January 2010 Archives

 I try to understand American Leftists' arguments, and assume they are on balance reasonable people. Sometimes it's tough, as when the Supreme Court makes a reasonable common sense ruling on free speech. Will W. reasonably says -

The anguished cries of left-leaning folk over the Citizens United ruling seem to me to be emanating from an alternate universe, so bizarre are they. This was a case about whether the state can suppress the distribution of an unflattering documentary about a powerful political candidate produced by a small group of private citizens. The crazy thing to me is that anyone ever thought that such a rule was not in blatant violation of the First Amendment. The extra-crazy thing is that four Supreme Court justices evidently think this kind of state censorship of political speech is hunky dory.

Matt Welch distills it:

Citizens United, a conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit that has funded a dozen political documentaries over the years, produced a critical documentary about Hillary Clinton in 2008 entitled "Hillary: The Movie." By a decision of the federal government, which was enforcing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known more broadly as McCain-Feingold), this piece of political speech was banned from television.

Let's boil it down to the essential words: Political documentary, banned, government. (emphasis by me, -W.)

I agree, the scary part is that four Supreme Court justices disagreed.

 

 You probably heard Pat Robertson blaming the Haiti earthquake on a pact the Haitians struck with the Devil.

 Nonsense, of course. Satan would never roll that way, as he explains here:

 Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll. You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract. Best, Satan

Everyone knows Satan is busy working in Congress these days.
 

 Read here, then vote.

 I've been watching this story from the Denver Post this morning-
Curious, as the story itself contains no hint as to how the murder was connected to medical marijuana, a legal business in Colorado. All we have so far is the assertion from the cops. So who wants to emphasize the medical pot aspect, the Post or the police?

 I see Joel Warner at Westword has similar thoughts -

Was last night's "medical marijuana murder" really a medical marijuana murder?

But the question remains: Was the murder last night really related to medical marijuana?

In news stories, police indicate the shooting was tied to a medical marijuana sale. And Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson, in a recent phone conversation, said the same thing: "I think the detectives are confident that the location [of the shooting] is involved in some capacity with medical marijuana."

But since the investigation is ongoing, Jackson can't relate the details as to why detectives believe such a thing -- and in an attention-grabbing situation like this, those details are key.

 

We're left to contemplate the sensationalism. It's a politically charged subject, and some people have political motives. Naturally.

 Ritter ends re-election campaign.

Guess he realized he was gonna get clobbered.

 Update - Speculation is that Mayor Hickenlooper will take the spot on the Democratic ticket. That would be interesting, as he is perhaps the most popular Democrat in the country. But I assume Denver has plenty of dirt waiting to be dug up by enterprising Republicans. I don't think any other candidate will scare them.

 The Colorado minimum wage will actually drop this year, albeit by a tiny three cents to $7.25 an hour. Not enough to make much difference, but it's close to miraculous, as the wage is tied to inflation and is designed to increase every year.

 Minimum wages are the kind of economically harmful populism that should never be put into law, but if it has to be law we should tie it to the unemployment rate rather than inflation. Lower the minimum wage as unemployment rises.