They Felt This Way At Yorktown, Too

Daniel Drezner is all atwitter over this sentence:

The Russian stock market’s rise can be traced to positive news on the nationalization of US mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I have to admit, the irony is apparent to me, too. But then again, I remember the Cold War.

Market Forces At Work

After seeing a reasonably good (if not awe-inspiring) start to the Aaron Rodgers era, it's interesting to note this little football factoid on the Freakanomics blog: the highest-paid players in the NFL are, of course quarterbacks. So who are the second highest-paid players? You might think it was a running back -- running backs take a lot of physical abuse, are frequently injured, score a disproportionate number of touchdowns compared to other positions, are responsible for carrying the team down the field, and drawing defenders away from the prima donna recievers. Particularly because they play such a critical role in making the offense happen, and because they have such a high propensity for injury, you'd think that they would demand high pay.

In fact, with the exception of one or two elite RB's, RB's are actually among the lowest-paid players on an "average" NFL team, coming in ahead only of place kickers and punters. I presume this is because while demand pressure for good running backs is certainly there, the supply of available candidates is high.

No, the second highest-paid players are left tackles. Why? They key is found in the fact that on teams who have starting quarterbacks who are left-handed, right tackles are the second-highest paid players. This player's job is to protect the quarterback's blind side so he doesn't get sacked and potentially injured. Now this makes sense. Teams invest huge amounts of money in quarterbacks because not many players have both the physical ability to heave the ball where it needs to be and the mental ability to read the field and see the tactical opportunities opening and closing before him in real time. But that sort of person tends to be, well, fragile. And so the very best linemen -- the strongest, smartest, and fastest players available -- get diverted to the task of protecting those delicate and easily-injured quarterbacks.

What's not so easy to understand is, if there are a bunch of potential running backs out there, why aren't there a bunch of potential left (and right) tackles? The importance of good players in this position is obvious, but is supply of people who have the necessary combination of size, strength, speed, and instinct really that rare in the world of the NFL? It must be, though, because otherwise left tackles would be paid salaries closer to the league minimum.

Ah Ha! The Defense Is Revealed!

In previous posts, I have argued that the McCain-Palin 2008 ticket should stop using the song “Barracuda” because it is contrary to the wishes of the owners of the song. I think that analysis still holds. However, there is an additional fact which I was not aware of.

The McCain campaign has an ASCAP performance license. That changes everything. The reason it changes everything is that by distributing their song through ASCAP, the Wilson sisters have agreed to ASCAP’s licensing and royalty distribution scheme. Part of that scheme involves making ASCAP their agent for the purpose of issuing licenses to perform sound recordings of the song. ASCAP sells those licenses for all of the artists who list their songs with it en bloc. And it collects money from the performer of the song (“performer” here meaning the person or entity that plays the sound recording) each time the song is played. As a practical matter, no artist who wants to sell music to a mass audience can do so without the assistance of ASCAP or its primary competitor, BMI. And those licensing agents are only useful commercially because they sell en bloc licenses to anyone.

See, all of my analysis was predicated on the assumption that the campaign had not bothered to get a license beforehand. I based that on the behavior of the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign, which my research showed simply played its popular music and waited to see if there was any objection. But in this case, the defense to a copyright violation claim would be “consent.” The Wilson sisters’ agent, ASCAP, consented in advance to the McCain campaign’s use of the song. That consent was conditional upon the payment of money, and at least according to the Slate article linked above, the money has been paid. Re-tooling the en bloc licensing agreement to accommodate the wishes of these particular artists may simply not be practicable, and that may also constitute a breach of contract between ASCAP and its customer, the campaign.

That’s a good defense. And it respects the property rights of the Wilson sisters. If they don’t want just anyone to come along and buy the right to use their music, they need to work out special arrangements with their licensing agent. So, upon further review, I call “no foul.”

