How does this not violate the 21st Amendment?
From one perspective, we are no longer free when the government can violate the compact at will.
From another, we are completely free – of them, as in living in a state of nature rather than of government.
I used to have the first viewpoint, but the more I ponder it, the more I move towards the latter.
Oh, and the scoreboard has been updated. Time for Team Freedom to score a touchdown or eight.
MSNBC has suspended Keith Olbermann indefinitely for making political contributions to Jack Conway (KY Senate, lost), and Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva (AZ-7, won) and Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8, probably won). They were wrong to do so.
MSNBC “editorial standards” prohibit such contributions without prior approval. This policy infringes Olbermann’s freedom of political speech, but since it was (apparently) a contractual term, it was at least consented to. However, that does not make it a good policy. Olbermann should be reinstated and the policy changed. Pundits should be free to make donations as they please – but he should also stop calling himself a journalist. Journalists report news. All Olbermann does is rant obnoxiously.
That being said, don’t expect much from MSNBC. They’ll stay the way they are, not realizing the contradiction in principles between operating in the free market as a broadcaster and prohibiting free speech by their employees. But don’t ignore Olbermann either. After he had Grijalva on his show he later,
In a subsequent show, Olbermann also pressed House Majority Whip James Clyburn if there was a “legislative response” to a networks that “starts to shill for partisan causes.”
We need a ref to throw a flag here, if he comes out and complains against MSNBC.
The skeptic in me doubts whether the Republican leadership understands a simple lesson of this year’s election – that satisfaction with the voters is not a matter of who has power, but what is done with that power. The tea party will be satisfied if the power they have trusted Republicans with is directed towards restraining government, not towards ineffective measures that can be used to claim the Republicans “did something” two years from now, however amorphous that something is.
However, I think they might have actually gotten it through their thick skulls when I see headlines like this: The Fed’s worst nightmare… Ron Paul to chair Monetary Policy Subcommittee:
For years, the Federal Reserve had a good friend in their pockets when Congressmen Barney Frank was chairman of the Monetary Policy subcommittee. That is about to change, and taking Barney’s place is the one man who would see the Federal Reserve dissolved.
If Eric Cantor and John Boehner were dogs, I’d click-train them and tell them “good boy!”
Answer: a new revolver.
I would never own one, but the design is clever. You’ll note that it fires from the bottom cylinder chamber, not the top, as in most revolvers. This is supposed to tame recoil. Clever.
Never trust your backup.
By the time I started up the word processor after dinner, I had 2,321 words in my NaNoWriMo project. I had two copies. I opened one. Trouble, the file was all a jumble, OpenOffice couldn’t read it. No problem, I’ll try my backup.
The backup was also a jumble. Quick, launch scandisk! It fixed some sectors! That’s good!
No, that’s bad. The files it found were just some images I downloaded from the Intertubes.
Crap. Crappy crap. Back to square one, do not pass Go, do not collect another milestone on the novel writing trail. Start over.
That was 3 hours 40 minutes ago. I’ve got 1829 words now, so not even bad flash memory can stop me. Sure, I’m behind by 1500+ words, but if I hadn’t lost the original file, I would have been up by more than 800 words, which is almost half a day in this project.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some cloud storage to arrange.
I went to the Writer House tonight to kickoff the NaNoWriMo 2010 project. They’re hosting several events this year, and I was able to put in 1,675 words, all new.
I’m starting with an existing storyline, which is technically against the rules, but I don’t care. As long as I can get in 50,000 new words (in addition to the ~7500 words I already have) I will be happy with myself.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some plots to plot.