Domestic violence news update

• A while back I wrote about New York Assemblyman Hiram Monserrate, who was convicted of domestic assault and has just been kicked out of the state Senate. Governor Paterson supports the move, and calls attention to potential witness intimidation.

But wait, there's more! One of Paterson's top aides is now under investigation for domestic violence, and Paterson allegedly called the victim himself to convince her to keep quiet.

Lame Weekend-Update-Style Punch Line: In related news, New York announced its new tourism slogan: "If I Can't Love New York, Nobody Can."

• As part of his promotion for a new stimulus jobs bill, Sen. Harry Reid announced that unemployed men are more likely to beat their wives. This is certainly plausible. After all, domestic violence is primarily a control issue, and many abusers are narcissists who need to maintain their images at all costs. Lose his job and he's lost control of your life, and his image, which was tied up in his job, is seriously damaged. The abuser needs to reassert control somewhere else.

That said, Sen. Reid's argument sounds a little like an argument to put more police on patrol in high-crime neighborhoods order to keep late-night coffee shops in business, and carries the nasty undertone that people who oppose the bill not only hate jobs, but hate women as well. The reason the government wants to reduce unemployment is not because of the secondary effects of unemployment. The reason the government wants to reduce unemployment is because unemployment is bad in and of itself.