Archive for June, 2007

Lange vs Bacaus

HE IS KIDDING ISN’T HE?

OH and I forgot he said “”During this Senate race, I will listen to the people of Montana, learn what they want done in Washington, and then, as their next senator, I will lead on their behalf,” Lange said.”

I think they have already spoken - Unless I missed something here????

One of my most memorable movie scenes came from 1987’s Gardens of Stone. It’s about Vietnam, but from stateside. The name refers to Arlington Cemetery. I don’t have an exact quote, but sitting at a bar, Sgt. Maj.’Goody’ Nelson, played by James Earl Jones, speaks of the Vietnamese as being among the “most pugilistic” of people on this planet.

Get this - we invade, we bomb, we kill millions. They are pugilistic. What, pray tell, is the exact english word for high absurdity?

Anyway, I was reminded of Gardens of Stone when I read the comments of Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., head of American forces in Baghdad. Here’s what he said:

This is a skilled and determined enemy. He’s ruthless. He’s got a thirst for blood like I’ve never seen anywhere in my life. And he’s determined to do whatever he can. 

Get that? We invade, we kill more than half a million people, but they are the ones with a taste for blood. This is classic projection. It’s as American as apple pie.

By the way - about that bipartisan post-election escalation, given the name “surge”? It’s working. Things have surged, including American casualties. The last three months are the deadliest since the war began.

Those damned pugilistic Iraqis are at it again.

I am sure that some people have seen the Dateline program “To Catch a Predator“, I know I have watched a couple of them, and I think they are a public service.  Well in Murphy Texas, the District Attorney has refused to prosecute the 24 predators who were caught soliciting sex from underage decoys.  Unbelievable. 

Why you ask?  Well the DA says it is because “many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs” (see the above article).  He also said in 16 of the cases he had no jurisdiction, because the suspects and decoys were not in his county.  As for the other 9, he said that he couldn’t prosecute because neither Dateline nor the police could guarantee that the logs of the online solicitations were complete.  Did he think to ask Perverted Justice, the activist group who has helped in catching and convicting 200 child predators?  This from their website’s FAQ page, regarding the question “Do you contact the men, or do they contact you?”:

We have an official “rules of engagement” that we train contributors in once they are selected. One of those rules is that unless asked to in the chat, always let the male PM you. That way they can’t cry that the “kid” messaged them in IM first, they have to take the first step. Often, just entering a chat room is enough to get 3-10 instant messages at once without having to say anything in the main chat room area.

 

We are philosophically against anyone or any organization that contacts people first as underage personas. There is no reason to do that when online predators are so numerous and motivated to contact what they think is a 10-15 year old male or female first. We want predatory threats and we are happy to wait as long as it takes to find them. Sadly, that doesn’t take very long.

If you scroll to the middle of the page of the article above, to the Related Content section, and read “Story behind the investigation, Part 1” and “Story behind the investigation, Part 2” from the Dateline people you might find just a little more.  Including the fact that at least one of the men was contacted from the sting house.

You see in Texas:

Police Chief Billy Myrick: Under Texas law, the offense had already been committed when the communication was completed through the Internet, so we don’t need them to come in. I mean we don’t even need them to show up at the scene.

One of the alleged predators, an assistant district attorney in Texas, had a conversation with one of Perverted Justice’s decoys.  Louis William “Bill” Conrat Jr., apparently made telephone contact with the decoy, and was recorded with a 13 year old decoy.  The conversation went on for two weeks.

Chief Myrick: when I just hear that it was that a chief felony prosecutor of a neighboring county, yes, I did say “No it can’t be. A lot of times and very loudly.”  I said, “Let’s confirm everything.  Let’s make sure.” 

 

Once the chief is certain he’s got the right man, he takes his evidence to a local judge and gets an arrest warrant. He also decides to involve the police in Terrell, the town about 35 miles away were Conradt lives. (not a quote, but an explanation from Part 2 of the story, id)

 

Chief Myrick: “We tried to make sure that because of who he was that we took every precaution possible by contacting the local authorities and/ the chief of the Terrell Police Department.”