88% of DC 8th Graders Can't Read

Or so says the headline on CNN. Which is bullshit. Watch the video, and you’ll see that the Chancellor of the DC public school system says that only 12% of students in the 8th grade read at a standardized 8th grade level.

Now, that’s not to say that an eighth grader who can’t read at an eighth grade level is a good thing or even an excusable one. It doesn’t mean that nearly nine in ten graduates of DC schools are functionally illiterate. The CNN headline writer apparently can’t listen at an eighth grade level. But I’m sure they got lots of eyeballs with that deceptive headline.

This got me thinking. What exactly does “read at an eighth grade level” mean, anyway? The National Association of Educational Professionals appears to be the entity that defines these sorts of things. Here’s what they have to say about eighth grade reading:

Eighth-grade students performing at the Basic level should demonstrate a literal understanding of what they read and be able to make some interpretations. When reading text appropriate to eighth grade, they should be able to identify specific aspects of the text that reflect overall meaning, extend the ideas in the text by making simple inferences, recognize and relate interpretations and connections among ideas in the text to personal experience, and draw conclusions based on the text.

I’ve skipped the definitions of “proficient” and “advanced” reading levels. Now, this is something of an abstract definition, which is difficult to understand on its own. So I found an eighth grade reading comprehension test that you can take online. (Link now fixed.) It took me about half an hour and I got 46 out of 48. I also learned about an interesting figure from African-American history that I had not known of before. But taking the test gives a better idea of what exactly our students are being asked to do. It’s not hugely advanced but it’s also not particularly difficult. I think it’s appropriate for eighth graders to read and understand stuff like that. And the fact that only 12 in 100 students in D.C. can do that is indeed unacceptable.

But it doesn't mean that all those other kids can't read at all. It just means they would struggle with the test I linked to.

This One's For My Wife

My wife likes goats. And they are pretty cute.

One thing about goats is, they eat anything. Grass, bushes, small trees, anything. Another thing about goats is, they are comfortable on mountains and rough terrain.

Which makes them ideal for controlling the growth of underbrush and weeds on steep hills. Even in downtown Los Angeles. Which is how they're being used now. I think it's a great way to get rid of overgrown weeds and shrubbery, and I'm familiar with the hill in question -- there's no way you're getting lawn care equipment up and down that hill without someone getting hurt badly. But goats? They love it! The only issue is keeping them in one place so they don't wander out into traffic.

The Wall Of Sound Lives

If you don't know what the phrase "Wall of Sound" means, you've got some homework to do. But here's a contemporary, popular song that should get you started on your lessons. I love the Motown-sounding bassline and the way the singer (Duffy) channels Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross. You'd never guess she's from Wales by listening to the song.

Havarti

Havarti cheese is a moist, creamy variety of soft white cow's-milk cheese native to Denmark. It has small, irregular bubbles in it (by comparison, traditional Swiss cheese has very large bubbles). It has a mild, tangy, and rich taste.

And holy crap does it make good grilled cheese sandwiches.

I've used havarti before in my eggs (which is decadently wonderful) and as a cheese for a cold sandwich. But when you melt havarti in between two pieces of buttered bread, you've got yourself a decadent, melty, gooey, delicious treat.

The only grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had that compares was Gruyère on fresh-baked ciabatta at Campanille's grilled cheese night.

News I Can Use

If, like me, you frequent political blogs, you're probably sick to death of Sarah Palin already. Okay, I understand why people are talking about her. She's new to the scene. We've been watching Barack Obama and John McCain and Joe Biden run for President for a year and a half now. Literally eighteen months. So she's a fresh face, someone new that we haven't examined for policy inconsistencies, psychological imbalances, suspicious donors, and enlarged nasal pores yet. So that's bound to attract some eyeballs. But enough already! I'm calling a moratorium on Sarah Palin blogging here -- until further notice, until she does or says something interesting. Until then, I know enough about Gov. Palin that I can feel informed in my ambivalence about her.

