DOMA Deemed Unconstitutional, Labor Market Slips, Bloomberg Supersizes Nannyism: P.M. Links
The Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional
, finds the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The judges say the law interferes with the right of states to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples.- Private U.S. payrolls picked up less than expected last month as jobless claims rose, and first-quarter economic growth was softer than earlier reported, deflating hopes for economic recovery.
- As evidence of what a huge choice we don't face in the November election, Mitt Romney is having trouble differentiating how his foreign policy would differ from Barack Obama's. This is a nice add-on to the trouble he has separating his health policy from that of the incumbent.
- The euro currency union is "unsustainable," warns Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank. He called on governments to reduce deficits, enact reforms and chart a new vision for the union.
- Because you would never think of buying two, or going back for a refill, New York City's Mayor Bloomberg, the man taking the shine off the apple, wants to ban the sale of sugary soft drinks larger than 16 ounces at restaurants, movie theaters, street carts and other venues.
- Saying the FBI has never formally served papers on Megaupload accusing it of a crime, Kim Dotcom, head of the file-sharing company, has asked the court to throw out all charges. New Zealand's high court is already angry that FBI officials were allowed to take evidence meant to be kept in the country in "secure custody," and that officials used the wrong law to seize assets.
- The shooting of Patricia A. Cook of Culpeper, Virginia, by a police officer during a confrontation in a church parking lot has, shockingly, resulted in a murder charge against the unnamed cop. The officer's mother faces prosecution for attempting to purge negative information from his personnel file.
- The mainstream media staggers on, as the New York Times struggles with top-heavy management and a valuation that has plummeted from $7 billion to under $1 billion (about half what Pandora is worth). Meanwhile, CNN hits 20-year ratings lows.
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New Zealand’s high court is already angry that FBI officials were allowed to take evidence meant to be kept in the country in “secure custody,” and that officials used the wrong law to seize assets.
I’m beginning to wonder if the DoJ blunders all the time and U.S. courts just regularly overlook it.
The unnamed Daniel Harmon-Wright, 32, of Gainesville?
Apparently the dude has gone by at least three different aliases. (Cracker jack job vetting your officer candidates, Culpeper County.)
Well his mom said he was OK. What moe did they need to know?
Nepotism…in the police department? Un-possible!
When you can’t trust mom any more…or the cops, for that matter….what is this world coming to?
/blind faith
“Never look for the truth in your mother’s eyes.”
-Steven Wilson (“Arriving Somewhere But Not Here”)
I’ll be stretching that lyric to also mean “Never look for the truth about baby boy coming out of a dirty cop’s mother’s mouth.
I think there might be something very, very, very wrong with me.
As soon as I read, “…coming out of a dirty cop’s mother’s mouth”, the image that immediately sprang to mind was of a man with a rigid penis who had jammed it through the back of the dirty cop’s mother’s head, killing her, so that it stuck somewhat out of her mouth, and then he blows his load so it looks like she’s spitting.
Anybody else see that?
Shouldn’t you be in hiding, Mr. Magnotta?
I love this refreshing bit of straight-talk from the cops.
“We believe he filmed himself,” said Montreal police Commander Ian Lafreniere. “It’s gross.”
No, Gojira, but I did picture Angelica Houston and John Cossack making out in the film adaptation of Grifters when i read the above, and Willy singing, ‘Mother’s don’t let your babies grow up to be LEOs.’
John Cossack
Did he raid any villages or harass any Frenchmen?
Worse. He sexed up his momma.
It would appear so according to the Washington Post.
In addition to the murder charge, the special investigative grand jury indicted the officer on three other counts: malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
Looks like they’re throwing the book at this guy, and not pussyfooting around with bullshit negligent manslaughter charge. Good.
how is malicious shooting different from any other kind? Seems that shooting at someone implies a certain amount of malice.
It’s the typical bullshit that cops and prosecutors use to overcharge someone with so they can get a plea or conviction to the lesser crime. I’m glad to see they’re using it on one of their own.
If the evidence I have heard so far is accurate, this fucker is gonna be locked up for the rest of his life.
a bit of karma to the good.
