Government

Price Gouging Quote of the Day

This entry was posted in Government Politics on by

On the critters who passed the price gouging legislation:

We are not dealing with “men of common intelligence.” We are dealing with politicians. That’s precisely the problem.

Kip explains why the bill should be considered unconstitutional and has plenty of links to discussions of the broken price gouging bill that just passed in the house of republican party and democratic party representatives.

Yes, they represent their parties and only pretend to represent their local electorates.

This is Wiretapping?

This entry was posted in Government Privacy on by

We should have a reasonable expectation of privacy when we are in a private place. Say our home, in our car with the windows closed, etc.
There is no way, though, that police should ever have any expectation of privacy while performing duties on behalf of their public employers. It is pretty ludicrous that in one jurisdiction police have charged someone with wiretapping when he recorded them while being investigated for drunk driving:

Police say they were patrolling the downtown area at 2:54 a.m. when they discovered Christopher A. Power of 52 Chestnut St. sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle with its motor running at the Rochester Common.
After speaking with Power, police began investigating him for driving while intoxicated and arrested him. During the arrest an audio recording device was discovered.
“During a search after the arrest an audio recorder was discovered on the driver’s seat cushion,” Capt. Paul Callaghan said. “The officer noticed that the recorder was recording.”
Power was charged with driving while intoxicated and wiretapping, which is a Class B felony.

Perhaps they were doing their investigation via cell phone. Or perhaps they live in an alternate universe where wiretapping means something very different.
That aside, police must always expect to be audio- or videotaped when they are on duty.

Via Balko.

Were the Kent State Shootings Murder?

This entry was posted in Government US History US Politics on by

Recently released audio tapes suggest that the 4 Dead In Ohio were murdered 37 years ago:

The 1970 killings by National Guardsmen of four students during a peaceful anti-war demonstration at Kent State University have now been shown to be cold-blooded, premeditated official murder.
….
For 37 years the official cover story has been that a mysterious shot rang out and the young Guardsmen panicked, firing directly into the “mob” of students.
This week, that cover story was definitively proven to be a lie.
Prior to the shooting, a student named Terry Strubbe put a microphone at the window of his dorm, which overlooked the rally. According to the Associated Press, the 20-second tape is filled with “screaming anti-war protectors followed by the sound of gunfire.”
But in an amplified version of the tape, a Guard officer is also heard shouting “Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!”
The sound of gunshots follow the word “Point.”

If true this is not a big surprise. I doubt that there are many who were active at the time who accepted that it was anything other than government sanctioned murder.

Yea, it was 37 years ago but this cold case deserves a rehearing and any perps who are still available should be nailed. Including any of the folks that were pulling their triggers!

Via The Distributed Republic.

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

This entry was posted in Government on by

There should be no question but that it is yours!
There are, though, plenty out there who believe otherwise:

At the colloquium, food and drug lawyer Richard Cooper agreed that the issue is whether some rights are so fundamental that we do not entrust them to decisions made by elected officials. Until recently, establishing agencies to regulate the safety and efficacy of drugs was thought to be within the purview of Congress. “I doubt that most people thought that they had a constitutional right to buy investigational drugs,” said Cooper. “It’s a wholly new, unheard of right with no antecedents in Anglo-American law.”

Dear mr cooper,
Free people have a right to make voluntary purchases from willing sellers. No federal, state or local legislation can change this fact. All they can do is use an illegitimate power to thwart our right to engage in voluntary exchanges.
People also have the right to toss out any government that abrogates their rights.
Sincerely,
Your Employers

Via.

Getting the Marriage Debate Right

This entry was posted in Government on by

It is not an answer that politicians will like but Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat gets it right:

I have long thought the solution to the marriage fight is to get government out of the marriage business. Let churches marry — or refuse to marry — whomever they choose. Have the state support families through civil contracts. For the most part, families are what they define themselves to be.
This is already happening, without government. For the first time in more than a century, married households now are the minority in America. In Seattle, a whopping 67 percent of households are headed by unmarried adults.

Politicians, be they republicans or democrats, and bureaucrats do not like giving up control. Indeed, it is one of their greatest failings.

This is one area where we can start removing the bonds imposed by our state and federal governments and work to make sure that current and future legislative bodies do nothing more to discriminate against whatever form of living arrangements consenting adults may choose.