In Fairness to Rand Paul...

...there is a downside to public accommodation laws. They often create a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

How did a civil rights principle meant to aid African Americans and others who suffered grievous discrimination for generations come to protect the “right” of Neo-Nazis to parade their Nazi wardrobes in a privately owned restaurant against the wishes of management? The short answer is that legislation and its interpretation doesn’t develop from a coherent set of moral principles, but instead based on who is able to persuade the legislatures and the courts to adopt the principles they prefer. The principle involved in Alpine Village case appears to be hostility to the rights of private property owners, not “civil rights.”

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Apparently the Libertarians have decided that Rand Paul is insufficiently pure.

The Ultimate Libertarian.

I Generally Haven't Used the Term "ObamaCare"...

...to describe the Health Insurance Care Bill. For one, it relies on form of nomenclature leagues away from being as witty as it's supporters believe it, while being fully as tiresome as its opponents lament. For another, Obama didn't write the damn thing; Pelosi, Reid, and their infinite crew of Democratic Congressmen did. Since they're the ones up for election this November, I think the hate should be properly focused.

Now that Jon Stewart et al, are calling it "offensive," however? I won't call it anything else.

Politics: The Art of the Perverse.

About Time, Really....

The Notion, which was my first blog, died, and has been a music blog since December, does not exist anymore. The Music blog has been renamed Genre Confusion, and all the old Notion posts that were about the same stuff that I write about here have been imported and labelled. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Now they must eat the fruit of their own way, and with their own devices be glutted. -Proverbs 1:31

Leviathan Cannot Feed Itself.

At Hot Air:

That explains why socialism is miserable.  It turns feral because it always makes promises it cannot keep, and the primary skill of a successful politician is the ability to avoid responsibility.  As of this writing, it remains the official position of the Democrat Party that not a single one of its members bears any responsibility for the subprime mortgage crisis.  Dodd, Frank, and Obama swam in millions of dollars of campaign donations and graft.  They blocked audits of Fannie Mae, and gave speeches assuring the country that it was completely solvent.  They greeted any suggestion of reform or oversight with furious accusations of greed and racism.  None of them have been punished.  In fact, they all enjoy more power than ever today, although Dodd’s time is running out.

To look at Greece is to look at the future. I think one good shock to the system will finally convince a majority of voters that the game cannot go on, that the stark choice is ahead of us.  The structure for a revolt is already in the works.

Read the whole thing.

The Essayist #19: Rand Paul is not a Bigot, Just a Dumb Libertarian

In the wake of Rand Paul putting his foot in it, Ace does yeoman's work explaining in exact detail why the 1964 Civil Rights Act is not unconstitutional.

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were specifically enacted with the purpose of eradicating slavery and duly -- constitutionally -- empowered Congress to pass legislation in furtherance of this purpose. To say such laws are "unconstitutional" is simply in error -- previous to the lawful and constitutional passage of those amendments, such laws would have indeed have been unconstitutional and an unlawful overreach of granted Congressional power.
After their lawful passage, however, Congress did have that authority.

And the reason that Congress decided that it need that authority was because certain states were violating the rights of their citizens, of failing to do the thing governments are created to do. The Constitution thus comes  more fully in line with the principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence.

Peasants in feudal society weren't technically slaves, but they were peons, persons with sharply-curtailed rights and certain obligations (including deference) to their social betters/masters. I think a fair reading of "slavery" includes the idea of "peonage," too. Unless there is some critical constitutional point here to be vindicated, I do not see any defensible purpose in arguing these amendments outlawed slavery but gave full constitutional blessing to regime of enforced peonage.

Precisely. Slavery and peonage are offenses against liberty, that can only be maintained by the use of force. As Governments exist to secure liberties, our government should be willing and able to act against one person's attempt to destroy the liberty of another. Hence, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a necessary and constitutional redress against 400 years of slavery and peonage.

Would it have been better if it was not necessary? Assuredley. Are there things about the way the Civil Rights Act as been used that I consider wrong, and offenses to liberty? Without doubt. But the law, as intended, has no legal or ethical flaw.

This is a Picture of Mohammed:

Be Offended!

Unclean! Unclean!

I'm trying to figure out why I should care that an Arab-American is now Miss USA. Apparently there are some people on the Right worked up about this.

But having examined the issue, the only thing I can think of saying is "Meow..." Which may not be the remark of a gentleman.

The Baltimore PD Apparently Watched The Wire...

So the WaPo Suggests:

But under Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, officers in one of the nation's most violent cities are no longer being told to beef up arrest statistics. The number of arrests has declined the past two years. Yet homicides and shootings are down, too - to totals not seen since the late 1980s. 

In other words, they're "shifting priorities" to violence intead of drug abuse.

"I'm not trying to win the drug war," Bealefeld said. "I'm out to win the war on violence and deal effectively with violence."

Which is why the California ballot initiative to legalize pot this November is so important.  If it wins, it's going to be a lot harder for local PD's to say that they have a priority in punishing drugs instead of disorder. A corner will finally have been turned.

Chavez = Fail

JammieWearingFool has the goods.

Great comment as well: "If he were the leader of an eskimo band, they'd have to buy ice."

Theorem: Chris Christie is the Greatest Politician in the History of the Universe.

Proof: (Hat Tip: Ace)

Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational tone'

Those Vicious Racist Quebecois...

“if you want to integrate into Quebec society, here are our values. We want to see your face.”

No doubt they're all tea-baggers.

Kagan and the Elephant

If I may address the elephant in the living room, the only reason people think that Elena Kagan is a lesbian is because she looks like a common stereotype of one. That doesn't mean she is one, and frankly, I'm not interested. We shouldn't pry into her love life, unless we have reason to believe her love life has affected her job performance.

Frankly, I'm wondering if we aren't just being treated to a smokescreen for Kagan's minimal credential for the job.

Achieve Racial Harmony: Ban the Honkies!

Un-expletive-believable.

An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students.

Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist.

I know there's an obvious reason that keeping white students away makes it more likely that black students will be inspired to achieve, but I'm apparently too stuffed with white privilege to see it.

Law and War are Not the Same

Bush understood this idea, and so, by some appearances, does Obama. But he has not been permitted to admit his understanding by his base. In the New York Post, Robert Turner of the Center for National Security Law lets the cat out of the bag:

Uncle Sugar Wants you to Spend your Money on Crap

Actually, that isn't true. The Government, like any good Mafia Don, just wants to put his hands in your pocket as often as he possibly can. It's just easier for him to do this by taxing saving and investment rather than consumption.

Christian preacher arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin

Police officers are alleging that he made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act.

Just remember, this is NOT persecution. Persecution does not happen hetero male honky christians, who represent the power structure in society. Thou shalt not question the power structure in society.

Roman Polanski the real victim, says Roman Polanski

In other news, Roman Polanski is a lying sack of crap with delusions of persecution.

It meets the same standards of journalistic evidence.