Pardon the dust.

"Pardon our dust as we update for the '90s." I wonder whether that sign is still in the El Con mall. 

Haloscan ended its 'blog commenting service. Comments and trackbacks from mid 2008-present are currently inaccessible. I will try to import them. Disqus is the site's new commenting platform.

This doesn't matter too much, since following my departure from the Goldwater State this space is now maintained largely as an archive. If you want to change that, just drop me a note. If you count yourself in the "free minds and free markets" set--if you like what you read here--don't follow any peculiar political doctrine or ideology, and have something to say about politics and policy in Arizona, you're welcome to give it a try.

A 'Blogger's Thanksgiving

I wish a happy (and safe) Thanksgiving to my readers--and would like to list three things for which I'm thankful, or perhaps three non-mutually-exclusive sets of people to whom I am thankful:

1. Kim and Thane for signing up to be contributors, even though they haven't shut me up and taken this over just yet,
   
2. Everyone who has helped to promote this 'blog and associated material, including but not limited to Evan Lisull, Laura Donovan, and the volunteer contributors to Ballotpedia,
   
3. Reasonable opponents and foils. An astute reader noted that I must agree with Nozick's idea, that the "separateness of persons" is of both practical and moral import. I think it enhances my life. While I'm known for being sometimes downright vicious to people I see as being wild, slanderous, or intellectually arrogant, reasonable, measured foils, opponents, or whatever one may call them--the sort of person who has me thinking "I can see how somebody could think that in good faith, and it's interesting..." make me a better commetator and a better person, providing ideas and perspectives I do not have as both one individual. This would be a dull 'blog if they agreed.
   
   At the risk of missing a few friends and acquaintances or fellow commentators--some of whom are in both categories--I'd like to single out the following: Joe Cobb, David Safier, Jim Peron, Nick Coons, Martel Firing, Tom Jenney, and even the anonymous coward "CLS". Even if some of them have their moments of being wild, slanderous, or arrogant, and even if some have the obnoxious habit of agreeing with me too often, they keep me honest and push my intellectual boundaries.
   

No, I am not up typing at 2:24 AM. I'm out of town, and hope to return to regular 'blogging by Monday.

Welcoming another coblogger.

In anticipation of my departure from Arizona--next August at the latest--I'm trying to turn Goldwater State into a group 'blog. So far I've been asking people to join, but if you're interested in contributing, send me an e-mail, and I might send one back, "asking" you to join.

Thane Eichenauer is among the best readers of the Arizona policy 'blogosphere and leaves valuable comments here and elsewhere. He's also, among other things, been a candidate for U.S. Congress, on the ballot in the general election. I'm pleased to say he's joining Goldwater State as a contributor and will leave him to finish his own introduction. He'll bring a bit of a different perspective, both geographically and politically. (Still broadly "modern classical liberal", but we don't all sound or think alike.) Welcome!

The passive-aggressive "nofollow"

If you were to see the source HTML code of my posts, you'd notice something peculiar about the link tags: those to 'blogs which do not routinely link to or reference other 'blogs have a rel="nofollow" attribute.

Among other things, that means that my links do not boost their search engine rankings.

The 'blogosphere works best--it is at its most interesting and most civil--when it is conversational, when 'bloggers respond to one another's ideas and pass along items of interest, and tends to descend to "preaching to the choir" partisan banality when it is not. I don't care too much whether or not those I link reference Goldwater State, but if they're not linking, for search-engine purposes, I won't link them, either!

Sonoita/Elgin wine area coming of age.

For years, Callaghan Vineyards has been in a league of its own in the Sonoita AVA and perhaps in all of Arizona, producing wines to rival those of California, Oregon, and anyplace else. I dropped in to taste at a few wineries yesterday following a hike near Patagonia and found that things have changed; the Wilhelm Family Vineyards wines impressed me, and I'm not easily impressed by wineries. Their specialty is Albariño, from which they produce a very well-structured white, and they also make a heavily extracted but food-friendly oak-aged Sangiovese. Most of what is produced is labeled "Hawk's Flight" as it's made from sourced fruit. The first estate wines will be released later in the year; given the capability and good taste shown by the winemaker, I have high expectations.

Village of Elgin Winery, too, has quite a bit to offer--and probably the only bargains in the area--buried in its Chinese restaurant menu-like list of wines. Skip the sweet tourist fare and go for their dry reds made from Italian varietals and the perfect Spanish-style rosé.


An interview with Mike Ross, some semi-novel remarks on the budget crisis, and a report on the latest sure-winner lawsuit against Sheriff Joe (hatin' on spics brown people is expensive!) to follow in the next few days. Expect one of those three by the end of Sunday. And as soon as I get his permissions issues settled--does Gmail eat Blogger.com e-mails?--there should be a second co-'blogger.

