Last year I wrote a short piece for Reason on a Missouri man’s mural protest against eminent domain abuse (seen here), and the state’s efforts to silence him by requiring him to get a sign permit, then rejecting his application. Some good news:

Roos and two entities that he controls sued the city, arguing that the sign was a political statement protected by the Constitution. Roos is also a spokesperson for the Missouri Eminent Domain Abuse Coalition (MEDAC).

U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey dismissed the case, saying the ordinance was content-neutral. The mural was a “classic example” of a sign, he said, as it was meant to attract attention to Roos’ cause and advertised two Web site addresses.

But a three judge panel of the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals disagreed Wednesday, saying that the zoning code used the content of a sign to determine if it was, in fact, a “sign” under the code.

A sign the same size as Roos’ “would not be subject to regulation if it were a “[n]ational, state, religious, fraternal, professional and civic symbol’” or showed the “time and subject matter of religious services,” the ruling says.

The code was also not supported by a compelling government interest, the judges ruled.

Congratulations to the Institute for Justice, who represented Roos in his appeal. Now we just need to get Roos to fix the sign so it doesn’t suggest that he’s advocating eminent domain abuse.

From a Washington Post article about Caylee’s Law:

[Michelle] Crowder said in a phone interview that she had not spoken to any law enforcement officials before coming up with the proposal — she relied on a quick Google search and the belief that lawmakers would look into the details.

This was a frequent response to my Huffington Post piece as well. Sure, the law may be flawed. But we can count on our careful, thoughtful lawmakers to sort out the details. That’s democracy!

Here in Tennessee, the Caylee’s Law bill is sponsored by state Sen. Bill Ketron. Here’s what Ketron wrote on Twitter yesterday:

Ketron didn’t Tweet, “I look forward to holding hearings on whether or not such a law is necessary in Tennessee.” No, he wants to get this done “quickly,” while outrage over the Casey Anthony verdict is still hot. And, presumably, while he can still claim the mantle of the politician who “speaks for children who can’t speak for themselves” or some similar self-aggrandizing nonsense.

And Ketron has a history of negligent lawmaking. A few highlights:

• He introduced an immigration bill that would make Arizona look like a sanctuary state. Ketron’s bill would require Tennessee law enforcement to demand papers from anyone they stop who looks or sounds “foreign”,  regardless of whether any laws were broken. It would also allow any resident of Tennessee to sue any government official they believe is inadequately enforcing the law.
• Ketron’s “Cyber Bullying” law has on-point lessons to Caylee’s Law. Ketron introduced the bill after hearing a story in Texas about a mother who tormented one of her daughter’s rivals for the cheerleading team until the rival killed herself. The problem? Ketron’s bill, which is now law in Tennessee, makes it a felony to post any image online that causes “emotional distress” to anyone else. It is clearly unconstitutional.
• Ketron also introduced Tennessee’s asinine, headline-grabbing bill that would make it a felony to “practice Sharia law” in the state. Ketron later had to rewrite the bill when it became clear that hadn’t the slightest idea what “Sharia law” actually means. (The bulk of the bill was written by a guy who thinks there’s merit in denying blacks and women the right to vote.)

By the way, Ketron isn’t on the fringes of Tennessee politics. He heads up the state senate’s GOP caucus.

If your plan is to rely on politicians to “sort out the details” and temper the hysteria with calm, thoughtful legislating, you’re making a huge mistake.

Public health academics are now seriously suggesting that the government take obese children away from their parents.

I’m not sure there’s really much debate to be had here. You either find this self-evidently horrifying, or you don’t.

• Marie Clare takes a skeptical look at sex offender laws.
• The highest-paid state employee in California is “a prison surgeon who took home $777,423, has a history of mental illness, was fired once for alleged incompetence and has not been allowed to treat an inmate for six years because medical supervisors don’t trust his clinical skills.”
• Horrifying, heartbreaking story in Brooklyn.
• Headline of the day.
• Headline of the day, runner-up.
• Good article in American Cop magazine, written by a cop, about recording cops in public.
• Libyan “freedom fighters” we’ve been supporting are now looting, razing, and burning villages.
• Center for American Progress: These free marketeers are such corporate shills, they even oppose regulations when corporations support them!

