Democrats: Dealing with the Bureaucracy Is a Real Burden!

North Carolina has passed a voter-ID law, about which the National Review editors have a good line:

The new law simply requires that voters present a state-issued photo ID such as a driver’s license or the similar ID that the state issues to non-drivers. Other forms of identification not subject to the same documentation and security standards — such as student IDs and work IDs — are not acceptable under the new law. It is really something to watch the Democrats treat a trip to the DMV as an unbearable burden: Under Democratic initiatives, everything from a trip to the doctor’s office to opening a business requires or will require running a bureaucratic gauntlet indistinguishable from a trip to the DMV.

End Federal Student ‘Aid’

Remember, college costs so much in the first place precisely because the federal government keeps subsidizing increasing tuition.  (Thanks for nothing, federal government.)

End federal student “aid”.  Stop turning people like me into debt slaves.

Reason has a pretty good piece on this: “Easy Credit Is Inflating a Massive Student-Loan Bubble”, Steven Greenhut.

‘At a Gnat’

The King James translation of the Bible contains what I’m told was basically a simple typo:  In Matthew 23:24, Jesus talks about straining “at a gnat” (instead of “out”):

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

Band Name

I think Russian Gazpacho would be a good name for a band.

A (Self-described) Liberal Explains Immigration Enforcement in a Nutshell

More on illegal immigration from The New Republic (“Why Liberals Should Oppose the Immigration Bill”, T. A. Frank):

Enforcement of immigration law is not all that hard. Illegal immigration can never be reduced to zero, of course, but it can be brought down to levels that we had in the 1950s and 1960s, and with very little outright force.  There are plenty of means: enhanced fencing and patrolling at the southern border, E-Verify for all hiring, strict penalties for employers who hire illegally, a biometric entry/exit system, and punishment (and deportation) for entering the country illegally. . . .

‘Deploring illegal immigration is not a condemnation of the immigrants themselves, anymore than deploring traffic is a condemnation of drivers.’

Good line (from a liberal, for whatever it’s worth) to remember the next time a liberal tries to smear conservatives as racist, xenophobic, etc. for thinking we should enforce some of our immigration laws.

I know that unauthorized immigrants are for the most part good, decent people. Deploring illegal immigration is not a condemnation of the immigrants themselves, anymore than deploring traffic is a condemnation of drivers. The rhetoric about hard workers trying to support their families is true, and in a perfect world we could invite everyone in without any tradeoffs. But the United States cannot take in millions upon millions of impoverished workers and hope to provide its own low-income citizens with lives of dignity or economic security.

Hat tip to Charles Cooke.

FDR Repudiated the Welfare State: ‘a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit’

I had no idea that FDR had ever said anything like this.  He sounds like Mark Steyn himself, who first persuaded me that forced redistribution is not only bad for the “makers”, but also for the “takers”—that is, the welfare state is not only bad economics, but more importantly, it also tends to infantilize its recipients; it is corrosive of the very human spirit.

Don’t take my word for it; read FDR’s words for yourself.  Here they are, in context:

‘In Order to Form a More Perfect Regulated Community’

Great line from Mark Steyn:

“The regulated community” is what we used to call “the citizenry”. It doesn’t have quite the same ring as “We the people”, but don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.

Police Allegedly Pepper-sprayed and Arrested Man So that They Could Use His House

Here’s another story we can all agree on, maybe.  Courthouse News Service reports on the following police abuses in Las Vegas, according to the legal complaint (the victims are now suing the government):

“On the morning of July 10th, 2011, officers from the Henderson Police Department responded to a domestic violence call at a neighbor’s residence,” the Mitchells say in the complaint.

It continues: “At 10:45 a.m. defendant Officer Christopher Worley (HPD) contacted plaintiff Anthony Mitchell via his telephone. Worley told plaintiff that police needed to occupy his home in order to gain a ‘tactical advantage’ against the occupant of the neighboring house. Anthony Mitchell told the officer that he did not want to become involved and that he did not want police to enter his residence. . . .

Remy Independence Day Satirical Song

Remy and Reason TV wish you a happy Fourth of July, sort of (warning for indirect vulgarity).

Reason.com has lyrics and links.

Maggie Gallagher on Marriage: Keep Fighting

Maggie Gallagher reflects on the culture war and recent Supreme Court decisions in an interview with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.

Marriage, after gay marriage, is an under-defined commitment to love and caretaking, whose public character and status is newly uncertain. Why love? Why sex? Why just two? What does this have to do with parenting? What other relationships have an equal right to be counted as marriage?

America Trending Totalitarian? College Student Jumped, Jailed, Charged with Three Felonies for Buying Bottled Water

Here’s a pretty interesting news item.

When a half-dozen men and a woman in street clothes closed in on University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, she and two roommates panicked.

That led to Daly spending a night and an afternoon in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Her initial offense? Walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream just purchased from the Harris Teeter in the Barracks Road Shopping Center for a sorority benefit fundraiser.