ID is required for a valid voter registration -- just as they are for a background check for purchasing a gun. What you're requiring is the presentation of government-issued ID in order to vote, which is a constitutional right. In other words, people must be properly licensed to vote.

For the sake of consistency, I assume you are also in favor of licensing of all guns owned by an individual? Not just a background check in licensed dealers, but guns bought over the Internet, at trade shows, between friends, etc.?

And that license will need to be on you at all times in case the weapon is discharged? So that you can show identification at any moment that you are found to be exercising your constitutional rights?

Doc, isn't it early on a Friday for you to be drinkin-- oh wait, nevermind.

Seems like there are *some* mitigating circumstances to the above, like the SEC teams getting their own stadiums (and, eventually, even those villages where the schools are located have started to look like *towns*), the State disallowing beer sales at the minor-league hockey games... and the AA team, well, you're right there, that's probably on the City, at least for not trying harder. (Although that cow pasture in Pearl was probably pretty attractive for building something ground-up, I'd guess.)

JSU-Alcorn... that one just *works* in Jackson -- as blackwatch suggests, I think all of the area *around* the stadium for tailgating is much more important than the venue itself -- so I'm not sure who you're blaming in the city... except maybe whoever decided to play hardball with Alcorn's revenue share.

It'll be interesting to see if anyone blinks next time around.

Just got this link from Kathleen, our features editor:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012…

According to Consumer Reports, at least on that page, the numbers we have above are in the correct order. Interesting that CR seems to disagree pretty strongly with EPA on the Leaf and Prius.

JPWhite: I don't know that the figures are *wrong* (we quoted Consumer Reports above, not EPA) but you're probably right about them being reversed, since plug-in EVs should get better mileage in the city. We'll check and correct. (FYI: EPA for the Leaf is 106/92 MPGe according to <a href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?…">FuelEconomy.gov</a>.)

I know the Insight figures must be Consumer Reports because they're lower than EPA and lower than what we see from the Insight we drive; Consumer Reports can be a bit tough on their specs!

(However, the order is correct for the Insight; it does get better mileage on the highway, even though it's a hybrid, because its electrical engine is purely an assist engine; the car never runs on it.)

Heh. GoldenEagle, we changed up the URLs on ya. You can highlight a term and use the "link" command now when blogging, or use regular HTML link constructs, as in: &lt;a href=&quot;<i>url</i>&quot;&gt;<i>Link text</i>&lt;/a&gt;

Or... just paste in the link. Seems to link-a-fy automagically.

Scrappy, my mistake for jumping in. As a rule, I don't argue with people about abortion.

Now, that I'm here... Planned Parenthood is not the only place that abortions happen and I don't believe Planned Parenthood "invented" abortion; I disagree that there is an "institution" called abortion -- I believe it's a medical procedure; I would hazard to guess that middle and upper-class abortions in doctors offices and hospitals are underreported compared to those that happen in urban clinics.

Interesting link for people who want to dig deeper:

http://jezebel.com/5747880/debunking-th…

I also don't think guns cause crime -- don't troll. As I mentioned in my DM, you are encouraged to refrain from telling people what they think. Argue your case on its merits.

Abortion is an emotional topic that I personally feel is largely a women's health issue and I therefore don't engage. I was persuaded momentarily to make a joke to illustration that I'm unconvinced of the causation in your tenuous correlation. Over and out.

Morty: I think you're going to see bigger craft brewers + regional stuff (meaning Southern) first, before we get as much stuff from out west. What the distributors have told me is that just because we changed our ABV doesn't *necessarily* mean all the Colorado and West Coast brewers (or whoever) see a viable enough market to retool and start shipping here; in some cases the distributor is going to have to sell the brewery on the idea, and some of that will probably be based on numbers from the breweries that are already in the state. (E.g. Abita, Sam Adams, Tallgrass, etc. can turn right around and shoot us higher ABV brews since they're already sending trucks; somebody in North Carolina or Colorado or Vermont might wait out numbers on the Sam Adams to see if it looks like there's a Mississippi market for high-ABV crafts.)

I definitely hope we can do more tastings as we get access to more brews!

Fair enough. I read the Economist piece you sent via e-mail (it read a bit more like a column than a cover story, but maybe they're just being European). I agree with the term "over-regulation" when it applies to such things as the different between Dodd-Frank and Glass-Steagall. Dodd-Frank may well be too complex, hence "over-" regulatory; Glass-Steagall, I would argue, was *stronger* regulation, perhaps both for its simplicity and the severity of its purpose. Is that "over-" regulation?

Apparently Dodd and Frank thought so, unfortunately. (And clearly that's an oversimplification, as Dodd-Frank is a complicated spaghetti designed to deal with some very modern problems; I don't know how tenable a simpler, more profound, law would be in this day-and-age.)

I don't know that the argument that "excess" regulation is one of the primary factors slowing down job growth in states in a strong one; I feel fairly certain that's not Mississippi's issue, and yet the state is clearly paying significant money to locate businesses here. I think training, education and opportunity are much closer to the top. (And it's worth noting that even some heavily regulated states seem to be able to grow technology and knowledge worker jobs.)

Edit: And, I'm not even 100% bought-in on that notion; I think the ideal, somehow, is "smart" regulation, which isn't exactly the opposite of excess; it's more the opposite of "dumb." Clearly one could write a book...

In case anyone missed it:

*On Monday, Eric Fehrnstrom, Mr. Romney’s senior adviser, strayed wildly from the coordinated comments of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill and other party strategists by saying Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, agrees with Democrats that Mr. Obama’s health care mandate is not a tax.*

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012…

Romney's not calling it a tax. Why? Because then he'd have to admit to raising taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts. Instead, it's a "penalty" to discourage "free riders."

*In an opinion article in USA Today in 2009, Mr. Romney again used the term “free riders,” writing that a penalty like that in his health care plan “encourages ‘free riders’ to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical cost on to others.”*

Had to be said; my last word on the subject.