A Stitch in Haste

ITEM: The “Lieberman-Warner” cap-and-trade carbon emission bill has died in the Senate. My critique of the concept in this chain.

ITEM: A major bribery scandal has erupted in the New York City Buildings Department over fake safety inspections for construction cranes. While not (yet) directly connected to the two recent crane disasters in New York, the first of which I blogged about here, the corruption counters the notion that “safety is too important to leave to the private sector” — indeed, it’s too important not to leave to the private sector.

ITEM: The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics has issued a report showing that the number of incarcerated persons in the U.S. has reached yet another all-time high:

This represents an incarceration rate of 762 per 100,000 US residents, the highest such rate in the world. By contrast, the United Kingdom’s incarceration rate is 152 per 100,000 residents; the rate in Canada is 108; and in France it is 91.

This on the heels of the “Land of the Free” having just reached the “milestone” of putting more than 1% of our entire adult population behind bars. I noted that milestone in this Kip Clip.

ITEM: New York State’s highest court has upheld the dismissal of a city court judge who jailed his entire courtroom — 46 people — after a cell phone went off in court and no one admitted to being the device’s owner. I used the incident as an anecdote to contrast the response to judicial misconduct with that of legislator misconduct in this post.

ITEM: Controversial New York Post political cartoonist Sean Delonas published (on 5 June 2008) yet another patently bigoted anti-gay cartoon, this time cruelly mocking George Takei’s announcement that he intends to marry his long-time partner once gay marriage is made available in California. (Via Good As You.) Most recent post here.

ITEM: Eclipsed by the California gay marriage ruling was a report that Michael Buday has, after two years of litigation, finally secured his right to change his name to that of his wife without cost or undue paperwork. According to the ACLU of Southern California, only seven states have full and equal naming rights subsequent to heterosexual marriage (i.e., a husband can take his wife’s name as easily as a wife can take her husband’s name). I cited (the former) Mr. Buday’s story as an example of the fallacy of “defending traditional marriage” in this post.

ITEM: The Transportation Security Administration is quietly introducing self-sorting security lines at select airports. The three color-coded categories (entirely voluntary and allegedly based on ski slope terminology) are: “Families and Special Assistance,” “Casual Traveler” and “Expert Traveler.” As I noted previously in the context of special TSA lines for First Class and elite status fliers, the notion that airport security should be completely uniform and egalitarian “as a moral principle” is utterly indefensible.

ITEM: Funny story from Larry Craig country —

The Western Days parade in Twin Falls is one of the biggest community events of the year, and in recent years, a center of controversy. Tens of thousands of people line the streets to see high school bands, firefighters, local businesses and other groups that are all easily identifiable, with just one exception. A float that carries a big question mark because the parade committee only let the southern Idaho gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community center participate if they didn’t make any reference to sexual orientation or gender identity. No rainbows. No colors. No flyers with their message.

The residents of Grand Plains, Nebraska, who are depicted in my right sidebar, were unavailable for comment (mainly because they, unlike Idaho’s redneck bumpkin bigots, are fictional). (Via The Gist.)