Kentucky Derby Champion Barbaro was euthanized in Pennsylvania today, ending his long and valiant battle to overcome injuries sustained at the Preakness last spring.

Last spring, shortly after the injury, I lamented Barbaro’s breakdown, and in October, I welcomed what seemed to be a miraculous recovery.

But horses need all four legs and all four hooves, or they die. Plain and simple. And ultimately, Barbaro’s injuries were more than even he could survive.

Nevertheless, wonder and awe are the only apt descriptors for the battle that Barbaro waged for survival. With the aid of great vets and modern medicine, he endured all. It’s natural to want to project human qualities onto our animal friends. But it’s not unfair to suggest that Barbaro showed real heart. Do horses have a will to live? I believe they do, and Barbaro’s seemed stronger than most.

More than a generation has passed since the last Thoroughbred won a Triple Crown. Horse racing, it’s been said, has been searching for champion.

Even though he only won the first leg, it’s clear that the sport has found a champion, and he will be missed.

Other coverage: Jane Smiley has an excellent piece about Barbaro and Thoroughbred racing over at the Huffington Post.

An excellent story from the Washington Post, here.

I was in New York yesterday for a business meeting, and drove past ground zero for the first time.

It’s a construction site now, surrounded by fencing. But mostly, it’s still a big hole in the ground.

Nevertheless, passing by, even in a cab on the West Side Highway, was a breathtaking experience.

Jim: This is going to sound like a contradictory statement, but here goes: “Marshall, you’ve got to see Ground Zero up close. The emotional upheaval makes it a must-see.”

I think people will get what I’m trying to say. I went on, oh, Memorial Day 2002, I believe. There were a bunch of terror alerts for New York City that weekend; the Mrs. and I decided to hit every potential target in a mix of defiance and skepticism over the warnings - the observation deck of the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, a Mets game (Yanks were out of town), the subways, Times Square, the whole nine yards. Can’t live in fear, you know?

Anyway, we went to Ground Zero. The cleanup was finished; it just looked like a massive construction site. The cross was still in place. I have a feeling that a long time from now, long after we’ve left the scene, that spot in lower Manhattan is still going to attract visitors, mourners, people who know they have a duty to remember what happened there, and its massive, reverberating effect throughout the world, akin to Washington’s Crossing, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, or Omaha Beach.

Unless I am mistaken about my friends’ ages, the Oakland Raiders have hired a new head coach younger than any of us, Lane Kiffin.

Okay, just checked; he’s older than me, but not by much.

Marshall: Yikes.

A friend sent me this article, criticizing Kollyfornia Governor Conan Terminator – er, Arnold Schwarzenegger – for paying bonuses to his staff:

We were all awakened late last week to a disclosure that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger paid substantial sums from his political accounts after the election to four key aides in his administration.  If this does not tell the people of California that this Governor is no better than the last, then I do not know what will.The funds paid out to the key staff members were characterized as ‘bonuses’ and paid to the Governor’s chief of staff, his communications director, the governor’s personal assistant and the first lady’s chief of staff.  All of these individuals are full-time state employees.  

If I remember correctly (and this is dating back to the States News Service days), Ted Kennedy had a larger than normal staff in his Senate office, because he paid a few out of his own pocket. Every Congressional office gets a staffing budget based on several factors (distance of home state from DC, etc.); some spent it all, some “returned” the unspent money to the Treasury.

Anyway, my instinct is that I’ve got little gripe with Arnie. If he wants to give his staff bonuses, that’s his perogative. This may even be a good trend. There’s less money in the public sector than the private sector, we know that. We also know that because of that, it’s harder for the government to attract and retain talented people. I don’t want oodles of taxpayer money spent to make government jobs more lucrative, but I also want the best people I can get working for the public. Getting multimillionaire lawmakers to spend their own money on bonuses for their staff strikes me as an easy solution, although not necessarily one that will always be available.

Rereading the article, I notice that the money is coming from Arnie’s political accounts, which I presume is/was his reelection fund, and the Austrian Bodybuilders For a Better California PAC or something like that. I could see someone being a little unnerved by that. Now when you donate to a candidate, you’re not just funding his election; you’re also paying for bonuses for his staff. That seems to be entering the neighborhood of Bribe-ville.

On the other hand, when you donate to a reelection fund or a PAC, you’re already paying the salaries of the campaign staff and the PAC staff.

Maybe this will be the topic where Marshall and I have an On Tap Fight.

Marshall: Only if you tell me what I’m supposed to be fighting over.

Seriously, if Arnold wants to give bonuses to his staff with his political funds, I’m fine with that, as long as he discloses it — which he obviously did. Voters and the press can react however they want. If they object vociferously enough, Arnold might not do it again. Others might not either. If no one cares, that sends a message, too.

