Lightening Round

So much to say, so little time:

• No legislation was passed, but at least they were talking about gun laws in Harrisburg last week. Given the carnage continues in some Philadelphia neighborhoods, it is shameful that a legislator would call gun-control efforts "liberal gun-grabbing legislation." I don't oppose the private ownership of guns. I do oppose the lack of even reasonable regulation of such ownership. I wish people cared half as much about gun laws as they do about smoking laws.
• The Philadelphia Tribune has produced a stunning series on the African-American incarceration rate and its possible causes and effects. Here's Part 1. Just a few of many horrible statistics: More that 70 percent of the inmates in Philadelphia jails are African-American. There are more African-American men in prison today than there are in college. One-third of African-American men between age 20-29 are or have been in prison or are on parole. (Hat tip: Talk Left).
• One of the Freakonomics guys asks why people care so much about medical privacy? The issue is not that almost no one cares about the particulars of someone's medical records. The problem is that a very few people -- e.g., your employer -- may care a whole lot and be able to cause problems for you if the information were known. So long as we put the primary burden of providing health insurance on employers, we are going to require medical privacy laws. Having said that, the privacy law known as HIPAA is a joke and is often used to erect barriers making it difficult for those entitled to the information to get it.
• The dreadful Joe Lieberman was in Philadelphia yesterday, scarfing up $300,000 at a luncheon with many of the usual suspects among the City's power-broker set. How symbolic that many of this City's power elites from both parties are rushing to support someone who is seeking to make irrelevant the results of one of those pesky primary elections. The lesson may not be intended, but it is clear: Let's not forget who really runs things around here.
• Andrew Fastow is one lucky SOB. Jeff Skilling won't be so lucky in a few weeks, despite taking part in the same crimes and hurting the same victims. Why the different treatment? Unlike Fastow, Skilling did not give up his bedrock constitutional right to have his case heard by and proven to a jury of his peers. And now he will suffer the consequences for being so forward as to avail himself of one of the constitutional protections that supposedly makes our country so different than so many others. Think about that while watching fireworks next July 4.