South Carolina politics have reached a new high-water mark

Doubtless you've heard of the fun that South Carolinians (not True Carolinians) had in their primary. (a) A woman raised as a Sikh who converted to Christianity has been called a Manchurian candidate and accused of infidelity, with one accuser even taking a polygraph test. (b) A veteran who won the Democratic primary for Senate gave no speeches, held no campaign events, and paid with $10,400 of his own (supposedly) money. Turns out he's wanted for a felony as well.

This latter case is the one that interests me, because now Rep. Clyburn is suggesting that Alvin Greene is in fact a Republican plant. I admit that would say some damning things about the people who run the Republican party in South Carolina, but honestly, what does it say about the people who run the Democratic party in South Carolina? Did no one notice, or care, what was going on?

In North Carolina they describe themselves as "a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit", those mountains being Virginia and South Carolina. As a native Virginian I have my qualms with this statement, but after the last few months, they may have a point. As a friend of mine said, at least the troubles of Mike Easley of North Carolina are good, old-fashioned corruption.

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Non-electoral politics?

I was struck by this headline in the Washington Post:

Hagel Is Expected to Quit Electoral Politics

"Electoral" politics? What other kind of politics is there in this country? For crying out loud, come November I have to decide not only on a governor and a lieutenant governor in this state, but a tax assessor and even a coroner. Now you're telling me there's a non-electoral politics in this country, too? That's it; I am now officially a monarchist.*

You read that right: I get to vote on the county coroner. There's a morbid race, if ever I saw one.

People like to say that the big interests are chipping away at democracy in this country. How is that possible, when in addition to presidents, senators, congressmen, governors, lieutenant governors, state treasurers, state commissioners of agriculture**, state senators, state representatives, state supreme court judges, local judges, sheriffs, district attorneys***, mayors, city councillors (am I allowed to say councilmen anymore?), and tax assessors, I can also vote for the county coroner? If chipping away at democracy means that I no longer have to waste my energies contemplating which of the characters running for coroner would make the best man for the job (or woman), then Crown me a king! says I. He'd appoint a better coroner than I could elect, and he'd also have the power to lop off the fellow's head if he turned out corrupt. You can't do things like that in a democracy; you have to waste time on due process and other niceties of that sort, while the corposes corrode in the corrupt coroner's... um, morgue.

Just don't crown W. I'll only accept a monarchy if it has term limits, and he's already had his two terms.

*Since my previous political advocacy put me on the opposite side of the spectrum, surely you won't take me seriously.

**State Commissioner of Agriculture: In North Carolina anyway, and boy, did a recent one turn out to be proof of the dictum that democracy preserves us from corrupt officials from family dynasties. Then again, you could always visit Massachusetts if you wanted proof of that.

***Electing the district attorney worked real well for Durham, NC.

I don't mean to pick on NC, by the way. It's just that I haven't lived long enough in Mississippi to catch up on the local political rackets. Plus, Louisiana is right next door, and it's hard to focus on local politics when the news is filled with stories of a state that has developed corruption into an exquisite form of art.

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My eyes are apparently worse than I thought

I'm walking down the street with a friend in search of a place to eat lunch. A short man stands at the corner of a building. His skin is the color of the night; a flat hat rests lazily on his head. He sports a black T-shirt, green long-sleeved shirt, and faded blue jeans. He spots us coming.

"Hey man, you got sixty cents I can borrow?" he hollers. I shake my head slightly.

"You look like my son!" he adds as we pass by.

What? I turn my head with a quizzical smile. "That's right!" he laughs, immensely pleased with himself at startling me out of my discomfort.

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Junior Ranger Program

One nice thing the government does with your money is the Junior Ranger program at National Parks. Certain parks have an activity booklet they give to children. The activities are classified according to age, and children have to complete a certain number of activities.