Cam and Marshall have been good about writing new posts, so here’s my latest conversation-starter: 

Kay S. Hymowitz writes a great, and lengthy essay on what Paris Hilton’s fame says about America. An excerpt that really hit home:

Paris is exhibitionistic in a way that goes beyond the everyday sluts and hos of contemporary popular culture. When Janet Jackson arranges a wardrobe malfunction, we may rue the decay of prime-time television, we may boycott her albums or send angry letters to the FCC, but we recognize that we have seen a performance—a publicity-ravenous, cheesy performance, but a performance nonetheless. Paris, on the other hand, trumpets her name-your-pleasure promiscuity in a way that speaks only of unthinking, careless decadence. It’s not that she is a working girl willing to go too far to sell her next record album; it’s that she is above morality. She can do whatever she wants, and she’s proud to rub your nose in that fact day after day. How could you not hate someone who thinks she doesn’t have to live in the same world as the rest of us?

I’m kind of annoyed that I even know who Paris Hilton is; I’m even more annoyed that I keep getting told about her on at least a weekly basis. I don’t think I watch that much television or gossip rags, and yet I keep getting told more and more about her.

I mentioned this argument that Paris Hilton is some sort of Nieschean Uber-Celebrity, Fame Beyond Good And Evil, to Mrs. Hillaryspot, [Yes, every time the blog name change, my wife’s name changes] and she said, “no, when she screws up, she gets punished with bad publicity.” But for Paris Hilton, there truly is no such thing as bad publicity. Sleeping around? Public drunkenness? This woman’s career took off with a sex tape. A bad movie? A ”music career” that never requires her to sing live? They just bounce off her, and she just keeps on going. She’s like the frickin’ Terminator of sleaze culture.

Even if everything Paris Hilton touched never made another red cent, she could still afford to live like… well, Lindsey Lohan and she would still be taken care of well into her retirement years. She’s rich beyond our imagination, the media is obsessed with her and will not stop covering her every move, and no one — N-O-O-N-E — is willing to intervene in her life, or to tell her that this isn’t the way anybody is supposed to act. Her parents clearly don’t care. Her friends clearly are just enjoying the ride. She has no role models in her life, no authority figures, no one she has to be accountable to.

This ain’t the pop culture I want any future kids to grow up in. And yet, I don’t know how to “push back” against Paris Hilton culture.

You read it here first, but Hal Colebatch writing for the American Spectator has it better and more completely than I managed. Catch his must-read piece here.

Here’s the heart of the matter:

Steve Bush, editor of the magazine Warship World, was reported as saying: “After ten years of Labour government, the Royal Navy is on its knees. Without immediate and proper funding, I cannot see how it can recover.”

Jim: These are the moments I fear the bad guys are going to win this war. We never see the headline, “Al-Qaeda Announces Budget Cuts For Coming Year; Suicide Belts, Hijacking Training to be Hardest Hit.”

The argument gaining strength in most Western countries outside the U.S. right now is political leaders speaking, in the “Wah Power Converters”/Harry Reid tone, “We don’t wanna spend money on defense… Soldiers and sailors and ships are expensive… We want more social welfare spending… We want a 35 hour work week… We want more money spent on us… somebody else can pay for defending us.”

Article I, Section I of the U.S. Constitution reads, in part, “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen … by the people of the several states.”

This is one of those rare Constitutional directives that is utterly without grey area. House members are to be from states. Period.

Unless, apparently, the new Democratic House leadership wishes it otherwise.

Yesterday, Democratic House Leader Steny Hoyer introduced a proposed change to House rules that would allow Delegates and the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico to vote on the floor of the House.

Delegates and the Resident Commissioner represent U.S. territories and other possessions in the House. There are five: one delegate each from the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and Guam, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico.

Needless to say, four of the five are Democrats.

Under House rules, delegates and the Resident Commissioner are currently allowed to cast votes in House Committees. (A practice that I believe is also contrary to the Constitution.) At present, they are not allowed to cast votes on the floor.

If the Democrats get their way, that will soon change.

The Democrats can violate this clear Constitutional instruction owing to a quirk in the manner that the House usually does its business. When the House considers legislation on the floor, it usually refashions itself as the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union.

Hoyer’s rule change would allow the delegates and the Resident Commission to cast votes in the Committee of the Whole, as it is usually called.

This isn’t the first time the Democrats have done this. They pushed through a similar rules change in 1993. The Republican majority removed it in 1995.

But the reaction to the 1993 effort is enlightening. The New York Times said about the proposal, “This maneuver is nothing but shameless political tyranny.”

The Chicago Tribune opined that, “This amounts to a blatant end-run around the Constitution, which allows full voting status only to the representatives of the states.”

USA Today warned, “House Democrats, always eager to grab more power, are expected to open Congress’s new year Tuesday by making an end run around the Constitution.”

Hoyer’s proposal will likely be brought to a vote sometime in the next few days.

And it strikes me that this will be an interesting test for some of those newly minted “conservative” Democrats. Will they stand with their party in a blatantly partisan and unconstitutional act? Or will they stand on principle and with the Constitution?

So it’s time to crank up the phone lines again. Let’s get after those Democratic freshmen like Heath Schuler and ask them to stand up for the Constitution. Heaven knows the Democratic leadership isn’t going to do it.

Here’s the full text of Hoyer’s proposal. (.pdf) This version doesn’t show its designation, which is H.Res.78.

Jim: Infurating, utterly infurating. The debate has gone thus:

Democrats: It’s not faaaaaaaair! We have four representatives from U.S. territories who can’t vote!

Republicans: Then change the Constitution. I’ll oppose it, but good luck with that.

Democrats: That takes too looooong! I don’t have the patience! It’s too haaaaaard!

Republicans: Tough.

Democrats: Why can’t we just change the rules?

Republicans: Because the rules change will violate the Constitution.

Democrats: That’s not faaaaaaaair! I don’t want to follow the Constitution! It’s too haaaaaard! I was going to go to the Tocce Station to pick up some power converters!

What the hell happened to the Constitution? Congress gets to skip the parts it doesn’t like? Flag burning, lap dancing, and “death to America” from a radical imam is protected, but political speech before an election isn’t? Doesn’t anybody believe in playing by the rules anymore?

Cam: Whoa. Did you really just compare Hoyer to Luke Skywalker? I know, whiny whiny whiny, but still. You can’t do that.

Jim: Come on, the “WAAAAAAH Power converters” is the whiniest line in the history of cinema. Had Mark Hamill delivered another line in that tone of voice, we all would have been rooting for the Sand People.

You can catch Marshall on Cam’s show tonight starting at 9p EST. Visit nranews.com.

We should have vibrant discussions about a wide range of issues. Also, we’re pretty darned amusing.

Sorry to interrupt the “lemme disagree with Cam” posts, but something happened last night/today that I want to get off my chest. And for some reason it feels more appropriate to write about it here than at my place.

My brother died last night. Technically he’s my half-brother. Dad’s been married three times, and Tim was from the first marriage. I’m from the second. Thank God Dad didn’t procreate in marriage three, because it’s hard enough keeping track of the seven of us kids as it is.

Actually, now there are five. My dad’s first daughter, Victoria, died when she was about 3 months old (back in the 1950’s). Dad was in college at the time, and I guess it would be classified as SIDS if it happened today. She was in her stroller on the apartment balcony for a few minutes. Dad’s wife went outside and found her not breathing.

I bring this up because I didn’t even know I had this sister until 5 years ago, when the remaining kids all got together for Dad’s 75th birthday. And believe it or not, that was the first time that all six of us kids had ever been in the same room together. It was the first time I can remember ever meeting my brother Tim. How weird is it to not meet your brother until you’re 27?

But that’s my family. Geographical distance and generation gaps have separated us for years. The past five years have been a little bit better in terms of everyone talking, but it would be a joke to say that Tim and I were close.

And now we never will be.

I gotta say, what’s really bothering me right now is wondering what my father’s going through. To lose not one, but two of your children… it’s not the natural order of things. Then again, I’m dreading the day that I get a call telling me one of my parents have died. Dad’s 80, Mom’s 72. She’s already talking about what she wants me to have after she dies. I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear my parents talk about their death. You don’t ever want to hear your parents have sex, and you don’t ever want to hear them talk about their own demise. It’s a law… or it should be.

My mind’s a bit of a jumble right now, in case you haven’t figured it out. I keep thinking about my daughter Mallory, 18 years older than her youngest siblings, and I wonder if she will have the same relationship (or lack thereof) that Tim and I had. I hope not. I’m sorry I didn’t know my brother better, and I’m sorry I’ve lost the chance to make that right.

Jim: Wow. Cam, words can’t express how sorry I am to hear that — I’m absolutely flailing to think of the right words, or any words to say. I can’t imagine what you’re going through, and hope to not ever have to go through it myself.

For what it’s worth — and at a time like this, probably not much - for whatever your regrets, I’ve always seen the way you operate in this world as a worker, a friend, a spouse and as a father as a role model - you juggle it all with excellence. Take time for your regrets, but don’t spend too much time on them - you’ve done more than your share to make the world a better place for the people in your life.

Cam laments over at his blog that Virginia Republicans have come together around a deal that would pump about $1 billion into transportation across the Commonwealth. “Doesn’t some party have to be against raising taxes?”

