Tucson Sammy

Ballot prop 105, known as “Majority rules”, would require a majority of registered voters to vote in favor for passage, as opposed to a majority of votes cast. This standard would apply only to ballot propositions that raised taxes or fees. The idea is that new laws which reach into your wallet should meet a higher standard than others. It is similar in concept to existing law that requires a two thirds majority vote for the Arizona Legislature to raise taxes.

My first conversation concerning this ballot prop included two Democrat friends, one of whom dropped his jaw with a horrified expression when I said that I liked it. Both friends expressed the idea that any voting standard that deviated from a simple majority of votes cast was certainly an un-American, deviant, evil thing that would bring on plagues of locusts, frogs, et cetera.

I was somewhat taken aback by their visceral negative reaction. It took me a while, but I figured it out. It came down to worldview, our at least, how we see our country. My friends see the simple majority vote as foundational, not as a mere process or tool. To them, the country is great by virtue of the simple majority vote.

They are completely wrong. The foundational principle that makes the country great is individual sovereignty, or liberty/responsibility. Voting is a democratic process that picks, and disciplines, our representatives.

This dichotomy of worldviews accounts the hysteria of my friends. They see the prop as an attack on the foundation of our society, I see it as an appropriate tweaking of a process to adapt that process to a particular law-making instrument.

My friends are not just wrong, there is a dark side to their view. If individual sovereignty is not sacred, but anything done by majority vote is, then we have entered a world of tyranny where forty-nine per cent of the people will be oppressed.

There has been ongoing controversy over filtering online pornography at the Pima County Public Library. It has become a campaign issue.

Ray Carroll has led the fight in favor of filtering pornographic material. Most of the other county supervisors demur, noting first amendment concerns, and the imperfection of filtering technology.

The concern, of course, is the inevitability of small children walking by the computer bank while young adult males are viewing, well, you can imagine…then again, maybe you can’t imagine.

This porn problem is really a symptom of the public library concept, a concept originally put forth by the great industrialist, Andrew Carnegie.

In the early 1900’s Carnegie turned his focus from steel and other concerns to philanthropy. He envisioned community facilities that were a combination of free libraries and community meeting places. He provided startup money while the local government committed to providing the real estate and ongoing expenses. This was the original “public/private partnership.” He started over three thousand of these facilities across the English-speaking world.

We all find Carnegie’s vision cool, and these public libraries have enriched countless communities. The problem is, that as government entities, they try to be all things to all the people in the community. There is a touch of arrogant paternalism in the original vision that continues today.

Were libraries private businesses that had to respond to the discipline of the markets, they would identify specific information markets, and succeed or fail by how well they served them. If you are funded directly by those you serve, you keep them happy. This is called the discipline of the market.

If your funding does not come directly from those you serve, then you do not see a problem with little kids watching an erotomaniac get all jacked up over an online video. You are all things to all people.

Imagine little Susie coming home and her mom asking, “What did you learn at the Library today?”

Susie says, I learned about trains and highways, and I learned how to spell “transportation”.

“That’s wonderful honey!” says mom.

Susie adds, “Mommy?”

“Yes dear,” replies mom.

“What’s an Asian MILF creampie?”

Interestingly, to my knowledge, no one is pushing for an adult section of the library. It might solve the problem, but then the library would admittedly become purveyors of porn, not simply the homogenized source of all information.

In the end, technology and the private sector will make public libraries irrelevant. Online libraries, computers, and electronic readers will bring the information to the citizen – the citizen will no longer have to go to the information.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, Has his own vision. He’s sees the decline of the “dead tree world” of books. Last year he introduced the Kindle electronic reading device.

Among other things, the Kindle allows the reader to download books and periodicals directly to the device via the cell phone network. It is about the size of a trade paperback, and the screen does not glow. It uses “electronic ink” technology that looks like a printed page.

With this move, Bezos is making a down payment on the future of his book business, and keeping it on the cutting edge – good for him! More importantly, he is staying in the private sector, subjecting himself to market discipline – good for us!

It is hard to imagine Jeff Bezos being blasé about mixing together Dick and Jane stories with hardcore pornography. He is accountable to his customers in a very direct, dollars and cents way.

Hopefully, Jeff Bezos will stay a businessman and not become a philanthropist. We will all be better served in the long run.

