boonville blog, by jeff egnaczyk - you are listening to me talk

Free Lonny Ross

I know what you're thinking, what did Jeff think about last year's television shows? Well, here you go. There's the regrettable season three of 30 Rock, the good season 5 of The Office, My Name is Earl, season four and Chuck, season two, brand new series Fringe and Parks and Recreation and the over the top season seven of 24 (my favorite review).

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Affirmative Action

Opponents of affirmative action claim it is racial discrimination and that is bad. I agree that affirmative action is discrimination in the dictionary definition of the word and that ultimately we should have no official policy of discrimination. Beyond that I have two problems with affirmative action opponents. One claim that is made is that affirmative action is racist. In no way do I see affirmative action is racist. Whether racism is "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement" or "a system of advantage based on race", affirmative action does not fit the definition. Affirmative action is a policy that recognizes a history of official racism and tries to redress those wrongs. In no way does it claim any innate differences based on race.

My second problem is that opponents argue as if just saying "it's racial discrimination" is a solid argument all by itself. For 200 years the US had official racial discrimination against African Americans. Are opponents actually arguing that sometime in the 1960s we passed some laws and that should have been it? Two hundred years of discrimination on one side and nothing to redress it? My guess is that they don't mean that. They mean that there should have been some time of affirmative action policies but that now that time has passed. If so I think it's incumbent upon them to make that argument. If not then, well, I think their argument is awfully bad.

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Small Time

A school official pulls a kid off the stage at graduation for blowing a kiss. Officials in Toledo give residents parking tickets for parking on their own property. These are examples of what you call "small time". It's not "small town". There's nothing wrong with someone who is "small town". It's "small time" that's the problem. Small timers like to exert their little bit of power, never realizing that they don't have a lot of power. This gets to the root of why I don't trust local governments. It's a great example of people with a fair amount of power but not actually that much. Schools, unfortunately, are an even better example because you have adults with essentially absolute authority over children. Small timers live for that shit.

I have some indirect experience with that. No one ever gave me shit in high school because, honestly, I was the perfect student. I had good grades, never got into trouble, was respectful, played sports but wasn't big enough to go around beating people up. My brother, on the other hand, always had a chip on his shoulder. He was smart, played sports but mouthed off just enough to tick a certain set of people off. His senior year he started every game at point guard on the basketball. A Division III coach was going to watch him at the team's last game. My brother's coach inexplicably sat him on the bench. Later in the year he was shooting in the gym during lunch. The principal came in and said he couldn't be there. He ended up getting suspended. He wasn't messing around, he was practicing so he might improve enough to play D3 ball. Think about that. The principal suspended him for bettering himself. That's the epitome of small time. Someone didn't like my brother's attitude so they exerted their power to punish him when they didn't have to. So watch out when you get a little power so you don't do the same.

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Important Political Discourse

I've found my favorite song to sing to Julian.



Hope it's stuck in your head all day, suckas.

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The Greatest 45 Minute Soccer Game of All Time

It is a rare occasion in sports for a championship game or series to be canceled after it has started but before it has ended. Super Bowl XXVIII was canceled at halftime with the Buffalo Bills winning 13-6 giving the team its first franchise title. The 2004 ALCS was inexplicably canceled as well after the Yankees went up 3-0 against the Boston Red Sox. Today yet another weird cancellation happened in the 2009 Confederations Cup. The US shocked Brazil 2-0 in the shortened 45 minute game. Luckily they wouldn't have to deal with a 45 minute barrage from the heavily favored Brazilians and went home Cup champions.

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Blame it on the Blackstone

Blackstone's formuation:

In criminal law, Blackstone's formulation (also known as Blackstone's ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle: "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer", expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.

With that in mind you should be aware of the case of Troy Davis:

Restrictions on Federal appeals have prevented Troy Anthony Davis from having a hearing in federal court on the reliability of the witness testimony used against him, despite the fact that most of the witnesses have since recanted, many alleging they were pressured or coerced by police. Troy Davis remains on Georgia death row, and may be scheduled for execution in the near future.

Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia; a murder he maintains he did not commit. There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.

It is a very real possibility that the state of Georgia is going to knowingly execute an innocent man in the near future. Combine that with the Supreme Court's recent decision to deny inmates the right to DNA testing that might prove their innocence and I have to wonder, does this country believe in Blackstone's formulation? Obviously I'm being a little melodramatic. This country has a great many safe guards against abuses of power or mistakes that could send an innocent man to prison. I fear though that if you posed the question, "how many guilty people is one wrongly imprisoned innocent man worth?", you'd get a number that is less than one.

To different people the number in the formulation varies. The number itself is not important though. It's an allegory. The number just has to be above one in order to symbolize the ideal that putting an innocent man behind bars at the hands of the state is a greater injustice than allowing a guilty man to go free. Two to one or two thousand to one, it doesn't matter. Do you think the majority of Americans believe that? Obviously we can't constantly reexamine guilty verdicts. Humans are fallible. Twelve humans are less fallible but still fallible. We can never be completely certain of a man's guilt. Trial by jury is not perfect but it reduces the chances of a false positive by a large margin. There is always doubt though; just sometimes it does not reach the level of reasonable. When we have a case where the majority of witnesses in a death penalty case have recanted then the idea of justice is taking a back seat to conviction rates, to the appearance of safety. When inmates are denied the right to use new and improved science to prove their innocence I think we have shifted away from real justice.

