Blog P.I.

Philosophers and political scientists like to speak of rights in terms of positive liberty and negative liberty. Liberals generally support the former — freedom to have opportunities, such as access to health care. Conservatives and libertarians tend to support the latter — freedom from government coercion, such as the capital gains tax.

Today, the banner across the top of The Politico’s front page provides an example of negative freedom all right-thinking — and left-thinking — people can support:

Now, it’s been pointed out to me that The Politico already eschews celebrity “news” as a founding principle, but that doesn’t make it any less of a respite. Cable news is always the worst offender in these situations, but they’ve really outdone themselves this week. MSNBC even pre-empted their mighty “doc block” to cover the Broward county child custody hearings. News may be obsolete in prime time, but damned if they don’t do their share of “news.”

P.S. I am aware that including phrases like “Anna Nicole Smith” and “Britney Spears” can only help Blog P.I.’s search engine referrals, and I’m cool with that. That said, if you found this post by searching for either of these terms, you should be ashamed of yourself.

P.P.S. 69.250.94.154 from Huntingtown, Maryland, that means you.