And some things that have been seen, cannot be unseen. Oh how I wish I hadn’t seen that Stalin stripper.
Mike S recently posted..The Ethos of Universal Coverage

Actually, people have mostly forgotten how to use the semicolon at all.
Chris Byrne recently posted..Impossible Ideology, False Dichotomy, and Unacceptable Conclusions

I noticed the other day that Robb Allen linked to a tactical pen company called Tuffwriter. Based on the description it sounds like they’re using Fisher cartridges. Nice looking pens, but expensive.

Because yes, someone built a gun and said “This is an awesome gun. We should strap a plane to it.”
Robb Allen recently posted..Polymer plowshares?

I’m not too worried this time. I don’t think Obama will get re-elected. Even if he did Congress has shifted Republican and will shift some more in November.

Funny thing about this song. You can sing the lyrics to Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” to it. It would make for a good mashup.

The thing about freedom of association is that for something like a restaurant you don’t have the same freedom from regulation you do in your home kitchen. You’re opening your doors to the public and letting anyone walk in the front door.

When you do that you’re serving the public and opening the doors to some regulation. The government can’t inspect your home kitchen, but once you start operating a restaurant kitchen that serves the public the rules change.

Look, I’m not welcoming in a bunch of government regulation. But I also don’t want to live in a country where people hang signs on their businesses that say “No Blacks Allowed.”

Thanks for sharing.

-Jason
Jason Clarke recently posted..Brainwave Entrainment

And I never defended Campfield. Just a kneejerk digression whenever I see “homophobia” as it implies fear or hatred, when outside of the Westboro Baptist nutcases, I really don’t see much of it.

And, yeah, the gov. was pretty egregious with poll taxes, forced segregation, and Jim Crow laws. But when the pendulum swung, it took a seriously blow against freedom of association (or non-association) among NON-government entities.

I find racism as disgusting as any ’60s civil rights worker would. But legislating away private freedom of association is no better and doesn’t solve the problem.
markofafreeman recently posted..Victim of Violence in the Family

And other parts of our legal system are targeted at individuals. The Constitution doesn’t say anything about murder, so are you saying there shouldn’t be laws against murder?

“Just believe certain behavior, and you get verbally excoriated for being politically incorrect.”

Did you read the blog post above? Campfield didn’t just have some beliefs. As a state legislator he was attempting to make his opinions have the force of law. As a public figure he was actively expressing some pretty hateful beliefs. Hey, if he can’t take the heat he should stay out of the kitchen. Or the restaurant, in this case.

“It’s when they use force — and legislation is force — to make me behave or not behave a certain way (in a Malum Prohibitum sort of way) that I object.”

So I guess outlawing murder really is right out in your opinion, huh?

“My right to refuse to hire or otherwise associate with folks of a certain creed trumps any legitimate power of government to force me to do so.”

If you don’t want to carpool or split a condo in Destin with Jews on spring break, that’s cool. It’s your vacation.

On the other hand, if you hang a sign on your restaurant that says “No Jews Allowed” that isn’t cool. Not just because it’s illegal, but because it’s wrong to discriminate against an entire group of people and you can’t have a functioning civil society where wholesale discrimination is allowed. Sort of like you can’t have a functioning civil society where murder is allowed.

And like I said above, there’s a reason government needed to be part of the solution in the case of things like race discrimination. The reason is they were part of the problem. The government’s law institutionalized racial disparity with things like poll taxes, segregation, and Jim Crow laws. They broke it, they had to fix it.