Linkfest: Sunday Updates
Time to clean out the aggregator —
ITEM: The Georgia Supreme Court has declared that a provision of that state’s draconian sex offender residency restriction, requiring homeless offenders to provide authorities a street address (which, being homeless, they don’t have) violates both the federal and Georgia due process clauses. I have blogged about Georgia’s obsession with overly onerous sex offender laws here and here. Santos v. State, No. S08A1296 (Supr. Ct. Georgia, October 27, 2008) (PDF – 15 pages) (Via Sex Crimes Blawg.)
ITEM: Yet another lawsuit challenging yet another state law attempting to restrict sales of “violent” video games to minors — this time in California. Every previous version of such laws has been struck down on First Amendment grounds; expect the same result this time. One of many previous posts here.
ITEM: Texas officials, meanwhile, have decided not to seek Supreme Court review of a Fifth Circuit decision striking down that state’s ban on the sale of sex toys. As I explained previously, the case set the important precedent of extending the due process holding of Lawrence v. Texas to commercial transactions.
ITEM: A federal judge has refused to grant a preliminary junction blocking the District of Columbia’s controversial checkpoint program in which motorists cannot enter certain “high crime” neighborhoods unless they can prove that they live in the neighborhood or have some “legitimate” reason to enter it. I argued that the program is unconstitutional here. Mills v. District, No. 08-1061 (D.D.C., October 30, 2008) (PDF – 31 pages)
ITEM: A new report on the condition of state and local government employee defined-benefit pension funds in the wake of the stock market downturn. According to one money manager, such funds lost 14.8% of their value in the 12 months ended September 30th (i.e., even before the further precipitous declines in October). Nationwide, these funds (which in all cover 27 million government employees and retirees) were already underfunded by almost $400 billion six months ago (i.e., even before the stock market plunge); the shortfalls must eventually be made up by the taxpayers in the affected jurisdictions. Flagship post here.
ITEM: China’s Communist government has admitted that melamine contamination is also prevalent in animal feed, and that the poison is therefore likely present throughout China’s processed food chain. I explained how the scandal is a government failure, not a “market failure,” in this post.
ITEM: Nine Chinese families, meanwhile, are attempting to sue the largest state-controlled manufacturer of the adulterated products that have poisoned countless people, including tens of thousands of babies throughout China and around the world. In the same previous post, I noted the lack of a robust tort system in China as a factor in the Communist catastrophe.
ITEM: Britain’s National Health Service has announced that it will abolish its despicable (indeed lethal) rule forbidding patients from “topping off” their health care by paying out of pocket for treatments that are denied by the socialized medicine regime. I highlighted the practice in a “Questions” post and also here, noting how the rule not only demonstrated the axiomatic economic fallacy of a “right to health care” but also showed the inevitability, under government-controlled medicine, of adulterating objective health care administration with perverse notions of “social justice.” (Via John Ray.)
ITEM: Another barbaric stoning in a Sharia country — this time Somalia, where a 13-year old girl who claimed she was raped was executed for — well, for having been raped. According to witnesses, as many as 1,000 bloodlusting Muslims packed a stadium to witness the event. Most recent post here.
ITEM: Self-loathing homosexual John Cloud of Time penned a piece on wealthy gay activists whom he dismissively labels the “Gay Mafia.” I previously condemned Cloud for an outrageous piece downplaying school violence against gays. (Via Wayne Besen.)
ITEM: Hopefully you remembered that today is, finally, the end of Daylight Saving Time. Hopefully you also remembered that the new, later end was the result of an absurd, warm fuzzy feeling move by Congress, supposedly to save energy. Well, new data confirm that not only did the nation not save energy, but also used more as a result of the move. (PDF – 36 pages; via Productivity Shock.)
ITEM: Finally, congratulations to past CuteTuber™ Tyler Oakley, who won the Human Rights Campaign’s “Come Out and Vote Video Contest” with the following video —
Filed under: Updates