Arrest of the Bumblebee

 If you decide to wear black and yellow, better not show up at any events that could be designated as “Latin.” This past weekend’s Puerto Rican Day Parade proved that cops will look for just about any excuse to make arrests. A high school senior was singled out for wearing black and yellow sneakers, which are the colors of the Latin Kings gang. According to NY1, the aforementioned student was only one of 208 people arrested; 198 of whom were classified as gang members.

The New York Times admits that the number of arrests have increased significantly since last year’s parade, and even included a 55-year-old New Jersey postal worker this time around.

Medical Marijuana Milestone

The New York State Assembly passed a medical marijuana bill for the first time ever today, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. The bill would allow patients with life-threatening conditions to use marijuana according to their doctors’ recommendations. The state health department could also add other serious conditions. Patients would be allowed to cultivate a safe supply of their own medicine (up to 12 plants) or have a caregiver do so for them. They could possess up to 2.5 ounces of usable marijuana.

Now the bill has to get through the Republican-controlled state Senate, and there’s a decent chance they could vote on it before they adjourn for the year next Thursday. Call your senator and tell him or her to let sick people have their medicine. Or at least send your senator an email in seconds via this handy form on the MPP website.

Sunday Funnies

Once again, a big tip o’ the hat to The Libertarian Enterprise:

I love Scott Bieser!

Markowitz to Attend Anti-Immigrant Rally

 

From 1010 WINS:

Protesters are expected to rally in Brooklyn Friday against using illegal Chinese and Latino workers in dangerous construction jobs. 

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is expected to attend the rally.

Labor officials say the immigrant workers are being used in life threatening jobs in building a 33-story hotel in downtown Brooklyn.

Of course, the alternative is to deny these jobs to the Chinese and Latino immigrants. But if the developer is willing to hire them, and the immigrants are willing to take the jobs, that is what is known as a consensual transaction among adults. In a consensual transaction, both parties are better off than without the transaction; otherwise, they wouldn’t agree to it. So why does Marty Markowitz want to deny employment opportunities to Chinese and Latino immigrants?

Bork the Dork

 

It seems Robert Bork somehow forgot that he’s not as physically agile as he used to be, so now he’s suing the Yale Club for allowing the judge to hurt himself. According to the New York Post:

The 80-year-old legal scholar is suing the Yale Club after he fell off a raised platform as he prepared to deliver a speech on June 6, 2006, hitting his head and suffering injuries to his leg that required surgery.

“Because of the unreasonable height of the dais, without stairs or a handrail, Mr. Bork fell backwards . . . striking his left leg on the side of the dais and striking his head on a heat register,” states the lawsuit, filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court.

Okay, so let’s say the dais was “unreasonably” high. (One-and-a-half feet? Two feet?) Unless justice is literally blind, Bork should have been able to see that for himself before he attempted the arduous climb. He should also have seen that there were no stairs or handrail. If such a feat as mounting the dais was beyond his physical capacity (and apparently it was), he should have refused to try, or asked for assistance.

Isn’t this just the sort of frivolous lawsuit — the kind that shows utter disdain for the notion of personal responsibility — that a Judge Bork was expected to summarily dismiss, if his Supreme Court nomination had been approved?

Arms for Hostages, Then and Now

I was reading Tom Knapp’s excellent evisceration of Hugh Hewitt’s absurd assertion that Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani are the closest closest the GOP has to “another Reagan.” And it got me to thinking about the Gipper’s legacy with respect to Iran.

Quoth Knapp:

Ronald Reagan’s administration worked deals with Iran (”arms for hostages”). Yes, there was also some sabre-rattling, but nothing approaching the level of moronic brinksmanship practiced the last few years by the Busheviks and their Osama-Enablertarian supporters in the GOP.

The two most reliable modes of pandering for the 2008 Republican presidential candidates have been to (1) evoke Reagan and (2) demonize Iran. But think about it: Not only did Reagan negotiate with Iran, he sold them frigging weapons. I’m not sure what it means, but it makes you wonder if today’s GOP base would really welcome a new Reagan if one came along. And before any Republican apologists try to rationalize that “we’re living in different times,” save it. Iran was a sworn enemy of the U.S., perhaps even moreso in the 1980s than today.

For the Fu**ing love of the 1st Amendment *

“If Bush Can Blurt Curse, So Can Network TV.” What a line, from the New York Times today. Countering the wishes of the Bush administration and the FCC, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York struck down yesterday a government policy that allows the fining of networks and stations for obscene language, whether spontaneous or scripted.

If Bush can utter the “s” word to Blair (whether he realized his mic was on or not), and Cheney the “f” word to Leahy, I suppose us serfs can too.

*I could use the entire “f” word, but it is my choice not to. Thanks, Freedom of Speech!

Creatures from Another Planet

According to today’s New York Post, Rudy Giuliani accuses Hillary Clinton and other Democratic presidential candidates as living in a “different world” when it comes to the realities of the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Is this the same world where steel buildings fall at free fall speed, due to burning jet fuel?

 

(Diagram: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=48327&mesg_id=49191)

How Government Causes Traffic Jams

The New York Post raises an excellent point with respect to Mayor Mike’s controversial congestion pricing traffic plan. Before we start charging ordinary motorists $8 for the privilege of driving into midtown, we could probably go a long way toward relieving traffic congestion by simply revoking some of the 47,000 special parking permits that allow government bureaucrats to park pretty much wherever the hell they want with impunity. As the Post notes:

The parking placards clearly make driving to work attractive: While 14 percent of private-sector workers come in by car, 27 percent of government staffers do, a 2006 study found. That translates to 20,000 extra drivers a day.

In other words, thanks in large part to parking passes from Mayor Mike - and his bureaucratic friends in Albany and Washington - Gotham must put up with 20,000 more cars on its streets.

The Post goes on to note that “some of these drivers have legitimate reasons for using cars - and getting to park free. Some 8,500 city placards went to the NYPD this year, and about 15,000 to the disabled.” I don’t know why the cops, of all people, should get a pass. Yes, on-duty officers responding to an actual crime in progess probably shouldn’t have to find a meter, but why should they get special privileges just for commuting to work by car? Let the police get a taste of the arbitrary parking rules they enforce on the rest of us and the draconian penalties (typically $115 for a violation below 96th Street) that go along with them, and maybe they’d be a tad more sympathetic before whipping out the ticket book when someone stops momentarily in a no-standing zone to pick up dry-cleaning.

The Post also points out that many of the privileged bureaucrats don’t even adhere to the few simple rules they are theoretically expected to observe. It’s never legal to park next to a hydrant, for example, regardless of any parking placard, but you’ll see Sheldon Silver vote against a tax hike before you ever see one cop ticket another.

Much of the credit for the recent attention on parking-permit abuse goes to UncivilServants.org, a nifty website that helps citizens track illegally parked bureaucrats. Matthew Roth, the editor of Uncivil Servants, will be the guest speaker at the next Manhattan Libertarian Party meeting one week from tonight, on Monday, June 11th.