Lay off the statue bashing

The current craze for busting statues is bad.  Even if the statue is of someone who did bad stuff, it is better to leave the statue unmolested and teach about the person so commemorated.  History is past, we cannot change it now.  Knocking down the statues of historical figures erases the history that those people figured in.  For example, the Civil War is an important part of American history; you cannot understand America today unless you know about the Civil War.  And you need to know about the leaders on both sides of the Civil War.  Robert E. Lee was an honorable man, who fought a clean war.  In 1860 Lee was offered command of the Union army.  When Lee thought about leading Union troops against his beloved home state of Virginia, he simply could not do it.  Instead he resigned his Union army commission and joined the Confederacy.  To understand the Civil War, you have to know who Lee was, and what he did. Likewise you have to know who Stonewall Jackson was and what he did.  You don’t have to approve of them, but you do have to know who they were.  If we knock down statues of both men because they fought for the Confederacy, a lot of citizens, who don’t read history books, will be deprived of key bits of history that they would profit from knowing. 

   So if you really think that so-and-so was a no-good-nick, write a paper, write a letter to the editor, write a textbook, write a post on your blog, make a U-tube video, anything. But leave so-and-so’s statue up.  People see the statue and they are more likely to read your pieces explaining why he was bad.  They will at least know the name.   

Presidential Debates for 2020

We will probably have them.  We have done presidential debates on TV ever since Nixon debated Kennedy back in 1960.  The Trump people need to insist on decent moderators.  We have had some really terrible moderators in the past.  Right now, the only moderators that I know of, that are fair, and well educated and smart enough to think up good questions would be Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Victor Davis Hanson, and Glenn Harlan Reynolds (otherwise known as Instapundit).  I personally would be OK with Rush Limbaugh but I can understand the Biden side being reluctant to go with Rush.  I would be OK with Paul Gigot or Daniel Henninger of the Wall St Journal, but again I can understand the Biden side having serious reservations.  And right now I cannot think of anyone else. 

USAF mulls cargo planes for bombers

With money getting short and costs of the, just on paper, long way from flying, new  B21 bomber rising, a study group has suggested loading up cargo planes like the C17 with cruise missiles  They carry the missiles in the cargo bay and they launch them in flight out the cargo bay doors.  Nifty.  The cargo planes are all ready bought and paid for and flying now.  If we need more, they are a LOT cheaper than the B21 will be.  They have the range to get to most places we might care about.  The cruise missiles can reach out maybe 1000 miles.  If we give the cargo planes a bit of ECM and have them fly low they can penetrate all but the toughest air defenses. 

   Only real drawback is that cruise missiles are a lot more expensive than iron bombs.  For example Tomahawks go for $1 mil a shot.  For a short war, the cruise missile carrying cargo planes are effective.  For a long war, the stealthy B21 can get in close enough to drop cheap iron bombs, offsetting the higher cost of the B21 airframe. 

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever,

over such District, (not exceeding 10 Miles square), as may by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance by Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States… 

US Constitution Article I Section 8.

This was an issue back in 1789.  The one lucky state that got the federal capital in its territory, Philadelphia, or Boston or Baltimore or even New York, would gain humongous influence over federal policy and lawmaking.  And benefit from federal tax money getting spent in their state and hotel bills paid by all the federal lobbyists.   To prevent an unseemly squabble and endless bad feelings, and not jeopardize acceptance of the Constitution by having such a clear fighting point in it, the Founders decided to create a new green field federal capital city, not to be part of any existing state, location to be specified later (TBSL). 

Now, in 2020 we have a bunch of DC people whining that they don’t get any votes in Congress.  I don’t feel sorry for them.  The river of federal money pours into DC and gives the city a subway, best museums on the planet, Secret Service and FBI and who knows what else for law enforcement, good paying federal jobs that will not quit, Navy Yards, and the home office of every federal agency that ever was.  In the face of this avalanche of largess, I don’t feel sorry for DC.  And, any DC residents who really really want to have a vote in Congress can jolly well move a couple of miles into Virginia or Maryland and vote from there. 

Now I hear the Democrat US House as passed a bill to make DC a state, with two senators and one representative.  They say that DC has a larger population than several long standing states.  It got them a lot of favorable press from all the Democratic operatives with bylines.  It would give the Democrats two safe senate seats and one safe house seat.  As a matter of pure politics, as a Republican, I am against the idea.  As a matter of process, I think they would have to do a Constitutional amendment to rewrite Article 1 Section 8.  I don’t believe they can change the Constitution with just an ordinary federal law.

  With Corona virus loose in the land, the economy shut down tight, and George Floyd riots every night, does the country have time for this kind of Mickey Mouse legislation from Democrats? 

What is "Qualified Immunity" for police officers???

I hear the phrase.  Police reform bills in Congress mention it.  I never heard the phrase before a couple of weeks ago.  Just what is "qualified immunity"? 

Should the police department be enforcing some law that some people don't like, they ought to vote the mayor out of office, and if they want to bypass the democratic process, they can sue the police department, which has a budget, lawyers on staff, and can defend itself.  It is unfair the sue the individual officers who are merely carrying out department policy.  I'm OK with that.

  I am not OK with offering immunity to cops who kill arrested citizens in handcuffs.  Or other lesser bad stuff. 

  For all the bloviating on TV about institutionalized racism raging across the land, I have not yet heard a clear definition of "qualified immunity".  Could it be that the newsies lack the education needed to explain a legal buzzword? 

Absentee Ballots cannot show picture ID.

When the voter goes down to the polls to vote, we can check his picture ID, make sure the face in front of us matches the photo, we can ask for address, we can check him/her off on the voter rolls.  It may not be perfect, but we can do a first order reasonableness check on the voter to see if he/her is legitimate. 

  When a mail in ballot arrives at town hall, we cannot do any of this, except maybe check that the name on the ballot is on the voter list.  Anyone could have filled out the mail in ballot.  I think we should restrict mail in ballots to only the most necessary cases, say a member of the armed forces stationed overseas, or even just stationed on the far side of the country.  For the elderly and infirm, both political parties are more than happy to provide a ride to the polls, if family cannot do it. 

They oughta make

A car remote with a "roll up all the car windows" button.  I could be sitting  on the deck or in the kitchen.  On hot summer days I like to leave the car windows down to get some air in the car and keep the in car temperature down.  Come rain, or nightfall, it would be nice to punch one button on the remote and all the car windows roll up to keep the rain out. 

   The safety freaks  make this hard to do.  They claim that some child in the car with its head out the window might get hurt by the power window  rolling up and strangling it or worse.   That has prevented the car companies from offering a "roll them all up" button on the drivers power window control panel.  But there ought to