Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Quick Hits: Volume CXLV

- A lot of leftists in my Twitter timeline were tweeting out excerpts of former president George W. Bush's Monday morning appearance on the Today show.

A couple of items they seemed fixated upon:

“I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy,” Bush said in a “Today” show interview Monday morning. “We need an independent media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”

When asked about his thoughts on Trump’s executive order banning entry to the United States from seven majority Muslim countries, Bush said, “I am for an immigration policy that’s welcoming and upholds the law.”

I paid rapt attention to the President George W. Bush years and I can tell you that the beliefs he expressed Monday are consistent with what he conveyed during his presidency. In fact, I recall a lady asking Bush at a 2005 town hall meeting how he endures the media's seemingly unfair characterization of him in the aftermath of the Iraq war. Bush, dignified as always, pretty much said word for word what he conveyed Monday regarding a free press. And his immigration policy has always been one which was openly questioned by the "Build a wall" crowd.

I would love to see one of those Venn diagrams showing leftists using Bush's words to validate their disdain towards President Trump and leftists who pretty much savaged the President Bush at every turn, including the occasions he expressed his views on media and immigration.


- By now you've heard about the epic screw-up where actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway incorrectly cited La La Land as Best Picture at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. After much chaos, it was revealed that Moonlight was the rightful winner.

My two favorite reactions to that blunder had to be these:






Given I'm a pageant emcee and the fact Goodfellas is in my personal top 5 of greatest all-time films, these two tweets summed it up perfectly for me.


- Booze on, Minnesota!

The Minnesota Senate voted 38-28 Monday to end the prohibition on Sunday liquor store sales, following in the footsteps of the House, which passed a similar repeal last week with an 85-45 vote. Gov. Mark Dayton has said he would sign a repeal if it made it to his desk.

The easy victory in both chambers is a dramatic change from past years when Sunday sales bills couldn’t make it to the floor for a vote and efforts to tack the repeal onto other legislation as amendments was met with resounding rejections. But this year, repealing the Sunday sales ban seems to have an unstoppable momentum.

“I was confident we had the votes to pass the bill,” said Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, chief sponsor of the Senate measure. “This was a strong effort for the people by the people.”

In the Senate, eleven freshmen senators voted "yes" on the measure and nine veterans voted "yes" for the first time in their respective legislative careers. It's clear the will of the people won out as this was a key issue during the 2016 campaign.

Perhaps one of the best parts of this issue finally being resolved? That chanting point of "Aren't there more important issues to address?" can be retired. That always grated on my nerves, especially when it was uttered by conservatives. Government should never be a barrier to legitimate businesses conducting commerce whenever they choose. As such, removing such antiquated prohibition laws to strengthen free markets and give consumers more options seems quite important in a capitalistic society, no?

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