The evidence for Louis William “Bill” Conrat Jr.’s arrest/search warrant was reviewed by two Judges. Turns out, that the Assistant DA, started by deleting his MySpace page, and even though he didn’t turn up at the sting house, he still committed a felony in the eyes of Texas law.  For the first time on the show, the authorities turned over the job to another county’s authorities, and tracked Louis William “Bill” Conrat Jr. down at his home for an arrest.  All the other predators who were caught, were ones who actually approached and/or entered the decoy house set up by Dateline.

They knock on the door, with no answer.  The authorities can tell that Louis William “Bill” Conrat Jr. is home, there are a computer and television on, and decide to wait for their tactical team to arrive.  When they arrive, they get into formation, and approach the house, and force their way in.  Here is what happened:

Lt. Barber: As they made entry, they confronted the suspect.  I believe he was in the hallway.  And he told them he wasn’t going to hurt them.  And then he shot himself.

Hansen: And he had a pistol in his hand?

Lt. Barber: A small caliber pistol.

 

Dateline goes on to call this a tragedy (about 1/2 way down the page). There have been a lot of accusations flung since Conrat committed suicide.  Blame thrown to Dateline, Perverted Justice, the Murphy Police Department, the Murphy City Manager, etc.

Personally, I think it is time to throw blame in the direction from whence it came. 

Someone, who was doing (allegedly) something desperately wrong chose to kill himself.  Several people evaluated the evidence, and they came to the conclusion that he was violating the law.  He may not of known that, but he decided he was better off dead than facing questions.  I don’t call that a tragedy, I call that a decision.

What makes me sick, is that other admitted offenders are going free.  They broke the law, in a most egregious way, and they are getting of the hook because some people are too scared to do the right thing.

You tell me.

For my part, the complain that this law would allow illegal immigrants to stay is a moot point, since not passing the law pretty much is allowing illegal immigrants to stay.

How does defeating this bill do anything its opponents want?

Though I thought all four rulings from the SCOTUS today were a bit over the top, the one on faith based initiatives bugged me the most. Not because of how I feel or don’t feel about faith based initiatives but because of the the deeper implications.

A divided Supreme Court yesterday stopped an atheist group’s lawsuit against President Bush’s faith-based initiative, ruling that the plaintiffs do not have standing in the case and thus enabling Bush to continue a program he created by executive order without congressional approval.

The problem as I see it is that though these people are tax payers whose money is being spent on the initiatives, the court claims that does not give them standing. It would be a mistake to say that this is a judgment for or against faith based initiative, it is a judgment on taxpayers rights.

But the Supreme Court, while not ruling directly on the First Amendment church-state issue, found that the taxpayers who sued the government can not do so simply because they pay taxes.

Writing for the majority, Alito said the federal budget is so big “it is a complete fiction to argue that an unconstitutional federal expenditure causes an individual federal taxpayer any measurable economic harm. And if every federal taxpayer could sue to challenge any government expenditure, the federal courts would cease to function as courts of law and would be cast in the role of general complaint bureaus.”

Now, I have to question that. On one hand I can see the danger of allowing every tax payer to sue over how the federal budget is spent. That would lead to mahem.  However, if their case raises a sound constitutional question then shouldn’t it be heard? Look back at what Alito wrote:

it is a complete fiction to argue that an unconstitutional federal expenditure causes an individual federal taxpayer any measurable economic harm

Doesn’t the very existence of a potentially ‘unconstitutional’ program in the federal government cause harm to each of us as protectorates of the constitution? Maybe.

It is good to see that there is hope for the next generation of Americans:

“We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants.”

Those were the words of a letter given to President Bush, not by Congressional Democrats, not by UN member states, but by a group of high school seniors who recently visited the White House.  The students say the letter, which was handwritten, was part of their responsibility to stand up for what they believe.  This is particularly interesting, given what President Bush had to say about these students before he received the letter:

“I know all of you worked hard to reach this day,” Bush told the students in his education speech. “Your families are proud of your effort, and we welcome your family members here. Your teachers are proud of your effort, and we welcome your teachers. And our entire nation is proud to call you Presidential Scholar.”

Bush seems to clearly understand these students represent the best and brightest of youth, and it is fitting to see what the best and brightest truly stand for.

