Daily Links and Minifeatures 2005 07 23 Saturday (and 24 Sunday)

Looks like they've identified something to fight one component of Alzheimer's Cool!

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Common Sense and Wonder notes the real reason we can't post the Ten Commandments in courthouses: harrassment regulations. "TEN COMMANDMENTS The real reason that we can't have the Ten

Commandments in a Courthouse? You cannot post "Thou

Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and

"Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers,

judges and politicians! It creates a hostile work

environment!"



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Bad news for those who want to pull California off a straight into the toilet course: Redistricting Initiative removed from ballot.



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Old Pot, New Kettle: Partisan Politics In Kentucky



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For those still following Kelo, Mr. Completely directs us to Eminent Domain Watch. I'm sorry to say that I have given up on instituting rational, realpolitik ways to stop eminent domain abuse. All of the interest is in stopping it cold, so it theoretically can't happen. Ladies and Gentlemen, not only are there times when it needs to happen, when it should happen, when society needs it to happen, trying to flatly prohibit it won't work. The powerful will figure out a way, no matter what is enacted in that wise. I can easily poke holes you can push entire Townships through in every single "stop it completely" proposal I've seen, and they are not repairable holes. Furthermore, it is a long standing problem with eminent domain that people who are victims of it are rarely compensated enough for the property that is taken, let alone legal expenses, time away from gainful work, etcetera. The approach of flat prohibition is obvious, and it certainly feels good, but is fundamentally flawed. Approach instead, from the idea of taking away the incentive for abuses, making abuses unprofitable, and abuses will stop. See this article and the preceding articles in that chain if you want to see an approach that at least has a chance.



INCITE has more on the Texas response. Let's see how well it actually works.



MuD and PHuD has another piece on Kelo. I don't like to see someone get slimed any more than the next person, but if she is claiming it as her primery residence in order to be able to get insurance, get better rates, or whatever, and she is not actually living there, she is committing FRAUD. Serious, felony level FRAUD. Just because she was the victim on some other issue does not entitle her to commit FRAUD. Or should we award Rodney King a free pass for life (even assuming he was a victim, a fact of which I am not sure)?







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Libercontrarian has a worthwhile fisking of the traditional libertarian response to illegal immigration.



Rhymes With Right shows us some tentative steps in the right direction.



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Poetic Justice Department: Combs Spouts Off has an article about how a feminist newsletter is ceasing publication due to the possibility a child might see it. Combs is upset; I'm sorry he's upset but I'm laughing. I think the pornographers and people who want to buy from them should (mostly) be allowed to go their own way. But the feminists decry the "objectification of women" and "exploitation" and want it banned. A realistic analysis yields the parties that are being exploited are the purchasers. But I digress.



Now the feminists (among others), being able to hire some smart lawyers, know that the first amendment stands in the way of direct banning, so their primary tactic has been to set an impossibly high bar towards proving that nobody less than the age of 18 participates, and nobody less than the age of 18 can possibly view it - as these are worthwhile causes that unless closely examined everybody will sign off on. Everybody wants to protect the children from porn. Problem is, new standards are setting the recordkeeping on willing participants down to the individual copy level, and that's ridiculous. Nobody can comply with that. There will be a legal challenge, of course, and if it's overturned we're going to hear all about how the Supreme Court wants children to view porn. Balderdash. The recordkeeping requirements are odious past all reason, and I'm glad to see this nonsense burning some of the perpetrators. Assuming the regulations are overturned, as I think likely, porn will come right back but these twits are likely to have been really hurt. (Cue Evil Laughter Here).



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Antigravitas , among others, doesn't like the Patriot Act extension. I don't find it so objectionable. Unlike the First and Second Amendments, the Fourth Amendment was never written or intended as absolute. The Patriot Act itself actually does comparatively little upon a quick reading. I would like to be educated in precisely what you folks find to be objectionable. Or is it just "No! Not the library clause!"



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Oh, that liberal media bias part 153,498,222: Angry in The Great White North has a great article. Look for the quote "When I see Steven Harper, I see the enemy." I am not certain if it is a good sign or a bad sign that he admitted that.



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State of Flux has a really worthwhile article on Prime Minister Singh and tangentially on our warming relations with India. Keep on eye on these guys - both Singh and State of Flux, who seems to have something wonderful every time I stop by.



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Just when I thought I could finally ignore this topic, a new wrinkle: Politburo Diktat is talking about Rove being under fire for perjury now. I'm not worried because he had no reason to lie, and was cooperating with the probes from the very first in ways that the journalists have not, having got their panties in a bunch about a federal shield law that I doubt they should have. The standard to prove perjury is kind of tough, too. Clinton lied about something that was a fact. What, he's had oral sex given him so many times he doesn't remember one more. If Rove merely inverted the sequence of a couple of events in one testimony, or something similar to that, then it's not likely to be perjury - as a matter of fact it happens all the time with people trying their very best to remember exactly the way everything happened. Bill Clinton was stupid enough to lie on an "it happened or it didn't" question. He deserved to get thrown out of office for gross stupidity on that grounds that among about a trillion other reasons. This is politics, I know, and the media isn't exactly neutral. But still, unless it can be shown that Rove lied and intended to lie, it's not perjury. Kos and the DU and the NY Slimes may howl, but if it isn't intentional, it's not perjury. They may even get Rove fired if they howl enough (I see both sides on whether he should step down just to get it over with). It's still not perjury to do your best recollection, which happens to differ in details from the last time you told the story. If these kinds of differences didn't exist, it would be suspicious. And the reason I'm not interested in defending Rove is it appears that there is no there there, anywhere in this whole circus. I could be wrong and he'll be convicted of something, in which case I wouldn't be interested in defending him anyway (Unlike, say, Ted Kennedy, or any of however many senators voted for Clinton's acquittal. If there is anybody reading this that believes those voting to acquit William Jefferson Clinton voted the law and the facts rather than the party line, please call me. I own a large amount of beachfront property in Florida I'd like to sell cheap).



Now will somebody please find us wooden stake so we can put this topic out of our misery once and for all?



Classical Values has some circumstantial evidence pointing to what I indicated was a partial explanation a while ago: Bush and Negroponte are starting to clean house at the CIA. The entrenched bureaucrats don't like it, and are trying to ensure that the political will, or capital, to do so are lacking.



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Armies of Liberation has several updates to the situation in Yemen, which I have arranged here in chronoglogical order here so you can tell the order they were posted in. Phew! I need a shower after all that slime. Here's hoping all the blood goes for something worth having.



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I'm a Gryffindor. HT: Respectful Insolence



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Pigilito Says has a post on the research reinvestment gap. Me, I'm not happy that Japan reinvests about 25% more than the US.



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Classical Values seems to have a more in depth story on the two young men the Iranian Mullahs hung. Think Catholic Priest molestation scandal. Then consider if the priest had the power to have them hung because they complained. And the charge was the sodomy he committed upon them.



I hope Iran comes up on our military "to do" list in the War on Terror sometime soon. Although the Iranians may save us the trouble.



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World According to Nick has good reflections and research on the DDT ban.



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What she said: La Shawn Barber takes on affirmative action as only she can.



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Captain's Quarters finds an article telling us that even when the left gets it right, they get it wrong.



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Reading and considering other ideas doesn't cause cancer. The Moderate Voice talks of true moderation. (HT: Indepundit)



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Stop the ACLU has an article on Bill Frist getting one right, and introducing a bill to help the Boy Scouts. I just hope the ACLU doesn't have his bill declared unconstitutional.



links politics Kelo PATRIOT Act immigration media bias India

Karl Rove Yemen

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Boy Scouts ACLU