexual assault charges including corrupting the morals of a minor. The jury, however, acquitted Wiggins of rape.

via philly.com

The Atlantic Wire quotes my betrayal of the Kansas City Royals

• Why Must I Root for A Small-Market Team! laments Joel at Cup O' Joel. A Kansas City Royals fan living in Philadelphia, Joel explains that it's "way more fun to root for a team whose objective is 'let's try to win the World Series next year' instead of 'maybe we'll be ready for above-.500 baseball in 2012 if everything pans out juuuuuuust right.'" His loyalty crumbling a bit, Joel adds,  "I might even buy my son a Phillies baseball cap."

via theatlanticwire.com

Me @Macworld: CNN debuts on iPad

On Tuesday morning, CNN launched its iPad app, a multimedia offering featuring text, photos, live video, and hourly two-minute updates from the news network's radio service.

via macworld.com

Afghanistan quagmire watch

If you've been reading Rajiv Chandrasekaran's meticulously reported pieces from Afghanistan documenting on-the-ground efforts by the U.S. military to implement its counterinsurgency strategy you get to a point where they start to sound very familiar. Not because the reporting isn't fantastic, but because the larger elements of the story, no matter how much the individual characters change, remain static: Pakistan's approach to the militants on its side of the border remains selective, and the Afghan government is a flawed partner at best. Counterinsurgency requires a legitimate government to protect and the United States doesn't have one now any more than it did when the strategy was announced. If a car doesn't have a working engine, you can put as many fancy sets of rims on it as you want, but it's not going to move unless you push it yourself. Right now, it looks to me like that's all the United States is doing.

via prospect.org

The atheism ad campaign: What would Jesus do?

In New York City, a large billboard promoting atheism at the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel, which a local affiliate of American Atheists paid for, has generated controversy. (The message: “You know it’s a myth. This season, celebrate reason!)

The Fort Worth group is affiliated with the United Coalition of Reason, whose local chapters have bought bus ads in Detroit, northwest Arkansas, Philadelphia and Washington, as well as billboards in more than a dozen cities, among them Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle and St. Louis. Most show a blue sky with variations on this message: “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”

The ads have incited anger in some places. Vandals destroyed two bus ads in Detroit, ruined a billboard in Tampa, Fla., and defaced 10 billboards in Sacramento. One billboard in Cincinnati was taken down after the landlord received threats.

via nytimes.com

Luke Chapter 9: "He said to the apostles, "When you travel, don't take a walking stick. Also, don't carry a bag, food, or money. Take for your trip only the clothes you are wearing. When you go into a house, stay there until it is time to leave. If the people in the town will not welcome you, go outside the town and shake their dust off of your feet. "

It's interesting to me. The only time the Jesus of the Gospels committed anything approaching violence was *actually against his co-religionists who were defiling the temple.* As for people who were indifferent or antagonistic to his message, his advice was to move on -- not to commit vandalism. Ah well.

Paul Krugman demands one miiiiiiilion dollars!

I’m still a couch potato, box of tissues close at hand. So I’m watching stuff my Tivo thought I might want to see, which happened to include the old Bond film Thunderball.

And I found myself thinking about inequality.

You see, there’s a scene early in the movie when the minions of SPECTRE, the evil conspiracy, are shown reporting on their profits from dastardly activities. And the numbers are … ludicrously small. I know that’s a running gag in Austin Powers, But it’s true, it’s true!

Even the big one — demanding a ransom for two stolen nuclear warheads — is 100 million pounds, $280 million. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $2 billion — or one-eighth of the Goldman Sachs bonus pool.

It’s just an indicator of how huge top incomes have become that what were once viewed as impressive numbers, the kind of thing only arch-villains might demand, now look trivial.

via krugman.blogs.nytimes.com

Yankees fans: Classy!

Talk radio, Twitter and various reports are all wondering this morning: Did the Phillies land Cliff Lee partly because his wife was abused by Yankees fans?

There were cups of beer thrown in her direction, spitting from a balcony above her, and a variety of shouted obscenities during the American League Championship Series, as her husband's Texas Rangers defeated the Bronx Bombers to head to the World Series.

"The fans did not do good things in my heart," Kristen Lee told USA Today. "When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it's hard not to take it personal."

via philly.com

Cliff Lee's camp denies this had anything to do with him signing in Philadelphia instead of New York. And I believe it: After all, if you're looking to avoid crude, crass and obnoxious fans -- well, signing in Philly wouldn't actually be the way to do that.

Are your chakras aligned, punk? Well, are they?

If it's good enough for Clint Eastwood, it's probably good enough for the average American soldier. But persuading thousands of troops with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that the answer is to spend their days following the transcendental meditation mantras of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi may prove a hard sell.

