This Reason magazine cartoon is a great commentary on political ethics in New Jersey.

Maladjusted Freaks
To everyone who's ever told me the Libertarian Party was weird, you're right.

The New Jersey Supreme Court Shows Its Statist Bias

After Bob Torricelli withdrew from the NJ Senate race, the Democrats tried to get Former Senator Lautenberg put on the ballot in his place. The only obstacle was the law, which clearly stated that candidates could not be substituted fewer than 51 days before the election. The NJ Supreme Court ruled that the law really means the Democrats can change candidates whenever they want as long as they can pay for it. For a run down of the general arguments, head to InstaPundit.

What I find most outrageous is the court's upholding of this gem from a previous decision:
[it] is in the public interest and the general intent of the election laws to preserve the two-party system and to submit to the electorate a ballot bearing the names of candidates of both major political parties as well as of all other qualifying parties and groups.

I hope I'm not the only one troubled if the intent of election law is to put the powerful in office. According to the NJ Division of Elections, there are 5 candidates already on the ballot, a Republican, a Libertarian, a Green, a Socialist, and someone from the New Jersey Conservative Party. Why is putting a sixth candidate on the ballot justification for the court to "invoke its equitable powers in favor of a full and fair ballot choice for the voters of New Jersey." Is it that you need 6 choices to make a fair choice? Or is it just that some candidates are more equal than others? Why bother with open elections when the court has the power to decide which candidates are the real ones and which are just there to let the masses think they have a choice in deciding their oligarchs?

That doesn't sound that unreasonable given what they are up against in South Africa. Prostitutes there don't believe in AIDS. They think it's an invention of moralistic Christians to make them give up their immoral ways. Given this level of idiocy, maybe muppets aren't such a bad idea.

The Great Muppet Virus

If Mr. Barnes wants more evidence of the decline of Western culture, check this out from South Africa. Apparently, the South African government, which subsidizes the country's version of Sesame Street, asked the makers of the show to introduce a new character that has HIV, named Kami. The producers wanted to take the stigma off having AIDS and HIV. During the show, they play "the resting game" because Kami gets exhausted from her illness. Yes kids, it's ok to have AIDS.