I'll Just Leave This Here

Please read.

My new hero

He's kind of a dick, but it's impressive to watch him parry with the criminal officers in this video.

Why to not vote for Coakley

Well, one of the reasons.

Freedom of what?

Disgusting. Simply disgusting.

Don't Film Us, We're Undercover While Wearing Badges

Not much commentary to add to this video.

Obama Embraces his Inner Nixon

Ah, enemies lists. Suppression of speech. General dickishness (or Dickishness). Lovely.

I am Shocked

Can you believe it? Governments are lying to us about a threat, while taking and encouraging actions that increase the threat. Unbelievable.

Let Them Be

And here's one to make most gay rights supporters annoyed at me. I think it would be nice if eHarmony voluntarily offered its services to homosexuals, but forcing them to is an assault on rights. The right of free association also means the right to not associate. You have the right to not associate with someone for whatever reason, whether that's because that person is mean, dumb, a criminal, or for bad reasons like that they're gay. The right to be an asshole is one of our fundamental rights. Feel free to criticize people for being assholes, but if you use force to change their behavior, you're the asshole.

They Always Shoot the Dog

America, your War on Drugs (audio starts immediately). (Headline stolen from Balko)

Don't try this at home

Or anywhere.

I am not a fan of Steve Landsburg, but this column about the stimulus package is right on. Don Boudreaux (chair of GMU's economics department) agrees. Paul Krugman's reaction to it is to write what is, to use the technical philosophical term, a fuck you post. I'll grant (grudgingly) that there is the possibility that Landsburg could be wrong. His position, though, is not a "crime" and evidence that he "obviously just doesn't get it". People who think that Keynes was wrong aren't morons or charlatans. They may be wrong, but it is very much up to debate. This wasn't an academic paper, it was a column promoting certain ideas. He has to be honest is so doing, but has free range to consider whatever ideas he sees fit and that fit into the space available. Honestly, I expect a little better from someone who is on the list for winning the Nobel Prize, teaches at Princeton, writes a regular column for the NY Times, and is writing on the NY Times site. But maybe I'm being unrealistic.

Interesting exchange between Mitt Romney and an AP reporter, about whether lobbyists run his campaign or not. I have no idea who's right here, though Mitt's style of repeating his assertion annoys me. What I want to highlight is the part (3 min in) where his press guy confronts the reporter; very creepy. "Don't be argumentative with the candidate." Wow.

For Real

Go Montana! They're leading the fight against Real ID, and forcing a showdown. Of course, DHS is simply ignoring the complaints that many (17 states!) have raised, and is simply forcing it down our throats. I in particular liked Chertoff's strong logical argument, "grow up". Actually, now that I think about it, he's convinced me. We should grow up about civil liberties and privacy from the federal government, just like those who complained about the Enabling Act should have grown up. Just like abolitionists should have grown up. Just like people who pointed out that no one had even read the Patriot Act before voting it into law should have grown up.