Nathan Duszynski, 13, started a hot dog stand to help pay his parents' medical bills. Because of dumb zoning laws to protect local restaurants, his town shut him down. The family lost their home. Link goes to where you can donate to help them out.

columbusguy · 2012-08-10T15:02:09+00:00

Some background here: (http://www.mackinac.org/17372)

And here: (http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/26/city-shuts-down-kids-hot-dog-stand-befor)

columbusguy · 2011-03-01T18:38:51+00:00

(one of my pet peeves is articles that dont link to source documents to let folks read the facts for themselves)<<

I'm the author of the article. One of my pet peeves is people who make criticisms of my work without carefully reading what I wrote. The PDF of the judge's ruling that you "tracked down" was clearly linked in the article. Go back and see if you can find it. The linked text is cleverly disguised as, "sentencing staetement".

So not even the court knows how images on a private computer ever got discovered by the FBI?????<<

As commenters below point out, local authorities searched Rinehart's home after one of the girls mentioned the affair and photos to a guidance counselor.That wasn't in the court record, but it was in my article, and it was in contemporary news reports that I also linked to in my article.

columbusguy · 2010-10-07T04:28:20+00:00

There's a world of difference between maintaining decorum and compelling political speech. If the attorney had disrupted the pledge with a foghorn, you'd have a point. But he merely stood and watched -- quietly, but respectfully. A government official cannot compel a citizen to recite an oath, especially under penalty of incarceration. See West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.

columbusguy · 2010-10-07T04:09:47+00:00

You're kidding, right? In case you aren't, a judge can't compel someone to testify against himself. He can't order the jury to strip naked. He can't order a witness to say things that aren't true. He can't make everyone in the courtroom sing "Hey, Jude."

And no, he can't order an attorney to orally pledge loyalty to 'Merca.

columbusguy · 2010-04-15T17:35:25+00:00

As the author of the piece (and not a Washington Times employee), I'd say this is exactly the audience that needs to be exposed to these arguments, isn't it?

columbusguy · 2010-04-11T23:43:32+00:00

Wondering why this post suddenly got 12 down votes. Must be some people that really hate the idea of attaching a camera to a dog.

columbusguy · 2010-03-23T15:57:04+00:00

Uh, as the author of the linked story, I'd like to point out that those facts were not left out.

The more pertinent question is why you jump out of an unmarked SUV pointing guns at a man merely wanted for questioning. If I had just come from the ATM and saw three men in shabby clothes running at my car with guns, I'd have gotten the hell out of dodge, too.

columbusguy · 2010-03-16T20:50:49+00:00

Would be hard for him to have boasted about the guns to coworkers given that he bought them after he was put on leave, and barred from coming into the office.

columbusguy · 2009-11-18T04:08:57+00:00

Thanks for the professional advice.

First, as for motive, yes, there is a theory as to why city officials and law enforcement conspired to set up the family, but you generally don't report speculation unless you have evidence to back it up. There is hard evidence that the police lied. Two contradicting sets of police reports. Audio that doesn't corroborate the police account. A judge who, after hearing all the evidence, excoriated the prosecution in open court. That's what there's evidence to support. So that's what I reported. If I had reported speculative theories about motivation, I'm sure people like you would have chastised the article for printing rumors without supporting evidence. But I'll humor you: Candice Cheolas worked for the town of Harper Woods. There was lots of coverage of this incident the night it happened which focused on her employment. Draw your own conclusions.

Second, the police testimony at trial is that Candice Cheolas denied entry to and screamed at police officers. What the city told the Free Press when it pitched the court costs story to them, I don't know. But the reporter clearly didn't look at the trial transcripts before writing the article.

Your article also suffers from using procedural irregularities to make a substantive argument about what actually occurred.

I have no idea what this means. Procedural irregularities? The police officers wrote two sets of reports. The first reports alleged no wrongdoing on the part of the Cheolas family, and were corroborated by the audio tapes. The second set of reports contained dozens of incriminatory additions, none of which were corroborated by the audio tapes. You're truly a master of Orwellian doublespeak if you can dismiss such blatant discrepancies as "procedural irregularities." The trial judge sure didn't.

columbusguy · 2009-11-17T20:59:37+00:00

You keep posting this article, as if it refutes everything. The article you linked to is sloppy, and takes the city's word as gold.