Isabel Garcia is in the news again. This time she participated in a rather vulgar display of fear and loathing during a protest against the presence of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the Borders Book Store right here in the Old Pueblo.

For those of you unfamiliar with Ms. Garcia, she is a co-chair of Coalicion de Derechos Humanos ( that’s “Human Rights Coalition” for you gringos), and when she’s not attending a protest, she heads up Pima County’s Legal Defender office. The Legal Defender is similar to the Public Defender, only separate… go figure.

Ms. Garcia is, of course, untouchable, and beyond criticism, but Jon Justice apparently did not get the memo.

I must take a moment to comment on Mr. Justice’s parents’ choice of “Jon” for his first name. How boring! They could have picked something clever like “Street”, “Cowboy”, or even “Owtfer.”

Anyway, Mr. Justice hosts a local radio talk show which he used to promote the ideas that Ms. Garcia should be fired from her County position, arrested for violated a string of laws, and sent to a psychiatrist.

This stuff can be read on the show blog for a good laugh. As with most absurd humor, it is the grain of truth contained therein that makes it work. The one redeeming aspect of this particular kerfuffle is its entertainment value.

So, what did Ms. Garcia do that made Mr. Justice see red? As I mentioned earlier, she attended the protest of Joe Arpaio where she cheered on the two children who beat an effigy of the good sheriff to pieces, then Ms. Garcia picked up the dismembered head, held it aloft, and paraded around the parking lot with it.

If you really want to laugh out loud (that would be LOL for you teenagers), read the postings at the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos website. Watch the video of the incident on YouTube, then read their description. They try to paint a picture resembling the scene in “Napoleon Dynamite” where the smiling blindfolded children swing at a piñata, in the image of Pedro’s opponent, hanging in a tree; but it really looked like the Rodney King beating with a cheering section, with kids instead of cops. Nice try guys!

My favorite part is where Ms. Garcia whines about threats to her job and free speech rights. She then launches a campaign that threatens Mr. Justice’s job, and the station for which he works. She says that the radio station proffers “hate speech”, and implores people to “demand accountability from those who would support hate media.” Yes, and the dismembered head was all warmth and fuzzy bunnies.

You can’t make this stuff up!

On the serious side, I like honest discourse, particularly with open-minded parties. That’s kinda how it works in free societies. If people can change their minds of their own accord through objective review, then everyone is happy and the truth often prevails. In less free societies, a more tyrannical approach of vilification and hatred toward those with whom one disagrees seems to carry the day.

Why do you suppose that Ms. Garcia chooses the tyrannical approach? It’s not as if there are no specific accusations of unethical and even criminal behavior against Joe Arpaio – everything from vindictive retaliations to suspicious jail deaths have been reported. Why does she not build a case? She’s a lawyer after all. I suspect that if she made a cogent argument for Arpaio’s removal, in the way that Mr. Justice made a case for her removal, there would be no fight. Perhaps he fight is what it is all about.

By the way (BTW), am I the only one who is bothered by the use of children in this mess, particularly in the role of ceremonial sheriff killers? I am really glad that the children were not old enough to be in AmeriCorps. Watching them beat the effigy in those brown shirts that they wear would not have been the least bit humorous.

Let me start by saying that San Tan Flat is in no way connected with Tortilla Flat. There are no tee shirts that say, “Where the Hell is San Tan Flat?” Although new to Arizona, San Tan Flat has enjoyed a level of publicity unknown to Tortilla Flat.

Our story begins with a father and son, Dale and Spencer Bell. Dale has operated successful restaurants in both South Dakota and Wyoming. He and his son, Spencer, opened their new venture in Pinal County, Arizona, on the flats next to the San Tan Mountains – hence the name.

After three years of jumping through hoops, they finally opened on 2005 with Pinal County’s blessing. Shortly thereafter, Pinal County began to harass them mercilessly. They made them remove one of their two signs, reduced their road access from four entrances to one, and they made them build a bigger parking lot. They also sent deputies out at night to measure decibel levels.

This sort of behavior usually indicates that some well-connected turgid member of the community wants him out of Dodge. In the older frontier times, they usually just sent the Sheriff around to tell him, “Be out of town by sundown.” These are less direct, less honest, weenie times.

