1-23 (2010)

January 23, 2010
--Being popular with the kids doesn’t usually hurt the cause of liberty.—WSJ Editorial, A14 [bizzarro world]
--For the first time in American history, a majority of union members are government workers rather than private-sector employees…NYT B1
--The US government borrowed more money than ever before in 2009, but its largest lender—China-sharply reduced the amount it was willing to lend.—NYT B3
--As somebody said of giving up alcohol: You don’t live longer; it just feels like it. –WSJ B8
--…girls were supposed to be skinny, with straight blond hair (like Marcia Brady…. Then in 1977 “Saturday Night Fever was released. “It changed the image for all of us,” said State Senator Diane Savino, a Democrat who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn…--NYT C5
--“We’re getting a lot of clients saying ‘What we want is someone who can do it all from cooking, cleaning, to paying the bills and watching the kids,” said … co-founder of … a Connecticut staffing and consulting firm for wealthy households. “They want their own Alice [from The Brady Bunch]” WSJ A4
--[Senator Specter] is about as inept as you can get. When [Michelle] Bachmann started lecturing him [on TV] about how Americans want less government, the correct response was “Yeah, unless it’s $250,000 in subsidies for the Bachmann family farm.” Instead, Specter kept complaining and calling for lady-like deportment until the host mercifully intervened and ended the show.
CLOSING THE SALE
--“This is a deeply divided court with a strong pro-corporate wing” … That is a big shift, she said, from the sort of conservatism espoused by the Rehnquist court. Rehnquist “was not some one who thought corporations had strong rights claims.”—Stanford Prof. Karlan NYT A13
--“There were principled, narrower paths that a court that was serious about judicial restraint could have taken.”—Justice Stevens NYT A13
--About 40 current and former corporate executives have a message for Congress: Quit hitting us up for campaign cash. In a letter to Congressional leaders on Friday the executives urged Congress to approve public financing for House and Senate campaigns. NYT A13
-- By means of two legal fictions, that corporations are people and money is speech, the Roberts court has turned America from a democracy to a plutocracy--letter to editor NYT A16
-- The justices have affirmed a core principle of Republican government: one dollar, one vote --letter to editor NYT A16
--1-23-09—Mr. Edwards’ admission of paternity is the final vindication for the National Enquirer, which broke the news of his affair with Ms. Hunter in 2007 and continues to pursue the story. ... The breakthrough came early summer of 2008, with information that Ms. Hunter and Mr. Edwards would secretly meet at the Beverly Hills Hotel. –WSJ A15
-- Why is everyone up in arms about the recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations unfettered monetary access to the American election process? TO me this is a golden opportunity, as now our elected officials can sell corporate naming rights to their seats. The junior senator from North Carolina? He or she is now the Bank of America senator. The senior senator from Alaska could be the Exxon senator.--letter to editor NYT A16