Two posts in one: Mea culpa and Barack is back

By Liam Day
April 29th, 2008

1) In response to her comment on my post yesterday, I defer to my learned colleague, Amy Dain. I had not considered that, as public ways, sidewalks can’t be blocked. However, I might argue that, rather than attempt to regulate sidewalk dining, the New Bedford City Council and Mayor Lang could simply pass an ordinance that allows businesses permitted to serve food and/or drink to place tables on sidewalks, within the frame of the storefront, extending from the storefront to the curb and providing for a path through the tables so many feet wide to accommodate passing pedestrians.

I suppose it is the underlying mindset I question, the assumption that if something is unregulated it is therefore prohibited. I believe we should start from the opposite assumption, that, if we wish to prohibit something, then, and only then, do we regulate it.

2) In other news, after weeks of trying to get Hillary Clinton in a clinch so as to better absorb the body blows she’s delivering, Barack Obama has returned to some of the rhetoric that attracted me to him in the first place. Once again, Mr. Obama demonstrated that he is willing to challenge Democratic orthodoxy. This from Slate:

McCain will have trouble beating the Obama who showed up on Fox News Sunday, giving a highly effective interview to Chris Wallace. It included this bait for Hillary:

“I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea.”

Obama cited not just “merit pay” but also “experimenting with charter schools,” which he said has gotten him “in trouble with the teachers union.”