THE CARNIVAL OF CARS is up!

CHILLING EFFECT:

A new study has found that doctors are rarely criminally prosecuted or sanctioned in connection with the prescribing of narcotic painkillers. The study, published this month in the journal Pain Medicine, found that 725 doctors, or about 0.1 percent of practicing physicians, had been prosecuted or sanctioned by state medical boards between 1998 and 2006 on charges arising from illegally or improperly prescribing narcotics. Of that group, 25 doctors specialized in pain treatment.

“The widely publicized chilling effect of physician prosecution on physicians concerned with legal scrutiny over prescribing opioids appears disproportionate to the relatively few cases,” the study reported.

Well, it doesn’t take very many prosecutions to create a chilling effect, something that the criminal law relies upon, of course. This is why it’s important to keep a close eye on prosecutors.

AT AMAZON a big sale on men’s watches. This one’s almost 90% off, which is pretty impressive since it started at nearly $1600. I ordered one myself, to get ahead on my Christmas shopping.

UPDATE: Reader Jon Ravin emails about the 90% off watch:

Why buy obsolete and fundamentally inaccurate (compared to electronic watches) devices, when for less than you paid you could have a nice modern watch???

I thought you were more a technology freak than that!

My response: It depends on how much you’re worried about the electromagnetic pulse . . . . Looks like I ordered mine just in time, though!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Stephen Borchert writes: “I’m glad I ordered one when I did, as I was surprised that they were still available after you posted the link. Thanks for the heads-up. I have an Invicta automatic and they’re the poor man’s Rolex.”

MICHAEL YON on French deaths in Afghanistan.

I NEVER KNEW that the Democratic Party was such a hotbed of racism. Thank goodness I left them for the Libertarians, back in ’94.

UPDATE: Reader Scott Karns writes: “Am I a racist if I don’t vote for Obama because he’s a lawyer? ;)” Speaking as a lawyer, I’d say yes, yes you are, Scott. And you should be deeply ashamed.

TEETHING PROBLEMS at the Large Hadron Collider.

DR. MELISSA CLOUTHIER on surviving Hurricane Ike.

AT REASON, thoughts on taxes and patriotism.

MORE ANTI-PALIN THUGGISHNESS from Democratic operatives.

More here and here.

UPDATE: TigerHawk: “Whether Barack Obama can be said to be ‘good for the Jews’ is too portentous a question even for this blog. It is now safe to say, however, that his campaign is not.”

DAVID WEIGEL: Obama’s Wars: Liberal Interventionism Makes a Comeback. “Obama believes all of what he said six years ago in Chicago. He has called for, or retroactively endorsed, interventions in Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and Sudan. He has advocated a humanitarian-based foreign policy for his entire public career. Since coming to the U.S. Senate in 2005, he has built up a brain trust of academics and ex-Clintonites who, like him, challenge the logic of the Iraq war but not the logic of wars like Iraq. John McCain looks at American military power and sees a way to ‘roll back’ rogue states. Obama looks at American military power and sees a way to solve international and intranational conflict, regardless of the conflict’s immediate impact on national security. McCain seeks to aggressively confront imminent threats. Obama wants to do the same, while forestalling threats of tomorrow with just as much military vigor.” Hmm.

THE REPUBLICANS’ SECRET WEAPON: Lefty trolls.

MORE EVIDENCE THAT I’M NOT A CONSERVATIVE: I have very little in the way of a startle reflex. But, then, in high school some people called me “Spock.” Which was highly illogical, as that was not my name, and I have no Vulcan ancestry.

ADVICE: Don’t count COBOL out. Ugh. I used to program in COBOL, and I agree with this statement: “The use of Cobol cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.” Fortran was better, and I’m sure that newer languages are better still. Anything would be! And yet, we’re told, “Cobol is the most widely used language in the 21st century, critical to some of the hottest areas of software development today, and may be the next language you’ll be learning.” Not me. I’ve learned it and forgotten it, and the latter process was far more pleasant than the former . . . .

UPDATE: Cobol is worsening California’s budget crisis:

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to issue minimum-wage checks to 200,000 state workers in less than a month, he may want to rehire any semi-retired computer programmers he terminated last week.

The massive pay cut would exhaust the state’s antiquated payroll system, which is built on a Vietnam-era computer language so outdated that many college students don’t even bother to learn it anymore.

Democratic state Controller John Chiang said Monday it would take at least six months to reconfigure the state’s payroll system to issue blanket checks at the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour, though Schwarzenegger insists such a change should occur this month. . . . The state payroll system is based on the COBOL, or Common Business Oriented Language, programming language – a code first introduced in 1959 and popularized in the 1960s and 1970s.

“COBOL programmers are hard to come by these days,” said Fred Forrer, the Sacramento-based CEO of MGT of America, a public-sector consulting firm. “It’s certainly not a language that is taught. Oftentimes, you have to rely on retired annuitants to come back and help maintain the system until you’re able to find a replacement.”

