Into the Lion's Den...

I read a story in my local newspaper, the Indianapolis Star, today describing a three-year long battle between an interstate-exit "adult bookstore" called the Lion's Den (located off I-65 in southern Indiana's Jackson County) and a group of particularly aggressive Christian activists/protestors who have formed an organization called "Jackson County Watchdog." It seems that since the adult bookstore opened in August 2005, this group of protestors (who I wholeheartedly agree do have their First Amendment right to peacefully protest whatever "societal evil" they choose) has launched an effort to humiliate and harass patrons of the store by staking out the parking lot (from a county-owned piece of land across the street) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, photographing people coming in and out of the store and posting these photographs on their website, http://www.war-line.org/. They seem to have particularly targeted truck drivers; the Star article indicates that the group has erected a sign that states: "Warning truckers. If you visit the adult bookstore, we will take your picture and send it to your employer," and one page of their website clearly describes an incident where one of the members of the group called a trucking company to "tattle" on one of their employees who had stopped at the bookstore. The trucking company responded with a letter indicating, among other things, that the person from the group who had called was described as "agitated."

Last month, the owners of the Lion's Den filed a lawsuit against Jackson County alleging that their constitutional rights are being violated (in particular the Equal Protection clause under the 14th Amendment) because the County seems to be siding with the protest group. Given the circumstances (described below), it does seem that the owners of the store have a rather compelling argument. The main issue stems from the fact that the protesters have "set up shop," so to speak, in a makeshift shed they erected and adorned themselves in an empty parcel of county-owned land across the street from the bookstore. This shed was put up in 2005 by the protesters without obtaining a permit from the county, which is required for such construction, but the county has done nothing in response. In fact, the County's lawyer, Stephen Pierson is even quoted in the article commenting that "farmers in the county frequently build sheds similar to the one the protesters erected" and further stating that "zoning ordinances are not strictly enforced."

Ok, so the County it seems has decided that it does not intend to enforce zoning regulations (even though they are law). Well, not exactly. The County seems that it will only selectively enforce their zoning ordinances, when it involves construction of an establishment that goes against their particular moral sensitivities. According to the Star article, the land the bookstore was built on was zoned by the County for "general business" purposes and thus, according to the county's own zoning regulations, needed only to apply for a permit to establish a "retail business" and WAS NOT required to be more specific about the nature of the business in order to obtain the permit. The permit must have been awarded because construction began on the store and it wasn't until August 2005 (when the store was set to open) that a group of residents complained to county commissioners that "there was more than a truck stop under construction at Exit 41." In response, rather than "eating crow" and admitting that the zoning ordinances that were in place at the time were inadequate, the commissioners instead proceeded to pass an ordinance 3 DAYS BEFORE the planned opening of the store that required "adult" businesses to obtain a special permit. The store opened 3 days later, without this newly required permit, and the commissioners filed a lawsuit in Jackson County Superior Court against the store for violating the ordinance (I have been trying to find a link to these court filings but the Indiana Courts case search isn't working properly right now so I will post it when it's back working). It seems that no ruling has been made in the case and the issue seems to have been somewhat forgotten until last month when Lion's Den filed a suit against the County.

I find it absolutely shameful that a governmental entity of any kind can so blatantly flaunt its own laws when it suits their agenda but then crack down enforcement when it is convenient for them. While I certainly feel that it is one's own business what type of "bookstore" they choose to visit, I do also agree that a local community has a right to not want to allow certain types of establishments encroaching upon their residences. It seems quite surreptitious of the commissioners to suddenly pass an ordinance required special permits 3 days before opening, but still, if the County has chosen to then enforce the ordinance (as they have with their lawsuit) then how can they justify in the least continuing to not only refuse to punish, but ignore completely, the fact that these fanatical protesters have erected their own "lookout post" on county land without proper permits? Such blatant bias by a governmental entity should not be tolerated...it's not only unfortunate, but also alarming, that it seems certain businesses/individuals/groups, etc. are being stripped of their Constitutional rights simply because of their "immoral" (discussion of the ambiguity of this term could take up several posts on its own) nature. And this is not only about a porn store in rural Indiana but is symptomatic of a larger trend that seems to be growing here in the U.S. I certainly don't like the slippery slope this perches us upon...

If you have a few extra minutes, take a look at the website for the Jackson County Watchdog group...I've not stumbled upon anything quite as asinine or ignorant in quite a while. It's quite disturbing that there are people who actually believe the following statement (found on one of the pages of the website) and don't even question where such a dubious "statistic" was gleaned (I'm betting on it simply being made up)--"A recent survey shows 85 percent of rapes and molestation are reenactments of a porn video/DVD. This means every time someone buys a smut video/DVD there is an 85 percent chance that sale will eventually result in a rape or molestation of a child." WHAT???!!!

Loose Ends... Vol. I

I will attempt to make this a weekly post going forward. "Loose Ends" will be more condensed posts intended to highlight a few stories or thoughts from the week in review. The goal is to get some quick thoughts down on items which I probably wanted to write more, but couldn't find the time. This week, this will have two parts...