Dale complied with all the harassing demands, until they turned their sights on his customers. They claimed it was illegal for them to dance to the music in the courtyard. They cited an ordinance from 1962 that required “dance halls, penny arcades, and bowling alleys” to be in fully enclosed structures. San Tan Flat is a restaurant bar. As Dale said to me, “I’ve never seen a penny arcade in my lifetime, I’ve never been able to put a penny in a machine and have it do anything, I don’t know how old you are, but I’m an old guy…this thing is pretty obsolete even in its language.” With the help of the Arizona chapter of the Institute for Justice, Dale went to court.

The Pinal County attorneys stated, at four separate times during the initial hearing, that the supervisors thought the outdoor stage at the Country Western Saloon and Steakhouse would be used for “mimes, puppet shows, poetry readings, and art displays.” Why, of course! Any cowboy worth his salt needs a little miming, and poetry read to him every now and again. Those dang Bell Boys deceived us!

Dale has determined that upstanding member of the community Pinal County Supervisor Sandy Smith is directing the attacks against him. It is her appointee, the Pinal County Sheriff, who sends his deputies out three times a night to test the decibel levels. So far, they have had no luck.

I asked Dale why Sandy Smith was trying to make his life miserable. He answered, “Why is she doing it? Possibly petty jealousy over the success of the business, possibly because we did not grovel, or kiss her butt, which is apparently what she was expecting us to do after we were open and permitted.” He had some other ideas that involved millionaire developers, but it’s all just speculation.

The silver lining to this dark cloud is that the longer it drags on, the more support the Bells get – from George Will, who wrote of their plight in his Washington Post column, to Dale and Spencer’s customers. Dale said of his customers, “They don’t say they like it, they say they love it!”

The significance of this case lies not so much in the fact that the petty commissars of Pinal County are being exposed; rather it verifies what we in the freedom movement have come to realize over the past few years.

Traditionally, it was government at the federal level that sent edicts from far away for the great unwashed, doing away with federalism, and exceeding its limited jurisdiction in a rather tyrannical way. It seemed to make sense that when people are reduced to numbers and formulas, they would be treated like them. Now we see those close to us, here at home, behaving in similar fashion. Whether they use eminent domain, civil forfeiture, or “Smart Growth” central planning, our locals have a lust to control people, and property that they do not own.

As the bizarre case of San Tan Flat exemplifies, it is not the remoteness of the power that is corrupting. It is the power itself.

 Bizarre Case of San Tan Flat [5:48] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Our Great and Wonderful Council is back at it. They’re considering some form of cell phone ban – in cars for now.

The impetus is typical – Phoenix is doing it. We tend to have a condescending attitude toward our neighbor to the north, yet we continue to copy their bad ideas (the “light rail” effort comes to mind).

Ibarra, Scott, West, and Uncle Bob Walkup all want to see something done either at the municipal or state level. Speaking of the state level, Mr. Light Rail himself, Steve Farley, has been working on it – unsuccessfully so far.

The merits of multi-tasking in one’s car are really not the important issue. The important issue is what this effort says about how you are viewed by your elected officials. Are you an adult with adult judgment, or are you a child who will wreak all kinds of havoc without big brother’s watchful eye upon you? It used to be that laws would help us defend ourselves against force and fraud. Now they seemed to be there to micromanage our lives for our own good. Don’t eat that! Don’t discard that piece of plastic! You can have this kind of car. Keep your hands on the wheel and stare forward! Don’t think that thought or you’re a hate criminal! That’s better… good boy!

It would appear that Councilman Nina Trasoff has really stepped in the cowpie this time. According to an article in the Red Star by Bob Odell, published on April 29, 2007 (here’s a link: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/180653.php ), Nina set up a complex real estate sale/lease deal that would have subsidized a downtown arts group to a six figure tune, with the potential of costing the City $1.2 million if things did not go well.

I wonder, considering the complexity of the deal, how firm a grip Nina had on this thing. I could be a case of “Staff Gone Wild!” either in the Ward, or the City Real Estate Department, or both. Either way, it belongs to her.

It’s interesting that the rest of the Council did not “circle the wagons” around one of their own – particularly a fellow Democratic. They also did not let the thing be removed from the agenda without discussion – something that they do for each other to avoid embarrassment, according to a friend of mine who served on the Council.

This does not bode well for her political future, particularly when she appears to be short on friends in high places, and her popular support is waning. Fortunately, her next election is 2009. There is plenty of time for people to forget this episode, and see her lovely smile on television – not to mention the coquettish charm she has in person.