Give cats & dogs the vote; Walter Knott video

.....Yesterday, I posted about the cluelessness of voters. The evidence clearly suggests that many or even most American voters are sans clue. This seems to be especially true among the so-called "Republican base," a remarkably stupid group.
.....But among our sacred cows as Americans is the notion that voting is good; not voting is bad. Somehow, how one votes—whether, for instance, one is informed or rational—doesn’t matter.
.....This way of thinking is like some kind of New Age philosophy, seems to me. It's about feeling good and ignoring reality.

.....Generally, if there is a way to increase voting rates, people are immediately for it.
.....—Unless, of course, they foresee that their political party will be hurt. Then, all of a sudden, the issue of voter competence, among others, arises. They get all logical.
.....And, of course, if your party sees a benefit, it’ll be especially enthusiastic about the measure. The "competence" argument and every other argument will be rebutted.

16- AND 17-YEAR-OLD VOTERS?

.....In today’s San Francisco Chronicle (State Republicans cool to youth-voting bills), we learn of some (California) Assembly bills “designed to bring more young people into the voting booths”:

.....One of the measures would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to "preregister" to vote, while the other would allow 17-year-olds to vote in a primary election if they will be 18 by the date of the next general election. Both bills have prompted straight party-line votes, with no hint of GOP support.
.....While Democrats sponsoring the bills say they are merely good-government measures, studies show that their party would get a major election-day boost if more young voters cast ballots.

.....Republican Anthony Adams opposes the bills essentially because, he argues, when you’re young, you’re clueless:

....."I'm a pretty conservative guy now, but when I was 17 I was a raging liberal," Adams said. "You start to see problems as you get older. As you get older, you get wiser."
…
....."Our concern is that we want an informed and worldly electorate, and here we have these kids in high school and they're trying to get a grasp of the world," Adams said. "The assumption is that they're not able to make informed decisions, so we have to have a legitimate cutoff" date.

.....Naturally, California Democrats, including Assemblyman Gene Mullin, see the matter differently. Young people are often more informed, he says:

....."These young people are in school and hearing discussions of issues in their classes," he said. "Republicans are afraid we're going to register a lot of Democrats, but most teenagers tend to register in the party of their parents."
…
.....The Democratic bills would not give a boost to Republicans, Democrats or any other group, said Assemblyman Curren Price Jr., D-Inglewood…"This is a step we can take to encourage voting involvement at an early age," he said. "People who get involved at a young age are more likely to become regular voters."
…
.....Price described his bill as "a way of tapping into the interest young people have expressed this year," while not mentioning that much of that excitement was bolstering Democratic campaign efforts….

REVIEWING THE LOGIC:

.....Let’s review some of the above reasoning, shall we?

.....Republican Adams opposes the new measures because (1) when one is young, one is unwise; wisdom is acquired only much later in life, and voters should be wise; (2) when one is young, one is liable to be attracted to liberalism.
.....But if Adams’ first point were correct, then shouldn’t Adams be advocating, not just preventing 17-year-old voting, but raising the voting age substantially? Obviously. How come he isn’t doing that? Make sense, man.
.....During the Democratic primary, we kept hearing that, the older the voter, the more likely he/she supported Clinton over Obama. Surely (I say half-jokingly), this refutes Adams’ point about wisdom and age!
.....That the young are attracted to liberalism, if true, is irrelevant, of course, unless it can be established that liberalism is “wrong” and non-liberalism is “right.” Tsk, tsk.

.....Democrat Mullin counters the Republican arguments and position by arguing that (1) young people are often more informed that their elders; (2) no, the new voters will not be especially Democratic, since teenagers tend to register in the party of their parents.
.....Mullin is full of shit. The notion that young people are especially informed flies in the face of the facts provided by endless polls. That teenagers tend to register in the party of their parents does not counter the Republican worry (that there will be more Dems than Repubs registering), since, obviously there are more Dems than Repubs among existing parent/voters. C’mon.
.....(Of course, the Republican "worry" isn't an argument. We cannot reject a measure that increases voting rates on the grounds that we dislike how the new voters vote!)

.....Mr. Price argues, apparently, that the measures are good because they will increase voting rates in the long run. But, of course, this assumes that increasing voting rates per se is a good thing. There's that sacred cow again. I may be a vegetarian, but that's one cow that oughta be slaughtered.
.....Further, Price's point ignores the “competence” point that seems to be at the heart of the Republican position. (Maybe Price deals with it elsewhere. Dunno.)

