AntiRust

Bloggy Badness: Plagiarism Watch

More foot-in-mouth, this time from the political Right:

Oh boy. The Washington Post hired an impressive-sounding wunderkind to run a new conservative blog. Then promptly accepted his resignation after plagiarism charges surfaced.

Whoops.

More here.

Makes Morgan Spurlock look like a pure genius. (See previous post.)

Side Note: Morgan Spurlock's Strange Speech

From the foot-in-mouth file:

Morgan Spurlock, the guy who wowed left-leaning corporation-haters with "Super Size Me," recently gave a speech about health and wellness to a Philadelphia high school.

Then he apologized. Because people walked out in the middle of the presentation. Because our man apparently came armed with a series of obscenities and made some jokes about smoking pot.

The walkout might have led some of his supporters to charge "censorship" or "puritanism" under other circumstances. But unfortunately for people who usually make such charges, Spurlock's tirade also targeted downtrodden Walmart workers. And a group he might or might not have referred to as "retarded kids."

Man. This kind of thing makes you wonder. This guy ought to be more media savvy by now, no?

Spurlock's version of events here.

Check out the comments section for a lesson in how people never change their minds. About anything. People who loved Spurlock defend him to the end. People who already hated him still hate him. Only more. While laughing.

Former Erie Mayor Found Not Guilty In Casino Trial

Wow. Someone is going to have some answering to do.

Former Erie Mayor Rick Filippi, who left office harassed by rumors of corruption related to a casino deal, was found not guilty of the charges. (Registration required.)

Filippi is a very young fellow, and will presumably rebound. But he might have some legitimate gripes about the way this played out.

I once saw a documentary that said the unofficial state motto of Arkansas was "Thank God for Mississippi." Because no matter how weird things got in Little Rock, people could always count on the people in Jackson to do something even weirder. Kind of takes the pressure off.

Maybe Pittsburgh ought to think of something similar: "Thank God for Erie." Yeah, our casino situation is a mess. But just take a look at Erie. Man, oh man.

I don't think this was the kind of transformative effect that legalized gambling was supposed to have.

Nordstrom Comes to Pittsburgh: Go Free Market, Go!

Everyone in the market for high-end stuff will welcome news that Nordstrom is coming to Ross Park Mall. The far better news, however, is where the store is NOT going.

Recall that last December, there was some talk of the posh retailer locating downtown. But not without incentives: This is from a Tribune-Review story at the time:

With the Fifth-Forbes corridor redevelopment gaining traction after those false starts, speculation is building on major retail components.

Nordstrom is once again front and center of the talk.

"It is my understanding that representatives of Nordstrom, at the invitation of Federated Department Stores Inc., visited the Pittsburgh area several weeks ago to look at Federated's properties at Ross Park Mall and South Hills Village," said Herb Burger, chairman of the Pittsburgh Task Force, a private group charged with getting Fifth-Forbes redevelopment moving again.

Neither Simon nor Nordstrom could be reached for comment.

Millcraft's [Lucas] Piatt acknowledges that bringing a Nordstrom to Downtown would require public money, but he says it would be worth it.

Phew. That was close. Pitching in tax money so rich people could by cashmere downtown instead of Ross Park would have been too much to take.

Pittsburgh's Convention Center Hotel: Diminishatory Returnerators?

The Post-Gazette is reporting that the convention center hotel might have to be smaller than planned to account for--get this--cost overruns. Stop the presses!

My favorite part of the story comes here, where a development official seems to trip up on a basic economic term:

Joseph McGrath, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the possible cutback in rooms comes at a time when more and more cities are building larger hotels to compete.

He said at the time local officials began planning the project five years ago that there were 150 hotels in the country with 1,200 or more rooms. The number has "gone crazy" since then, he said, as cities have stepped up their efforts to attract tourism.

The convention and visitors bureau was counting on the new hotel, in conjunction with the 600-room Westin Convention Center hotel next door, to give officials a large bank of rooms to offer potential guests.

Mr. McGrath said he was unsure how a cut in the number of rooms would affect business, saying he would have to poll potential customers to get their reactions. But, he added, it's "not as desirable a thing" as 500.

"It gets to the point of diminishing returns," he said.

I only have an undergraduate understanding of economics. And I got that something like ten years ago. At the same place George W. Bush learned it. So there goes my credibility. But I don't think that's what "diminishing returns" means. That is, it does not mean that something returns less as it gets smaller. It means something more like the opposite.

I'm just saying.

But in a strange way he's right. I agree: A 500 room hotel built in conjunction with a 600 room hotel will, I suspect, take us to the point of diminishing returns. The real diminishing returns.

Industry: Not a smokestack in sight? Have another look...

Maybe industry is dead and the economy is moving on to something more "creative."

Maybe. You might want to try convincing these people, though. All 2,000 of them.

Industry. Sweet.

More Nanny State

Tired of the Nanny State tirade? I figured. So I'll keep this short:

The basic Nanny State argument: "Nobody cares if you smoke your nasty cigarettes, as long as you smoke them at home. Don't blow smoke at bartenders. Is that too much to ask? You can do whatever you want at home. Don't be so paranoid."

