Current Affairs

Good lord:

The State Department included a Justice Department lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law into a United Nations human rights report to show how U.S. rule of law can be an example to the world, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

Most the coverage I saw over the weekend of Katrina's five-year anniversary was downright gushy about New Orleans' comeback and the "resilience" of the people who live there. President Obama's words got a lot of play:

The legacy of Katrina, said the President, must be "not one of neglect, but of action; not one of indifference, but of empathy; not of abandonment, but of a community working together to meet shared challenges."

Today's quiz. "It's clear that his intent was to be divisive" refers to:

A. Conservatives' reaction to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's Ground Zero mosque plans.

B. Civil rights leaders' reaction to the Glenn Beck rally in Washington on Saturday.

If you wanted to answer C, "Most of the stuff I read on this blog," w

Well, tell me something I didn't know:

The Internet is transforming the news business into something different, but no one knows quite what, and only visionaries and hard-skulled business people grasp what could be. Like every revolution, this one is causing casualties, the guillotinings this time seen in lost jobs, even disappearing newspapers.

[. . .]

How often have we said, "If only there were more than 24 hours in a day, we could get it all done"? Well, we're not lawyers:

An Ohio lawyer has been suspended for overbilling local courts for her representation of poor clients, submitting bills for more than 24 hours a day on three different occasions.

[. . .]

Ah, Chicago. A suburban man arrested for choking his wife was given the customary one phone call from jail:

Janusz Owca used it to call his wife -- and threaten to kill her, Cook County sheriff's police said.

The 32-year-old Maine Township man is facing charges of aggravated domestic battery and felony intimidation.

I'm no particular fan of Alan Simpson, but his description of Social Security -- a "milk cow with 310 million tits" -- had enough truth in it to be the kind of provocation that should create meaningful if heated discussion. No, that doesn't mean kicking old folks penniless into the street; but the system is an illustration of the entitlement mentality we've drifted into. And the expression is just a variation on the "government teat" phrase that's been around forever.

Insane lawsuit of the day:

A Northlake woman sued McDonald's in Cook County Circuit Court today claiming that her daughter was seriously burned in 2009 when a hot chocolate she ordered from the fast-food giant spilled and seriously burned her leg.

A typically demented libertarian uses the egg-recall care as an excuse for a predictable and tiresome op-ed in The New York Times about the spread of government power:

Amen:

Get ready for the most productive and decent political condition known to man: sweet gridlock. You get nothing. And, after what you've been through these past few years, you deserve it.

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There is no greater check on power in Washington than two strong political parties.