Another good resource, and a writing opportunity for readers.

Examiner.com is fast becoming one of the best sources of participatory journalism and commentary on the Web. Chances are you've already been directed to an article or two on the site via Google News. Its writers are paid, but usually have day jobs and are often writing in areas of personal expertise.

Among Arizonan political writers on Examiner, Phoenix Libertarian Examiner Daniel Heller hasn't been writing long, but is showing himself to be a capable and interesting commentator from the modern-classical-liberal or libertarian perspective. I'd add him to the 'blogroll but Blogger.com can't pick up a proper feed from the Examiner, so he's in the link list instead.

To readers who might want to start writing on the Web: Examiner pays, and given that it's a bit more formal than Associated Content, it probably pays considerably more. (For the curious: I've made from this 'blog roughly enough to buy lunch at Subway. Reviewing glue, household appliances, and tasty beverages on Epinions.com pays my internet related bills in a good month. This is a hobby and not a living!) Currently they are soliciting writers in Phoenix and Tucson, with Tucson a bit more wide-open. Scanning the Tucson availabilities potentially of interest to readers, I find:
Arizona Statehouse Examiner
Arizona Policy Examiner
Tucson Economic Policy Examiner
Tucson Fiscal Responsibility Examiner
Tucson Government Examiner
Tucson Nonpartisan Examiner
Tucson Independent Examiner
Tucson Political Buzz Examiner
Tucson Pollution Examiner
Tucson Public Policy Examiner
Tucson Ethnic Restaurants Examiner
Tucson Eco-Travel Examiner.

I'm sure that Tucson Barista Examiner appeals to some of you single guys, too. (I'm not making that one up!) At the very least, it will make for a good pickup line. I can't find an equivalent category for the ladies. Maybe Tucson Single Men Examiner? There are also some wacky ones: "Tucson Cuddle Party Examiner", "Tucson Zombie Examiner", "Tucson Sidewinders Examiner", "Tucson Support Groups Examiner", "Tucson Suicide Examiner".

On an unrelated note, Radley Balko's The Agitator has been added to the bottom 'blog feed.

Signs of life.

Those of you who are curious as to what I've been up to in the past two weeks ought to keep an eye on Proceedings of SPIE for a paper entitled "A method for quantifying the force dependence of initiation by T7 RNA polymerase," which quite obviously has nothing to do with Arizona policy aside from showing off some of the cutting-edge biosciences funded in part by that sales-tax surcharge approved at the ballot way back in 2000. Readers of this 'blog probably oppose such things--the (Pareto-) optimal science subsidy is probably nonzero but who's to say if this particular scheme was fair to the individual taxpayer. But at least now you know that some of it went to one of the Good Guys.

Back to the last question, the Legislature didn't take up stranded bills, meaning, among other things, there will still be no campus concealed carry.

Additions to the 'blogrolls

Some minor housekeeping:

Kim's 'blog, The Path of Most Resistance, and Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish have been added to the non-Arizona 'blogroll that usually displays down at the bottom right.

Sonoran Alliance, the major right-wing 'blog in this state, has been added to the roll. Like 'Blog for Arizona, its anti-rational partisanship and occasional descent into outright cliché of the lowest sort makes it often grating, but it's nevertheless a good source of information.

In the Arizona section, "Chandler Criminal Defense" is the 'blog that used to be called "Brown and Little PLC". Terry Bressi's fantastic Roadblock Revelations, keeping us abreast of his own Federal civil rights case and Border Patrol infringements of civil liberties, is certainly worth following. Dustin's Gun 'Blog has improved over the last two years to the point where it's now frequently insightful, in addition to being a reasonably thorough source of news concerning firearms legislation in Arizona. Both have been added.

Changes at Goldwater State

A heavy workload and a cut to the hand that rendered typing painful together caused an un-announced 'blogging break. Posting will still be light for another few weeks, but I'm "back" as of right now. Thank you for your patience.

As promised, a few changes are happening at Goldwater State. One of the 'blogs more serious deficiencies was sparse coverage of Maricopa County happenings. I'll now be joined by a co-'blogger, Kim Ruff, who resides in the Phoenix area; the almost two thirds of readers who live in the Phoenix area will see increased local news and commentary in addition to a fresh perspective on statewide affairs. (Who wants to hear from a scientist all the time, anyway?) I'll let Kim introduce herself in her own post.

An e-mail will go out to roughly two dozen potential "regular" guest 'bloggers by 30 June 2009. If you're interested in being an occasional commentator on this site, you don't have to wait for this; sending me a backchannel e-mail will do. My aim is to make Goldwater State more conversational by the time I leave the state, and to be able to hand it over to two or three regular co-'bloggers.

Fall will bring a more exciting development, which I can't say too much about yet. When it happens, you'll notice, right away.