I suppose it could simply be negligent shooting.
Sounds like the NYT needs a bailout.
or dynamite
I wonder how much of that $1B is real estate?
Actual real estate is $2B. You can expect a lot of editorials about predatory lenders on second mortgages from the Times in the near future.
How about some good news? Private liquor sales were upheld by the WA Supreme Court, and are due to start very soon.
Tomorrow, in fact.
Better news than that crazy shooter. My girlfriend lives on 65th and Roosevelt, about 7 blocks away from that cafe. We’ve walked by it. She often takes the bus to the UW that goes by it. (She was on a different bus going to lab when the shooting happened.)
Crazy people do crazy things. I didn’t even know about it until a coworker, whose wife works near where they were looking for him (and found him) in West Seattle, told me.
If dunphy weren’t laid up with a bad back, sucking the taxpayer’s teat, this kind of thing never would have happened.
Indeed. Dude sounds like he was crazy. Luckily my girlfriend is also a very rational individual and took the same attitude. (Unlike my mom, who insisted on calling me to check simply because she knew that the shooting was in Seattle, having no idea it was that close.)
I predict drunken 7 year-olds vomiting in their crayon buckets. Violent fist fights between loaded 13 year-old gymnastics girls. College kids will stop going to class to participate in vodka enema parties. Normally responsible adults will walk off the job, and congregate at private liquor stores where they will get drunk and plot the deaths of their spouses. Grandmothers bartering for a pint of demon rum, using their dentures as currency. Cars up telephone poles. Airplanes in trees. Emergency rooms filled to the brim with drunken human carnage.
For god’s sake! is there anyway to prevent private liquor sales?
“Violent fist fights between loaded 13 year-old gymnastics girls.”
I’ve actually seen that.
You have videos?
/straight to hell
Good internet etiquette would call for a link to your cellphone video of the event.
“Orndorff said Cook worked with children at his church, and volunteered with cooking and making quilts for the needy”
In a small town like that, I’m sure she’s a lot more popular then any young cop. Hence the “surprising” charges. If it had been a major metro city, he would be be still out shooting the citizens.
I still bristle from a quote one of the dads at the daycare gave… something about he was glad the cop checked out the creepy lady hanging around his kid’s preschool. Nothing about the actual act of killing at his kid’s preschool.
Looks like Bubbles scored himself a gigantoid Big Gulp, for his kitties.
Think of all the calories he’s burning carrying that around.
Frylock: Damn it Shake, did you have to order the Superize Trough?
Master Shake: Hydration is essential!
Looks like Bubbles scored himself a gigantoid Big Gulp, for his kitties.
That thing is Samsquanch-sized!
UCLA defends decision to give P-Diddy’s son a football scholarship.
As I understand it the kid earned his scholarship by being both a talented player and maintaining an A average at his New York prep school. Plus the scholarship is privately financed.
You think it should be means tested?
I don’t.
I don’t get why they have to defend it?
Because rich people should never benefit from wealth, only poor people should.
Oh. So nothing interesting?
So today I was dismissed from jury duty on a drug possession case. I told the judge it was my duty as a juror to be the final check on tyranny, and that in good conscience there was no way I could be complicit in convicting a guy for something the state has no compelling interest in prosecuting. After I spoke up, I was delighted to have the sentiment echoed by two other potential jurists whom I had not spoken with. We were all dismissed, and no doubt the trial is going on right now with 12 jurors who will be happy to throw the guy in the slammer, but it felt awfully good to walk out of there knowing I did what little I could.
I applaud your integrity, but if you had been on that jury you could have hung it by refusing to vote guilty. Nullification is indeed a final check on tyranny and we need more people who believe in it on juries.
Yeah why didn’t you stay quiet and actually help the guy out by refusing to vote guilty? Thats what I plan on doing if I ever end up on a drug case jury.
Will they have you thrown off the jury for falsely answering the voir dire questioning?
I could have, and I thought about it, but 12 jurors were already seated before I was called up, so at best I was going to be an alternate. I figured planting the seed in their minds was the best I could do.