I, for one, am certainly proud of them.

A friend of mine, made in the last couple of months, posted a meme* (not that I know what a meme is, but it turned out good results).  Answer it, and I will post my answers, ok maybe a little edited, but not much . . .

This will be fun . . .

1) You are the Speaker of the House. Bush and Cheney are impeached, and suddenly you are president! What would you do in the next year?

If this is how your Mayor or City Council thinks public comment should be handled, it may be time to think about running for election. Crossposted at 4&20 blackbirds.

In a contentious City Council meeting last Tuesday, June 20th, Great Falls Mayor Dona Stebbins had Susan Overfield removed, forceably (via 3 plain clothed police officers), for violating a 3-minute public comment rule.

Apparently there is nothing in Great Falls that is worthy of anything more than 3 minutes of comment from any one citizen - so much so that they have a buzzer with plain-clothed police officers standing by, and the elected officials there are more than willing to call for their citizens to be yanked physically from the podium, in front of a room full of people, including news reporters and cameras, and then throw them against a wall out in the hallway.

If you did that to me, and you weren’t in uniform, you’d be lucky if I didn’t get in at least one well-aimed kick. Apparently, Ms. Overfield was able to land a punch, though, and for that was arrested for felony assault (later reduced to a misdemeanor.)

All of this over who is going to run the city’s animal shelter. The Humane Society proposed extending their contract at a rate of $186,00/year, for three years, whereas the Great Falls Police Department have proposed a $516,00/year contract. (Neither newspaper wrote that part up very well, so feel free to correct me there.)

Ms. Overfield feels that the Humane Society would do a much better job.

Given the way the police apparently treat citizens merely trying to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech, I’d have to say she is probably correct.

Larry Kraj, Environmental Rangers! blogged this up over at Left in the West. Hopefully there will be video up soon, somewhere.

Since the Great Falls Tribune story will go to purchase only in a week, here is a link to the story at the Missoulian.

I like taking unpopular positions now and then. It’s great fun and usually keeps me amused for days. Here’s another one.

It’s easy to blame our leaders for the mess in Iraq. We blame BushCo, for good reason, for lying and manipulating us into it. We blame Pelosi/Reid and the rest of Congress for not standing up and demanding we leave now, for not carrying out the will of the American people. But is that really true? This isn’t a war on terror. It’s an oil war. We’re not fighting for freedom and democracy in the Mideast. We’re fighting for the freedom of Big Oil to grab control of Iraqi oil and sell it to us, at great profit, so we can continue to freely live behind the wheels of our cars, continue to demand more comforts and conveniences, and continue to buy more useless stuff. We’re sacrificing our sons and daughters so we don’t have to change the way we live right here at home. At least not drastically.

Demand for gas is up this summer from last year. Last year was up from the previous years, and next year is projected to be higher yet. We have the reserves right now to keep us going, but where will we be five or ten or twenty years down the line? We can’t produce enough to keep up with demand so we’ve begun to fight to control the ground where the greatest reserves lie. There’s much trumpeting of biofuels, but face it — that’s not going to cut it. Neither is so-called clean coal. We’ll sacrifice our food growing land for fuel growing, and more than likely end up fighting for the land and water to keep that running. And we still won’t keep up with demand. We are, as the saying goes, between a rock and a hard place.

In a very real sense Congress, and the government in general, is carrying out the will of the American people. We demand more and more oil, and apparently will continue to do so, and they are doing their best to provide. Until we’re willing to change our way of life we can expect to keep fighting resource wars to keep the ball rolling. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. Quite the contrary — it’ll be damn hard to make such changes. But until we do, let’s all be honest about it, and as unpleasant as the thought may be, admit we’re a big part of the whole mess. Whether you agree with me here or not doesn’t matter, but let’s all think about this the next time we climb behind the wheels of our cars and happily motor off to the big box store to fill yet another shopping cart.

Define: dictator

• A ruler who is unconstrained by law
• A ruler who is not restricted by a constitution, laws or any opposition.

The Republican administration in this country have set themselves up to be dictators by the very definition of the word.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s office refused to cooperate with an agency that oversees classified documents, then tried to abolish the office when it challenged the actions, House oversight committee Chairman Henry Waxman said.