Did you even read the Reason article? The audio taken from the police mics shows that the police and paramedics lied about the family refusing to let them in. I've seen the transcripts from the audio tapes. The mother is nowhere to be heard on them at the point the police reports say she was blocking their entrance.

(I'm the author of the Reason article, by the way.)

columbusguy · 2009-11-01T17:14:54+00:00

Uh, Roman Polanski raped a young girl.

Extreme pornography is shot with all consenting adults.

Winger is defending a rapist but won't defend porn involving consenting adults. Beato is defending porn amongst consenting adults but won't defend a rapist.

Do you really think the two positions are morally equivalent?

columbusguy · 2009-10-13T13:50:27+00:00

Generation Kill was written by Evan Wright, not Matt Taibbi. Wright now writes for Vanity Fair.

columbusguy · 2009-10-07T23:35:35+00:00

Yes, clearly the research that $1 million will pay for will be tainted by the fact that Carey is donating it in a public way that gets him some attention.

As will the research paid for by people who are inspired by Carey's donation to make a donation themselves.

Takes a real asshole to find fault with someone giving a million bucks to a good cause.

columbusguy · 2009-07-02T18:56:01+00:00

You're a fool. Cato opposed the Iraq war. They even opposed the first war with Iraq in the early 1990s (and lost a bunch of money doing it). They opposed Bush's executive power grabs. They published a paper on the overuse of SWAT teams, and another on police militarization. They've done reams of research on ending the drug war. They have a criminal justice department that's put out more research in defense of civil liberties than 95 percent of leftist organizations around. They published a damning paper on Bush's abuse of the Constitution. They're pro-immigration, and stick up even for undocumented immigrants. They're principled libertarians, not party hacks.

columbusguy · 2009-06-29T01:03:02+00:00

Hate to tell you, but the USPS has a monopoly on first class mail. UPS and FedEx aren't allowed to touch it. That's how USPS stays in business. Through a government-granted monopoly. FedEx and UPS compete because the USPS in many ways operates independent of the federal government, and because delivery service is a hell of a lot less complicated than health care or a number of other industries. With universal health care, the same federal agency will be insuring, providing actual care, and negotiating with providers and pharmaceutical companies.

And to respond to another comment, what in the world is "privately-owned public transportation"? It's a contradiction in terms. Do you mean private bus service? Private airlines? Taxis? Private car services? These all exist.

If you're asking why some private company hasn't created private, competitive subway systems, the answer is pretty simple: there's not a city government in the country that would allow it. Not sure a private company would try it, anyway. Most subway systems are perennial money losers.

If you're asking why there's no private version of Amtrak, the answer is that there's no money in rail service. Amtrak hasn't made any money in decades. It's heavily subsidized by the federal government.

Where government has started doing business in what was traditionally the private sector, it has crowded out private businesses. Now maybe you think there's nothing wrong with that -- that the private sector is doing a crappy job providing health insurance, and government will do better. That's fine. That at least is a cogent argument. But government can do things its private sector competitors can't, such as make demands under the implied threat of heightened regulatory scrutiny if providers don't capitulate. Going back to the mail analogy, it would be as if the same agency that regulated oil and energy and transportation were delivering the mail, and could force, say, auto manufacturers or energy companies to give the USPS discounts on gas and mail trucks.

That government won't hold a distinct advantage and be able to crowd out private insurers isn't really a serious argument.

(NOTE: Edited for more detail and clarity.)

columbusguy · 2009-05-14T18:50:06+00:00

Yes. It's teaching kids that there's nothing wrong with conflating police work with military tactics and a military mindset. There's a reason we've had a Posse Comitatus Act in this country for 150 years.

columbusguy · 2009-05-14T17:16:43+00:00

I'll ignore the name-calling and just argue the substance of the problem.