So people who not so long ago were willing to pay $5 to rent a single movie on a low-quality VHS tape are now howling mad because if they’d like to continue to stream hi-def movies anywhere, at any time, they’ll have to pay an additional $6/month on top of the $10/month they’re now paying for unlimited hi-def DVD rentals.

This seems appropriate:

• So what do you think this guy is going to do when he discovers I wrote this?
• Randall Adams, RIP.
• The Deacon Turner shooting takes another ugly turn.
• I love it when The Onion goes dark.
• Here’s the other side of that story about the Arizona state senator who pointed a loaded gun at a reporter.
• More law enforcement pressure on ISPs to preserve user data.
• I don’t care if it rains or freezes, long as I got my 129-foot-tall-Jesus . . . 
• Damon Root reviews a documentary about the outrageous Atlantic Yards eminent domain case.

I’ll be defending child murderers explaining my objections to “Caylee’s Law” tonight on Freedom Watch.

Airs at 8pm ET, Fox Business Network.

In response to the Caylee’s Law article:

Here we go with your liberal Huffington Post bs, if it were left up to people like you, every murderer, child molester and evil doer such as Casey Anthony would all be free to walk the streets.  You are what is wrong with America.

I’ve received lots of supportive email too. But the nasty ones are more fun.

More great photos here.

MORE: Several commenters have noted that some of the photos were taken as late as the 1960s.

Some extra links for you this afternoon, at no additional charge:

• More “Enhance!” (Via the comments.)
• Congress begins another attempt to collect reams of personal data under the guise of fighting child porn.
• Michigan lawmaker wants to expand asset forfeiture to allow police agencies to use forfeited funds for general operations. What could possibly go wrong?
• Pointing a loaded gun at a reporter’s chest is a pretty moronic way of showing your support for the Second Amendment. And, you know, counterproductive. Just saying.
• Mitch McConnell says the Casey Anthony trial shows how hard it is for prosecutors to win convictions, which is why we should keep holding Gitmo detainees without trying them. If there were some sort of record for the total cumulative number of wrongful assertions, analogies, conclusions, and factual errors packed into a single sentence, this would be a strong contender.
• Ah, I see my bounty of wisdom is having just as much impact in my newly adopted home state as it had in my prior adopted home state.

I chatted with Alyona Minkovski about “Caylee’s Law” yesterday. Here’s the video.

• Gallery of President Obama receiving sycophantic laughter.
• I propose we change the name of Arizona to “West Florida.”
• This story is pretty amazing. When “The Region” says it’s time to legalize pot, we’ve turned a corner. Now if someone would only tell the politicians.
• Scott Greenfield on Nancy Grace. (Er, writing about her. That isn’t a promo.)
• Enhance!
• So this seems suspicious.

Shocking, isn’t it?

But good on the Washington Times for exposing the money grab behind the “public safety” campaign to mandate the devices for first-time DUI offenders.

A bill that would withhold up to 5 percent of each state’s highway funding unless that state requires such as device in the cars of all convicted drunken drivers was introduced in the Senate in February by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat, and last month in the House by Rep. Eliot L. Engel, New York Democrat.

For the past 18 months, lobbyists for “ignition interlocks,” as they are called, have jockeyed to inject a provision into the crevices of the transportation reauthorization bill, a tentative outline of which was released Friday by Rep. John L. Mica, Florida Republican.

The hospitality industry says a mandate could pave the way for a different type of sensor, other than a Breathalyzer, to be made standard in all cars within five years, in line with a separate House proposal introduced last month that would allocate $60 million over that period to develop the technology. Those devices would be set to detect blood alcohol content near the legal limit, likely through skin contact with the steering wheel.

