Thursday, October 29, 2009

Double Pointy

Two worthwhile clicks are:

Please nearly everyone

John F. Bowes III worked with the Patrick administration to do the project, which restores a service discontinued to save money. The result is an only mildly obnoxious reminder by phone, email or text message with a brief ad. Sign up at the RMV site for free. It securely sends your encrypted data to Sendza, which in turn has its figurative robots generate the message a month before your license will expire. It's free to the commonwealth. Sendza apparently makes its profit from insurance companies and the like who piggyback an ad in the message, like a banner on a web page.

So the fiscal conservatives should like the free service to customers. The free-market folk should appreciate the business/government partnership. The libertarian types should also like the business deal, plus it is an opt-in-only service with secure data use. Lefties may be mildly annoyed by the intrusion, but balance it with the service to the public.

Back in Bed

Here and at Left Ahead!, we've mused on the very odd confluence of disparate types opposing casino gambling here. Ryan Adams will carry our banner to the State House today for the large and surely contentious hearing. He'll surely find himself mingling with fundies and Mass Family Institute sorts, who are also against gambling.

Our reasons may be different — neither Ryan nor I quote any scripture on this. However, all the groups and individuals on our side see it as the wrong way to try to increase cash flow. We largely figure it will end up costing citizens as well as government more in the end, with the profits going out of state to the bad guys.

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