So here's some real news for you. Something that very likely will affect you, personally. Well, it affects me, and that's what counts. Even if your mortgage isn't with Sallie Mae or Freddie Mac, there is enough money involved that this will affect your mortgage, or your ability to get one. It could cause rates to drop as much as a point, knowing that the government is protecting these lenders. By the way, the Fed is concerned about inflation, so the next time it meets, the question will be whether or not it will raise the prime rate. You know what that means -- time to refinance!

Understanding The Needs Of The Early Morning Drinker

Martinis should be clean; I've said it before. Clean and cold. Now, if you want a flavor to it, well, I guess we can do that. I enjoyed the vodka flavored with bison grass in my martinis not too long ago. A fruit flavor, sure. Lemon, currant, mandarin orange, pomegranate? I can dig it. Black pepper? Cool. But... bacon-infused vodka?

This would make a Bloody Mary unlike anything you've ever had before. This would meet the needs of an early-morning drinker very nicely indeed; a wondrous accompaniment to a three-egg kielbasa-and-onion omelet at the sports bar while waiting for a 10:00 a.m. kickoff.

Of course, if that's not bizarre enough for you, you can always infuse bacon into your bourbon. And mix it with maple syrup. And have that with your pancake sandwich. Now there's a fine start to your day.

The Painful Hole In My Finger

...is a ruptured blister caused by my rake. The rake saw considerable use yesterday because my lawn mower did not pick up any of the pine needles on the front lawn. So I raked them up, to re-expose the grass to the sun. I collected a stack of needles three feet high. A few pine needles, no big deal. But the front lawn was starting to look like the slopes of the mountains up in the Angeles National Forest, and that grass tends to die pretty quickly.

Gardening Update

Our adventures as fruit and vegetable farmers for the season are coming to a close. For a $96 investment, our usable yield has been:

• All the chives, parsley, and rosemary we've wanted
• Two small yellow peppers of high quality
• One small cucumber, fleshy and bitter
• An uncertain quantity (maybe 50?) of super-sweet pear tomatoes
  
• Five Roma tomatoes, with hard, wood-like ends opposite the stems
• Zero green beans (a dog ate the seeds)
  

This works out to about $8 per pepper, $15 for the cucumber, maybe $2 for each Roma, a quarter each for the pear tomatoes, and let's call it $20 for the herbs.

I think in the future, we should maybe leave farming to the professionals.

No Fun League

I don't think it should matter how silly it is -- the man's name is now legally Chad Javon Ocho Cinco. He should be able to change his name if he wants; he's an adult and should have that power and is obviously not doing it in order to evade his creditors. Indeed, he's doing it to further attract attention to himself, a place he's firmly convinced it should be at all times. Is it silly? Yes, of course it is. But these are grown men who play a game for a living and make hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a year doing it -- which is inherently silly when you think about it.

So that should be what's on his jersey when he plays football. And the NFL's asinine decision to not allow him to do that will only increase demand for the "Ocho Cinco" jerseys that they claim to be so worried about. I'm sure Reebok doesn't have any problem at all selling "Ocho Cinco" jerseys and they'll find a market for the stockpile of "Johnson" jerseys too.

Meanwhile, what was I thinking, taking Phillip Rivers of the Chargers instead of Brett Favre of the Jets? (Three touchdowns to two, with a more solid offensive line, that's what. And it's not fair to judge the Jets against the Fish.) And, when you learn what happened with Tom Brady's knee, let me know, okay? That's, um, kind of important for fantasy football enthusiasts.

UPDATE: Brady is out for the year. Torn ACL -- that'll do it! Well, he'll just have to bang supermodels all season long then instead of throwing the football. Poor fella.

Not A Hockey Mom At All

This post has to be The Best Palin Analogy Yet, and it seems to be pretty much right. She has a job to do and she's doing it quite well. More than a week later, she's still dominating headlines. What has Obama been doing since the RNC ended? I bet you can't tell me. And that's the point.

Oh, and I'm mollified by at least one thing -- she's pro-condom. That is to say, she is not an advocate of abstinence-only sex education. Which is good. But I'm still disturbed by the banning books thing.

Polls Are Coming

A little bit more than half of all NAPP readers are very, very down on the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. Certainly, for liberals and other critics of the McCain campaign, she is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of scandal and hot-button issues. The latest is a rumor about her own marital fidelity; is there any substantiation to it? I don't know, of course, but apparently the story is about to be broken by the National Enquirer and it will be based in part on the records of divorce proceedings involving Todd Palin's former business partner.

For the record, I see no reason why we should be surprised or concerned that a female politician had cheated on her husband -- at least, we shouldn't be any more surprised at that then we would be at news that a male politician had cheated on his wife. It's embarassing and salacious, but by itself it has nothing to do with the person's ability to hold public office. And it suggests hypocrisy in those individuals who hold themselves out as models of good moral behavior (as all politicians impliedly do).

But we had 37 votes. If you count my opinion -- I think she was really intended to appeal to not-particularly-liberal former Hillary Clinton supporters and to the religious and socially-conservative right -- that's 20 out of 38, or not quite 53%, who disapprove of Palin.* National and statewide polls draw from thousands of respondents. And the real poll is the one that will be held in November.

Still, people are still talking about Sarah Palin and nothing else when it comes to politics. That is, I think, a net gain for the Republicans. Obama has got to start making some news himself soon or eventually people are going to hear about Sarah Palin for so long they'll get confused and think she already is Vice-President. That's a net loss for Obama. And let's also not forget that it's still eight weeks until the election, and world and national events are going to continue occurring in that time. A lot depends on the kinds of things that happen between now and then like, say, Russia annexing South Ossetia, or a nuclear power plant meltdown, or who knows what else.


* One of these days, I'll have to discipline myself about parenthetical statements embedded within sentences. Not today, though.

Barracuda

I've said it before -- both in an academic journal and in these pages. A politician should not use someone else's copyrighted music, like say, the popular song "Barracuda," without the permission of the copyright owner. Niether the GOP nor the McCain-Palin '08 campaign own the song and it is doubtful that they have even offered the standard royalty for its use at the RNC and at campaign rallies. Even if they have, the actual owners of the song, Ann and Nancy Wilson, have specifically specifically withheld permission for the Republicans to use that song, going so far as to send a cease and desist letter. The Republicans should stop using it, as they have been, trying to play off of Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's high school basketball team nickname "Sarah the Barracuda."

It does not matter that the Wilson sisters would likely have given permission to the Obama campaign to use their song. It is their song, to use and control as they choose, in their sole discretion. The First Amendment does not preclude the existence of copyright law -- indeed, copyright laws are specifically authorized by Article I, Section 8. The point of copyright is that the owner of a song gets to control when and how it is used. That control is a property right. The owner can demand a fee for the performance of the song, whether that performance is live or by way of a sound recording. And the owner can withhold that permission completely.

Draft Results 2008

Upon reflection, the big fantasy football draft this year produced some results that were a little bit odd. I've got a lot of players on teams I don't usually follow all that closely.

For quarterbacks, we got Trent Edwards (Buffalo), Tavaris Jackson (Minnesota), Phillip Rivers (San Diego), and Tony Romo (Dallas).

At running back, there is Earnest Graham (Tampa Bay), Andre Hall (Denver), Tim Hightower (Arizona), Felix Jones (Dallas), Marshawn Lynch (Buffalo), Jonathan Stewart (Carolina), and LenDale White (Tennessee).

Catching the ball will be Anquan Boldin (Arizona), Marques Colston (New Orleans), Vernon Davis (San Francisco), Braylon Edwards (Cleveland), Jabar Gaffney (New England), and Vincent Jackson (San Diego).

Kicking will be Phil Dawson (Cleveland) and Steven Gostkowski (New England). And there is the usual Green Bay Packers defense -- the only Green Bay "player" at all.

Fortunately, nearly all of our fantasy football opponents got the joke in our team name, "McCain's Folly." My partner and I were afraid it would be too subtle and historically obscure, but enough people caught it and thought it was amusing.

Quote Proves True

I picked as my quote of the moment an anonymous but ethusiastic GOP staffer who effused that Sarah Palin "completely changes the narrative," lifted from a report in the increasingly-partisan Political Animal. This has proven true -- Sarah Palin is indeed a game-changer. She has not changed the game in ways that the McCain camp would have liked, necessarily. Here's how the game has changed:

• McCain's best avenue of attack -- Obama is not experienced enough to be trusted with high office -- has been blunted to the point of uselessness. Something big will have to happen before we get to candidates attacking one another on that subject again; I think that particular chess game is now stalemated. If Democrats attack Palin's experience, Republicans can attack Obama's. I think that steers us back to arguing policy preferences (a good thing) and personalities (a bad thing).
• She has managed to suck all the air out of the room on both sides of the aisle. No one is talking about anything but Sarah Palin -- unless they're talking about her family. She's drawn out a tremendous amount of ugliness from both sides of the aisle, although I must exonerate the national candidates and their campaigns from this nastiness.
• The presence of a newly-elected Governor of a small (in terms of popularion) state highlights the fact that aside from Gov. Palin, no one else nominated for national office has any executive experience at all. This makes me fidgety because executives use a different set of skills than legislators -- extensive, Biden-like knowledge about policy is not relevant to one's skills as an administrator.*
• As I thought, women voters have been quick to say that a candidate's gender is not enough to attract their votes. Hillary Clinton voters are much more concerned with Palin's stance on issues than they are with the fact that she is female. This, by the way, is as it should be.
• The religious right, formerly the weakest part of McCain's electoral coalition, is really on board with him now. They recognize in Gov. Palin one of their own. This pushes McCain's campaign towards the same strategy, forming the same coalition, as the two Bush-Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004.

That last point doesn't mean that a McCain Administration would be Bush-Cheney III, but the campaign will. And it doesn't mean that McCain's move towards the 'same old thing' was a bad one. The Bush-Cheney strategy got Republicans in the White House twice in a row. It's hard to be too critical of emulating a winning strategy. But it remains to be seen if the Democrats will be able to tag McCain-Palin with the "incompetent" meme that has adhered so well to George Bush over the past several years (especially after Katrina stuck New Orleans). But this election has begun to look a lot more like 2004 than I would have hoped for.

I thought 2004 was a particularly dismal and insipid election while it was going on and in fact, 2000 wasn't really all that exciting, either, at least not until after Election Day. Looking back on it, 1996 wasn't really all that interesting, either, since Bob Dole was such a weak opponent to Bill Clinton. We haven't had a really interesting election, with a real old-versus-new sort of debate about ideas, since 1992. This was shaping up to be a really interesting season, but that appears to not be the way things are going right now.

So yes, Palin has proven to be a game-changer. She's made an unpredictable, new sort of game look more like the games we're familiar with from election cycles past. Some changes are guardedly good for McCain, some are obviously bad.


* That's not to say that a President should be an ignoramus about policy; the President should have an ample understanding of all of the areas of public policy that the Federal government attends to. But the President should be a policy generalist rather than a specialist; there is a threshold of detail beyond which knowledge and decision-making must necessarily be delegated to subordinates.

Spreading The Butter Thin

There are a ton of obligations that life throws at you. They all seem to involve money and very little of it involves money coming in to the household. Keeping up with them all can sometimes be a little bit depressing, especially when they all come in the door at once. Oh, I'll deal with the combination of stacked-up work, the prospect of adult orthodontia, mortgage payments, eye examinations, veterinary checkups, and expenses associated with visiting our families. It just seems like a lot to deal with tonight. Anyway, thanks for listening. You may now return to your collective consternation over a pregnant 17-year-old Alaskan girl.