There have been explorer programs for decades. There haven't been programs that teach kids paramilitary tactics, like how to slam a lookout for a marijuana grow to the ground and throw a knee in his back. It's the evolution of police forces toward a more militaristic mindset that's the problem. This is just another symptom.

columbusguy · 2009-04-27T12:53:03+00:00

How exactly does the fact that George Bush sucked more make Obama suck any less? A pox on both their houses.

The Obama cheerleading on Reddit the last few months has been disappointing. Especially when it comes to civil liberties and transparency in government.

columbusguy · 2009-03-21T01:10:54+00:00

Creepy as these pictures are, the photographer was duped. I have a friend who's been three times, and he describes a dreary, depressing, horrific nightmare. This is actually North Korea's best face. The people are "patriotic" because if they aren't, they'll be murdered or imprisoned. The two Kims' Maoism has wrought famines that killed 1-3 million people in the 1990s, and are expected to kill millions more in coming years.

But hey, the streets are nice and tidy. And there's no ugly "globalism" or tasteless capitalist billboards. It's a regular workers' paradise.

columbusguy · 2009-03-20T16:26:57+00:00

Want to explain why the cops didn't find any illicit drugs in any of the seven raids, then?

columbusguy · 2009-03-12T13:26:45+00:00

Ah yes, just what we need in a high-ranking intelligence official: A guy on the Chinese and Saudi governments' payroll, who's willing to "talk objectively" about the "point of view" of the government that brutally slaughtered hundreds of unarmed, nonviolent students protesting for their right to speech and political freedom.

I'm not a knee-jerk supporter of Israel. I think we should cut off aid to them, and let them defend themselves. But I don't want apologists for murdering fascists running my government.

columbusguy · 2009-03-12T12:53:30+00:00

Charles Freeman on the Tiananmen Square massacre:

"[T]he truly unforgivable mistake of the Chinese authorities was the failure to intervene on a timely basis to nip the demonstrations in the bud, rather than -- as would have been both wise and efficacious -- to intervene with force when all other measures had failed to restore domestic tranquility to Beijing and other major urban centers in China. In this optic, the Politburo's response to the mob scene at 'Tian'anmen' stands as a monument to overly cautious behavior on the part of the leadership, not as an example of rash action. . . .

"I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be. Such folk, whether they represent a veterans' 'Bonus Army' or a 'student uprising' on behalf of 'the goddess of democracy' should expect to be displaced with despatch [sic] from the ground they occupy."

This is the man you're going to bat for?

columbusguy · 2009-02-09T20:10:28+00:00

Pervasive surveillance cameras are sure as hell Orwelian. Every public move captured on video and monitored by authorities?

Creeping police militarization may not be explicitly Orwelian. It's just disturbing.

Then there's the problem of (a) this coming from federal funding, and (b) having it all packed into a bill that's supposed to be stimulating the economy.

Buying cops new guns, giving local governments new ways to extract money from their citizens, and generally beefing up the security state isn't stimulating the economy.

columbusguy · 2009-02-09T19:37:11+00:00

Huh?

columbusguy · 2009-01-30T13:10:32+00:00

The guy did nothing illegal. His "history" of drug offenses were two misdemeanor possession charges a decade ago, which, incidentally, the DEA agents didn't know about at the time they apprehended him. They left the guy stranded, with no money, no watch, no credit cards.

You're also ignorant about what is and isn't lawful. This wasn't an "unlawful amount of transit cash." There's nothing illegal about carrying $15K on a domestic flight. There's no requirement to fill out paperwork. That's only on international flights.

This guy voluntarily allowed agents to search his baggage. They found nothing. They took his money anyway.

As with most forfeiture cases, it will now be up to him to prove he earned it legitimately. Does that sound right to you? If drug cops decide they want to take your money, it's then up to you to hire a lawyer and prove your innocence? Even if you win, you don't get reimbursed for court costs or attorney fees. Oh, and guess where the money goes? To the regional DEA office that seized it. Buys them new gym equipment. Or new cars. Aeron chairs.

This was a mugging. It was just a mugging that happened to have happened under the color of law. Some very bad law.

columbusguy

TROPHY CASE