« February 2008 | Main | April 2008 »
OK, this is almost hard to believe, but a Missouri man who used a gun to "drill" through his wall mistakenly killed his wife, who was standing outside. They had kids, which is the really sad part. I can't imagine living with something like this the rest of my life. I'm no home improvement genius, but it seems to me there's other ways to do this. I can see the logic, though.
A recent Washington Post story highlights a surprising alliance between Chipotle, the highly popular with college students and families everywhere burrito place, and Joel Salatin, who might be called the hero of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Salatin is a self-proclaimed "grass-farmer" whose methods Pollan uses to argue that a locally based, organic, multi-product agriculture can indeed be competitive from a production standpoint with conventional foods. Chipotle's been buying up some of Salatin's products for use in its Virginia stores. There's obvious problems with such an arrangement, as the article points out. Chains value consistency and reliability, two traits that tend not to be strengths of local food producers. Yet in Chipotle's case, the company has proactively sought solutions that will make this arrangement work.
Overall, I have to say this is an interesting piece and improves my opinion of Chipotle. At its extreme, the local food movement can fixate on local identity in ways that feel myopic and protectionist. Food has never been purely "local"--why did Marco Polo go to Asia, after all, if not for spices? But from an economic, environmental, and public health standpoint, arrangements like this are good news. Too bad one Chipotle burrito provides half my daily calories!!
Barack Obama released his previous six years tax returns today. Aside from the shock of seeing a familiar form with such big numbers on it (net income of a million or more), it was interesting to see his charitable contributions listed. Only $5,000 to his church, but $25,000 for the Illinois Reading Council. Guess he's not a 10% rule kind of guy. Of course, it's silly to judge such things, but I can't help but notice. It's not often we get a peak inside someone else's offering basket!
Sarah and I have gotten hooked on HBO's new miniseries on John Adams. It's an interesting look at the dynamics of the early U.S. Particularly interesting to see how they represent the personalities of some of the founders--I knew Ben Franklin was a bit of a playboy, but still shocking to see him sharing a bathtub with his French mistress. And Thomas Jefferson comes off much shyer than I might have expected. It does solidify the importance of "the rule of law" for many of the founders, Adams in particular. He clearly gives up on the British throne when it becomes clear the king will ultimately do whatever he pleases, no matter whose rights get trampled in the process.
For those of you with access to HBO and a historical curiousity, it's definitely worth a look. I'd assume it will be out on DVD within the year as well. There's a link here to a discussion about the show involving historians and one of its staff.
An article in today's Strib talks about the decline in home value assessments this year. For my neighborhood, it's eye-popping--25% in our area and 44% by our first house (which we sold three years ago for $195K--think about that loss). A scan of sold homes in our neighborhood over the last two months shows only two homes sold for over $100K. Most were around $50K. I can't even fathom what foreclosures have done to the market here or how the neighborhood will be affected as a result. Who's buying all these foreclosed homes? What will be done with them?
In any case, here's a letter I sent to the Strib about their piece. One upside--our property taxes will be lower next year
---
Buried deep within the recent article on dropping home values was a truly astounding number. In parts of North Minneapolis, home values have dropped by almost 50%. This is a catastrophic loss for neighborhood homeowners, many of whom already live with limited means. Why this number doesn’t deserve its own headline is beyond me.
At the same time, perhaps the fact that these price drops extend beyond the city’s poorest areas is good news. The fallout from this foreclosure crisis cannot just be dismissed as an unfortunate consequence to a limited (and relatively powerless) few. Hopefully, lenders and public officials can both create protections for those currently most affected and long-term, substantial reforms to protect against such disasters in the future.
Interesting editorial in Time about the war on drugs by the writers of HBO's The Wire. Those who know me are aware of my love of the show. It's one of the few on television to give a comprehensive, three-dimensional look at poverty in the American City. Drug dealers and gangsters aren't monsters on The Wire, they're real people (albeit ones often with serious issues) with their own motivations and humanity.
In any case, the show's writers are proposing that juries in non-violent drug offenses uniformly refuse to convict. It's an indictment against what they see as the failure of aggressive prosecution to make any real dent in drug crime or the violence tied to it. I see their point, though as a resident of a drug infested neighborhood, I'm not sure I want to completely get rid of enforcement. But the real problems are much deeper than street level. And if the tactics of The Wire's heroes (few and far between) are any indication of the kind of system they would prefer--one based on more systematic and meticulous investigations of the main players of the trade--I'd say there's some real arguments in their favor.
Hillary. See the below commercial, which strikes me as something that could be recycled for a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars...