Land of the free?

As Americans, we tend to think of ourselves as living in a free country. The phrase "land of the free" is still in our national anthem. And I still believe we can certainly do things that people in many countries can't do.

However, there is one persistent fact that calls our free status into serious question: a VERY large number of Americans are in prison. By "a VERY large number," I mean more in either raw numbers or per capita than ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! Any other--that includes brutal tyrannies like Burma, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Cuba. (And, before you say "well, the tyrannies execute you instead of imprisoning you, the story linked to above mentions that we rank sixth worldwide in the number of executions--so that's not the explanation.) If the prison population were in a single city, it would be the fourth largest city in the nation.

Still feel free?

Dis-charging

My dad and I ate tonight with a friend at the restaurant where he works (so I don't want to mention his name or that of the restaurant here). We picked up the check as usual--it was $52 and change not counting the tip. I handed the waiter our charge card. He comes back with a receipt reading, "DECLINED: Amount Cannot Be Less Than One Dollar" (sic--I don't know why they capitalized each word). I asked the waiter to run the card again, and the same thing happened again. We finally had to pay with a different card.

Two thoughts crossed my mind: that we were less than $1 from the limit, or that the code might have been a euphemism used for suspect charges. So, I called the credit card company. We're more than $10,000 below the limit (which shocked me, since I thought that card had an $8000 limit), and the charges the lady read off were all legitimate ones. Further, the credit card company didn't even know there had been an attempt to run the card.

Have you ever heard about something like that before?

Specter haunting the Patriots

I would like to set the record straight--I am NOT a fan of the New England Patriots. Mind you, I can't prove any of this: however I believe the "Spygate" scandal was the tip of the iceberg. I do not for one moment believe that an otherwise honest team cheated only once against a much weaker team. I think the cheating was endemic, that it was partly what led to their successes in past years, and that continuing cheating was responsible for their "16-0" regular season and playoff success this year. Even though I had long wanted to see a team go undefeated, I was very sad when New England did it this year because I don't believe they did it honestly. As harsh as the NFL's penalties were, I believe they should have fined the team far, far more. My personal name for the team is the "New England Cameramen." I hope the Giants tear them to shreds in the Super Bowl this Sunday.

As much as I dislike the New England Cameramen, there is one thing I unquestionably hate more: showboating politicians. Sen. Arlen Specter chose the week before the Super Bowl to make a stink about the Spygate scandal. I cannot conceive how this could in any way be a matter appropriate for congressional investigation; at the absolute worst possible case, it may rise to a simple criminal case; and I'm not even sure it's that bad. (I'm not fond of grandstanding D.A.'s either, but if fraud laws were broken by high-profile entities, what can you do?) I don't see Specter as standing up for the integrity of the NFL, I see him as unproductively trying to get his name in the news.

Sen. Specter: instead of focusing on the Patriots, why don't you work to repeal the Patriot Act? Do something good for a change!

Something is falling down, though it's not the bridges...

I might forgive the Travel Channel's Top Ten Bridges program for saying the 8th-ranked Sydney Harbour Bridge crosses "the harbor of Australia's capital;" Sydney is the capital of New South Wales, and since Canberra is inland, I suppose Sydney is as much a port for it as anything else, and in any case, the show wasn't mainly about Australia. Still, I would hope for clearer geographical knowledge from the Travel Channel.

However, the error that made my skin crawl came with the second-place bridge. The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Kobe, Japan--the world's longest suspension bridge--is a worthy choice for the top ten list. However, they kept calling it the "Akashi Kaiyko Bridge"--and spelled it that way in on screen text! It's appalling that a program about bridges would get one of the featured bridges' names wrong, and yet still air!