I’ll bet if he’d ordered a raise we wouldn’t be hearing this excuse — but either way, it’s more evidence that Cobol is a tool of the Devil! Thanks to reader Lou Minatti for the tip.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Bill Richmond emails: “In my experience, people that criticize COBOL never actually made a living with it.” Well, I certainly never did. Which is a good thing for . . . well, everybody!

MORE: Reader David Block writes:

I guess you just wish that 51 year old COBOL programmers like myself be unemployed. I’m too young to retire, and with kids in college that’s not practical to do anyway. I’d rather keep doing SOME work on what I like and am good at than go off and do something that I’m no good at.

Me, I would much prefer PL/I.

Hey, I don’t want you unemployed. Quite the contrary — better you than me! And reader Jeff Gould emails:

The surprising survival of Cobol has nothing to do with the qualities of the language itself. It is due only to the fact that many large IBM mainframe applications still in use today were written in this language. These big mainframe apps were written 20 or 30 years ago to run on IBM’s proprietary mainframe software (operating systems like MVS, “middleware” like CICS and IMS, etc). In most cases it is not technically feasible to rewrite them to run on another operating system such as Linux. And it would be prohibitively expensive to recreate them from scratch in another language like Java. IBM estimates that 200 billion lines of Cobol are running on the remaining 10,000 mainframes in the world with a cumulative value of $5 trillion ($25 bucks a line)!

So people keep this old Cobol stuff alive because it usually doesn’t make financial sense to replace it with something new. They don’t care a hoot about the language itself. When they can replace it they do. Case in point: the State of California payroll app you mentioned is being replaced by a multi-million dollar package from German software giant SAP. This particular Cobol app has become a political football lately because the California Controller (a partisan Democrat with future gubernatorial ambitions) used it as an excuse for not complying with Schwarzenegger’s emergency order to cut state worker wages to the Federal minimum until the Legislature voted a new budget in (which they have now done).

Since IBM needs to keep mainframe revenues flowing (according to analyst estimates the mainframe still accounts for 40% of IBM profits), they have come up with all sorts of clever ways to get people to move non-Cobol apps onto their mainframes. For example, they practice differential pricing on their mainframe CPUs depending on what language the apps run in. Each System z mainframe has a number of CPUs (a modern microprocessor similar in design but not identical to IBM’s Power chip). If you want to run a Cobol app on a particular CPU, you pay a small fortune. If you want to run just Java, it costs a fraction of the price (but then IBM tweaks the chip’s microcode to prevent it from running Cobol).

Back in the 90s and earlier you could buy “plug compatible mainframes” from competing vendors like Amdahl. But in 2000 IBM launched their new 64 bit architecture (System z) and then in 2001 in the Department of Justice killed the longstanding Consent Decree that obliged IBM to license its software to competitors. So now IBM owns 99.8% of the market and is squeezing it for every cent they can get (I confess I would be tempted to do the same if I were in their shoes). They really need Cobol to survive, because the non-portability of those old apps is what allows them to charge millions for hardware that would only cost tens of thousands if it was running Linux.

He’s got a related post — on do-it-yourself mainframes — on his blog. And reader John Allison writes:

Strangely enough, pretty much all the major employers in this neck o’the woods are still operating on systems running COBOL. It’s paid for, it works, and the employees know how to work with it. It was the primary language taught for the CIS program at my alma mater in ’98-’00, and may still be for all I know. The CS majors all looked down their noses at it, but if you wanted to work anywhere in town outside the CS department at the university you’d best know and love COBOL. I have a strong suspicion that my current employer still relies on COBOL (that’d be the IRS). The analysts and other assorted geeks really want to make it go away and have been trying to do so for some time but the system is so large and convoluted that it just isn’t happening.

You want to be careful what you buy up front, because chances are you’ll be stuck with it a lot longer than you think. . .

TOM MAGUIRE SUGGESTS that I was too quick to believe ABC News on the Taheri story. “At this point the McCain camp has over-reached a bit and the Obama camp has enough cover and confusion that their press allies will declare this round for Obama. The truth is more complicated, of course – we can find lies and deceit on the Obama side that more than match the confusion on the McCain side.” That’s me — gullible believer in the Mainstream Media!

HOW TO CAMPAIGN in a financial crisis. Plus, a Wall Street analogy from Roger Kimball. But do the numbers support his analysis?

MORE CLAIMS OF voter fraud by ACORN.

Shouldn’t they be investigated by the Justice Department? Or am I dreaming here?

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Every time there’s a financial crisis, demagogues start criticising the short-sellers. . . . Successful shorts, like George Soros’ spectacular attack on the British pound, usually work because there is a real underlying issue (in that case, the British pound’s unsustainable peg to other EU currencies). If there’s no problem there, the shorts take a big bath. . . . Perhaps most importantly, while short selling is a problem for Morgan Stanley, and his shareholders, it is not the primary problem in this crisis. The problem is in the debt markets, not the equity markets: financial firms are finding it very, very difficult to roll over their paper. (More on this later). The ban on short-selling does nothing to combat this problem, and indeed, by shaking public confidence in the stock price, might push investors into being more conservative on the debt than they otherwise would be.”