The Coalition of Ignition Interlock Manufacturers hired lobbyist David Kelly, a former chief of staff and acting administrator at the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. Mr. Lautenberg’s former chief of staff, Tim Yehl, now lobbies for Ignition Interlock Systems of Iowa . . .

The manufacturers are taking a page from a well-worn playbook: lobbying campaigns in which private companies advocate for government requirements that would make them rich by aligning with activist forces who provide moral pronouncements that are appealing to politicians and – once on the table – the public . . .

“The overwhelming majority of entities that want to regulate in some way are composed of Baptists and bootleggers,” said Peter Van Doren, editor of the quarterly journal Regulation, referring to the two groups that pressed for Prohibition 90 years ago: religious zealots who viewed alcohol as immoral and the gangsters who profited from its illegal status.

Manufacturers are “probably sincere and also making an alliance with Mothers Against Drunk Driving – the mothers would be the Baptists,” he said. “They’re going to them and saying if you mandate this thing, your version of the world will come along, and it just so happens we’ll get rich – but of course they don’t say that part.”

I’m fine with mandating these devices for repeat offenders. But first-time offenders is too much, especially for someone barely above the too-low legal limit. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to worry about the possibility that this campaign will expand to demand the devices in all new cars.

I’d also add here that there may indeed be good public safety arguments for this policy. I just don’t think the anti-alcohol fanatics can be trusted when they try to make them. A few years ago, for example, I wrote about a MADD report that “evaluated” DWI fatality data in all 50 states. Somehow, MADD’s objective analysis determined that every state was in urgent need of an ignition interlock law, regardless of whether the state’s DWI stats were trending up, trending down, or unchanged.

I like this comment over at Huffington Post from our own “lunchstealer”:

Wouldn’t telling the police about your child’s possible abduction at 25 hours be providing evidence of a crime? If so, at 24:01 in a missing child case, or at 1:01 in a child death case, a parent would be legally protected from answering any questions by police by the Fifth Amendment protection against self incriminat ion. Certainly, they’d be within their rights to contact a lawyer before talking to police.

This will discourage truthfulness with police, and that will make child abduction and child death cases much more difficult for police to investigate. If you love children, this law should be struck down as quickly as possible.

If the argument you’re about to make begins this way:

 I see the purpose of the whole “innocent until proven guilty” premise of our judicial laws, however . . .

. . . just stop typing. Or talking. There really isn’t anything that can follow however that isn’t going to make you look foolish.

The response to the Caylee’s Law piece has been mixed. But a few of the angrier responses have been wonderfully absurd.

• This will never, ever happen, and I really don’t have any preference for donkeys or elephants. But it would be a brilliant strategical move by the GOP. And it would be amusing to watch Obama and Obama supporters explain why, of the two major parties, they’re on the corporate side of corporate welfare. Truth is, both parties love corporate welfare. So it won’t change anytime soon.
• A libertarian response to supporters of “net neutrality.”
• Dave Weigel brings the history on that whole “black slaves had stronger families than 21 century blacks” nonsense.
• The Obama administration rejects science for ideology.
• Speaking of history lessons, “Hooverism” is a misnomer.
• Something tells me this guy is going to get off. Or at least beat the charge. (Sorry.)
• Speaking of frat boy humor, it’s nice to see people still advertise this kind of thing after the Craigslist “Adult Services” kerfuffle. (Sorry again.)
• Hemingway and the FBI.
• Good roundup of government spying on social networking sites.

I have a new piece up at Huffington Post explaining why.

We really need to stop naming laws after dead kids.

Incredibly moving essay from Dudley Clendinen, who is dying of ALS.