22 in 29 (0.7586)

Twenty-two homicides in twenty-nine days. Indianapolis is usually thought of as a relatively safe city. Homicides have become a bit more of a problem in recent years. This year new mayor, Greg Ballard, pledged to reduce crime. Up until a month ago, he seemed to be doing a "good job" (not that I think the mayor is all-powerful and can impact crime so quickly and easily). Now, we've had a flurry. I wanted to dig in the details and see what I could find. In my attempt to write up a quick post, I just spent about twenty minutes trying to find official information on the homicides. The only thing I could find was here, which appears to be a website devoted to vitriol against our last mayor, Bart Peterson. So, I'm a bit disappointed that it is so hard to find this data easily along with police reports, etc. The only thing I could find on the IMPD website required payment. Maybe another time I will dig in and look for trends and thoughts. My early inclination is to think that too much of this is related to drug crime. I leave this with the parting question to be analyzed more at another time... how much decriminalization of narcotics is appropriate? (I think quite a bit!)

9/16 (0.5625)

Nine-sixteenths of a second. I'll admit that I didn't notice anything in that quick instance. Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were finishing their performance of "Rock Your Body" at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. (I'm a pretty big fan of that song, by the way. It solidified Timberlake as a truly great pop artist and not just a member of a boy band.) Well, you know the story... the "wardrobe malfunction" led to many complaints with the FCC. This week, I have to give it up to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for throwing out the case of the FCC against CBS. Judge Scririca ruled in favor of CBS supporting their claim of arbitrary and capricious action by the FCC in fining them $550,000. I wanted to review the brief and discuss at length thoughts of free speech protection under the first amendment, my opinion of the unconstitutionality of the existence and actions of the FCC, and my case for free-market television... but, that will also have to wait for another time.

That's all for this week!

To Impeach or Not To Impeach... Is That the Question?

Today, the House Judiciary Committee conducted its hearing on Executive Power and its Constitutional Limits. I've seen about half of the hearing so far. I caught a little bit of it live this afternoon while in the midst of taking a nap, and started watching from the beginning on the C-SPAN replay at 8pm earlier tonight. I've got the rest of the DVR for later viewing pleasure.

The impetus of the hearing, from what I gather, is twofold: first, the general inquiry and investigation that this committee pursues relative to oversight of the executive branch; and second, the proposed articles of impeachment of President Bush as submitted by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). The opening remarks by members of the committee quickly turned into a partisan debate. The Democrats condemned the massive offenses of the Bush administration. The Republicans scoffed at the idea of impeachment, called the bluff of the Dems, and declared the hearing as a waste of time. I tried to determine if Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who has served in Congress since 1965, would be able to stay awake for the duration of the hearing.

Anyhow... I've come to be a fan (so far) of one of the witnesses - Bruce Fein. His remarks which I've seen thus far have been a passionate call to protect our civil liberties. The Constitution, in my mind, spells out the separation of powers and the check and balances between our branches of government quite clearly. In addition, the check of the States and the People over the central government are quite clear. These principles have been trampled by executive, legislative and judicial power grabs for a long time. However, the Bush administration has arguably been the most egregious offender since the FDR years. Fein made these points (by the way, he served in the Reagan administration) clear and calls for impeachment.

I'm not certain myself that impeachment is really a beneficial track at this point. I have no doubt that there have been offenses. But, this is nothing new. There is little that can be done with a runaway executive branch. Congress can withhold funds. But, honestly, when was the last time Congress didn't want to spend money. Congress can impeach. But, this would just be a highly political circus. Or... the people can wait, and vote in a new administration. Unfortunately, history tells us that we'll get more of the same as one executive just seems to inherit all of the power of the previous.

A Day in the U.S. House of Representatives--Boats, Baseball and Cyprus? Huh?

I've finally come to grips with the fact that I am now one of those "adults" who I made fun of as a teenager for watching C-SPAN. If you're even moderately interested in politics, the economy, etc. and you haven't ever turned on C-SPAN, I would recommend you at least take a look when you get a chance...if for nothing but to watch the weekly Prime Minister's Questions from the British House of Commons...I dare to say you won't regret it.

Tuesday night, I was watching C-SPAN's broadcast of the day's U.S. House floor proceedings and happened to begin watching as Rep. Zachary Space (D-OH) stood up to begin a speech that ended up being a condemnation of Turkey for the "illegal invasion" of Cyprus in 1974. As the coverage continued, I saw 3 more speeches from representatives on the "Black Anniversary," as Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) called it. I was quite dumbfounded--with the genuine, pressing issues our country is currently facing, it struck me as highly inappropriate that our representatives felt that the best use of their time and resources was to research and craft a speech chastising a foreign country for something they did 34 years ago. Now, I certainly don't condone the invasion of Cyprus by the Turkish (I'm Greek by the way), but c'mon...for one thing, it was 34 years ago! Secondly, and perhaps most frustrating, why do our lawmakers feel it necessary to take every opportunity to give the proverbial slap-on-the wrist to anyone and everyone around the world who does any little thing that isn't to their liking? Many of these so-called misdeeds, frankly, I think we have little business involving ourselves in but it seems our feeling that it is our place to stick our nose into everything often overrides any sentiment of restraint.

