Reason Morning Links: Still Some Life in the Dead Hand, Senators Lament Mexico's Drug War, Bookies in Delaware

Radley Balko | March 18, 2009

• NY Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak: Fallout from Heller gun rights ruling more a wimper than a bang (sorry).

• World Bank says down economy could be exacerbated by a turn toward protectionism.

• A coup in Madagascar.

• Delaware moves closer to legalizing sports gambling.

• Senate subcommittee members show grave concern about Mexico's drug war violence—but begin hearing by heaping on the military crackdown that spawned it.

• Gene Healy: In Defense of Distrust in Government.

• Bill O'Reilly talks dirty to you.

Comments

|3.18.09 @ 7:07AM|#

"Say baby, put down that pipe and get my pipe up."

I am so using that.

ed|3.18.09 @ 7:52AM|#

"Cup your hands under your breasts and hold them for ten seconds."

And that's a memo.

BakedPenguin|3.18.09 @ 7:57AM|#

The [Delaware] proposal would only allow for parlay bets.

Jeebus. Even when government does something right, it's f'd up. The only reason I can think of for that stupid restriction is that it would allegedly lessen the risk of payola. Why the cheating gamblers would stop at only paying one team and not two or more escapes me, especially considering the already corrupt world of college athletics.

TofuSushi w/O\'ganicWasabi|3.18.09 @ 8:20AM|#

I have been waiting for erotic talk day all month. Thank you Epi and ed!

Tym|3.18.09 @ 8:52AM|#

You want to massively decrease the violence in Mexico, STOP BANNING CANNABIS.

|3.18.09 @ 8:56AM|#

ЯOLcats
English Translations of Eastern Bloc Lolcats

"Bask in your Western accoutrement, Romanov harlot… I prepare your final resting place, as your overfed corpse will make a fine fertilizer for my potato crops!"

Reinmoose|3.18.09 @ 9:01AM|#

A coup in Madagascar

Where now?

Reinmoose|3.18.09 @ 9:02AM|#

And SugarFree, I'm going to spend all day looking at that site.

Hilarious!

Prior to that it was www.garfieldwithoutgarfield.com, which Pearls Before Swine is currently spoofing.

TofuSushi|3.18.09 @ 9:02AM|#

A coup in Madagascar

It does not sound like a revolution for the people. The Capitalists are probably going to be happy.

Reinmoose|3.18.09 @ 9:03AM|#

ahem

*www.garfieldminusgarfield.com

link

|3.18.09 @ 9:19AM|#

Garfield Minus Garfield has always been a favorite. It becomes the sad adventures of a seriously disturbed person. Garfield without the cat speech bubbles is also fun. Of course, then it's just a crazy person being glowered at by his cat.

|3.18.09 @ 9:20AM|#

Gene is absolutely right--hate of cynics of government is hate of America. It's one of our core ideals to cast a jaundiced eye upon our government. And attempts to break down that distrust are not only misplaced, they should make us even more suspicious.

|3.18.09 @ 9:23AM|#

That we both may be a burden on the state, this thought above all others keeps me from sleep this night.

Oh shit--these are gold, NutraSweet.

Reinmoose|3.18.09 @ 9:24AM|#

I particularly enjoy the types that during Bush's administration barked about the constitution and how dissent is a patriotic duty... but NOW we have to be behind the president, and give him a chance!

Reinmoose|3.18.09 @ 9:29AM|#

The Village Voice link isn't working for me, but if it has something to do with a falafel...
*thumbs up*

|3.18.09 @ 9:35AM|#

Speaking of falafel, moose, ever gotten one from this place? I used to work a few buildings down and would get a chicken shawarma or falafel pita nearly every day. Their tahini sauce was awesomely good. If you didn't get there before noon, you could be in a line that stretched around the block (no joke).

|3.18.09 @ 9:39AM|#

I love Mediterranean cuisine, pretty much all around. We go to a place here in Tampa for pitas. They have passable hummus, falafel, tabbouleh, etc. Good eats.

|3.18.09 @ 9:39AM|#

I love Rainbow Falafel. Hilariously small place. They have fantastic fried cauliflower.

Tym|3.18.09 @ 9:40AM|#

Speaking of falafel, moose, ever gotten one from this place?

Yes, very good.

|3.18.09 @ 9:41AM|#

Their thin lentil and pea soups were also very good; unusually tangy. As were the spinach pies. I hate messy food but I endured it for that place's stuff.

TofuSushi|3.18.09 @ 9:43AM|#

Organic lentel soup is my favorite.

Reinmoose|3.18.09 @ 9:44AM|#

I have not been to that place, no. But I do love me some falafel, but not in the way O'Reilly consumes it.

|3.18.09 @ 9:58AM|#

Perhaps even more horrifying, as the violence increases, so does the possibility that innocent citizens will be caught in it, he said. In at least one instance in Phoenix, criminals making a home invasion had the wrong house, he said.

How deliciously....

ironic.

jtuf|3.18.09 @ 10:07AM|#

The drug war is a mess. It's time to change the laws. Obama announced that he will stop medical marijuana raids, but we should push for more. He will only be arround 4 or 8 years. What happens after he leaves? If the next administration picks a different policy, all those hemp dispensaries that sold under Obama's reign will be liable to prosecution for making marijuana sales that Obama gave the nod to. It's time to pass the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act.

|3.18.09 @ 10:22AM|#

It's time to pass the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act.

I believe that would require more political capital than Obama and the Dems are willing to spend.

|3.18.09 @ 10:23AM|#

Any word on the Presidential Suit's policy toward commercial hemp (as in eliminating the onerous and totally bullshit registration/permitting process)?

Tym|3.18.09 @ 11:14AM|#

It's time to pass the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act.

Agreed, but someone will scream "the children" and it will be all over.

jtuf|3.18.09 @ 12:26PM|#

RC Dean, I'm even more pessimistic than you. I think Obama would rather not see the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act passes. Having a couple of million people who rely on his good grace to avoid DEA raids will help his 2012 campaign very much. I would like him to prove me wrong.

Urge|3.18.09 @ 12:37PM|#

Foodies are the most obnoxious group of dickwads on the planet. May you all die of stomach cancer.

DUDE THIS GUY TOTALLY MAKES HUMMUS AND CHICKEN DONER OUT OF A BROOM CLOSET, IT'S FUCKING TO DIE FOR. OPEN FROM 2:23PM TO 4:18PM. SWEET FUCKING DEAL, LET'S GO GET SOME STUCK IN OUR NECKBEARDS!

HEY IS BSG ON YET?????

|3.18.09 @ 1:00PM|#

Welcome back, joe.

@SugarFree|3.18.09 @ 1:11PM|#

Here he is.

|3.18.09 @ 1:18PM|#

Oh, the good old days... nobody did faux-indignation like joe.

Robert|3.18.09 @ 1:19PM|#

begin hearing by heaping on the military crackdown

Praise? Blame? Or just plain heaping?

|3.18.09 @ 1:33PM|#

RC Dean, I'm even more pessimistic than you.

I salute you, jtuf. A man can't be too pessimistic these days. I have now adopted your position that Obama won't push for statutory protection because he doesn't want to make the effort, but rather will undermine any attempts to enact such a bill because he wants to keep the arbitrary power as a political tool. I'm a little embarrassed I didn't see it myself.