Apr 3, 2013
Greg Dworkin fought through his laryngitis to call in and discuss the NRA-backed suppression of federal gun violence data collection, and a new Marist poll suggesting no wavering in public support for stricter gun laws. Afterwards, we drew on a diverse cross-section of insanity for our entertainment today, starting with the introduction by Republicans in the North Carolina legislature of a bill that would free the state to establish a state religion. Because they love the Constitution so much, the bill's sponsors basically declare that Constitution not binding. Louie Gohmert out-derps himself with comments linking gun laws with gay marriage and bestiality, which of course make no sense. But he's angry, so send him some money or something. For variety, we threw in a story about a court ruling in favor of Aereo, a start up that has cobbled together (at least temporarily) a way around copyright laws and allow users to stream broadcast TV to their mobile devices, and another about how much of your current cable TV bill is due to payments tied to professional sports contracts. Armando joined us briefly with the story of a fight developing between Bill O'Reilley and Rush Limbaugh, and the latest in the conservative craze for Ben Carson. We wrapped up with a check-in from Kansas former Hostess worker Mike Hummel (aka bluebarnstormer), who's in Maine speaking to the employees of yet another former Hostess bakery who now stand in the same position as those in Mike's Kansas facility. Seems their pensions, to which they made even larger contributions than the Kansas workers did, are being stolen as well, and this and the threat to their jobs comes after the town gave significant tax breaks and other subsidies to the company to build that plant. Do you think the company would get to keep that money if we really did run the government like a business?