Update: (6/25/2009 7:25:43 PM) It should be noted:

Only four states — Alabama, Alaska, Massachusetts and Oklahoma — do not have laws in place specifically dealing with postconviction DNA testing, and Alabama recently enacted one limited to death row inmates that will become effective soon.

We in the Bay State should get on that.

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RIP, Michael Jackson

I'm generally of the opinion that everything that emanated from the mainstream of the 1980s is complete crap. Popular music, television, political and economic theory, sports and fashion were all disasters. I am very thankful that I wasn't really old enough to get into pop culture until the 1990s. That said, and this is coming from someone who pretty much abhors dancing, Michael Jackson was one cool mother. Embedding seems to be disabled on Youtube but go check out the Michael Jackson channel. I'm not even a big fan of his. I never even downloaded one of his songs in college. Thriller is probably the greatest music video of all time. This man created the greatest music video of all time. The guy even got MTV to play videos in homage to his career...during the day.

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Flynn Dynasty

I was hoping that Jonny Flynn would end up a Knick on draft night but that didn't happen. Flynn went to Minnesota at number six along with Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio. I hope he turns into a monster out there. The Knicks got Jordan Hill, a 6'10" center from Arizona. My cousin-in-law is a Zona grad so I called him up to get the scoop on Hill. Good rebounder, good defender, raw on the offensive end (decent short corner jumper, jump hook, nothing from the outside). I haven't seen the guy play so I'm talking myself into this pick. The Knicks came into the draft looking for a ball handler and a big guy to protect the rim. They already have enough guys who can fire up shots. Their biggest weakness last year was a lack of size. Jared Jeffries started games at center. Hill will fill a big void if he can defend, even if he doesn't take a shot.

The New York crowd booed when Stephen Curry went #7 to Golden State. The fascination with Curry perplexes me. Sure the guy can shoot but I don't see him defending anyone in this league. He's too small to play the 2 and I'm not convinced he can handle enough to play the point. I'd also like to praise FSM that the Knicks weren't afforded the opportunity to get James Harden (#3 to Oklahoma City) or Hasheem Thabeet (#2 to Memphis). I have a bad impression of Harden since the only game I saw him play was his lethargic stinker against the Cuse in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Thabeet screams bust to me. The guy I guess could be a great defender but he has no offensive skill whatsoever. He doesn't strike me as that quick or someone that can get up and down the floor either. So that's going to preclude him from getting gimme dunks. Also, try throwing those elbows you threw around the Big East in the pros, buddy.

Also, Shaq to the Cavs. Gotta love that. We'll see if Harris or Devendorf get a late second round pick. I'm not holding my breath.

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Tea Party

You can probably imagine that I think the recent Tea Party protests were pretty stupid. If you were in fact imagining that I would call you almost prescient. The reason though is not because I think protesting taxes and spending is such a bad idea (or that I'm incredibly cynical, though I am). I think they're stupid because little to no protest was made about spending during the previous administration. These people don't have much credibility in my opinion.

I do, however, think there is something to be protested about with regards to taxes in this country. It's not so much that they are too high but the system is too complicated. Why should someone need a tax attorney to fill out their taxes? Well, because the federal government is a big thing and is very complicated and you could get in a lot of trouble for not doing your complicated tax form correctly. I am a fan of simplicity. The designers or maintainers of any system should strive for simplicity. The federal government, exemplified by the tax code, is not that.

So I think that simplifying the tax code, not cutting taxes, is a good thing. What that probably means is a) cutting out loopholes and b) cutting out exemptions and deductions. The former is something the business community wouldn't like because they couldn't skirt paying taxes as easily. The latter limits your ability to set incentives through the tax code, which I'm guessing economic liberals wouldn't like. I wouldn't go as far as advocating a flat tax because I think progressive taxation is a good enough thing to survive my "too complicated" chopping block. But in general I'm all for simplifying any system, government especially, and that probably starts with out federal tax code.

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Get out from behind that book and live a little

Horselover Fat in VALIS, by Philip K. Dick:

Getting up from bed - I've been napping in the early evening - I walk into the living room of my apartment and am struck dumb by the synthetic nature of my life. Stereo (that's synthetic); television set (that's certainly synthetic); books, a second-hand experience, at least compared with driving up the narrow, dusty road which follows the lake, passing under the branches of trees, finally reaching my cabin and the place I park.

There is something to be said for learning and there is something to be said for doing. Every once in a while I suppose it's worth it to take off the headphones, put down the book and talk to the crazy guy on the subway*.



*Don't worry, everyone you meet on public transit is crazy (myself included) so you can pick the least crazy one.

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