Good for something government

Krugman is worth reading today on the lessons of the BP leak in the Gulf. This is the quote of the day:

Yet antigovernment ideology remains all too prevalent, despite the havoc it has wrought. In fact, it has been making a comeback with the rise of the Tea Party movement. If there’s any silver lining to the disaster in the gulf, it is that it may serve as a wake-up call, a reminder that we need politicians who believe in good government, because there are some jobs only the government can do.

I've been trying to drive this point home to my tea party readers at DetNews for a long time now. Bitching about government "theft" of "their money" fails to recognize the benefits of the spending. Not like there's no money wasted or that there aren't any stupid laws or regulations, but to condemn the whole entity on the basis of its flaws is kind of like saying you should ban all motorized transportation because they break down sometimes.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Oh, that quirky Singapore

by expatbrian

It's Sunday, my significant other is out playing Mahjong and I'm sitting downstairs in a nice 80 degree breeze with my laptop and wifi. Life is good.

I've heard a lot of misconceptions about Singapore since I've been here, many of them in comments on my blog. I thought I might clear up a few.

Probably the most common complaints I hear have to do with the caning of a 16 year old tourist for vandalizing with spray paint. Yup, that happened. I could never figure out what possessed this young man to do such a thing in a foreign city in the first place, especially one with the rep Singapore has. But he did, and like anyone else who did the same, he suffered the consequences.

The government here frowns upon folks who intentionally deface this beautiful city. The result of this policy is, unlike American cities where graffiti is everywhere, there is none here. Seems there is a certain deterring effect when one faces the possibility of being beaten with a bamboo cane.

It's also well known that it is illegal to buy or sell gum here. It's an offense punishable with a fine. I suppose that's an inconvenience for some. I don't miss it much. I also don't miss stepping in someones discarded gum and trying to clean it off my shoes. and I don't miss the black splotches all over the sidewalks. Works for me.

Spitting is also a finable offense here. Same result. You don't have to worry about stepping in someone elses snot everytime you go for a walk. I can live with it.

Drugs are a big no-no here. This fact is very well publicized all over the world as is the diligence and thoroughness of the customs folks at the borders and airports. Yet some still decide they simply have to try to enter the country with illegal drugs. If they get caught with enough to sell, they get hung. It doesn't matter who they are or where they're from. They get a necktie party and they get it quickly. Personally, I think if they are that stupid, they deserve to be hung. Makes more room for the rest of us.

I've talked a lot about guns here and on my blog. Guns are allowed here for target shooting and many make use of those facilities. But when they are done, they leave their gun locked up at the range. Even the police turn in their weapons at the end of their shifts.

I know, I know, that's terribly repressive. On the other hand, because no one else has a gun either, you don't need one to "protect" yourself. The result of course is very few killings here and none with guns. But if someone cheats, if someone manages to have a gun and uses it in a crime, its another necktie party. The result of this repressive policy is safe streets for all the little uniformed school girls to walk home on at night.

I had a comment yesterday from a guy complaining that Singapore doesn't have a free press. It's true that the government owns the newspapers. But there are still articles and editorials every day complaining about one government policy or another. It doesn't really matter anyway because you can read any newspaper you want online and the internet, unlike places like China, is not censored at all....for anybody.

Car ownership is very expensive here. The tiniest compact from Korea runs about 50,000 sing dollars (about 35,000 US.) With 4.5 million people living on this tiny island it would be 24 hr gridlock if everyone drove.

I've been here 4 1/2 years so far and have never driven a car here. I don't have to. The rapid transit and bus systems, considered by many to be the best in the world, are cheap and go everywhere. If you're in a big hurry you can flag one of the 20,000 taxis which cost about 3 or 4 bucks to get you where you need to go.

There are no jury trials here. That works for me, too. Now, I'm sure that it was a good idea back in the old days when the founding fathers envisioned fair trials by a jury "of your peers". That was back when justice was valued and attorneys were respected and acted accordingly.

These days, justice is purchased by those who can afford the most expensive attorneys and guilt or innocence is no longer the most important issue. Those who succeed are those who can most effectively manipulate the court proceedings and influence 12 lay people who know absolutely nothing about the law except what they see on TV. OJ is the perfect example. "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit". What kind of horse shit is that?

No, I think I prefer judgement by someone who is an expert in the law and who understands all of the legal techniques that lawyers will try to use to win their cases.

In a future post I will compare the election process and why votes are not bought by industrial lobbyists. But for now, it's Miller time.

Look for me over at World Gone Mad

Bush Feels Terrible, But He's Not Going To Jail

Today George Bush commented on Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentencing in federal court.

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino, accompanying President Bush on Air Force One from the Czech Republic to Germany Tuesday, told reporters that Bush "felt terrible for the family, especially for his wife and kids."

Of course, American royalty doesn't expect to go to jail themselves, they always have some loyal fool around to do it for them. Now, I'm not saying that George Bush knew anything about this, of course not, he's the President.

Of course Bush did de-classify documents so that Joseph Wilson could be could be attacked politically. Of course getting at Wilson involved outing his wife, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. And here we are. Of course.

There is very little honor among thieves and none among these politicians. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Armitage, that's quite a list and they all should be in jail. For these people that have made so much political capital on their phony claim of keeping America safe they sure do play fast and loose with intelligence documents and CIA agents.

Mr. Bush's crying of crocodile tears is to be expected and I would hope that this mob is at least taking care of one of it's capos for keeping his pledge of omerta.

Montana says no to Big Brother

By Libby

This strikes me a very good news. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer just said no to National ID, resoundingly rejecting the feds attempts to force us to "carry our papers" in order to travel "freely" in our own blessed country.

The move means the state won't comply with the Real ID Act, a federal law that sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.

Though several states have either passed or are considering resolutions or bills against the act, Montana is the first state to outright deny its implementation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

..."We also don't think that bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., ought to tell us that if we're going to get on a plane we have to carry their card, so when it's scanned through they know where you went, when you got there and when you came home," said Schweitzer, a Democrat.

Good for him and for the sensible voters and legislators of Montana.

Funny, I was just thinking yesterday we haven't heard much about Tester lately. Montana's freshman senator advises he "is pushing national legislation to repeal the Real ID Act." I'd advise his colleagues on Capitol Hill get on board that bus before they find themselves left behind in the next election.

Judge throws out internet porn law

It seems like everything on the radar screen today is about porn. A federal judge struck down an internet porn law presumably designed to prevent kid's from accessing on-line porn. The judge effectively said in his decision that it wasn't up to the courts to do the parent's job in preventing access to adult content.

He noted, and I'm paraphrasing here, that if parents are too uninvolved to spend enough time with their kids to prevent them from accessing inappropirate material, the technology exists for them to filter it themselves. He rightly ruled that the danger to the First Amendment overrode any practical influence such a law might have on availibilty of the content in question.

Good for him.