Take The Cue

Most people thought it was a good thing that Bill and Hillary Clinton made their daughter off-limits for political purposes during their campaigns and their tenures in office. That was true across partisan lines and it should be true now, too.

If you've been following politics, you've seen the ugly rumors floating around about Gov. Palin and her recent pregnancy -- and that of her daughter's recently-announced pregnancy. I'll not repeat them here. Instead, I'll provide a link to a Time report about how Bristol Palin's pregnancy was not much of a secret in her small town, and how the people of Wasilla, Alaska have quietly demonstrated values and behavior of a far more admirable water than either journalists or partisan hacks of varying pay grades.

The other link is to a CNN story relating Barack Obama's response to the shitstorm -- according to the Democratic Party's nominee, Sarah Palin's family is off limits. You can criticize Governor Palin, you can question whether she has sufficient knowledge or experience to serve in a high office, you can take issue with her policy positions. That's a pretty broad field of attack for Democrats, liberals, progressives, and anyone else dismayed with the choice of Sarah Palin to be John McCain's running mate. But no personal attacks on her family. That seems like good behavior, and good politics, to me.

Chipotle-Lime Glazed Salmon

I've done this twice now and it's the best-tasting fish I've ever made.

Chipotle peppers can be found in the Mexican or Latino food section of most supermarkets (except, apparently, in Italy). Chipotles are jalapeño peppers that have been smoke-cured and destemmed, but not de-seeded. They come packed in a savory, smoky tomato-based sauce called adobo. Do not fear the jalapeño pepper. If you can handle Nacho Cheese Doritos or General Liu's Chicken from your local Chinese take-out, you have nothing at all to fear from the heat in these flavorful peppers. The glaze itself is very simple -- for two salmon steaks or 6-oz fillets:

2 chipotle peppers, canned, packed in adobo sauce
2 tbsp. butter
1 oz. lime juice
1 oz. honey
dash of Grand Mariner liqueur (triple sec is not an equivalent; for a substitue, use orange zest)
black pepper to taste (you won't need to add any salt)

Melt butter until it turns liquid. Finely dice peppers (remove seeds if you want to to reduce the spiciness of the dish). Use the adobo sauce the peppers come packed in. Combine all ingredients, except Grand Mariner, over very low heat or at 50% power for brief periods of time in microwave. Do not allow mixture to boil or brown the butter. Add liqueur last. Stir well. Mixture should be a pale maroon color.

To grill salmon fillets, use very high heat and fish that is freshly thawed. I've found that those fish grilling racks that some places sell are worse than useless. Instead, I've had better experience with a large, inflexible barbeque spatula. If the spatula is larger than the piece of fish you're grilling, a fast movement under the meat will lift the whole thing under the spatula and allow you to turn it. The technique takes just a touch of practice, so maybe try it out on some burgers first.

Like all glazes that incorporate sugar, brush on the glaze only after the meat has begun to cook, so as to avoid carmelizing the sugars and ruining the sweet part of the flavor. This glaze is particularly flammable, between the liqueur and the butter. And fish cooks faster than beef or chicken. So you're going to go about 90 to 120 seconds, show-side down, then lift and re-set at an angle to make your diamond pattern. Wait another 90 to 120 seconds, then flip the fish. Now glaze the show side. Let the bottom side of the fish cook for 120 seconds tops, and then flip the fish a second time to glaze the base and flip back to show-side up immediately. Let the base-side expose itself to the flame for only long enough to burn off the alcohol in the glaze.

The result should combine a moderate to mild level of spice, a savory smokiness, and a citrus-sweet undertone. I love it, but I love the flavor of chipotle on nearly any kind of meat.