Well, um, no. Not when it’s the right thing to do.

Dude, have you driven on the beltway lately? Seen I-66 at rush hour?

State government’s most important job, arguably, is providing infrastructure for commerce. It’s one that government is uniquely suited for. (Just ask the guys who were trying to move goods in 1785 on the hodgepodge system of toll roads and canals.)

But Virginia hasn’t paid any real attention to transportation — and by that, I mean roads, not feel-good but worthless mass-transit plans — in more than a generation. This deal is long overdue. And if that means I have to a pay a little more, I am happy to do so.

And the deal that Virginia Republicans worked out is a good one. It includes very little in the way of general tax increases, but it comes up with the necessary revenue to do what needs to be done.

Cam isn’t from Virginia, so I’ll forgive his ignorance of Virginia history. But it’s important to understand that since the days that Harry Byrd, Sr. was governor, Virginia has been a pay-as-you-go state. We don’t sink ourselves into mountains of debt and then hope that luck or Providence will save us later (see, for example, California, New York, etc.). These days, we need the roads, so we’re going to pay for them. It’s that simple. And we want to pay for them without taking money from other important priorities — like public education. So the money has to come from somewhere.

Cam, as a resident of Northern Virginia, where the traffic is the second-worst in the nation behind only Los Angeles, ought to be celebrating the long-overdue move by the legislature to address the problem. The hand-ringing over higher taxes and lamenting a perceived breach of conservative or partisan dogma doesn’t get us anywhere closer to a solution.

Jim: Lest it seem like it’s gang up on Cam week, I’m going to note that while I agree with Marshall in this case — very likely relocating to northern Virginia, and the less time I spend in traffic the better - I want lawmakers to have a genuine and healthy skepticism when new spending is suggested for “a good cause.”

Actually, my neighbor here in Turkey wrote a fascinating book at the social effects of suburban sprawl - the web site for it can be found here. The more I talk with Doug, the more I think lawmakers of all parties and ideologies have dropped the ball on intrastructure, urban/suburban planning, zoning, etc. For example, it seems like in lots of places in northern Virginia, you’ll have a housing development off of a highway or major road, with no outlets, just a spreading tree of cul-de-sacs. And then right next to it, you’ll have another one, again only connected to the rest of the world via that major artery. Next to that, you’ll have the mini-mall, the big box stores, etc., again, with one main entrance; none of these will be connected to each other and thus everyone wishing to get anyplace has to do so by going out onto the main road. (US278 leading from I-95 to Hilton Head, S.C., is the agonizing embodiment of this.)

Compare this to your basic urban grid, with multiple use zoning, with apartments next to commerical usages, corner stores and groceries, etc. If one street is clogged with traffic, you just move over a block and try the next one; you’ve got multiple routes to every destination, and little or no choke points.

Certain housing developments in recent years have been designed with automobiles in mind; my in-laws don’t even have sidewalks in their neighborhood. The architecture sends a very clear message: These streets weren’t made for walking; the form of the properties reinforces your dependence upon an automobile, whether it’s to get a quart of milk or a cup of coffee or a run to Price Club.

We’ve developed ourselves into a cul-de-sac dead end, to force a repetitive pun. It’s going to take money to get us out, but it probably will be worth it in the long run.

Cam: Can the next On Tap fight involve Marshall and Jim, please?

Seriously, I understand what you’re saying Marshall, but wasn’t it just a couple of years ago that the GOP-led assembly voted to increase taxes when there was a billion dollar surplus? This was right around the time I moved here, and I was pre-occupied with getting the show up and running, but I seem to remember some talk of that.

And I agree about paying for roads being a high priority, but I wonder what kind of pork we’d find if we started rooting around various state budgets. Maybe it wouldn’t be enough to offset all of the tax increases, but it’d be a start.

And you guys can pick on me all you want. At least I’m spurring on your return to the blog!

Marshall, again: First, let me address Jim’s comments. In short, I completely agree. The lunacy of many of the planning decisions that have been made in recent decades is appalling. Communities with no sidewalks, cul-de-sacs, and the like. The fact is, the places that people love to congregrate are mixed use — Old Town Alexandira, for example. Georgetown is another. Places where people live, work, shop and recreate. And happily, we’re seeing the return of mixed use — Clarendon is a great example.

But we can build all the mixed use we want, and we’re still going to need to be able to move between and among communities. That means roads, and good ones. And Northern Virginia is growing, so we need more of them, and we need them to be bigger and smartly-engineered with the benefit of modern designs.

Which brings me to Cam. Cam, the tax increase you reference didn’t go to transportation at all. It went to education.The legislature wimped out on roads. And has done so every year before and since. So this move is way overdue, and I’m glad they’re finally going to get the deal done.