Since we visited the Wright Memorial last week, our son had the chance to participate in their Junior Flight Ranger program. Their booklet requires one decode some Morse Code and visit different parts of the memorial to find certain things. He also had to attend a presentation by one of the actual rangers. Once he completed the program, they awarded him a nice badge that we can sew to a jacket or shirt. The badge is custom-made for this memorial.

Our 9 year-old enjoyed this very much. Once he arrived at a particular location, our boy was happy to examine the exhibits. I saw quite a few children visiting the booth to pick up the booklets, so I imagine they must be popular.

We also picked up a booklet while visiting Fort Raleigh, but he didn't have time to attend a program. I'm not sure if we'll be able to go back before the move, so he may not earn that badge anytime soon.

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A real vacation

I had a real vacation the last couple of days. We went to Roanoke Island, seeing Fort Raleigh, the Elizabethan Gardens, and the Wright Brothers Memorial. We also swam in the beach nearby, blissfully unaware that there was a tropical storm in the making offshore. That certainly explained the strong currents.

The reason for our ignorance was also the reason I call it a real vacation; I decided to leave my computer at home. :-)

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Category 4

There's a sad bemusement in watching people point fingers over the disaster in New Orleans. There may be blame to spread around, but I wonder how many people really understand what a category 4 hurricane is. (It's still not clear to me whether Katrina was category 4 or 5, but 5 would be worse.)

Two or three years ago, hurricane Isabel smashed into the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Take a look at what it did to Hatteras Island. In the photo, you see three gashes through the island that didn't exist before. The road itself disappeared (NC highway 12, another photo with this article).

Isabel was a category 2 hurricane. That's child's play in comparison to Katrina.

Now take a look at this photo. This is what Katrina did to US highway 90 in Mississippi. This is not the result of a shoddily-built bridge; before the hurricane, it reliably carried an immense amount of traffic across the water. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what a category 4/5 hurricane does to well-built roads. Imagine what it will do to a levee built to withstand nothing stronger than a category 3 storm. Since Katrina was at least a category 4, and a strong one at that, New Orleans was doomed.

People who think that this disaster is the fault of the Bush administration, the governor of Louisiana, or the mayor of New Orleans, should look at such photos for a long time and ask themselves if they really understand the power of a category 2 hurricane, to say nothing of a category 4. The two authors of this tragedy are God and man: God designed the weather, and man built a city that was several feet below sea level. According to a diagram by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the height of the levees for the hurricane floodwall was 17.5 feet. Hurricane Katrina had a 30 foot surge in some places, and while I'm not sure what the surge was in New Orleans, you can add 15 feet (Katrina's minimum surge) to the city's depth below sea level, and see what a disaster was in the making.

Here in Carolina, we're looking at Ophelia. The Outer Banks are in danger yet again, but this is par for the course during hurricane season.

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From the "I am not making this up" file...

I haven't blogged in a week, due partly to my state of transience, and partly to an internet problem at the place I'm housesitting, and partly to... well, in Italian I would say, Sono stato molto impegnato; roughly, "I have been kept very busy." I hope no one stopped reading :-)

A couple of amusing quotes I read in today's newspapers. First, from the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera:

We know that Follini is a man of bad character, but better Follini than one who has no character. [Sappiamo che Follini ha un cattivo carattere, ma meglio Follini di chi non ha carattere.]

Marco Follini is secretary of UCD, one of the remnants of the former party Christian Democracy. Ironically, the party fell apart about a decade ago over allegations of corruption (and indictments, and sentences, and...). We're talking the sort of corruption that includes Mafia ties, not the general sort of corruption that some Italians say counts for civil service in Italy. (Knowing at least one civil servant, I don't think that's entirely accurate.)

The second quote is from today's News and Observer, and as God is my witness I am not making this up: police thought that a man arrested on charges of stealing jewels had swallowed one of the, ah, "goods", and

Fayetteville police wanted the jailers to continue the search and look through Hall's body waste. The jailers said that was not in their job description.

Somehow, I think this verbal exchange was a lot less subdued than one might gather from the story. :-)

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