Freaking awesome!
Good for you!
Did the judge ask for your opinion on drug laws or what?
The DA was asking about a hypothetical situation in which peanut butter jelly sandwiches were illegal. He was trying to make the point that it didn’t matter if the bread was wheat or rye, or the jelly was grape or blueberry, the sandwich was still illegal. I told them I couldn’t possibly convict someone for eating a sandwich, no matter what the ingredients were. Then the judge asked for my opinion on drug laws specifically.
Well played.
“Does that sandwich come with a side of haggis and glass of raw milk? Because I still wouldn’t convict.”
Then the judge asked for my opinion on drug laws specifically.
“Your honor, I know we’re pressed for time, so I will simply state that I regard our current war on drugs as a crime against humanity, and anyone participating in it as hostis humani generis.”
“Generous host of humanity? Great!”
People just don’t know Latin these days, unfortunately.
jeez, admitting to knowing legal terms and admitting that there might be a source of morality outside the law?
Instead of FIJA pamphlets, somebody should pass these out on business cards labelled “get out of jury duty free cards : just say this”.
I was dismissed from a jury for a similar reason. The judge asked if any of us were for drug legalization. I said yes. Whisper, whisper, whisper, and juror The Other Kevin was dismissed.
I was dismissed from a jury for a similar reason.
A judge’s job is to carefully screen potential jurors to make sure no one is empaneled who might jeopardize the state’s ability to secure a conviction. So while you may have hoped for a chance to serve, you have to realize that the judge, in dismissing someone who clearly wasn’t fully on board with the law, was merely doing his job.
I should add, I hope this doesn’t shake your faith in our criminal justice system.
I assure you that’s no longer possible.
“.. our criminal justice system.”
You mean “our legal system”? But then my sarcasm detector is wore out today.
Couple years ago a woman nullified a drug trial and the state went after her saying she lied during jury questioning. She claimed she truthfully answered the exact questions they asked. Looks like they’re getting better (from the state’s perspective) at asking the “right’ questions. I’d love to get the chance to nullify, but I don’t think I could lie.
Does anybody know this:
When you are dismissed for simply stating that you are for legalization, did the prosecution at least have to use some “ammo” on getting rid of you? Or is this plain and simple jury stacking, as Mr Hungus implies?
I couldn’t say in my case. Every time a potential juror was dismissed it was after a brief conference between the judge, the DA, and the defense attorney. The judge himself did all the dismissals, so I don’t know if my dismissal was a “gimme” for the DA or if he had to use one of his allotment.
“He (Draghi) said the next step “is for our leaders to clarify what is the vision … what is the euro going to look like a certain number of years from now. The sooner this has been specified, the better it is.”
Dunno. Hard to see any “vision” substituting for reality. Unless that “vision” means ‘we need to pay for stuff’.
Chaos, calumny and catastrophe.
Normal day in the world.
Please carry on.
OT..I wanna see lobster girl kiss unzipped pants girl.
Who is the latter?
That banner ad for t-shirts that appears on Reason pages?
Of course, boy I feel dumb.
Not as dumb as unzipped pants girl looks.
There are ads on the internet?
When did that start?
I really can’t place the look on her face. Kind of like, “oops, looks like my pants unzipped themselves again.”
Surprise! Team RED pundits openly advocate vacating principles in favor of being loyal to the team.
Hold on while I look around for my surprised face.
Get ready for a ton more of that as the election grows closer.
They could always be like Libertarians and lose every election. So there is that.
It’s better than selling out to Bush IV.
depends on how you define “better.” Hard to see any calculus in which four more years of Obama is better for anything beyond the assault on freedom. No, Romney is hardly perfect and would do many things folks here would bitch about daily. He might also do some things that find favor. How often does Obama inspire positive thoughts?
Well, I get a warm glow thinking about the shitstorm that is going to fall on whoever is actually in office when we go over the fiscal cliff.
