( - promoted by JDRyan)
I had a feeling when I said I was leaving for an indefinite time, that it'd be either a very long time or a very short one. So while I am back, don't get too used to me, as you won't be seeing me around very much - at least for the time being. As I said when I'd left, the attacks on me personally from those who haven't approved of what I've written (SVR being the most recent and high-profile, but hardly the only such case) have impacted my life in various ways - but things can change quickly. As such, here I am, but I don't intend to return to Front Page status or be a very frequent contributor for a while. Personal matters still need to settle down, but it's good to feel that I don't have to stay away completely to protect myself and my family. Thanks to everyone for your kind words and wishes (many of you I saw last Saturday in Burlington, and I should have thanked you there and then, but I think I was subconsciously pretending that everything was hunkey-dorey... either that or I was just being a jerk... sorry). Thus endeth a few really crappy weeks (I hope)
But I just had to come back today. I couldn't stay quiet when I heard the news. No, not Town Meeting...or Scooter Libby... I mean the bad news. The news that Captain America is dead.
Yeah, okay, so I'm enough of a geek that I've blogged about Cap before. But consider the storyline in Captain America comics; a superhero-symbol of America not simply dead, but gunned down leaving the courthouse where he was on trial for his refusal to comply with a draconian law that completely deprived an entire class of Americans of their civil rights in the interest of law enforcement and national security.
Now I'm not going to belabor the metaphor's obvious relevance except to make the point that sometimes things that we roll our eyes at or don't take seriously can contain real content that should be openly talked about rather than casually dismissed.
Case in point, but in a negative way: Rep. Tom Koch's (R-Barre Town) proposed legislation that would mandate a $600 fine for virtually any "distraction" while driving - not simply cell phones, but coffee, or dealing with pets, children, or presumably scratching oneself in hard-to-reach places.
The reaction to this bill has generally been to mockingly dismiss it, the exception being Charity who implied that such a proposal was atypical of a Republican and more consistent with Democrats. I think both perspectives are fallacies (details below the fold)...
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