This prompted me to wonder--surely, this wasn't a typical example of House business since, after all, these legislators get a taxpayer-provided salary (not to mention funds for their staffers, office, etc.) to serve as a "representative" for a particular area. Surely, they would use their resources on researching vital issues (perhaps the de-valuation of our currency, just as one example) that would provide a significant benefit to their constituents and to the U.S. as a country...right? Well, not really...although, I can't say I'm particularly surprised. Here are just a few items that were discussed/debated on the house floor on Tuesday alone (please do check out the full transcript of the proceedings for 7/22 at GovTrack.us, where you can also get proceedings back to 2004):

*Honoring a Florida citizen, Luis Diaz, upon his upcoming retirement as deputy director of Youth Co-Op in South Florida
*A fairly lengthy discussion on clarifying the definitions of a boat's "hull" and "deck," relating to H.R. 6531, the Vessel Hull Design Protection Amendments of 2008
*Several speeches "recognizing the significance of National Caribbean-American Heritage Month (H.Con.Res. 364)"
*Speeches "expressing support of the goals and ideals of National Carriage Driving Month (H.Res. 1128)"
*Designating a post office building in Jamestown, NY the "Stan Lundine Post Office Building"
*Discussion of the Congressional baseball game, which was held on July 17th

Of course, there were also discussions of serious issues (gas prices and energy policy) but it seems, dare I say, inexcusable that so much of the official Congressional business in the House for that day (and this is not an isolated event or "anomalous" day--check the proceedings) was devoted to such frivolous dreck (or flapdoodle--thanks to Sen. Jeff Sessions for this word). It is even more exasperating that several of these discussions were prompted by official House or Concurrent Resolutions, which means that time and money had to be spent doing research on these "issues" and then someone had to craft a document using appropriately "legal" language and the appropriate format!! I don't know about you, but I find this outrageous.

Please don't misunderstand--I don't think there's anything wrong with applauding the contributions of Caribbean-Americans or honoring horse-drawn carriage drivers, this is just not the business that our government should be worrying about!!! Plain and simple!! I wonder--if more people watched C-SPAN, would our legislators still spend their time on such rubbish? Surely, the power of the horse-drawn carriage lobby isn't that great...

Now, if you'd also like to read something else outrageous (but far more scary because it's actually serious)...please read the full transcript of the last speech of the day, given by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) titled "The Moral Compass of the United States In Its Quest for Victory." I'll leave further discussion for another post...

Five Shots of Espresso with Steamed Half-and-Half

That may be the next drink I try at Starbucks. The inspiration? Bob Barr. Just finished reading a relatively fair article on former Congressman Barr from the L.A. Times. Have a quick read...

The biggest problem I see with this article and just about everything else I read or hear about his campaign is the portrayal of him as a spoiler to John McCain. The data in this Zogby poll is not straightforward, but with some basic assumptions and sensitivity analysis one can see that Barr polls as well with Democrats as he does with Republicans. I created a quick spreadsheet with some untested assumptions to bear this out (I've since deleted it). Further, this comprehensive poll from a district in North Carolina has Barr polling better with Democrats than with Republicans despite other Libertarian candidates polling much better with Republicans! What does that tell me? The Republicans are giving in to the media and leaning towards McCain so that they don't "waste their vote". (Dare I say the media is dosing out some soma!?) Now, I'm the first to admit that we can't take the results from one very specific poll and draw sweeping conclusions. But, I am suggesting that Bob Barr's appeal - and the Libertarian Party appeal - crosses the traditional two-party line far more than we'd think. As an interesting aside, Barr actually out-polls McCain amongst blacks in this district. That's kind of funny.

I'm not going to use this entry to formally endorse a candidate for what that's worth. I'm leaning towards Barr, but he and I have some unfinished business... We'll save that for another time.

Introduction

Stop taking soma!

Soma, the psychotropic drug administered by the governement in Huxley's Brave New World, was used to keep the people happy and docile. No bad memories. No pain. Big Brother's way of ensuring order in a complex society.
Today's real world in the United States is not the dystopia created in Huxley's work, but scary parallels certainly exist. The government, the media, our education system, and many other elements of society work together explicitly and implicitly, overtly and covertly, to give us each our own dose of soma.

Stop taking soma!

This blog is set up for a few of us concerned citizens to research, discuss and debate issues of politics, history, and whatever else comes to mind inspired by our observations in daily lives, current events, and anything else that drives us to the keyboard. Hopefully, the contents and comments will develop a body of work to inspire others to form their own educated opinions, encourage political reform, and...

Stop taking soma!