Of course, since that shitstorm will fall on TEAM BE RULED regardless, I’m not all that concerned whether the quarterback is wearing blue or red laundry. I suppose I’d prefer that it be Dems who take the fall, but really, the important thing is that at least one of our current major parties is unlikely to survive.
at least one of our current major parties is unlikely to survive.
to be replaced by? I would like to think that a party that walked the limited govt walk would have a role in that, but a fall means a crisis, and crises are seldom captured by those believing in minimal govt.
I am willing to be wrong, however, and see something like Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism and the Wall. It’s not been roses all around but sure seems a hell of a lot better than what it was.
As was the US after the Revolution. So thats at least 2 positive examples.
Obama doesn’t inspire any positive thoughts in me, but I don’t hold out hope that a Romney presidency would be any different. Johnson is almost guaranteed to loose spectacularly come November, but at least my conscious will be clear that I didn’t vote for either of the people that want to skull fuck our country.
well, I’ve heard that it is only a principle if sticking to it can cost you something, so props to you for taking it head on.
Thanks.
(Unless that was sarcastic. My meter is broken.)
nope, no sarc, genuine.
Well, when I think of him starting to use drone attacks in the U.S. and sparking a revolution that, whatever horrible tyranny it ends in, at least leads to the eradication of the current progressive technocratic class, that sort of makes me happy.
They could always be like Libertarians principled and lose every election. So there is that.
I’d rather feel clean every night than be a filthy sellout to my principles.
Bond Yield Overview:
The 10 year treasury yields broke yesterday’s record low and continue at their lowest level since the 1940’s. The 30 year treasury yield is approaching the 2.57% intra-day record low established in late 2008.
The bond market low yields are due in part to new worries about the European debt crisis and the flight to safety
of the US bond markets.
Scared traders, following each other “to safety”.
Give it time…everyone will have fled to the top of the building, away from the flames…only to discover that, as the fire eventually reaches them, the helicopter can only dump more paper on the fire 😉
I came across this link regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. The author is arguing from a false understanding of libertarians, but the commenters REALLY take the cake with constructing a strawman army.
http://crookedtimber.org/2012/…..ure-fired/
Sorry if the link doesn’t display right… posting from my phone.
Going to Crooked Timber is your first mistake. Be sure to use the mind bleach when you get home.
Start with a nice tequila.
I now realize that. I had never heard of the website before, and hadn’t seen any posts here to reference the inanity of the posters. But it seems on par with the commenters on Jezebel.
Gays only seem like they’re everywhere.
“By 2011, that misperception had only grown, with more than a third of those surveyed now guessing that more than 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian. Women and young adults were most likely to provide high estimates, approximating that 30 percent of the population is gay. Only 4 percent of all those surveyed in 2011 and about 8 percent of those surveyed in 2002 correctly guessed that fewer than 5 percent of Americans identify as gay or lesbian. “
Hollywood’s done a pretty good job of giving the impression that gays make up a much larger percentage of the population than they really do. Combine this with the fact that most people know of at least one gay person (or someone who they think is gay but hasn’t come out for whatever reason), and it’s not surprising the guesses were that high.
That’s only in college.
Reality shows are a good example. From the scientific sample that they are, there are as many gays as blacks in America.
Incidentally, the same surveys also show that people overestimate the number of blacks and Hispanics in America.
These young people with wildly wrong ideas about the number of gays are the same young people whose superior wisdom on the topic of gay marriage is hailed in places like…here.
Say what you will of the out-of-touch crochety old men who are soon going to die anyway, but at least they are less likely to think that a third of the population is gay.
To clarify: Even if 75% of the population was gay, that wouldn’t justify rewriting the laws of marriage in my view, but this ignorance on the part of the supposedly better-informed young voters should (to sensible people) throw a wrench on the enlightened-youth-versus-ignorant-oldsters narrative.
But the narrative will continue anyway, because it simply *feels* so true.
Accept that the laws of marriage in play are man’s laws, not God’s. There’s no point getting attached to them or feeling they merit any defense.
So what, do you feel *no* attachment to merely human things? I presume you put liberty in that category?
Excellent alt text.
Excellent use of the image from the Onion, too.
“The judges say the law interferes with the right of states to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples.”
