Time to clean out the aggregator —
ITEM: Google and Viacom have reached an agreement whereby the YouTube records the latter is seeking in its copyright infringement lawsuit against the former will be anonymized. Mission Accomplished.
ITEM: The District of Columbia has refused to issue Dick Heller, the litigant in the landmark Second Amendment case District v. Heller, a permit for his weapon, on the obviously pretextual grounds that his semi-automatic handgun is, somehow, a “machine gun.” This despite the fact that the Supreme Court’s ruling unambiguously instructed the District to issue Heller a permit for his weapon. Flagship post here.
ITEM: Speaking of the District of Columbia, its council is considering imposing a special sales tax surcharge on tickets, parking and concessions at Nationals Ballpark — which, despite (always made and always wrong) assurances that the stadium would be an economic success, is deep in the red and is not generating enough revenue to meet looming bond payments. Flagship posts here (stadiums) and here (convention centers).
ITEM: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is proposing yet another economic stimulus package. The fact that this is election season and that Congressional approval ratings are at cataclysmic lows surely have nothing to do with the proposal. House Minority Leader John Boehner has voiced opposition to the proposal. I mocked this year’s stimulus package here; Lewis Black mocked the first stimulus package here.
ITEM: The British Army is adopting a formal program of combating (no pun intended) anti-gay discrimination within its ranks. The European Court of Human Rights ordered all member nations to allow gays to enlist and serve openly. The U.S., meanwhile, continues to prefer felons over gays in its military, with entirely predictable consequences. Flagship post here.
ITEM: A Dutch court has upheld an “environmental surcharge” on all commercial flights departing Holland. Dutch airline KLM predicts that as many as one million passengers per year will choose to fly from other European airports in response to the tax (11.25 euros on flights within Europe; 45 euros for longer flights). I once criticized a U.N. proposal to tax all commercial flights around the world.
ITEM: An activist legislator in Los Angeles is proposing banning fast food restaurants in minority neighborhoods as part of the “War on Obesity.” I blogged about such idiocy (which apparently is now called a response to “food apartheid”) in New York City here. (Via To the People.)
ITEM: More evidence is emerging that young unskilled workers are bearing the brunt of the economic slowdown and the rise in reported unemployment. I recently weighed in on the debate regarding whether the recent and pending increases in the minimum wage are also to blame.
ITEM: Zimbabwe is now printing 100 billion dollar currency notes to accommodate its 2.2 million percent inflation rate. The humor fades, however, when one recalls that the violence and bloodshed is also increasing at escalating rates.