… and your brain's moving slow:
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President Obama devoted his weekly
address to bemoaning the First Amendment, specifically that it lets
organizations he doesn't like (corporations) say things he'd prefer
that ordinary people not hear (political ads). Specifically,
he whined about the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United
case and Congress's failure to pass the "DISCLOSE Act".
The Campaign Freedom blog rebuts here. Among their points:
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The President evaded any mention of unions, although they were
also freed up by the Citizens United decision.
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The President was explicitly fear-pandering and xenophobic,
referring to "shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names" and
"foreign-controlled corporations".
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The President focused on the (onerous) disclosure requirements
in the legislation, ignoring the actual restrictions it made on
previously-protected speech.
The blogger also notes the Presidential glibness: "The only people who don't want to disclose the truth are people with something to hide." It's one of those which-would-be-worse situations: whether Obama doesn't realize how ominous those words are, coming as they do from the nation's chief executive, or whether he does.
If Dubya had said such a thing, four or five New York Times columnists would have imminent-fascism aneurysms in print within 24 hours. But it's Obama, so…
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The President evaded any mention of unions, although they were
also freed up by the Citizens United decision.
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I've criticized Scott Adams (Dilbert) in the recent past,
but let me be fair: his weekend article in the
Wall Street Journal about his efforts to build a "green" house
had me laughing at a number of points. He's got a knack for cheerful
cynicism and self-deprecation.
As a rule, the greener the home, the uglier it will be. I went into the process thinking that green homes were ugly because hippies have bad taste. That turns out to be nothing but a coincidence. The problem is deeper.
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Things I couldn't make up if I tried: AwesomenessReminders.
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