.....My own view is that the Republicans have a point: much evidence indicates that young voters are especially clueless. But since the vast majority of voters—especially Republican voters—are already profoundly clueless and vulnerable to various irrationalities (e.g., pursuing incompatible measures), we're just squabbling about how to arrange the deck chairs on this electoral Titanic.
.....So, in my opinion, we should give dogs and cats the vote. No age limit.

WALTER KNOTT ON VIDEO:

.....I happened across a brief video—looks like it was produced in the early or mid-60s—promoting Knott’s Berry Farm, the amusement park, and the politics of its creator, Walter Knott. It starts with a few seconds of typical right-wingery from Walter that will be of interest to local history buffs. (Go to O.C. History Roundup.)
.....Knott, who died in 1982 (at age 93), was an important figure in the development of Orange County as a “bastion of conservatism.” He was an important early supporter of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.
.....He was also a John Bircher. Scary dude.

GEORGE CARLIN CONTRA THE PUBLIC; CONTRA VOTING

Chunk's Saturday travelogue

Today was one of those too-hot summer days in So Cal that makes you realize that you're living in a desert. It was a bit hazy, maybe smoggy, but not like when I was a kid. Nothing like that.

I had to go twenty miles up the road to Orange, and so I figured I'd bring my camera along and see what I could see.

I took old Santiago Canyon Road. Stopped by mysterious Black Star Canyon:



When I got to Orange, I figured I'd stop in Old Town. Drove by my old house, built in 1903:


It's the one on the left. I'm told that, fifty years ago, it was a house of prostitution. By the time I lived in it, in the late 80s, the neighborhood was pretty wholesome. Still is. I think a gay couple lives in the house now. They added the white picket fence. I like it.

It was hot, boy. Naturally, on Prairie Home Companion, this week from the Windy City, they were doing a version of Robert Johnson's "They're Red Hot":

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got 'em for sale
Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got 'em for sale
I got a girl, say she long and tall
She sleeps in the kitchen with her feets in the hall
Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got 'em for sale, I mean
Yes, she got 'em for sale, yeah

As I recall, Johnson, the great bluesman, was a fan of Bing Crosby. Crazy, ain't it?

Here are some shots of downtown, near the Plaza:





Much of the "plaza" area was built well before the turn of the century, by which I mean, not 2000, but 1900. Cool.

Couldn't help myself. I went into some of those shops—the one's with basements. I could hear the floors creaking. I kept thinking, "I almost never come here. It would really suck if there were an earthquake right now." I love these old buildings, but visiting them is a gamble, like hiking into an active volcano.

Bought some cool retro toys for young Adam and an old Pyrex measuring cup (my cleaning lady broke my old "Fluffo" cup). Check it out.


I dunno if you can read it (below), but, at the bottom of the cup, it says: "For household and photographic use only." Huh?


I guess I'd better wash it really well before I use it. Who knows what kinda chemicals somebody put in there. Probably mercury, cyanide. Who knows.

Sure, voters generally are stupid, but conservative voters are mega-stupid

.....As I’m sure you know, newspapers are going down the drain, and they’re going down fast, man. In the last year or so, we’ve heard about serious downsizing over at the OC Reg and the LA Times. People are scrambling to keep their jobs. It’s sad.
.....It’s also sad to see what some of these papers are willing to do to juice up their readership. The OC Register seems to have decided to focus on “cute baby” contests. The Reg is pandering to silliness and stupidity, and since this is Orange County, that's bound to work.
.....Yesterday, the Reg asked people a question guaranteed to elicit the stupid: “What does patriotism mean to you?”
.....Actually, despite the title, the Reg really asked a slightly different question: “How do you define patriotism?” Some people, of course, provided perfectly intelligent, albeit hackneyed, answers. Patriotism, said one woman, is standing up for what you believe in. OK.
.....Naturally, lots of people approached by the Reg didn’t really answer the question, evidently understanding it instead as a prompt to say “patriotic” things. For instance, according to a Westminster resident, patriotism means “freedom.” “We're free to do what we want, most of the time,” he says.
.....That’s some definition of patriotism, boy. I wish they’d have asked me. I woulda said, “patriotism is my Chrysler 300.” I woulda asked the reporter if he wanted a Coke, whereupon I would have handed him a bone.
.....A Santa Ana man defines patriotism as “This country is the best place to be in the world.”
.....Well, OK. These people were probably pretty rattled by the reporter and camera person. We don’t want to read too much into their answers.
.....Still.

ASSERTIVE/CONFIDENT + IGNORANT = STUPID

.....Most people aren’t really stupid, of course. But, clearly, most people are very ignorant. Maybe they’ve got an excuse—they’re awful busy, etc.—but, without question, they don’t know their asses from holes in the ground.
.....What's worse, most of ‘em don’t seem to be aware of their ignorance. I say that because they’re often pretty confident in their “stupid” views. They assert them boldly, loudly. They're like little Bill O'Reillys.
.....Obviously, most voters are ignoramuses. Election campaigns are incredibly stupid, and voters are clueless. Mostly. I suspect that I'm stating the obvious. But this is a problem, right? Democracy doesn't work when people are stupid. It goes seriously off the rails.

.....Have you heard about Jeff Shenkman’s new book? Shenkman is an associate professor of history at George Mason University and he’s the founder/editor of GMU’s History News Network. His latest book is Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American. According to Publishers Weekly,

Shenkman … makes the provocative argument that as American voters have gained political power in the last 50 years, they have become increasingly ignorant of politics and world affairs—and dangerously susceptible to manipulation. The book provides a litany of depressing statistics—most Americans cannot name their representatives in Congress, only 20% hold a passport, 30% cannot identify the Holocaust—as Shenkman inquires whether Americans are capable of voting in the nation's or even their own best interests. …[H]is concern is genuine and heartfelt. …[He] illustrates how politicians have repeatedly misled voters and analyzes the dumbing down of American politics via marketing, spin machines and misinformation….

.....It must have been easy to write this book. But Shenkman seems like a smart guy. Some impressive people, including our pal John Wiener, have praised the book.
.....Shenkman’s made the rounds, I guess, on the usual talk shows. Here he is on the Daily Show (June 11):



.....One thing Shenkman doesn’t say on his “Daily Show” appearance is that there’s an asymmetry in our stupidity. Sure, there’s assertive ignoramutude clear across the political spectrum, but, as you move toward the conservative end, you get lots more stupidity. For instance, a majority of the people who reelected George W Bush thought that Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11. (The people who voted for Kerry weren't nearly so clueless.) Really.
.....Lots of ‘em still think that.
.....They’re mega-stupid.

• Here's a video in which Shenkman lays out his view (in the new book) more systematically: Just how stupid are we? He discusses the Iraq war and the history of American elections.

• Bryan Caplan, an economist, offers a theory regarding the irrationality of voters. For a review of Caplan's book (The Myth of the Rational Voter), see Fractured Franchise (in the New Yorker).

• I do not doubt that one can be conservative and intelligent. I do not regard the relative stupidity of "conservative voters" as an argument against conservatism. Still, in all honesty, I continue to be mystified that apparently intelligent people ever saw anything in George W. Bush other than a lout. I mean that. It is a puzzle. Can you help me out?

The 4th in the canyons

Trabuco Canyon's 43rd Fourth of July parade: Yeah, that's pretty typical out here. I think that's their one and only fire truck (way up in Trabuco Canyon proper).


Silverado's Fourth of July: that ain't their only VW bug.


A Fourth in Lake Forest: I include this one only because they decided to take a pic of my niece and nephew (Sarah and Adam). That's the spirit, kids! July 4 happens to be Adam's B-day. He's 4.

Chancellor Mathur blights another 4th of July parade

This is a very brief video of Mathur's appearance today at the Lake Forest Fourth of July Parade. Somebody sent me literally two seconds of video. I stretched it to two minutes. So it's two seconds of video and 1:58 of credits. (Just kidding.)

The YouTube video includes secretly taped audio of a Lake Forest resident who was evidently displeased by Mathur's presence in the parade. He curses like a m*ther-f*cker. It's pretty scandalous, I'd say.

The banner on the car mentions Mathur's usual companion, Trustee Tom Fuentes. Fuentes, however, was not in the car, unless he was in the trunk. He'd been replaced with a lovely Saddleback College athlete. Don't know her name.

Mathur's car was followed by a big Wienermobile. I think the city of Lake Forest was saying to Mathur, "You, sir, are a big wiener."

I'm sure of it. Check out the pics below (sent to me by a famous lesbian couple, friends of mine; someday, they'll be marchin' in that parade).

“All he had to do is be a white guy about it”

.....

