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RC3 Org on the Bill Bennett story:

I have only one comment on the Bill Bennett, gambler story
that’s making the rounds. The most damning thing to me is that Bennett has blown millions of dollars on
slot machines and video poker. That, to me, is pathetic. If the guy were blowing his fortune on high stakes
games of Texas Hold ‘Em, I’d have some respect for him. Losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single
trip doing nothing but plugging chips into a high stakes slow machine tells me that you really are just
addicted to the most base cravings served by gambling, not any of the other thrills involved.

Jeff Cooper writes on whether liberal
law professors are hopelessly naive.

Ampersand ask the provocative
question: is shoplifting wrong? Do read the comments.

To tell you the truth, other than a very poor relationship of risk to reward, I don’t see what’s so immoral
about stealing small amounts from Wal-Mart. The harm caused by shoplifting from mega-corps seems extremely
diffuse and theoretical; no one will miss a meal or shiver in the cold because someone lifted a walkman
from a Fred Meyer.

The Sideshow on the failure of “the left” to articulate our positions:

Not that it necessarily hurts to explain why Bush’s policies are bad things. Americans (not just Democrats or “the left”) want universal health care, and Bush is instead trying to dismantle Medicare. Americans want good public schools, and Bush is trying to push us into no public schools. Americans do not want to see our time and resources squandered on idiotic efforts to discriminate against minorities, the poor, and queers, but Bush is doing his best to facilitate discrimination. Americans want a strong economy that supports educating their children and a comfortable retirement, and Bush is bankrupting our economy and impoverishing an increasing number of Americans. Americans do not want to live in their nightmare vision of Calcutta, and Bush is trying to bring it on. Americans want our borders to be secure, and Bush can’t be bothered to protect us from terrorism even when everyone from Mossad and German intelligence to Osama himself is telling him we are about to be attacked. Americans want wisdom, prudence, and diplomatic grace in our foreign policies, and “the good opinion of mankind” – things Bush blatantly dismisses. Americans want their kids to get good, honest, accurate sex education in schools, and Bush is promoting abstinence-only “sex education”. In other words, liberals are for a free and secure America in which we can reap the benefits of our work and not be hassled by the government, and Bush is working against those things. It’s Bush who is saying “no” to peace, prosperity, and national security.

Archy writes
about what needs to be in place in order for a potential scandal to become a
real scandal.

In writing about the possibility of scandal, I took a quick shot at the elements needed to convert quiet
misdeeds into public scandal. I had three: hungry reporters, hungry politicians, and a venue. Allow me to
be pedantic about this.

The first two elements are probably obvious. Hungry reporters pursue rumors and turn them into a narrative
of sleaziness for public consumption. Hungry politicians call hearings, empower special investigators, and
endow the narrative of sleaziness with political significance. But reporters don?t go directly to the
politicians. Reporters need a powerful venue?a platform?to publicize their researches. Politicians are
inherently cautious; they generally will not pursue a course until they are sure at least some of the
public is already headed in that direction. The venue is the tool by which a reporter gets part of the
public riled about the story.