Just Before the Game Starts...

Which city in the world has the most billionaires? The answer might surprise ya… I sure was (surprised). It ain’t Noo Yawk but you’d be close, if that was your guess. And Bill Gates is no longer the richest person in the world. He’s slipped to Number Three. Poor Bill, eh?

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Your elected officials (if ya live in Florida) at work:

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Senate lawmakers in Florida have voted to ban the fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state.

Republican Sen. Cary Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis, Florida, called the adornments offensive and proposed the ban. Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like "Truck Nutz" and resemble the south end of a bull moving north.

The Florida Senate voted last week to add the measure to a broader transportation bill, but it is not included in the House version.

In a spirited debate laced with double entendre, Senate lawmakers questioned whether the state should curtail freedom of expression in vehicle accessories.

Critics of the ban included the Senate Rules Chairman, Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican whose truck sported a pair until his wife protested.

The bill's sponsor doubted it would succeed.

"It's probably not going to make it through the process," Baker said on Thursday. "It won't be much of story in a few days."

Yep, they got no balls, those guys… and they don’t want YOU to have any, either. Not visibly, anyway.

Don’t these guys have something better to do? Like change the date on the state’s primary election, or something? Anything?

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One of the downsides of the hockey play-offs is the games pre-empt things I would otherwise watch… for reasons various and sundry. A classic example: The Obamanon’s former pastor, Reverend Wright, was on Bill Moyers Journal (transcript here, which I haven’t read, yet. But I will. After hockey.) last evening for an extended interview, in case you missed all the brouhaha surrounding this very public event.

Fox News touched on Wright-Moyers lightly, but CNN had extensive clips from the show and waaay too much “analysis” on the subject, which devolved into both extended navel-gazing interspersed with moments of highly charged, partisan argument between Hillary and Obama supporters. But… I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the interview itself because, as noted, I was watching hockey all evening and late into the night. That said, Ann Althouse has a lengthy and quite good post up on the subject today… if you’re at all interested. Excerpt:

Moyers plays a long chunk of the sermon that ends "God damn America," and asks "What did you mean when you said that?"

Wright answers that governments can deviate from the will of God and says "you are made in the image of God, you're not made in the image of any particular government." What should follow is a statement about the degree of allegiance people owe to their country, but Wright jumps to an invocation of free speech: "We have the freedom here in this country to talk about that publicly, whereas some other places, you're dead if say the wrong thing about your government."

At this point, Moyers could follow up either with a question about the allegiance religious people owe to a country they think has deviated from the will of God or a question about how, while it's true that Americans have free speech, free speech includes criticizing the things people say. But Moyers observes, inanely: "Well, you can be almost crucified for saying what you've said here in this country." Moyers extends his heartfelt sympathy to Wright for the suffering — the suffering of Christ! — he's endured over mere words.

Wright accepts the comforting: "That's true. That's true. But you can be crucified, you can be crucified publicly, you can be crucified by corporate-owned media." You know, you could be nailed to a cross or you could be lambasted in the media. The corporate-owned media. (Getting criticized on independent blogs may not quite equate with crucifixion. Maybe we bloggers correspond to mere flogging or piercing with thorns.)

Moyers and Wright are fellow-travelers in my view. Moyers, as an über-lib, has never met anyone critical of America he didn’t/doesn’t like. That said, Moyers is usually standard Friday-night fare for me… “know your enemy,” and all that. I was gonna do the UCR strike-out thingie with “enemy” and replace it with “opposition,” but…nope. Moyers IS the frickin’ enemy, as far as I’m concerned. I have a serious dislike for that guy. That’s putting it mildly.

Anyhoo. If you don’t want to wade through Moyers’ puff-piece, Ms. Althouse has the salient points. Long, it is, but quite good.

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And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a hockey game to watch in about 10 minutes or so. One must prepare, ya know.