Tim Trott’s Blog

I was sitting watching CNN tonight when I saw a fascinating statistic. In 2001, Afghanistan produced 12% of the world’s poppy crop. The poppy, as we all know, is the lovely flower that produces the key ingredient in heroin, opium. Today, our allies in the “war on terror” produce 93% of the world’s poppy crop. [...]

The Associated Press issued this story just a few hours ago:

Kenyan leader reduces all death sentences to life
By TOM MALITI (AP)
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s more than 4,000 death row inmates all will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the president announced Monday, describing their wait to face execution as “undue mental anguish and suffering.”
No [...]

We are all familiar with the incident that occurred outside the home of distinguished Harvard University professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., so I won’t rehash the facts. Here’s my concern.
If the police feel, in their subjective judgment, that they have been disrespected by someone, they can issue a citation or even arrest that person. But [...]

RIP

After 3 months of inactivity, I thought it might be worth an explanation to the legions who check this blog in search of wisdom and entertainment. It occurred to me that with the abundance of bloggers out there, there wasn’t a lot to say that wasn’t already said or said better. Mostly there was a [...]

I was going to add to my critique of Sen. Daschle’s appointment. This additional criticism was to stem from the potential conflicts of interest given the millions the Good Senator was paid for consulting (read: lobbying) for the health care industry. Today, Sen. Daschle saved me the trouble. He withdrew his nomination for the post [...]

When I was in law school, my Federal Taxation professor referred to all politicians as, “Our duly elected crooks and idiots in Congress, assembled.” He was indeed a wise man.
Timothy Geithner has been sworn in as Treasury Secretary. As we all know, the Treasury Secretary is in charge of the IRS. That makes sense. What [...]

A few weeks back, United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald held a high and mighty press conference with every law enforcement agency present except the Chicago School Safety Patrol. He promised that serious charges were to be brought against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. No doubt still fresh from his conquest of Scooter Libby (when perhaps he [...]

Tomorrow Barack Obama will take the oath of office as President. That he is the first African-American President is epic history. That he takes the oath the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day adds a bittersweet quality to that history. That he is the visionary who can inspire our fractured nation goes without saying. [...]