The law is the law and Dick decided that he was above it and therefor did not need to comply.

The executive order — intended to maintain the integrity of classified documents — was established by President Clinton and revised by President Bush in 2003.

Cheney makes the claim that he does not have to comply with the order because it is intended to apply only to the executive office and he is not part of the executive branch. What part of government is he then? Does he have his own branch? Is he above the law, outside the law or what? Does anyone see the conundrum this presents though?

“If the [office of the vice president] is not considered an entity within the executive branch, I am concerned that it could impede access to classified information by the OVP staff, in that such access would be considered a disclosure outside the executive branch,” Leonard wrote in January.

Seems like Mr Bush could keep control over Dick? Well, now it looks like Mr Bush thinks he is above his own law.

The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, President Bush’s office is not allowing an independent federal watchdog to oversee its handling of classified national security information.

Note that there is a bit of clarity in the order, which was amended after 9-11:

“Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government,” the executive order said.

But from the start, Bush considered his office and Cheney’s exempt from the reporting requirements, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in an interview Friday.

Two questions then: why didn’t they write that into the order and why did they comply with it in 2001 and 2002? What happened in 2003 to suddenly change the principals of Democratic government such that the American people no longer need to be informed about what is going on in their government?

“If the president and the vice president don’t take their own rules seriously, who else should?” said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute at George Washington University in Washington that lobbies for open government.

“If they get a blank check, it’s a recipe for disaster. I can’t think of a quicker way to break down the credibility of the entire security-classification system.”

Impeach.

[Update] Look here. If Cheney wants to play political word games where he says that he is not officially a part of the executive branch, Rahm Emanual has offered  an amendment to cut funding for The Office Of the Vice President from the bill that funds executive branch.

“The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch. However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President’s funding is consistent with his legal arguments. I have worked closely with my colleagues on this amendment and will continue to pursue this measure in the coming days.”

WOW… The R’s are very good at shooting themselves in the foot aren’t they? Seems our Lt. Governor is not welcome at the dinner table at the GOP convention because WHY?

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/06/20/news/state/25-bohlinger.txt

Of one thing I am sure, come election time you are going to see a LOT of the GOP leaving the door! And, that is a good thing as they have proved that they don’t have the maturity to hold office.

Tonight I took a time out, and went to one of the Archie Bray Foundation’s summer lectures, being given this evening by noted ceramic artist, who lives right here in Helena.  His art is scattered around the world, in many admirable collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution, LACMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK, and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan.

If you have been watching PBS lately, you know that he was a part of the Craft in America project (note Richard’s teapot in the center, for episode 2).  I grew up across the street from Sarah Jaeger, and have been familiar with her and her work for many years.  Imagine my delight in finding someone who spoke his political thoughts, beliefs and outrage into clay right here in Helena.  I jumped at the chance to attend his lecture.

I can’t seem to find an image of it, but I was completely caught off guard by Richard’s (I believe he said) first mold piece.  Of course, I can’t remember the title (that would be helpful right now).  At first glance, you are looking at a sculpture of a typical American lunch.  A sandwich, a pickle, some chips.  This stuff is made out of CLAY, but it looks real.  Then you realize that something is rising out of the baloney on the open faced sandwich, and squirted with mustard, you begin to comprehend that they are buildings, and upon closer inspection, recognizable DC buildings.  Sweet!  Turns out that Richard made a cast of tourist items that he bought while in Washington DC in the 60’s and protesting the Vietnam War. Something in common.

Richard is well known for his intricate carving, and spends hours doing it.  He makes teapots, that look nothing like a teapot, but are war ravaged ruins, that still function as a teapot.  Sometimes they are nuclear reactor stacks, with mushroom clouds as lids and oil drums as spouts.  Images of humanity’s humanity.  Very powerful.

