Separation of powers
If you happen to own a herring boat fishing operation, or care about separation of powers issues in the judiciary (the Venn diagram on that is very small circles with zero overlap), keep an eye out this fall for the U.S. Supreme Court case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. In this case, four family-owned herring boat operations sued the National Marine Fisheries Service after the federal agency promulgated a rule requiring them to pay over $700 per boat, per day for a monitor. This monitor process and associated fee was never authorized by any Congressional statute. It was simply invented by the regulatory agency. The lower courts have ruled in favor of the agency citing Chevron deference. Chevron was the case that established the noxious judicial practice of granting extreme deference to administrative agencies in rulemaking. I have written about Chevron here. With the current makeup of the Supreme Court, we may be in for a landmark decision overturning Chevron and, incidentally, cutting a break to the herring boats.
Crime
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) not long ago released its state inmate population report. Contrary to popular myth, state prisons are not filled with low-level drug offenders. Only 12.6% of state prisoners are in for drug related crimes, with 3.2% being possession offenses. The majority of the state prison population consists of violent criminals at 62.4%. Of the drug offenders in prison, almost none are first or second time offenders. Some 13% of drug offenders had up to ten prior sentences.
The Censorship-Industrial Complex
I have written previously about the collusion between the government, big tech and academia to censor Americans that has arisen over the last few years. RealClear Politics has a new article describing the efforts of an obscure government agency committee, the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). This committee is made up of government officials, tech workers and academics whose job is to build algorithms to censor Americans’ speech. They say they are combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation” to “protect democracy.” What they are actually doing is suppressing conservative speech in violation of the First Amendment. You can read the article here.
The Man in the Glass
I don’t like to watch sports. Takes too long. I do like to watch sports documentaries, though. I recently watched a football documentary that referenced The Man in the Glass poem. I had never heard of it. Football coach, Bill Parcells, popularized the poem when he recited it in a speech. It is unclear whether Parcells wrote it. Another man, Dale Wimbrow, is sometimes credited. Whomever wrote the poem, it provides good advice for football, judging, and life.
The Man in the Glass
When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass.
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he’s with you, clear to the end
And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.