Yes, apparently it is too much to ask. And no, pretty soon you won't be able to do whatever you want at home. 

Don't worry. It's for your own good. Now, about those Twinkies, see, our kids have this obesity thing.. It's... for... the... KIDS...

Balls.

Pot/Kettle Watch: Slow Down on that Development Plan, Mayor O'Connor!

Today, the Post-Gazette offers sage development advice to Mayor O'Connor, warning him to make sure to continue taking advice from the Pittsburgh Task Force in crafting a plan for downtown. It's entitled, simply: "Leading Man: The mayor should stay open to development advice."

Surely he should. And surely he needs the advice from the Post Gazette. I mean, remember a few weeks back when the mayor got all ahead of himself and picked which casino plan he liked, even before he had a chance to thoroughly review them all. You remember. He said:

We believe the best deal is the one offered by the Isle of Capri and its partner, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I mean, come one Mayor O'Connor. Can't you just be like the Post-Gazette and show a little patience?Wouldn't it make sense to ...

Wait a minute. Hold on there. What's that you say?

Oh yeah. The mayor didn't say that. The Post Gazette did.

Remember that editorial? It was a good one. It argued that the arena plan was great because:

It will work out somewhere in the middle, with a net benefit, given the revenue from 14 casinos statewide that will provide relief from school property taxes.

Yep. Lowering school property taxes. That's what the Isle of Capri plan would do. I can't wait until that $290 million starts pouring into city coffers and reduces local taxes by that amount. We can hire teachers and buy books...

Whoops. Sorry. Happened again. What I meant to say was, how exactly is that $290 million dollars going to help students when it's going to build an arena?

The fact of the matter is, under this plan the students and the taxpayers get the leftovers. The Penguins have dibs.

Awesome.

More Nanny State BS: I Await the Post-Gazette's Endorsement

The other day I took the Post-Gazette to task for supporting the ridiculous ban on smoking in all bars and restaurants, regardless if that's what the owner, workers or patrons want.

One of the primary elements of my position amounts to a "slippery slope" argument: If it's smoking today, what will they ban tomorrow? Twinkies?

And that is the element of the argument that is most open to criticism. "Paranoid jackass," people say. "No one wants your stupid Twinkie."

Undeterred, I have also made the argument that if the public health goon squad really wants to improve public health like they claim, smoking isn't the only dangerous thing going on in bars.

"Paranoid jackass, no one cares how much you drink. You just want to smoke and you don't care how your nasty habit impacts innocent bartenders. Chump!"

Well, first of all, I don't smoke.

And second of all... told you so.

So there.

Maybe this doesn't seem important to you. But a lot of people think this line of reasoning makes a lot of sense. I refer you again to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's support of the smoking ban.

I like the Post-Gazette. I think they do a lot of excellent reporting. Toland and Belko, for instance, have been doing hard-core work on the casino mess. But their editorial bord too often flirts with shallow pop-culture speechifying that borders on the smug. Yes, we know smoking is bad for you. So is drinking and casual sex and a host of other things.

But I took civics class. And as far as I recall it's not the government's job to make sure no one does anything that's bad for them. And it doesn't make it any better when the reason they come kicking down your door is for clean air or safe streets.

Paranoid? Check the link. And ask yourself: Say I own a bar and refuse to do the state's job. That is, I refuse to enforce the smoking ban. And let's say officials catch wind of this and send someone to do something about it. And let's say I know they are coming and lock my door.

Think they'll kick it down?

All because a few people think smoking is nasty and refuse to go somewhere--one of the growing number of places---where it's not allowed.

Public health. Talk about a slippery slope...

Gambling and Graft(?): The Erie Casino Story, and a Pittsburgh Connection

Wow. The corruption story in Erie, in which the city's former mayor is facing serious, serious charges related to the location of a casino, ought to be getting more play here in Pittsburgh. Actually, one of the guys charged, the former mayor's law partner, is a Pittsburgh attorney. The Erie Times News runs an update and a nice rundown of the case today. They have been doing a real bang-up job on the story throughout. (And it is allowing me to cut and paste. Sweet. The link requires registration though. Worse, I think the link is weird. It might require you to search around a bit. If so, and if you are still interested, just go to www.goerie.com and cast about a bit. It'll be worth it if this kind of stuff is up your alley.)

Former Erie Mayor Rick Filippi is on trial in Washington County on public-corruption charges, along with Erie lawyer Eric Purchase and Pittsburgh lawyer Rolf Patberg.

Purchase was Filippi's adviser and campaign manager. Patberg is Filippi's law partner. The defendants were indicted Dec. 8, 2004.

The charges are related to land deals surrounding the former International Paper Co. site, which had been considered by MTR Gaming Group Inc. for an $80 million horse racing complex.

The state Attorney General's Office accused Filippi and his two associates of illegally using inside information from the Mayor's Office to try to profit by secretly buying property on East Lake Road through a company known as Aiko Acquisition LLC.

The defense claims no inside information was used in the land deals, and that efforts to redevelop the IP site were public knowledge.

Hmmm...