Flags flew at half-staff and state buildings were draped in black crepe today to mourn the untimely demise of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
While no one is officially using the term “suicide,” the cause of death seems to have been the governor’s own actions: he promised during the campaign that funding for education would be cut “over my dead body,” and his decision to propose exactly such cuts appears to have had fatal consequences.
His term of office, though the shortest in the history of the state, will be remembered for the vigor of the leadership he provided. We shall not look upon his like again.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
Arnold Schwarzenegger is dead
I haven't been writing about Governor Gangbang all that much, because the everything that's happening is so predictable. The people of California were stupid enough to believe Arnie's outrageous promises, which he obviously couldn't keep, and now it's …
Arnold Schwarzenegger dies from own campaign lies
Blogger Mark Kleiman manages to find some humor in California's dismal situation.