We have stumbled into the 21st Century with the technologies of ‘Star Wars’ and the emotional maturity of cavemen. If we can’t find more creative solutions to solving worldwide social and political problems than sending young men and women to shred and incinerate one another’s flesh with weapons of ever increasing efficiency, we will not survive to celebrate the passage into the 22nd Century — the problems of human civilization are far too complex to be solved by means of explosive devices. And our country and too many of our world’s nations are now in the hands of right wing thugs and fundamentalist tyrants who are fumbling the planet towards World War III.

I continue to make ceramic sculptures which reflect on the social and political dilemmas of our world. Ultimately, my current works are about lessons heard, but not heeded, during the 20th Century, and how these ignored lessons will affect this new century and the human species ability (or inability) to survive the next 100 years.  My work is a visual plea for sanity. Its really quite simple. Richard Notkin, 2006. 

 

From the Ferrin Gallery website.

The pieces that moved me, that caught my eye, and made me think are the ones I saw in the PBS special.  Made up of over a thousand individually pressed and handmade tiles, Richard will find an image, map it, and put together a mosaic of these tiles, each with an image he carved himself. 

Made of earthenware or terra cotta, each tile is fired in a refractory clay box called a “saggar”, with sawdust packed between each tile. The saggars are then placed in a gas kiln and fired to cone 04, or about 1940 degrees Fahrenheit. During the firing, the sawdust ignites, and the resultant lack of oxygen in the saggar causes an atmospheric condition known as “reduction’, affecting the clay body. This creates the wide range of colors in the tiles, from jet black to near white, with every shade of gray in between. No two tiles are exactly alike.

from the Archie Bray website.

From those fired tiles, he selects one that matches with the colors of the black and white photo, and places it in the final piece.  His goal is to make one every five years. Patiently firing, he comes up with images like this:

The Gift and Legacy (1999) or this All Nations Have Their Moment Of Foolishness (2006)

You see, the important thing about our past, present and future, is not how we talk about it, but that we talk about it.  In art, in a blog, over the dinner table, protesting, voting, around the water cooler, in countless ways. 

We don’t have to all agree, but by goodness, let us not forget. 

P.S. Turns out that Richard is a bit of an activist himself. (scroll to the bottom)

On the same day that David Crisp wrote about the power of the blog in affecting super market policy and a week after the notorious Mark T wrote about the power of the blog in affecting pharma policy, Denny Rehberg has confirmed what we knew all along.

For example, Democrats have seized a big advantage among bloggers and that needs to be challenged, Rehberg said. At the same time, the party needs to articulate its core principals to voters.

Why is that? My operating theory is that the principals of the Republican party, as it stands today, don’t look so pretty when they are written down, analyzed and actually discussed. I’ll agree, they make good sound bytes and snarky bumper sticker arguments but they don’t hold up as well to scrutiny in the light of day. Essentially, when you are so confrontational and fringe that you can’t hold on to intelligent thoughtful bloggers like Craig and TMM, all you are left with is the dregs. We couldn’t help but win really. We have provided a magaphone here for any takers, yet no one has really stepped up to the plate to defend them.

From the article, it looks like the party is admitting what I have been screaming all along.

“I think the people of Montana will see real change in the Republican party for the better,” he (Rehberg) said. “This kind of change does not happen overnight.”

And how is this to happen at all? As I have mentioned many times, the party is fractured. Anyone approaching moderate is booted out of the party and this rubs a lot of voters the wrong way. Iverson strikes a conciliatory tone:

“I don’t think the differences are all that big,” he said. “We’re a family, like any family you can have disagreements and different opinions.”—

“We have to change our rhetoric. It’s time to change the tone in Helena,” he said. “It’s about being more civil. It’s about not letting policy differences get personal.”

This looks promising. Seriously. As I have said many times, it is important for us as a state to see both parties functioning in the rational world. However, this was short lived.

The more avowed conservatives, like Koopman, don’t want just anyone. Koopman said he doesn’t want to see another Marc Racicot _ the wildly popular Republican governor during the 1990s and former Republican National Committee chair _ because he was too “liberal.”

That’s what I always say ‘That damn liberal Marc Racicot!’. Let’s be clear, Marc Racicot is a conservative and Koopman is a rightwing extremist.

I am sad to say it, but the fact is nothing has changed in the Montana Republican party.

Fire season just around the corner and our National Guard units a less prepared than they were before the war. Just another effect of Mr Bush’s war.