I respect the wishes of people who want to live as long as they can. But I would like the same respect for those of us who decide — rationally — not to. I’ve done my homework. I have a plan. If I get pneumonia, I’ll let it snuff me out. If not, there are those other ways. I just have to act while my hands still work: the gun, narcotics, sharp blades, a plastic bag, a fast car, over-the-counter drugs, oleander tea (the polite Southern way), carbon monoxide, even helium. That would give me a really funny voice at the end.

I have found the way. Not a gun. A way that’s quiet and calm.

Knowing that comforts me. I don’t worry about fatty foods anymore. I don’t worry about having enough money to grow old. I’m not going to grow old.

I’m having a wonderful time.

I have a bright, beautiful, talented daughter who lives close by, the gift of my life. I don’t know if she approves. But she understands. Leaving her is the one thing I hate. But all I can do is to give her a daddy who was vital to the end, and knew when to leave. What else is there? I spend a lot of time writing letters and notes, and taping conversations about this time, which I think of as the Good Short Life (and Loving Exit), for WYPR-FM, the main NPR station in Baltimore. I want to take the sting out of it, to make it easier to talk about death. I am terribly behind in my notes, but people are incredibly patient and nice. And inviting. I have invitations galore.

Last month, an old friend brought me a recording of the greatest concert he’d ever heard, Leonard Cohen, live, in London, three years ago. It’s powerful, haunting music, by a poet, composer and singer whose life has been as tough and sinewy and loving as an old tree.

The song that transfixed me, words and music, was “Dance Me to the End of Love.” That’s the way I feel about this time. I’m dancing, spinning around, happy in the last rhythms of the life I love. When the music stops — when I can’t tie my bow tie, tell a funny story, walk my dog, talk with Whitney, kiss someone special, or tap out lines like this — I’ll know that Life is over.

It’s time to be gone.

This one was here in Tennessee:

 Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies raided yet another allegedly illegal gambling operation Wednesday night.

The latest raid targeted a poker game inside a private residence in the Bexhill subdivision in West Knox County, according to a KCSO spokeswoman Ashley Haynes.

Deputies discovered eight people around one poker table at 1304 Buxton Drive, and seized approximately $1,000 cash, Haynes said.

No arrests were made, but all information was turned over the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office for possible charges, she said.

I was going to make your usual “Knox County can sleep safer now” comment until I did some poking around and found this poker raid in Chattanooga last April, in which the police spokes-sergeant makes my point for me, only without the sarcasm:

“Any arrest obviously reduces crime in our city and a crime reduction means safer streets and safer communities.”

MORE: Via the comments, here’s more on the Knox County raid. It’s looking more and more ridiculous. Here’s a comments from a woman who says she’s the owner of the home that was raided:

Thanks for the comments folks. Here is the problem with the raid they did at my home Tuesday. There were 8 people there the lady who let them in even with my reservations with the deputy on the phone who threatened arresting everyone there and getting warrants ( you see I was not at home I was and still am in the hospital). The lady was doing laundry My other roomate and two friends were playing a card game called Fantan its like 3 way solitaire on a poker table left out from our holiday get together Sunday. Fantan requires you to chip if you cannot complete a sequence – wel l since you can only play with 3 l dont see where 8 people around a table playing poker came in. There were other guests there watching TV and enjoying a quiet evening. The deputies claimed they were gambling because chips and cards were involved.

Here’s a follow-up:

they conficated my tables to be stored after our holiday party they broke them because they were too lazy to take them apart, they took non-denomination chips that we use for tourneys, the money they confiscated was not gaming money it was personal property of my guests in their pockets, in their search they found poker paperwork had stats and point values, my cell phone because it had poker related pictures and last names that said poker not last names, and a 2lb bag of epsom salts that they recorded on a receipt as drugs. 2 computers mine and my housemates My problem is they have embellished the truth with each raid to Justify to the public the “good” they were doing. I am outraged that they have my neighbors thinking I am some criminal because I play poker! Heck their coworkers, other law enforcement areas have been to games I have played in and hosted what about them?

Yikes.

