Reason Morning Links

Radley Balko | June 4, 2009

• Speaking in Cairo, Obama calls for alliance with the Muslim world.

• Federal judge upholds law granting immunity to telecoms who participated in federal wiretapping program.

• WalMart says it will hire 22,000 new employees in 2009.

• Obama says he's open to a law mandating everyone purchase health insurance.

• Fed Chair Bernanke warns Congress about deficit spending.

Comments

Gilbert Martin|6.4.09 @ 9:07AM|#

"Fed Chair Bernanke warns Congress about deficit spending."

Maybe he should warn himself about pumping up the money supply to facilitate it.

squarooticus|6.4.09 @ 9:40AM|#

• Federal judge upholds law granting immunity to telecoms who participated in federal wiretapping program.

Yet another reason why the government's monopoly on justice needs to be brought to an end. Those who were damaged by these corporations' illegal collaboration with the government can rightfully seek restitution through another agent under natural law.

As these kinds of abuses monotonically increase in frequency and severity, the near-spontaneous development of alternative justice systems to render and enforce judgments according to commonly-held principles of justice, rather than according to the interests of corporations and governments, is inevitable. The iron grip of the state, and its attempts to redefine justice to benefit the politically well-connected, must be checked.

|6.4.09 @ 9:48AM|#

WalMart says it will hire 22,000 new employees in 2009.

< sarcasm >Well there's 11,000 Mom&Pop® stores that won't open in 2009.< / sarcasm >

|6.4.09 @ 9:54AM|#

Yesterday's Brickbat (sorry if already posted):

Newton, Massachusetts, school officials suspended Kathleen Cunningham, food services manager at Angier Elementary School, after she offered substitute meals to students who wouldn't eat the veggie burgers the school served. School officials say they lost $905,000 on food service last year, in part because of low participation.

I'm shocked to learn that veggie burgers, cooked by a public school heat lamp no less, are not super tasty! I love Ms. Cunningham's free market approach of "when all else fails give them what they want."

The Magic Latina|6.4.09 @ 10:08AM|#

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- A Loxahatchee man is suing Cheetah nightclub, claiming he was permanently injured after a dancer kicked him in the head.

Michael Ireland has filed suit against the club, alleging dancer Sakeena Shageer kicked him 'without warning.'

Cheetah Palm Beach manager Rod Kimbrough says that's not quite the way they remember the night.

"A patron violently slapped the young woman on her buttocks and she was walking around the top of the bar and I guess out of a natural response she turned around and kicked him. From what I'm told he refused medical attention and came back in the club after that and had beers," says Kimbrough.

He also questions how Shageer, who dances by the stage name Suki, could have caused so much

More at:

http://www.wptv.com/content/aroundtheweb/story/Strip-club-sued-over-strippers-kick-to-mans-head/IROL6MsNBU2H67bx5JI8LA.cspx

</|6.4.09 @ 10:15AM|#

The Magic Latina,

There was a chick posting here recently by the stage name of the dancer in your story. Same one?

Cabeza de Vaca|6.4.09 @ 10:15AM|#

"who dances by the stage name Suki"

So that's what Suki has been up to lately.

!</a|6.4.09 @ 10:18AM|#

CdV,

Her blog says it is a different Suki.

The Magic Latina|6.4.09 @ 10:23AM|#

#

That's why I posted it. The article goes on to say she's really small...

!</a|6.4.09 @ 10:26AM|#

That's why I posted it. The article goes on to say she's really small...

She did not sound small on her Google profile. She was about average with above average fitness.

hmm|6.4.09 @ 10:58AM|#

• Fed Chair Bernanke warns Congress about deficit spending.

Is it just me? Every time I see this guy and hear him talk I think of Crusty the clown. All he is missing is the laugh.

|6.4.09 @ 11:20AM|#

• Speaking in Cairo, Obama calls for alliance with the Muslim world.

"We have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek," he said. "A world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God's children are respected."

How is this different than what the previous administration mouthed? Oh yeah, not one bit.

|6.4.09 @ 11:27AM|#

• Speaking in Cairo, Obama calls for alliance with the Muslim world.

"We have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek," he said. "A world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God's children are respected."

How is this different than what the previous administration mouthed? Oh yeah, not one bit.

• Obama says he's open to a law mandating everyone purchase health insurance.

The president said he was open to proposals for "shared responsibility - making every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the cost."

So when you lose your job that provided health insurance, the first thing you have to do is go buy health insurance? That should go over real big with struggling families.

|6.4.09 @ 11:28AM|#

Oopsies on the sorta double post thingee.

!</a|6.4.09 @ 11:31AM|#

David Carradine hanged himself in Bangkok.

robc|6.4.09 @ 11:38AM|#

J sub D,

Dont worry, most employers would stop providing it.

Which, actually, would be a good thing.

The more layers between the person getting treated and the person paying the bill the worse things are.

Naga Sadow|6.4.09 @ 11:40AM|#

I don't see where Carradine hanged himself but he did die yesterday.

I'm sure he will return as his grandson and continue his legend.

Jennifer|6.4.09 @ 12:02PM|#

Obama says he's open to a law mandating everyone purchase health insurance.

Excellent idea. He'll follow up with his plan to end homelessness: mandate everyone buy a house.

|6.4.09 @ 12:25PM|#

Jennifer, considering that the law mandating health insurance will have subsidies for the po', I wouldn't be surprised to see a mandate for home purchases. With a subsidy for the po'.

|6.4.09 @ 1:44PM|#

"""Excellent idea. He'll follow up with his plan to end homelessness: mandate everyone buy a house."""

An you will have to purchace anti-homeless insurance that will pay your rent/mortgage if you're unemployed.

hmm|6.4.09 @ 1:48PM|#

The more layers between the person getting treated and the person paying the bill the worse things are.

How is removing a private sector layer and adding a government layer less worse? You would be trading a market based solution (semi-market based) with a government solution, even if that solution is nothing more than a law. I'll take 100 market layers and middlemen, your statement sounds awfully close to a middleman bash, between buyer and seller over one government layer.

Colonel_Angus|6.4.09 @ 4:28PM|#

I would be okay with a law mandating that Obama drink Draino.

Suki|6.5.09 @ 12:22PM|#

Aw! Thanks for thinking of me guys!

I have not seen a picture of the English dancer called Suki, but our descriptions are quite different.