Most of the soldiers with the state Guard returned from the war two years ago.

But some equipment remains in the Mideast, leaving Montana with fewer resources than it had before the war.

…

As of April, the Guard had roughly 47 percent of its total equipment on hand, Scott said. Some of that missing equipment was left overseas when Montana troops came home after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Essentially, we have lost 53% of our state militia’s equipment is not here. In the first place, I have big problems with the usage of the National Guard as full time combat troops for overseas oil conquests when their primary mission is to protect the state’s interests. Policies have changed in the last couple of years and while that is not OK, it is really not OK that we are missing the equipment we need to protect our state.

In the case of a wildfire, Scott said, a firefighting team typically responds as a module with a helicopter, an operations truck, and a refueling truck.

“Some of that equipment may need to be resourced out,” Scott said. “We left a lot of that in Iraq.

“We’re constantly trying to get our equipment needs met,” Scott added. “We’re able to function and do a good job of moving equipment around if we need to, but this is not the best-case scenario.”

The Guard is also short on engineering, or building equipment. Many of the Guard’s bulldozers are still in the reset phase and getting refurbished.

We’ll see how this works out. Don’t expect it to get any better until someone tells Mr Bush he has to take his toys and go home.

Maybe we could hire the lobbyist Conrad Burns to come and curse at the soldiers for not having enough equipment.

I wrote here about the GOP meeting in Helena this week. While I pointed out the fact that everyone acknowledges that the state party has some serious issues. Craig Wilson claimed that their biggest problems are that moderates have been pushed out of the party by far right extremists

“It seems the bigger issue is the schism in the party between conservatives and ultraconservatives or the moderate-conservatives and conservatives,” Wilson said.

“I think they have to try to work that out. To me, it’s not just about issues. It’s more about ideology. It’s kind of the political blueprint you have.

“If the party doesn’t get it back together and there’s still this feuding going on, I think there’s some chance of fratricide in the next election. They will go after each other in the primary.”

Well, this is obviously a party that can’t take a hint. Guess who was told he was not welcome at the GOP convention?

Bohlinger was snubbed by GOP officials Tuesday when his executive assistant, Jackie Williams, called the state headquarters to buy two dinner tickets for him.

Chris Wilcox, the Republican Party’s executive director, called back to tell Williams that tickets to the event were no longer available. He also told the aide that Bohlinger would not be invited to the convention, or welcome, because he’s no longer a Republican, the lieutenant governor said.

What the hell? Bolinger may not be their kind of Republican, but he is a Republican none the less. Is there no room for bi partisan politics?

“To me, it’s pretty cut and dried,” Wilcox said. “He filed for office as part of a Democratic ticket. This is about Republican candidates and values and promoting our candidates.”

You might remember that Chris Wilcox is the one responsible for the infamous death-porn mailer. Obviously not a responsible gentleman if you ask me. You see, the claim that Wilcox is making is not that Bolinger has abandoned has abandoned the principals of the Republican party, but that he ran on a bipartisan ticket with a Democrat.
Bolinger entered into bipartisan politics to better the state and has been kicked out of the party because of it. Had he not run under the ticket with Schweitzer, there would be almost no Republicans in Helena. Apparently working together with a stinking dirty Democrat makes him an outcast, an untouchable.

“I think it would be important for me to go to the Republican convention to show that ours really is a bipartisan ticket,” Bohlinger said. “The thing that really drew Brian (Schweitzer) and me together is we share common values, the same faith and the same hope for Montana’s future.

…

“I’ve not left the Republican Party,” he said. “There are people within the party that would like to exclude me.

He said the Republican Party in Montana no longer has a place at the table for moderates

“We were the party of the big tent to accommodate elephants,” Bohlinger said. “Now it’s a pup tent.”

Well, I’ll tell you what moderates and independents, there is no room for you in the Montana Republican party. Come on over, stay for supper, there is plenty of room in our tent. I would just caution these same Republican’s that the elections come every two years and as Dr Wilson points out, this kind of stuff rubs the voters the wrong way.

[Update: It is worth reading Jason’s take on this as well as Matt’s.]