I voted. Had to hold my nose on some of my choices, but I did it.

Unbeknownst to me, my precinct moved since the last time I voted. I went to where I used to vote, but there was nothing there. Then I drove around aimlessly for a bit until I spotted the blue “Precinct 30″ sign.

We used old-fashioned pieces of paper and had to color in little ovals with a pen. I hate that — I never could color inside the lines.

The election workers were, as always, pleasant and helpful. Around here, they’re always old, too. When I get old maybe I’ll have time to work elections.

When they asked for my picture ID (yay Florida!), I had a little trouble locating it. I could have used my state-issued CCW, but I didn’t want to scare anyone. It probably wouldn’t have bothered anyone (this is Florida, after all, plenty of people have carry permits), but it just didn’t seem appropriate. There’s the soap box, the ballot box, and the ammo box — and by voting, I guess I’ve admitted that it’s not time for the ammo box just yet. A couple more seconds digging located my driver license, so it wasn’t a problem anyway.

The headline in the KYPost.com reads:
Ky. Seizes Domain Names Of Web Gambling Sites

The KYPost.com reports, “A Franklin County Circuit judge last week ordered the transfer of the domain names of 141 illegal Internet gambling sites to the Commonwealth of Kentucky in an effort to stop illegal and unregulated online gaming.”

The article quotes Gov. Steve Beshear maundering about the dangers of gambling, saying,“Unlicensed, unregulated, illegal Internet gambling poses a tremendous threat to the citizens of the Commonwealth because of its ease, availability and anonymity,” and “The owners and operators of these illegal sites prey on Kentucky citizens, including our youth, and deprive the Commonwealth of millions of dollars in revenue. It’s an underworld wrought with scams and schemes.”

But further down, we get to the meat of the matter: “Unlicensed Internet gambling significantly undermines and threatens horseracing, Kentucky’s signature industry and a key tourism industry, by creating unregulated and untaxed competition.”

There’s no concern here about the citizens of Kentucky being scammed out of their money, or the dangers to the youth of Kentucky. It’s all about the money — the money that Kentucky scams out of its citizens from the lavishly taxed horseracing industry.

This judge is so overstepping his bounds — he’s not only ordering the seizure of domain names prior to a hearing; he’s ordering the seizure of domain names that aren’t even based in Kentucky. Supposedly, he wants online gaming establishments to block access to their sites by Kentuckians.

Judges who have no clue about the internet should not be permitted to hear cases relating to the internet. There is no reliable way to block access by Kentuckians, and even if there were, I’m sure that the good citizens of Kentucky would have no trouble finding proxy servers they can use to disguise their location. Further, I can’t imagine how this judge thinks Kentucky has any authority over domains belonging to sites that have no nexus in Kentucky.

This ruling is wrongheaded and boneheaded on so many levels. The judge should be tossed out on his ear.

Amazon.com has decided to pay fines worth $1,500 day rather than comply with a court order prohibiting the company from offering free shipping to its customers in France.

According to the article at the International Herald Tribune, the French law prohibits discounting books by more than 5 percent (and Amazon’s free shipment counts as a discount). Supposedly, this law “was meant to assure that the French public had equal access to a wide variety of books, both high-brow and low-brow, not just heavily marked-down publications.”

The French need a a lesson in Econ 101. It doesn’t work that way. Government-imposed price floors most emphatically do not guarantee consumer access to a greater choice of products; rather, they generally result in fewer products and less consumer choice, and at higher prices.

You go, Amazon! I’ve been a satisfied Amazon customer for many years. I might just hop over there right now and buy some more books. Because one can never have too many books. Thanks to Amazon’s great prices and free shipping, I can buy a lot more books than I could if I had to pay artificially inflated prices imposed by the government.