RACIST!
bigger questions: why should govt be giving benefits to anyone just for getting married? And who/where bestowed states with the right to define marriage in the first place?
so they didn’t tell you about the cultures where it is commonplace for one man to have many wives? But maybe they’re right; it’s the “same” for everyone.
Read the link, dude.
Actually, I have many Saudi men as students. We were talking about the 4-wife thing today.
the link 404’d on me, so I was going on the “defined the same way” aspect.
Doh!
Out of curiosity, what was the gist of your conversation?
Actually, I don’t think DOMA interferes with any state’s ability to define marriage anyway it wants, including deciding to recognize gay marriages performed in other states. So I think he’s wrong about that.
A better argument might be that the Constitution does not give the federal government the authority to deny recognition of a marriage that is legal under state law. I could definitely see an equal protection argument on that point.
I don’t think that’s an equal protection point so much as a Tenth Amendment one. My argument goes like this:
1) FedGov wants to establish benefits for married couples. (Assume arguendo that there are some legitimate benefits they could define.)
2) FedGov is not empowered by the Constitution to define marriage.
3) Amendment 10 reserves this power to the states (to the extent that it is a power).
4) Therefore, FedGov has no authority to declare a certain subset of marriages illegitimate provided the marriage in question was conducted IAW the laws of the state that issued the license.
5) Therefore, DOMA violates the Constitution to the extent that it treats certain duly certified marriages differently from other ones.
Now, I suppose that FedGov could circumvent this by declaring that it would provide benefits to monogamous heterosexual marriages only – however that would seem to bring up equal protection issues separate from this argument. That said, benefits as they stand are assigned to married people and DOMA is an attempt to define marriage at the federal level.
If you have any sort of rib injury and read this you may actually die from the pain of laughing…
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/…..loans.html
Keith’s father only agreed to co-sign a student loan if he stuck with an engineering degree at Iowa State University, but even with decent grades, he knew it wasn’t a right fit.
He dropped out sophomore year and later turned to the California Culinary Academy?without his dad as a safety net?hoping to put his love for healthy eating to use.
Feeling confident, Keith took out $46,000 in private loans
He then took out another $14,000 in federal loans to cover his rent, since the school’s fees didn’t include room and board.
But “I was lied to about the terms of the private student loan,” Keith says. “And after completing the program, my first job in the culinary field (working on a meal assembly line) paid $10 per hour.”
“All that I, and the rest of the folks in this mess, are asking for is that Congress simply return the “Truth in Lending” policies and procedures to all student loans (both federal and private),” he said.
Well I guess that’s not so bad… wait, there’s one more thing:
“As well as return the ability to discharge student loan debt through bankruptcy.”
I could listen to an argument to allow student loan debt to be discharged through bankruptcy. The argument against is fairly strong, though:
A student loan is to obtain a very intangible asset that affects future earnings, so people would have a high incentive to get loans, declare bankruptcy, and then take good jobs, being better off.
Well, he obviously can’t do math.
This is the good part, Bot:
Yeah, good advice.
“If I only had a brain! La-di-la!”
Seems like Culinary school does not have a course in basic finance and compound interest.
But that was good advice, yeah. “Don’t pay, the Lord will provide!”
Any attorney who actually advises a client to stop paying student loans in the hope that Congress will revamp bankruptcy laws should be sanctioned, if not disbarred.
why bother with an engineering degree which might lead to something like, you know, a job when you can instead pursue a far riskier option. I’m glad you read the story; just seeing the headline made me nauseous.
But “I was lied to about the terms of the private student loan,” Keith says. “And after completing the program, my first job in the culinary field (working on a meal assembly line) paid $10 per hour.”
As much as I despise the student loan racket, this is sheer dumbassery. If you didn’t know the terms of the loan, you didn’t bother reading the fucking contract. You simply thought, “Hey! Free money!” and signed the loan thinking you’d get some $40K a year sous chef job right off the bat instead of a being a fry cook at the local Applebee’s.
It’s obvious these dumb goons view student loans as a form of welfare and not a liability on their future earnings for the next few decades of their life.
The obvious right solution was to get a job in a kitchen and use it to pay his way thru school.
