Hang ‘em high

Less than two hours into 2008 a drunk (who registered .16, or twice the legal limit) killed two people on an Albuquerque street.

For the most part, NewMexiKen is opposed to the death penalty. But I suggest that, if you drink and drive and kill someone, and if you are convicted by a jury of your peers, you be hanged by the side of the road where the homicide took place and that your body be left hanging there permanently as a warning to others.

Yes, I am serious. Drunk drivers kill more people every three months than have been killed by all the terrorists in our country’s history. Which are you more afraid will kill you?

Best response to a Republican candidate’s BS, so far

Tristero at Hullaballo reacts to Willard Mitt Romney. First Romney’s remark, then Tristero.

“We’ll try and represent ourselves and our nation well also to our kids because I think, I think kids watch the White House and there have been failures in the past in the White House — if you go back to the Clinton years and recognize that — that I think had an enormous impact on the culture of our country”

Oh, where to start? Well, for starters, I suppose Romney’s saying that the “enormous impact” of Monica’s blowjob “on the culture our country” was responsible for Trent Lott’s racist defense of Strom Thurmond, the substance abuse problems of Jeb Bush’s daughter, the meth-fueled extramarital sex sessions of the former Reverend Ted Haggard, Larry Craig’s widening stance, Bush/Iraq war supporter Brittney Spears’ shaved head, and maybe even Cheney’s inebriated behavior around loaded shotguns. Or maybe Romney has in mind serial adulterers in his own party like Scaife, Gingrich, Hyde, and Giuliani. Who knew a little fellatio was so insidious that it could cause David Addington and Alberto Gonzalez to countenance torture, or Tom Delay to use the Office of Homeland Security to help subvert the legislature of Texas? Or perhaps Romney had in mind the slimy christianist activists who Judge Jones accused of lying to a court of law during Kitzmiller v. Dover. Yes, this is all the Clintons’ fault.

$100 a barrel

President Nixon signed legislation 33 years ago today mandating a federal speed limit of 55 miles per hour. The Edge of the American West has a discussion, including a couple of comments by yours truly.

Oil is at $100 a barrel today for the first time. That’s 68€. A year ago oil was $58 a barrel, 44€.

In a year oil has gone up 72% in U.S. dollars but only 55% in European currency.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard

… was born in Bedford, England on this date in 1886. From The Writer’s Almanac:

He’s the author of the Antarctic travelogue, The Worst Journey in the World (1922). His book is about a search for the eggs of the Emperor Penguin in 1912. He and his two companions traveled in near total darkness and temperatures that reached negative 77.5 degrees Fahrenheit. He wrote, “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.”

As noted in The 25 (Essential) Books for the Well-Read Explorer:

Cherry-Garrard’s first-person account of this infamous sufferfest is a chilling testimonial to what happens when things really go south. Many have proven better at negotiating such epic treks than Scott, Cherry, and his crew, but none have written about it more honestly and compassionately than Cherry. “The horrors of that return journey are blurred to my memory and I know they were blurred to my body at the time. I think this applies to all of us, for we were much weakened and callous. The day we got down to the penguins I had not cared whether I fell into a crevasse or not.”

Rehab

Don’t you hate it when you can’t get a song out of your head?

“Rehab,” Amy Winehouse, nominated for the Grammy for Record of the Year.

Best Rudy line of the year, so far

You’d think that a post-campaign Rudy could just go back to cutting more sweetheart business deals with various tycoons, crooks and bad actors as well as chasing more skirts. But failure doesn’t score pricey consulting contracts or babes.

So there’s a decent chance a post-presidential campaign flop Rudy would have to settle for actual monogamy from here on out.

Josh Marshall

Best election line of the year, so far

“Ralph Wiggum will announce his intent to run for the presidency of the United States on the January 6th episode of ‘The Simpsons.’ Speech expected to make more sense than anything Ron Paul’s said in months.”

FARK.com

Become America’s 22nd largest landowner

In just one $115 million installment — buy a 250,000 acre parcel of Bell Ranch in northeastern New Mexico.

An interesting article in The Albuquerque Journal ($) includes this:

There aren’t many pieces of private land left in this country where a man can stare for miles in any direction and see nothing but his own domain. The Bell is one.

The person who buys it will be the 22nd-largest landowner in the country, according to a ranking The Land Report magazine published in August.

But whoever saddles up to the $115 million asking price will be buying more than just land. They’ll be buying a piece— a very big piece— of history.

The Bell Ranch started to take shape in 1824 when a newly independent Mexico granted 655,000 acres of Indian hunting grounds to Pablo Montoya, a former captain in the Spanish army. It wasn’t until 1872 that cattle were brought to the ranch by its third owner, Wilson Waddingham. A “flamboyant Canadian” who fancied himself an Englishman, Waddingham personified cattle barons of the era and registered the Bell brand in 1874.

Best college football line of the year, so far

“The two showcase games on the sport’s grandest day were absolute dogs.”

Pete Thamel - The Quad

Thamel goes on to add:

U.S.C. blew out Illinois in the Rose Bowl, setting all kinds of records in the process. Georgia is doing the same to Hawaii here. Wouldn’t it be novel to, say, have the best teams play each other. It would have been nice to see this: A Rose Bowl of U.S.C. vs. Georgia, an Orange Bowl of Oklahoma vs. Virginia Tech, a Fiesta Bowl of Missouri vs. West Virginia, and then Hawaii vs. Arizona State in the Sugar Bowl. Instead, the B.C.S. has yet again managed to deliver a watered-down, unwatchable product. And it’s the fans that suffer.

So, take note Fox and Fox’s advertisers, I gave up on the Sugar Bowl midway through the first quarter. I imagine millions of others did the same. (Georgia eventually won 41-10.)

Best line of the year, so far

Last month still has me reeling.  First I learn I may live forever.  Kurzweil has me truly believing.  Then I learn we’re all going to die in 2030.  That’s when Bill Joy suggests a bright but disgruntled teenager may have the ability to turn the biosphere to dust.
 
So do I floss or don’t I floss?

Andrew Tobias