Recently at Reason.tv: Please Talk Dirty To Me, Alcee!
When the lights go down and the squares leave the House floor and head back home to their second and third spouses, anything can happen in the glimmering dusky lights of Congress as the ghosts of Gerry Studds, Wilbur Mills, and Mark Foley roam the floor looking for action.
In this episode of C-SPAN After Dark, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) catalogs just about every perversion ever dreamed of by the U.S. Congress. We're not exactly sure if he's reading staff-written research or simply indulging in spontaneous bop prosody, but we're pretty certain that America will never be the same again. Or that HR 1913, a.k.a. the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, never sounded so sweet.
Kids, don't try this at an awards program!
Reason's Jacob Sullum on this bill here.
Back in 1999, Rob Blanchard went to Wyoming in the wake of the brutal killing of Matthew Shepard, the hideous crime that inspired the current law. Blanchard's well-worth-reading story is here.
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Is it just me, or are we getting more re-runs here than on TV land?
from wikipedia:
"He spent ten years as a federal judge (1979-1989), but was impeached and removed from office for corruption and perjury. He is only the sixth federal judge to be impeached and removed from office in American history."
awesome.
I'm proud to be a Floridian. Altamont Springs is near Taintsville, I believe.
What the Sam Hill is "toucherism," anyhoo?
And, here I thought that, at midday, Reason had run out of Very Special Ideas and was calling it quits for the day. Yet, this re-run wasn't the marker I thought it was and I see that they were just using it as an EastCoast LunchTreat.
Could Reason post the VeroniqueDeRugy video again? It was just great.
Well, they are in the same county (Seminole), but not really that close to each other. Altamonte is one of the outer suburbs of Greater Taintsville, as it were.
I don't think Alcee's lived here for quite a while. His current district is in South Florida which IMO makes Central Florida look like positively sane.
As to hate crime laws, I have to wonder. In both of the most notable cases, Shepard and James Byrd in Texas, the police immediately pressed an active investigation and soon had suspects in custody. These suspects were then vigorously prosecuted with the State seeking the death penalty. It was only the intervention of his parents that save Shepard's killers from death row.
I'm quite puzzled as to exactly what deterrence hate crime laws add to the already draconian penalties for murder and assault in every single state.
care for a drink, lonewackoff?
Oh, please, Isaac. Hate crimes laws aren't about deterrence. They are about revenge/retribution exacted by the newly empowered minority groups working out their historical grievances.
Lester - I'm guessing that toucherism and frotteurism are synonymous.
I fear you're right, R C.