- “N.J. High Court to Review Drunken Drivers’ Right to Sue Bars That Served Them” [NJLJ]
- Recipe for Oakland-style public unionism: “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act” pending on Capitol Hill would impose public-service collective bargaining and labor arbitration on local governments nationwide [Cavanaugh/Reason, more, effects on police misconduct accountability]
- iPhone class action of doubtful benefit to consumers [Hahn & Passell, Regulation 2.0]
- U.K.: “Fired Top In-House Lawyer Testifies She Was Bullied by Underling” [ABA Journal]
- Due this fall: Norma Zager book “Erin Brockovich and the Beverly Hills Greenscam” [Pelican Publishing] Weitz firm invokes Brockovich association to drum up Gulf spill business [Michael Daly, NYDN]
- Paperwork nightmare: “Health Care Reform’s Terrible, Tiny Tax” [Megan McArdle]
- Three views of Sherrod fiasco [Rick Esenberg, Radley Balko, John Derbyshire]
- This time the feds look serious about foisting low-flow showerheads on unwilling consumers [Heritage Foundry]
One Comment
I nominate Derbyshire as the winner of the Sherrod commentary. I personally felt gratification that, in the early stages of the story, someone was getting SOME justice for reverse discrimination. I had to concede that the entire speech did change the meaning, but couldn’t help but suspect that a white person in the same situation would not have gotten the benefit of 1) a broader context and 2) all divisions of the media coming to her rescue.
Derbyshire offers a nice reason for wishing she would have stayed fired:
“So: while you’re forming opinions on whether Andrew Breitbart did due diligence, whether the NAACP shot themselves in the foot, whether the White House ordered Ms. Sherrod’s firing, whether Bill O’Reilly committed journalistic malfeasance, and the other issues in the case, please don’t lose sight of this key fact: Positions at all levels in the federal bureaucracy — positions dispensing power, patronage, and huge sums of public money — are being filled by radical revolutionary leftists like Shirley Sherrod.”
That is a terrible and dismaying thing. Regardless of the nuances of this case, I hope Ms. Sherrod stays fired. I hope she never again controls the disbursement of public money or patronage power over public-sector jobs. People with her views, background, and connections should not be employed by the federal government.