Red Clay Citizen

Civitas Poll: Voters Want Laurean Charged With 2 Murders

Should murderers who kill a pregnant woman that is carrying a viable fetus be charged with one murder or two?

34 states including California and Massachusetts say that is considered two separate murders.  In the state of North Carolina, the death of the viable fetus is an "aggravating factor" that can yield a higher punishment, but is not considered murder.

For our April poll, we asked likely voters: "If a woman is carrying a viable fetus and she is murdered, should there be one or two murder charges?"

82% of respondents said two.  12% said one.  7% were not sure.

Read our full press release here.

Tony Rand -- Champion of the Free Market?

Earlier today, the General Assembly's Joint Study Committee on Automobile Insurance Modernization met to consider a proposal to change the way every North Carolinian purchases auto insurance.  Currently, those of us who have clean driving records pay a surcharge of 2.7% to fund a risk pool of those who make insurance claims.  Thus, us safe drivers are subsidizing bad drivers to the tune of $139 million this year.  (In some years, it's more, some years it's less).

Sen. Tony Rand as chairman of the committee asked if that was fair for safe drivers to pay higher rates for auto insurance and shouldn't we just let everyone be judged on their relative risk?  "Everybody should pay their own way. I should pay mine and not subsidize everybody else.  We should have some relative expectation that you (bad drivers) pay some fair share of the pool." 
Basically, his proposal would take one giant step towards deregulating and dramatically increasing competition in the auto insurance market.  (Some government insurance actuary stood up and argued that increased competition would increase rates -- I haven't figured that one out yet.)

Naturally, Insurance Commissioner Jim Long was opposed to the proposal. 

Will this proposal have legs when the General Assembly reconvenes in a few weeks?  I don't know, but it's one we'll sure be watching. 

And if we can apply free market economics to auto insurance, can't we also apply it to other insurance markets -- health, homeowners, etc.?

South Virginia? Only if Mark Sanford is Governor

North and South Carolina to merge.
-Max Borders

Whither CLC '08?

Francis DeLuca explains (video).

It's a Good Day

How sweet it is.
-Max Borders

(Update from a big Heels + Marvin Gaye fan... Check it out.)

Who Said It?

On the situation in Iraq:

"As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: U.N. staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs. And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq. They have lost many friends and want to be a part of the humanitarian progress they now feel is possible."

John McCain?
Gen. Petraeus?
President Bush?

Nope.  It's Angelina Jolie -- yes, that Angelina Jolie, the actress.

Ugly Christmas Tree?

Seeing as Christmas is just days away I thought I would write about a favorite complaint of my friend, Dallas Woodhouse, State Director of AFPNC. Every time he walks by the state capitol he complains about the evergreen that serves as the state's official Christmas tree. While it looks good with the Christmas lights lit, he complains that North Carolina should have a tree more representative of a state that is number two in the nation in Christmas tree production. So what do you say - a fresh Frazier Fir for the state Christmas tree?

Serious Debate

Holiday/Christmas music should be played when...? Weigh in.

Water Shortage: OK ideas, Stoopid ideas

This WUNC report features one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard for conserving water. Some lady wants to use "gray water" (water that has been used for showers or dishes) that would otherwise find its way into (gasp) the sewer system (duh, where it will be treated and recycled as clean water) and use it to water her lawn. Am I missing something here or did WUNC really consider this an "innovation"? Does this genius really expect to conserve water by sprinkling it, clean or dirty, on her lawn?

To be fair, the New Jersey transplant at the beginning of the piece talks about a water collection system on his roof -- which is not a bad idea on its face -- not sure how that would look to the neighbors, but nevertheless...

Yet in all these reports where well-meaning people are doing their best to reduce water usage by "half" as Emperor Easley would have us do, no one suggests changing the Soviet-style water provision system we have to begin with. By using a pricing mechanism of the market, we'd never, ever have to face top-down water restrictions again. "Environmental engineers" and various other greenie characters always want to propose something cost-prohibitive, draconion, labor intensive, or positively Rube Goldbergian for their solutions, when the answer is normally very simple indeed.
-Max Borders

Uh Oh: Beauchamp Writing about the Jena 6 too?

A reporter from Jena attempts to set the record straight on what appears to have been a little bit of Chinese Whispers, a little bit of selection bias, and a little bit of that media narrative-crafting to which we've become accustomed. A sliver:

The reason the Jena cases have been propelled into the world spotlight is two-fold: First, because local officials did not speak publicly early on about the true events of the past year, the media simply formed their stories based on one-side's statements – the Jena 6. Second, the media were downright lazy in their efforts to find the truth. Often, they simply reported what they'd read on blogs, which expressed only one side of the issue.

The real story of Jena and the Jena 6 is quite different from what the national media presented. It's time to set the record straight. (Read on.)

It's ok Al and Jesse, the damage is done. You've already made enough bank for your new cars.
-Max Borders

He'll Be Missed

Demuth leaves AEI...Not with a whimper, but a bang.

Water Bans and a Drought of Prices

Sigh. Why are we stuck with rationing and other ridiculous, restrictive solutions to something as basic as water? Because government planners are afraid to use prices. Normal prices. That's right, you don't need to ration, restrict, ban or otherwise interfere with a water market. People are basically rational and respond to prices much better than bans. This is why the government shouldn't be doing much of anything (much less supplying our basic needs).
-Max Borders

Going out on a limb

I'm going to make a bold prediction.

The General Assembly will adjourn sometime on either August 3rd or 4th.

Why?

The NCSL Annual Meeting begins August 5th and Speaker Hackney is set to received an award for Leadership.

Hopefully I can get this entered in Dome's Magic 8 Ball competition.

The Poll Enchilada

The May Civitas DecisionMaker Poll can be found in its entirety here.

We'd love to here your thoughts (yeah, seriously) on which questions you think are biased, well-phrased and why. (That includes respectful and conscientious people on the left.)

Turning our thoughts to Blacksburg

Imus and Nifong should drift away from our thoughts some now as we turn our attention to the grave news  out of Blacksburg.  There are thirty one (at last count) reasons to pause and reflect on wasted potential, grieving families, and what seems to be a trend in America.