But, of course, that is crazy talk.
But this one dude royally fucked up his life and now it will take an act of Congress to fix it.
Or keep on with his engineering studies, get a job as an engineer, and use that to fund his way thru cooking school.
And one other thing–it’s time to stop filling kid’s heads with bullshit about “following your dreams,” and start being honest with them about what life has in store for them. We’ve got an increasing number of Gen-Yers who will be graduating college expecting that pot of gold at the end of the occupational rainbow to just show up for them because they have a stupid piece of paper, and quite frankly, they don’t have the emotional or intellectual fortitude to handle reality shoving shit down their throat.
If your kid is too damn stupid or lazy to do anything beyond working as a mower of lawns for the city, you’re not doing them any favors by encouraging them to take on $40K in non-dischargeable debt to get a degree.
You should follow your dreams if you’re willing to learn with the consequences. Following your dreams isn’t some magic formula that means everything will work out, not when lots of other people have the same dreams.
Virtue is its own rewards. Follow your dreams because your dreams will make you happy on the inside, not because you expect to be externally rewarded as well.
John, your statement makes sense, but unfortunately too many people consider that the internal happiness will follow from the external rewards. It’s bass-ackward thinking and all too common these days.
I got a history degree knowing full well that I’d never make a high salary, and planned my expenses and tastes accordingly.
Re: Heroic Mulatto,
She is a believer in Critical Race Theory.
Ugh. All the more reason to wish her a long, painful death from ovarian cancer.
a race hustler of Sharptonian proportions. Mother is Cuban but darker than most so S-O claims either black or hispanic when suitable. Daddy, meanwhile, is whiter than Obama’s mother.
Yep, that’s her.
Hey, is she 1/32 Cherokee? It matters to a certain lefty asshole.
Well, a valuation from whom?
I’m guessing that’s their market capitalization, so the answer would be “the market”.
http://ycharts.com/companies/NYT/market_cap
Must’ve been the same, nice market that valued Facebook at $38.00 per share before it went south.
Not even if Soledad O’Brien did her show in the nude would it help the ratings
Hey Now! let’s not go crazy. We should try that out first, then if the ratings don’t improve, then I’ll concede the point.
This shit is getting out of hand
One of many crazy things is that the brother and father of the killer found the body parts and ended up having to turn him in.
BATH SALTZZ!!!!!
New from McDonald’s: the 16oz double-concentrated super coke. For a limited time, buy one super coke and get a free half-full 32 oz. cup of carbonated water.
Possibly another zombie attack?
“””Maryland man charged with killing, eating man’s brain, heart”‘
http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne…..6697.story
Beat by 17 minutes.
Story of my life.
Breaking News!!
George W. Bush to return to White House for hanging
The Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, finds the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
While this is probably neutral in regards to advancind libertarian ideals, the schadenfreude of watching the Freeper crowd pissing and moaning over this is sweet joy!!
The Freepers would also piss and moan if Congress declared the “Internationale” as the national anthem. Would you still be schadenfreuding all over the keyboard?
No, I don’t want the national anthem changed; why would I be happy if Freepers were upset about it?
That’s some weapons grade stupidity. Perhaps if you weren’t busy swallowing Team Red semen you wouldn’t post such a halfwitted comment. Or are you just offended because you’re a Freeper yourself?
I think “schadenfreuding all over the keyboard” is comparatively speaking more original than “swallowing Team Red semen.” Not fully original, of course, simply in comparison with your own contribution.
I’ll give you credit for ending with a weak parting shot rather than continuing your tailspin of an argument.
Obama gives Presidential medal of Freedom to Bob Dylan.
But wait, there’s more!
Obama says he (Obama, not Dylan) probably knows more about Judaism than any previous president. (including, apparently, predecessors who spoke Hebrew).
But that’s not all…
Obama also says that he had so many “Jewish friends” in Chicago that he was accused of being with the Israeli lobby (“But Rev. Wright was probably just kidding”).
http://ow.ly/bhN9N
“And I even launched my political career with a fundraiser in the home of…oh, wait, never mind.”