     Playing catch-up to the OC Reg, the LA Times has a new piece on the “secret tapes” of conversations between former OC Sheriff Mike Carona and his pal Don Haidl: Secret tapes of former Orange County sheriff contain racist and coarse language:

.....Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona used racial and sexist slurs during secretly recorded conversations with a confidant and boasted that the benefits of public office included hobnobbing with billionaires and getting "phenomenal" sex.
…
.....The partial transcripts included in this week's motion show a raw side of Carona that the public probably has never witnessed, talking crassly about his sexual conquests and other women he knew and repeatedly using a racial slur.
.....In one of the milder exchanges, Carona interrupted the conversation when Haidl was talking about something that had happened to his private pilot.
.....Carona: "He still with his old lady?"
.....Haidl: "Ah hmmm."
.....Carona: "I always figured, kind of she was so [expletive] hot, she was going to get herself in trouble."
.....Haidl: "Oh, yeah. She still looks good too."

.....—A month or two after this conversation, a pious Mike Carona attended a 9-11 Commemoration event at our own Irvine Valley College, making patriotic speeches and rubbing shoulders with similar pillars of the community: Tom Fuentes, et al.
.....The taped conversations, which are peppered with such retrograde gems as the title of this post, are available in transcript form. The LA Times offers all of the transcripts as a single pdf file here. The OC Register has links to different portions of the transcripts in this article.

• "A MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SHIFT." In this morning’s New York Times, there’s an interesting piece about changes in attitude among academics. The upshot? —Among the professorate, the 60s generation is retiring, replaced by a generation disinclined to challenge authority.

The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire:

.....…Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors who many of the nearly 50 academics interviewed by The New York Times believe are different from their predecessors — less ideologically polarized and more politically moderate.
…
.....Individual colleges and organizations like the American Association of University Professors are already bracing for what has been labeled the graying of the faculty. More than 54 percent of full-time faculty members in the United States were older than 50 in 2005, compared with 22.5 percent in 1969….
.....Yet already there are signs that the intense passions and polemics that roiled campuses during the past couple of decades have begun to fade….
.....… [A] new study of the social and political views of American professors by Neil Gross at the University of British Columbia and Solon Simmons at George Mason University found that the notion of a generational divide is more than a glancing impression. “Self-described liberals are most common within the ranks of those professors aged 50-64, who were teenagers or young adults in the 1960s,” they wrote, making up just under 50 percent. At the same time, the youngest group, ages 26 to 35, contains the highest percentage of moderates, some 60 percent, and the lowest percentage of liberals, just under a third.
.....When it comes to those who consider themselves “liberal activists,” 17.2 percent of the 50-64 age group take up the banner compared with only 1.3 percent of professors 35 and younger.
.....“These findings with regard to age provide further support for the idea that, in recent years, the trend has been toward increasing moderatism,” the study says.
.....The authors are not talking about a political realignment. Democrats continue to overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans among faculty, young and old. But as educators have noted, the generation coming up appears less interested in ideological confrontations….
…
.....With previous battles already settled, like the creation of women’s and ethnic studies departments, moderation can be found at both ends of the political spectrum. David DesRosiers, executive director of the Veritas Fund for Higher Education Reform, which contributes to conservative activities on campuses, said impending retirements present an opportunity. However, he added, “we’re not looking for fights,” but rather “a civil dialogue.” His model? A seminar on great books at Princeton jointly taught by two philosophers, the left-wing Cornel West and the right-wing Robert P. George.
.....Changes in institutions of higher education themselves are reinforcing the generational shuffle. Health sciences, computer science, engineering and business — fields that have tended to attract a somewhat greater proportion of moderates and conservatives — have grown in importance and size compared with the more liberal social sciences and humanities, where many of the bitterest fights over curriculum and theory occurred.
.....At the same time, shrinking public resources overall and fewer tenure-track jobs in the humanities have pushed younger professors in those fields to concentrate more single-mindedly on their careers. Academia, once somewhat insulated from market pressures, is today treated like a business. This switch is a “major ideological and philosophical shift in how society views higher education,” Mr. Schuster and Mr. Finkelstein write in “The American Faculty.”….

Vavoom!

For some reason, the OC Reg’s Science Dude posted this graphic—evidently of Huntington Beach Congressman Dana Rohrabacher opening his big, dumb mouth again, to devastating effect.

Rohrabacher on detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay (June 4)

“Constituents may be interested to learn of the growing scientific consensus that global warming is not manmade, if it is in fact even occurring.” —Quoted at the Congressman’s website

Naturally, R's remark is flat false.