Eastwood joined an array of celebrities to launch Operation Warrior Wellness today at the behest of David Lynch.

Some studies say that about one third of soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer PTSD. Lynch's own foundation plans to teach 10,000 transcendental meditation (TM) techniques.

In a reflection of the scepticism about the claimed benefits for TM by some academic and medical studies, Eastwood was also keen to dispel any notion that it should not be taken seriously.

"I'm a great supporter of transcendental meditation," he said. "I've been using it for almost 40 years now. It's a great tool for stress ... especially considering the stress our men and women of the armed forces are going through. There's enough studies out there that show that TM is something that could benefit everybody."

via guardian.co.uk

You know, if transcendental meditation helps soldiers mitigate the effects of PTSD, God bless 'em is all I can say. Still, it's always disconcerting to see Clint Eastwood go against type. I want to think of him as a mellowing, stoic proto-fascist dirty cop.

All I want for Christmas is some new 'Doctor Who'

When Doctor Who lands in the nation's living rooms on Christmas Day it is traditional for a succession of baddies to follow. This year, however, his foe won't be Daleks and Cybermen – but an extremely hungry, flying shark.

And if that isn't unlikely enough, the shark features in an adventure that takes Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol for its inspiration and involves the Doctor trying to save a ship of 4,000 passengers from certain death.

"If you're going to do a Christmas Day episode, which is based on the principle that the audience have had a selection box for breakfast and are probably drunk, then you have to move it on a bit – because a normal episode of Doctor Who wouldn't be enough," joked lead writer Steven Moffat after a special preview screening last night.

The show marks Matt Smith's first Christmas Day special as Doctor Who. "I've always wanted to do a Doctor Who Christmas special. It's wonderful, It's been wonderful," he told fans. The episode also stars Michael Gambon as the scrooge-like Kazran Sardick, the singer Katherine Jenkins – and of course the Doctor's companion Amy Pond.

via guardian.co.uk

A question for my lawyer friends out there

Adam G. Ciongoli, the general counsel of a big insurance company, argued a case before the Supreme Court last week. But he was not representing his employer. Indeed, he was not representing any client at all.

Mr. Ciongoli was there because neither the prosecution nor the defense was willing to support a particularly harsh sentencing decision from the federal appeals court in St. Louis. The Supreme Court had appointed him to defend the decision because no one else would.

The court uses that odd procedure roughly every year or so. It is a great honor for the lawyer involved, but it raises questions about whether the court is engaged in a kind of judicial activism in shaping the case before it.

The adversary system generally allows the parties to decide which issues to present. And the Constitution says that federal courts should decide only actual cases and controversies.

via nytimes.com

I've spent some time around the law, but I'm no lawyer. But this heretofore-unknown-to-me practice does raise a question about the law, then: If the Supreme Court *actively appoints lawyers to argue cases that have nobody arguing them* how could it ever justify the dismissal of a case based on "standing"?

I ask this, because there's a theory floating around that the U.S. Court of Appeals will dismiss the Proposition 8 case for lack of standing -- the governor and attorney general of California won't defend the measure, so a private group has stepped forward to do so. The argument is that group, not being the state, lacks the standing to defend the measure. So the court could dismiss the case, letting Prop 8 be overturned in California -- but letting the Supreme Court avoid the thorny question of gay marriage rights in the Constitution.

Which might sound like a swell "half a baby" compromise to those interested in limiting judicial activism -- but again, if the Supreme Court can appoint people to argue the cases that (essentially) it wants to hear, wouldn't dismissal based on standing be more a political move than a legal one? What am I missing?

It's possible that most terrorists aren't that smart

STOCKHOLM — Two days after a bomber killed himself and slightly wounded two people in a commercial district here crowded with Christmas shoppers, investigators offered glimpses of a suspect who, in the pattern of other Islamist terrorists, moved unobtrusively between Europe and the Middle East as he prepared to martyr himself, only to botch the operation in a manner that suggested a clumsy do-it-yourself attack.

via nytimes.com

Speculators Bet On Madoff Case

The lawsuits filed by the trustee seeking money for Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud victims may be a blow for the defendants — but they are catnip for an obscure breed of Wall Street traders speculating on the outcome of the enormous Madoff bankruptcy case.

In recent months, hedge funds and other investment firms have been quietly contacting Madoff victims whose loss claims have been approved by the trustee, Irving H. Picard. These funds — specialists in beaten-down assets known as distressed securities — are offering to buy those claims immediately for cash, but at a sharp discount from their face value.

via dealbook.nytimes.com

Is it wrong to hope that somehow, everybody loses?