• Nation in love with girl from record store.
• A tribute to Troy McClure.
• Just started watching this show on Netflix. It’s really good. Not The Wire, but very good.
• Arizona anti-immigration Senate President Russel Pearce faces a recall. Kerry Howley’s excellent profile of Pearce here.
• Indiana to track cold medication purchases in real time.
• This is a good thing: More cops outfitted with video cameras on their uniforms.

Think any other GOP candidate will have the guts to do this?

Presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson charged today in a formal statement through his campaign that the Family Leader “pledge” Republican candidates for President are being asked to sign is “offensive to the principles of liberty and freedom on which this country was founded”.  Governor Johnson also plans to further state his position against the Family Leader pledge this afternoon in Las Vegas, NV at a speech he will deliver at the Conservative Leadership Conference.

Johnson went on to state that “the so-called ‘Marriage Vow” pledge that FAMILY LEADER is asking Republican candidates for President to sign attacks minority segments of our population and attempts to prevent and eliminate personal freedom.   This type of rhetoric is what gives Republicans a bad name.

“Government should not be involved in the bedrooms of consenting adults. I have always been a strong advocate of liberty and freedom from unnecessary government intervention into our lives. The freedoms that our forefathers fought for in this country are sacred and must be preserved. The Republican Party cannot be sidetracked into discussing these morally judgmental issues — such a discussion is simply wrongheaded. We need to maintain our position as the party of efficient government management and the watchdogs of the “public’s pocket book”.

“This ‘pledge’ is nothing short of a promise to discriminate against everyone who makes a personal choice that doesn’t fit into a particular definition of ‘virtue’.

I actually didn’t see this particularly nasty bit from that pledge:

“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.”

Set aside the tone-deafness and holy crap offensiveness for a moment—is this even historically accurate?

Anyway, I do disagree with Johnson on one point. He says the pledge is “unrepublican.” Unfortunately, for about the last 30 years, this kind of thing has been all too Republican.

Amos Lee’s “Freedom.”

I mean holy hell. Just read the lyrics. This could probably be the official TheAgitator.com anthem. And the entire album is really good.

Wow.

But when Njoku showed up at the Chase branch near his house intending to cash the check, he was in for a nasty surprise.

The check had Njoku’s name and address on it and was issued by JP Morgan Chase. But the Chase Customer Banker who handles large checks at the Auburn branch was immediately suspicious.

“I was embarrassed,” Njoku said. “She asked me what I did for a living. Asked me where I got the check from, looked me up and down—like ‘you just bought a house in Auburn, really?’ She didn’t believe that,” he said.

The Customer Banker said the check looked fake, so she took it, along with Njoku’s driver license and credit card, and called Bank Support.

After waiting for about 15 minutes, Njoku said he got impatient and told Chase he was leaving to do an important errand. By the time he got back, the bank was closed. Njoku said he called customer service and asked them what he should do. He says they told him to go back to the bank the next day to get his money.

But when Njoku arrived, it wasn’t the money that was waiting for him.

“They just threw me in jail; they called the police and said this guy has a fraudulent check,” Njoku said.

Auburn police arrested him for forgery – a felony crime.

“I was like – you’re making a mistake, you’re making a mistake, don’t take me to jail, I got work tomorrow. I can’t afford to miss work,” he said.

Yes, they took him the jail. This was on a Thursday. The bank realized the next day that they had made a mistake, and called the police detective working the case to let her know. Unfortunately, “it was her day off” (!!), so the guy stayed in jail all weekend. He also lost his job for failing to show up for work. While he was in jail, Chase had his car towed from their parking lot. Because Chase had his money (the chashier’s check was his savings from a closed-out account), he couldn’t afford the impound fees. And because the check was seized as evidence, it took weeks to get it back, during which his car was sold then at auction.

A year later, and only after an attorney took up the guy’s case (PDF), Chase finally issued an apology. I’d say they owe him some compensation, too.