On the other hand...

The only argument I have with this video is the large number of government projects. Still, they are human acheivments.

Lets ban still more books

Political books, this time.

I suppose this is for the children, too.

Here is the NY Times take, winding up with:

“If we accept your constitutional argument,” Chief Justice Roberts told Mr. Stewart, “we’re establishing a precedent that you yourself say would extend to banning the book.”

Justice Antonin Scalia said he was “a little disoriented.”

“We are dealing with a constitutional provision, are we not, the one that I remember which said Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press?” Justice Scalia asked.

In Sandra Day O'Connor's much heralded absence, there is at least a chance of wiping McCain-Feingold off the books.

George Bush signed it into "law". So much for respecting his oath of office to uphold the Constitution.

More on Daniel Hannan

It turns out that he would have voted for Ron Paul.

Unfortunately, Ron Paul comes across to too many as the sort of fellow you avoid sitting next to in a bus station.

States Rebeling Against Washington?

The Christian Science Monitor seems to think so. If only.

The UN "Human Rights Council" votes for banning free speech

In general, banning criticism of religion. Specificly, criticism of Islam. No word on exceptions made for, oh, say Judaism or Christianity. I guess those are assumed.

Thanks to PowerLine for the tip.

UPDATE: Since this was introduced by Muslim states, an exception for Judaism has to be assumed, and Christianity as well.

All other religions, in fact. Else how to square banning criticism of religion with making it a capital offense to proselytize any religion save Islam in Saudi Arabia? How to square it with making it a capital offense for a non-Muslim to enter the city of Mecca? How to square it with making a capital offense to convert from Islam to any other religion? How to square it with official Saudi school text books calling Jews apes and pigs? How to square it with the Palestinians in Gaza making sale of land to a Jew a capital offense?

I guess prosecuting and executing people doesn't count as criticism, so long as they aren't Muslims, nor does calling people pigs and apes, so long as they are Jews.

Swiss Bank executives: Deep kim chee time?

Switzerland’s private banks have started to ban their top executives from travelling abroad, even to neighbouring France and Germany, because of fears they will be detained as part of a global crackdown on bank secrecy.

The head of one leading private bank in Geneva said the growing determination of countries such as the US and Germany to tackle tax evasion and secrecy meant banks felt they had to take extra measures to protect employees.

I have had mixed beliefs about Swiss et al bank secrecy. Originally I thought of it as a great place for decent people to protect themselves against kleptocratic thugs. Then all too often it was the place of choice for the kleptocratic thugs themselves to protect their stolen money from decent people. Now I swing back to the former.

From their discreet offices on a luxury goods shopping street overlooking Lac Leman, private bankers in Geneva reacted this week with a mixture of intense anger, at what they see as an unjustified attack by big countries, and concern about the threat to their business model.

“It is not really about bank secrecy; it is about solving an internal problem [for the big countries] by finding an enemy outside to bash,” said one senior banker.

That and the fact that a lot of people seem to think that tax rates are high enough to justify committing felonies to evade those taxes. That is a very destructive place for a society to put itself. Richard Milne has the story in the Financial Times.

Gun Control Laws Post-Heller: Two Opinions

The New York Times: Heller will turn out to be of no significance. They hope.

Dave Kopel, one of four lawyers for Heller at the Supreme Court, disagrees.

UPDATE: Massachussetts here.

Atlas Shrugs

An email from Jake DeSantis, executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit to AIG President Edward Libby.

Good for Mr. DeSantis. It might be instructive to Mr Liddy and Madam Pelosi if they all quit.

LA Times on Mexican drug cartel guns & grenades

It's hard to tell from other news media coverage, but the heavy weaponry isn't coming from US gun shows. It's coming from other countries via Guatemala, and Mexican miltary and police.Surprise, surprise.

If I had paid any attention to most news media, I'd "know" that assault rifles, grenades, and rocket launchers are readily available at all US gun shows, and cheap at twice the price.

Much like a group of people can walk into any US car dealership and drive out in a fleet of tanks.

This is refreshing

Sounds like EU President Mirek Topolanek, whose day job is the Czech Republic’s prime minister, is an anti-fascist.

“The US Treasury secretary talks about permanent action and we, at our spring council, were quite alarmed at that . . . The US is repeating mistakes from the 1930s, such as wide-ranging stimuluses, protectionist tendencies and appeals, the Buy American campaign, and so on,” he told a European parliament session in Strasbourg. “All these steps, their combination and their permanency, are the road to hell.”

I'll bet he's lonely over there.

Yep:

The blunt comments of the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, coming just a week before a crucial meeting of the Group of 20 that is supposed to show leaders coming together to cope with the crisis, were greeted with embarrassment by many Europeans, who believe that the Czechs do not represent the consensus in the European Union in any case.

I suspect many Europeans believe quite correctly, as President Topolanek isn't a socialist/fascist.

And here I thought the lefties applauded those who speak truth to power.

Silly me.

And it's too bad that Mirek Topolanek can't be our president as well.

Too bad this guy can't run for president of the US

Let's ban some books.

Lots of books.

It's for the children: