Tersosity & Verbosity

Could he be any more clueless?

Apart from cost and fussiness, depending on model, I actually like the compact florescents, and what they did to the electric bill. At least, until the electric usage we were getting billed for nearly doubled for no apparent reason. One of the things I don’t like is that you can’t or couldn’t, put the new ones in covered fixtures, requiring old style in some cases. I mentioned that to someone the other day and surprised them, as they’d not read the directions/warnings and used them that way without apparent issue. At any rate, I can completely understand hoarding incandescent bulbs for various reasons. It should be up to the market to encourage the switching, not government decree.

Sounding sensible? Apparently it can happen.

As I always say, The Constituion Means What It Says. I think Scalia is my new favorite. Wait. Did I have a favorite before?

Trouble is, it means what it says about takings, too. Poor Kelo.

Like I said, the Court’s vote on Heller was way too close, even if the majority opinion was relatively sensible and unambiguous.

Apparently text messages are private from employers, per the court.

As expected, and thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that 5 of the Justices can read and have a modicum of sense, as reported and elaborated at SCOTUSblog (where commentary will probably be ongoing, as it presumably will at Volokh), the Supreme Court has struck down the DC gun ban and clarified the scope of the Second Amendment in a way recognizable as sane to those of us with sense. One might suggest the decision falls short, or take a more absolutist view, but this is at least rational enough to keep the anti-human scum self-defense banners in check. It is sad that if was 5 to 4, and there are so many on the Court who clearly can’t read, but at least the anticonstitutionalist component of the Court isn’t in the majority as it was for Kelo.

Richard Grasso is holding up well in court so far.

This is just remarkable. Trouble is, you can vote it into law, but the legislature and governor are above the law and can twist and warp accordingly.

The topic of marriage and why it is what is and whether it could or should be different is of long interest to me, and it was shared views on it that helped cement my relationship with the fellow blogger who became my wife. We often joke, except not joking but not equipped with appropriate cohorts and ideal circumstances, about adding people for a Heinleinesque line marriage. We also talk about people with relationships that serve similar purposes to many of those of marriage, but take the form of what we call heterosexual life mates. Anyway, I may have linked this before elsewhere, but it was heartening to see the NYT hosting an op-ed about marriage being private.

Weekend Pundit has regularly discussed tin whiskers, though due to the Blogmosis failure those posts are not available. I previously mention the problem in this post. So I was interested to see a “fact or fiction?” post and discussion of tin whiskers at Slashdot.

I’ve long figured anything there happens to be is gravy, and been of the opinion there’s no obligation for people to do anything but spend it on themselves, although an inheritance does sort of haphazardly make up for the crazy upside-down situation we have now, where a genration or two or three support the older generation through onerous taxes and insane real estate values hyperinflated in large part for the purpose of intergenerational wealth transfer. Maybe this should be a Reality Bucket post instead of a quick link with limited text. Perhaps I’ll expand on it there. I link here in brief intending to do that in some cases anyway. Digression aside, there are reasons not to expect an inheritance, and it’s both interesting and good to see someone saying it aloud.