Free Speech Only For Some?
Apparently, freedom of speech is revered by the U.S. Supreme Court unless it’s used by an attorney to criticize a judge. On Monday, the court upheld disciplinary action against a Bonner County attorney who had the audacity to suggest a 1993 ruling by 1st District Judge James Michaud was politically motivated. John Topp popped off after Michaud decided county officials needed voter approval for a $4.1 million project to close landfills and build a garbage transfer station. Topp told a radio reporter the case was similar to one in Shoshone County in which a judge had ruled the opposite. The only difference, he said, was that the other black robe “wasn’t worried about political ramifications.” Frankly, given the anti-tax mood of Bonner County then and now, Topp’s comment sounds fair. But what do I know? I believe free speech applies to everyone.
Bonner County 2, open government 0
Here we go again. Bonner County Commissioners Bud Mueller and Larry Allen are being accused of violating the open meetings law - again. Only weeks after they were sued for allegedly violating that law, Mueller and Allen drove together to Priest River to check out the Blue Diamond Marina’s proposed expansion. That’s a no-no - in fact, a couple of no-nos. First, the trip may have been an illegal meeting because the pair represented a quorum of the three-member board and hadn’t given notice of a public meeting. Then, they shouldn’t be meeting with the applicant prior to a public meeting. Afterward, Allen admitted he and Mueller probably shouldn’t have ridden together, adding, “I don’t think it was any big deal or violation of any law. It was a very benign type of thing.” We’ll see how benign it was when taxpayers are forced to foot the legal bills for yet another avoidable lawsuit.
Suicide: the ultimate self-centered trip
Suicide is the ultimate expression of self-centeredness - whether you kill yourself to stop physical pain or emotional hurt or as part of a crazy plan to link up to an alien spaceship. People who kill themselves leave behind heartbroken relatives and a lot of what-ifs. That’s why attempts to defend the Heaven’s Gate cult as seekers of perfection are ridiculous. A Coeur d’Alene man expressed the sentiments of several family members of the 39 cultists who killed themselves last week in California when he described his brother’s suicide as “the ultimate form of self-improvement, mentally, physically and spiritually.” I sympathize with his loss. But I’d say his brother’s suicide was the ultimate form of fatal self-delusion.
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