Feb
8
2007

Thoughts on the Death of Anna Nicole Smith

At Planet Fitness, watching Fox News with no sound:

"Well, I guess she lived a full life. … Geez, looks as if Greta van Susteren is having a hard time keeping a straight face here. … Although I guess that could be a Botox thing. … I hope they get somebody competent to do the autopsy."

Later, at home:

"Wonder if Jeff Goldstein has anything on this? … Yes, he does. … Classy, not like the old days.

No, I'm not proud of myself.


Last Modified 2012-10-19 3:07 PM EDT

The FCC: Kill It!

In keeping with the federal budget theme of the past few days, Adam Thierer at the Tech Liberation Front asks a really good question: "Why Does FCC Spending Keep Growing?" He has a nice bar chart showing the FCC's budget authority 1996-2008. And then shakes his head:

Seriously, I just don't get it. Why does the FCC's budget keep growing without constraint? Why does it need $313 million and nearly 2,000 bureaucrats to regulate industries and technologies that could do just fine, thank you very much, without endless meddling from DC. It seems to me like all those unregulated rivals are doing just fine without the FCC serving as market nanny, so why not cut the flow of funds to the FCC for awhile and see what happens?

Yeah! The FCC was established in 1934, an time when Americans were looking wistfully at both fascism and socialism and wondering, gee, maybe there's something to that stuff. We're smarter now—at least we'd like to think so—but the barbarous remnants of those failed ideologies continue to haunt us. (Aided, of course, by the power junkies in Congress and the Executive who can't bear the idea that they're not needed to "benevolently" run things.)


Last Modified 2012-10-19 3:07 PM EDT