HumidCity

It seems that not all local pols with Italian surnames are running for District Attorney. State Rep. John LaBruzzo (R-Metry) has other things on his mind. LaBruzzo is advocating a plan to pay poor folks to get their tubes tied to save on “welfare costs.” LINK. It’s a pity that LaBruzzo doesn’t have a phallic name but he’s definitely a dickhead who deserves to be beaten with a plaster schmeckle.

LaBruzzo represents the district that once elected Fuhrer wannabe and plastic surgery connoisseur, David Duke. No surprise there. It is, however, disappointing that someone with roots in Southern Europe is advocating what amounts to neo-eugenics. Early 20th Century American Eugenicists favored sterilizing as many folks of “non-native” stock as feasible. That meant that *my* Greek relations were as likely to have been on the…uh…chopping block as those of Mr. LaBruzzo.

Mr. LaBruzzo *claims* that he just wants to help “those” people and save the taxpayers some money. I’m sure getting his picture on the front page of the Picayune had nothing to do with it. I’m sure he’s enjoying the comments at NOLA.com as well. I only skimmed them, I have a delicate digestive system and rabid bigotry upsets my stomach.

Since we’re kinda/sorta on the subject of eugenics (neo or old school) I can’t resist quoting one of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ less salubrious opinions as a Supreme. It came in the 1927 case of Buck v. Bell wherein Justice Holmes upheld a Virginia law that allowed forced sterilization of the mentally retarded:

“It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind . . . three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Obviously, LaBruzzo’s bill provides an *incentive* for the “wrong sort of people” to be sterilized instead of making it mandatory but the intent is the same. Basing public policy on bigotry and stereotypes is another form of imbecility.

-Adrastos

This will be cross-posted in a slightly different form at the Adrastos Virtual Cafe.

Civil liberities? Eh? I can’t quite hear you over the sound of Thomas Jefferson spinning in his grave (a healthy 33 1/3 rpms too!) Then again, I live in New Orleans, we have no faith left in the government or the process here. It all got pounded out of us over the past months since The Storm. Then again down here we are still more worried about looters than other illegal enties…

Police intrusion for evidence allowed / Knock, announce not always needed, high court rule  Police who enter a home illegally without knocking and find incriminating evidence can use it in a trial, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Thursday, carving an important exception in the 45-year-old rule that keeps unlawfully seized evidence out of court.