Franklin Bynum is a tumblelog.

Still, Houston could take a lesson from its own history and allow the power of competition to police the markets, rather than the city.

Old solution on natural gas prices: competition

This column is incredibly deficient and its author incredibly lazy.

It’s an interesting old story (from a self-interested industry source) but a more modern example—electricity deregulation—has resulted in far higher prices.

It is rare in a working environment,” he’s argued, “that someone says, ‘Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday but before that I need a compelling account of your childhood.’

What Should Children Read? - NYTimes.com

Monstrous.

Surely, no trial judge would want an innocent man to plead guilty, no matter how much delay and expense he might be causing.

Blue v. State, 41 S.W.3d 129, 132 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000) (plurality op.).

Oh, if only!

Because the sender’s account had been registered anonymously, investigators had to use forensic techniques — including a check of what other e-mail accounts had been accessed from the same computer address — to identify who was writing the e-mails.

U.S. Officials Say Petraeus’s Affair Known in Summer - NYTimes.com

What an amazing glimpse of the surveillance information the F.B.I. may have: user IP addresses from large e-mail providers.

While some would use the anonymity and instant feedback of social media as an excuse, I take full responsibility for my actions.

Do we have a right to expect tomatoes that taste like tomatoes and to have them grown in sustainably? It might sound like a ridiculous question. These are for-profit enterprises operating on private land and dealing with the difficulties of distribution and the vagaries of the market. But it’s not so outlandish to think we should have some collective say in what is farmed and how. After all, between 1862 and 1934, the Homestead Act transferred 10 percent of all land in the United States from federal to private control, and it’s federal money that pays for much of the roads and irrigation systems that make farming in the valley so profitable.

California’s Central Valley, Land of a Billion Vegetables - NYTimes.com

How on Earth could that ever be a ridiculous question?

“No so outlandish” to tell the corporations what we will and won’t tolerate from them regarding the food we eat?

But what strikes me most is the weakness of these justifications. The Homestead Act? Really?

At the hearing on the motion to revoke the Brazos County community supervision, the prosecutor called the appellant’s probation officer to the stand to ask her how the appellant had violated the condition of community supervision that prohibited committing other crimes. The appellant objected on the basis of hearsay, and the trial judge sustained the objection. The prosecutor made no further effort to introduce evidence of the theft. Finding that the State had failed to meet its burden of proof, the Brazos County court denied the motion to revoke.

Ex parte Doan, PD-1547-10, 2012 WL 2327914 (Tex. Crim. App. June 20, 2012).