"Imagine that a proposed law would make everyone wear high-heeled shoes.

"Would it be “boneheaded” of me to look at a shoe store for evidence of what the future holds?"

What?

Let me be clear on one thing, in case you are confused. The "boneheaded act" was the decision to terminate employment.

@Jason Kuznicki, see, my reply to Jaybird. I'm confidant of only one thing with regard to this topic, your example was a poor choice.

@Jaybird, I assume JK is responsible for every word in his post, including the title, "Why I Can’t Support Hate Speech Laws." The case he links to has nothing to do with hate speech laws, he acknowledges that. Therefore I see it as a straw man. JK should have much better evidence than this boneheaded act to attack such laws.

@Jason Kuznicki, I don't disagree. I think such laws are ill advised. But using this episode to attack them is setting up that poor abused straw man.

I could be wrong but I don't see any force of *law* here. Wasn't it confined to a private school making a choice on employment?

Regardless of the necessity or wisdom of such laws this episode does not fit. Seems to me.

@Mark Thompson, I understand the point of you post, I understand the point of your comment. I'm not sure I agree but certainly I don't disagree enough to pursue it.

My beef with you is very narrow (picky?), questioning the "sincerity" of Gov. O'Malley.

"…But the sincerity of even this fairly obvious bit of truth-telling is thrown into question by the fact O’Malley was himself voicing apprehension about the lawsuit in the closed-door meeting."

Ah, between a rock and a hard space. There is nothing odd going on here, no there there. As you say, it is "obvious," DOJ had no choice. Equally obvious is the reality that the federal case against the Arizona law will have negative consequences for Democrats. I don't see anything strange or disingenuous or insincere about OMalley holding both positions. Both *are* equally true.

@sam, ata boy.
i'll join you.

@Jaybird, tong in cheek?

@sam, in the best Jaybird tradition, tong in cheek, shouldn't that be Palinesque and Palinistas?

"Ah, to be honest, I usually assume Jaybird’s tongue is at least partially in his cheek." Rufus

That make me feel better and hopeful.

"LA and Oakland aren’t the same place?" Jaybird

It's been years since I've visited but very distinct places then. Things change and not always for the better. If Oakland has become LA I'm weeping like Glenn Beck.

@Rufus, pop, soda either work for me. Seems to be a geographical thing, as best I can tell.

No, the obvious error, to me, was the location of the trial. LA not Oakland. But that error is just about as trivial as a typing error going uncorrected. But it has Jaybird clutching his pearls.

@Jaybird, as long as you are hellbent on being oh so correct why not point out greginak's obvious error.

@E.D. Kain, I'm only asking. Is the Christie budget defensible on the grounds you propose, shifting spending from the unnecessary to the necessary? I don't see that he did.

@Transplanted Lawyer, it is well written, I will obey the ground rules and stop there.

If tax cuts opened the door to prosperity we should be at near record lows of unemployment, statical full employment.

Sadly, no.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/rich-got-rich-and-poor-got-poorer-ain

@E.D. Kain, it's nothing but classic supply side economics 101. I know you believe. But even so defending the Christie budget seems odd.

Dose his budget do what you suggest?

In response to sidereal you said, "It could mean more funds taken out of ridiculous teacher and administrator unions and placed directly into education." Assuming what you imply is true dose the Christie budget do anything like that?

In short, did Christie attempt to reduce wasteful spending in column A and transfer it to column B, help education or worthy safety-net programs?

Perhaps he did. I didn't see such in my admittedly cursory review.

"But one thing that irks me is the reaction that all these spending cuts 'hurt' the poor...."

Okay, I guess I agree. Budget cuts hurt not just the poor but also the working/middle class. A Google search will find hundreds of articles on how the Christie budget hurt both.

Here are a few selected, I mean cherry-picked, passages from one article.

"Already, he [Christie] has cut the state's mass-transit subsidy and stopped enrolling some lower-income adults in a subsidized health insurance program. He's also proposed reducing weekly unemployment checks and, even before he was sworn in, hinted that food banks could see their state aid cut and told hospitals their reimbursements for treating the indigent will be cut in June."

"What particularly rankles some critics is that Christie is planning to eliminate a higher income tax for families who make over $400,000. "We should not cut taxes for rich folks at the same time we're cutting funding for food banks," said Ev Liebman, project manager for the watchdog group New Jersey Citizen Action."

""Earlier this month, Christie slashed eligibility [for subsidized health insurance]. No more adults making more than 133 percent of the poverty level — about $29,000 for a family of four — can enroll."

"And nearly 12,000 legal immigrants who are not citizens are being ousted entirely from the FamilyCare insurance program on March 31."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/nj_budget_cuts_could_burden_lo.html

Jaybird, I plead guilty, glib. But as JK said, "Superficial? It’s a blog comment. Of course it’s superficial. That’s what we do here."

@Bob, sorry, it was your comment, "I mean, Jesus. Has it never occurred to these people that they could, like, just move to friggin’ Denmark? They could totally live in a country just like Denmark at that point! Plus the US could be, like, different! It’d be like all diversity and stuff!"

I took it that you were recommending a move to Denmark.

@Jaybird, read his comments.

@Jaybird, check again Jaybird, that was @ Dave.

"I didn’t tell you to do anything, Bob."

Jaybird, did I say anything about you telling me to do something?

I don't recall doing so.

@Dave, Yeah, I didn't mention Somalia but you sure as hell recommend moving to Denmark. Jeez.

@Dave, hey, Dave.