THE TOP FIVE REASONS your tires fail. “Maintenance on your tires should command as much respect, if not more, than on all the other parts and systems of your car. Trouble is, most drivers just don’t think about the condition of their tires.”

TIME TO BUY STOCKS? “A year or two from now, I have little doubt you’ll be glad you bought during this tumultuous time.” I certainly hope that’s right.

L.A. TIMES: Obama votes ‘Present’ on new economic rescue plan for now. Decisive leadership for the 21st Century!

ANOTHER political hack attack.

IOWAHAWK: Stomping Home a Message of Hope!

MORE ON THE HURRICANE IKE AFTERMATH: Here’s some USGS aerial photography. And here are some pics on hurricane damage at the Galveston Railroad Museum. Plus, here’s a photo slideshow of damage.

Houstonian Steven Selbe emails: “Not to pat ourselves on the back (I’m a Houstonian), but, unlike Katrina, we aren’t standing around asking ‘where’s the government to fix everything.’ I would say power is back to about 50% of the area, gas was short but is getting better. We all helped each other to clean up (there is a lot of big debris to be picked up but we are patient) and now having taken the punch Houston is getting back to work (I have been back at work for 3 days despite no power at home).”

And reader David Whidden writes:

I saw that you linked to an old Galveston Daily News article that a reader sent you, but unfortunately it is already out of date. As this article from yesterday indicates, that media blackout has already been rescinded. It turns out that the mayor was actually just really busy and decided that her time was better spent elsewhere. Compare her actions to Ray Nagin and his hour long interview on NPR – which one was really serving their city more effectively?

Since Monday they’ve already restored water to all of the areas behind the Seawall (an 11 mile stretch) and a phased return will be started next week.

Maybe the reason there isn’t much news out of Galveston is that there is a functional city government down there that is making responsible choices, albeit with an occasional mistake, and doing everything they can to get their city up and going again. Life is going to be rough there for a while, but in comparison to the clowns who were in charge in New Orleans, the people of Galveston have done a remarkable job so far. They aren’t whining about what their problems are, they are just solving the problems. And, if they can solve their problems on their own, why would the press write about that?

Yeah, that’s no fun. Reader Daniel Kauffmann writes:

Regarding the lesser coverage of Ike vs. Katrina:

First note that I am a former New Orleans resident. I left in 1991, in part because it was apparent that in the event of the eventual natural disaster, evacuation would not be possible on the short notice that hurricanes give; in part because of the glaring ineptness of the City of New Orleans to deal with routine crime, civic, and economic needs – much less a major problem; and in part because of the mindset of about half of the New Orleans populace, “I have a problem and you must help me.”

I currently reside in the countryside an hour north of Houston. Many of the folks that I work with commute from Houston or points in between. Most of us have been dealing without power (and water if on a well, such as I). One coworker had a large oak tree come through her roof, another had three large oaks that totally demolished her home. Of the hundred or more persons I’ve spoken to since Ike came through, one, ONLY one, has said anything about FEMA or the government having any responsibility to help.

The difference is that simple, Ike is not newsworthy because there are no clamoring masses demanding assistance (and blaming Bush because it wasn’t here yesterday). Folks hereabouts wear boots. Boots have bootstraps, and we know how to use them. Ike has been awful. We’ve simply chosen to deal with it. We are extremely grateful for any and all assistance, but recognize that it is our problem, not that of others.

And reader Anthony Dye offers a similar explanation for the low-key coverage:

My theory: It’s because the Republican Governor has handled the response fantastically. Yes there are shortages here and there, but he learned lessons from Rita and put them into practice. In other words, the disaster is bad news but the response has been a positive for the people affected, for a Red State, and for the Texas GOP. They’re showing what “compassionate conservatism” was supposed to look like, and nobody in the media wants to make a Republican look good right now.

The view from Austin, TX is that everyone is doing everything humanly possible to help, and largely succeeding in delivering that help – even to the thousands of imbeciles who stayed through the storm and had to be evacuated afterwards.

Imbeciles, indeed.

UPDATE: A pack, not a herd. Reader Brandon Haber writes:

More from a Houston resident – I work for Johnson Space Center. A few other NASA folks put together a list of volunteers and people in need, and down here, lots of people had a foot or more of water in their house. They’ve organized roving bands of 8-12 of us, going around to houses and tearing down walls, removing carpet, cutting down trees, you name it. We’ve probably done more for people than FEMA, all organized on the spur of the moment. My hats off to the rest of the volunteers, and many others like them. I’m new to Houston, and the amazing citizen’s response to Ike has just reaffirmed why I love living here. The damage is staggering, but then, so is the spirit of this great city.

That’s how it should work.

GAS SHORTAGES IN NASHVILLE: “As prices have stabilized elsewhere in Tennessee, least 85 percent of the gas stations in the Nashville area were without gasoline early Friday, according to AAA estimates.” Prices in Knoxville, on the other hand, where shortages struck last weekend and then abated, have now plummeted. It’s like there’s some relationship between supply, demand, and price. Somebody research this, quick!

RUPERT MURDOCH: Obama’s economic policies are ‘naive’.