Ratzinger and Prayer

I was startled to read in The New Yorker today that the new pope revealed that he had prayed not to be elected. I suppose that can mean several things: that God wasn't listening; that God doesn't like Ratzinger and was getting back at him; that God thought it would be funny to give someone what he doesn't want; that God could care less; that Ratzinger was using reverse psychology on God who was too dumb to get it; or, more likely, there is no God and Ratzinger hasn't caught on yet.

Do we have Roe v Wade to thank for the drop in crime?

That's what economist Steven Levitt proposes in his book, Freakonomics. He analyzed causes usually attributed to the drop in crime since the 1990's -- gun control, aging of the population, tipping point policing and a stronger economy and increased imprisonment rates, only to discover they could account for perhaps only 40% of the crime rate drop. The balance he proposes can be explained only by the availability of abortion. The crime rate started to drop just as the first cohort of post-Row children were reaching their peak age for crime activity. Since many of the women taking advantage of more liberal abortion laws were unmarried, poor and in their teens, whose children would have been most likely to resort to crime, Levitt concludes that an unintended consequence of Roe v Wade was a drop in crime.

Why the hell not?

That's the slogan of Kinky Friedman, author of the delightful Kinky Friedman detective novel series, for his campaign to run for governor of Texas. A recent biographical note in Mystery Scene magazine reveals his lighter side. His books are weirdly funny. A favorite scene of mine has Kinky -- as he notes in the article, having a main character with the same name as the author blurs distinctions -- hide some important papers in his cat's litter box, guaranteeing they will not be found by bad guys searching his apartment.

While he claims a major reason for running for governor is that he needs more closet space, and "wants to be misunderstood just as much as the next guy," he does appear to have some other agendas, support for education being one of them, "Guam is now passing us in funding public schools," and he wants to "de-wussify Texas," taking us back to the days when "cowboys all sang and their horses were smart." He's against the death penalty, but only because he doesn't want to risk executing the wrong guy, and for gay marriage since "they have every right to be as miserable as the rest of us." Emulating amateurs Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura, he's all for clearing out the politicians, "after that, I want to clear out the Californians."

Lack of experience should not be a problem. "Trust me. I'm a Jew. I'll hire good people. . . If elected, I would ask Willie Nelson to be head of the Texas Rangers and Energy Czar."

Should be a lot of fun.

John Brown's Terrorism

A new biography of John Brown gives him substantial credit for initiating the civil war. In a review of David Reynold's biography (John Brown, Abolitionist : The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights) in The New Yorker, there appears this interesting quote that I think pertains to our present situation: "Terrorism is an autoimmune disease; its purpose is to cause harm by provoking an overreaction. This is exactly what happened after Brown's failure [at Harper's Ferry.] A rational Southern observer would have seen that the raid was a sign of the fundamental weakness of abolitionism as an armed cause and, with a bit of wisdom, would have seized the chance to do something before it became a stronger one. Of course, just the opposite happened: panic about slave revolts and further abolitionist raids set in throughout the South. . . it was this atmosphere of panic and paranoia . . .that produced secession and , with it, the arming of the North and the war."

"The best way for doubters to control a new technology is to embrace it, lest it remain in the hands of enthusiasts"

This surprising quote comes from Stewart Brand who founded the Whole Earth Catalog. In a prescient article in MIT's magazine Technology Review, Brand predicts that environmentalists will reverse their position on four core issues: population growth, urbanization, genetically engineered organisms and nuclear power.

Brand notes that two powerful forces drive the environmental movement: romanticism and science, which are often at loggerheads. "The romantics identify with natural systems; the scientists study natural systems. The romantics are moralistic, rebellious against the perceived dominant authority. . . They hate to admit mistakes or change directions. The scientists are ethicalistic, rebellious against any perceived dominant paradigm and combative against each other. For them, admitting mistakes is what science is."

1. Worldwide birth rates are falling rapidly. About 1/3 of countries have birthrates below replacement level. In fact the growth rate peaked in 1968.

2. The advantage to moving people to large urban areas is that it permits trees and wildlife to return.

3. Biotechnology should be embraced. It has been rejected by environmentalists more because it came from the corporate community than because of inherent dangers. Floridization was rejected by the right but embraced by the left. Had the positions been reversed with genetically modified plants the opposition would have been diametrically the opposite.

4. Nuclear power is the only solution to global warming. Radical conservation, alternative forms of energy amount to only a minor portion of what's needed. Storage of nuclear waste is a surmountable problem.

Read the entire article. Fascinating reading.