Über die Freiheit / de libertate

And I thought that pulling people over for good driving was stupid. The popo in London win the prize.

I think I must be the only person in the country who actually thinks that the New Democratic Party, (NDP) should go along with the suggested name change to Democratic Party. Personally I think that the DP sounds awesome.

“We just live right across the street, so we thought we’d come out here and sell this – we could just leave,” Richard said. “And they said, ‘no, you know, we’re gonna have to right you up.’” [CBS]

Radly Balko explains it exactly right:

6) Speaking of unions, a few others have said they’re boycotting Whole Foods because Mackey won’t let his employees organize. But as noted, his employees have high rates of job satisfaction, and they’re paid better and have better benefits than the unionized employees at other grocery chains. So what’s the problem? If Mackey’s opposition to unions is your reason for hating Whole Foods, sorry, but you don’t really care about workers. You care about unions.

Let the unions autofellate themselves.

Do read the entirety of Balko’s post. It’s righteous.

Gerald Dworkin, a professor philosophy at UC Davis, on the passing of G.A. Cohen:

A graduate student once asked me for what audience I wrote my philosophical papers. Was it for all philosophers, for just moral and political philosophers, for the general public? I replied that I wrote for three people. Jerry was one of them.

Nothing like confirming the suspicion that academics are just insulated boobs.

I know he’s probably exaggerating, somewhat, but still. Unbelievable.

From the Torontoist: 

After talking to a few of them, we learned that the company they were picketing was none other than Cadillac Fairview. Their union, CEP local 2003, which represents trade, maintenance, and loading dock workers at the complex, had been in talks with Cadillac Fairview until June 14, when the corporation had ended negotiations by banning them all from the complex. It wasn’t a strike; it was a lockout.

(Two weeks later, on July 14, we learned that Cadillac Fairview had fired all sixty-one union workers and replaced them with the contractors that had been performing their jobs even as they were picketing. See their Facebook group and blog for details. A hearing with the Ontario Labour Relations Board is pending.)

That’s what happens when you’re greedy.

Part One
Part Two

The Gays are taking over the hospitals!

If you can read this and not feel the need to punch one of your conservative family members in the face…you must not have any conservative family members.

Make sure you get plenty of sleep before going to court.

Clifton Williams didn’t and he’s been sentenced to six months in jail for yawning.

[…]

Circuit Judge Daniel Rozak thought the yawn was criminal and sentenced Williams to six months in jail, the maximum penalty for contempt of court without a jury trial.  Rozak’s order said that Williams “raised his hands while at the same time making a loud yawning sound,” causing a disrespectful interruption in court. [Link]

I say again: how on earth is contempt of court even allowed? 6 months without a trial? Judges shouldn’t be able to sentence people to 6 hours of jail without a trial, let alone 6 months.

And predictibly the conservative commentators go on to give Authority a big sloppy blowjob:

Good I am glad there is a Judge that holds people to a civilised and respect full standard. Guess what in third grade I voluntarily yawned and got in trouble I learned. Mr. Williams should take advantage of his opportunity to address his issues with respect and reality.

Yes, let’s potentially ruin someone’s life because someone interrupted or disrespected you. That’s sounds about as logical as shooting someone for cutting you off.

Will Wilkinson absolutely fucking owns Ezra Klein’s government fetishism:

It requires an amazing kind of selective amnesia to think that there is “no evidence’ that the U.S. government is “capable of madness.” The government of the United States invaded Iraq and its agents have killed many tens of thousands people on the basis of the fact that some Saudis trained in Afganistan flew planes into the World Trade Center, plus some lies. Torture, extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention, etc. I call that madness. Of course, Ezra means the other parts of government concerned with domestic affairs. But not the parts that break into peoples’ houses and destroy their lives for selling contraband herbs, or that subject us constantly to mendacious propaganda about drugs. Our government — and by extension our fellow citizens — is capable of terrible things and proves it every single day. Is it really possible to love government so much, to invest so much hope in its benevolent efficacy, that we grow blind to its evident capacity for evil? Anyway, there must be some parts of the government that are not capable of madness. Ezra invites us to think about those when considering health care reform. Will you accept?

Apropos of this, Robin Hanson remarks:

Has the recent [British] MP expenses scandal soured the idea of democracy for you? Good, because a vast space of possible forms of government remains unexplored, and it is high time we explored it. Yes, democracy beats a dictatorship, but there might be better systems.

How people believe that we explored all the possible options never ceases to amaze me.

Nate Silver thinks that US unemployment will not top 10%. But Nate Silver is an idiot so it’ll probably hit 100%.

Recently it has come out that Infomercial King Billy Mays reportedly had cocaine in his system when he died, though the family denies such a thing.

Most troubling, however, is what else I read:

Longtime friend and colleague AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of the “As Seen on TV” product company Telebrands, said Mays never exhibited any signs of drug use and was always prepared for his many commercial shoots.

“I’m just shocked,” Khubani said. “He was the model of a responsible citizen.”

Guess what people, drug users can be responsible citizens. Assuming the toxicology reports are accurate, Billy Mays demonstrates that cocaine can be used without making someone into a monster or menace to society. This isn’t necessarily a promotion of cocaine, merely refutation of drug war propaganda. I think I’m going to go read a book I just bought.