Participation in numbers dropped off yesterday, but the quality of the posts was outstanding. This is the kind of thing I love to see. I’m hoping we’ll get more of the same today, rather than the simple-minded FB and Wick bashing we saw on Day One. (I tolerate the latter, but I don’t endorse or enjoy it.)

Format suggestion — post the headline and/or link to the FB thread you want to discuss, and then throw in your two cents. As a pro-comment guy, I think the quality we saw yesterday puts to question Gordon’s assertion that comments denigrate rather than advance the conversation.

Final note: FB (Stephen Edmondson) is working hard on a modified comment system, so this feature is temporary. Your quality comments here will go a long way to convincing the Powers That Be that FB benefits from reader participation. So show me what you got.

Personal Note: I may start randomly deleting RayRay’s comments. Not because I disagree; I just like seeing him go all Yosemite Sam. Or maybe not. There’s a bastard that lives inside me that loves messing with people.

As for comments, I’ll start: Interior Designers

Wick is spot on with his characterization of licensing for interior decorators, hairdressers and other professions as “protectionist, anti-competition statutes” because the whole point is to limit competition. It most hurts the smaller operators with limited start-up capital, and it doesn’t protect anyone except those already in practice. Licensing makes some sense for some professions — lawyers, doctors, construction companies — but it doesn’t for pillow-tossers and hair stylists. The worst case I saw was the black lady who did weaves and braiding for mostly black clients out of her home who was told to cease and desist because she didn’t have a license. Getting a license was costly and required joining an expensive association, and the training was for a whole bunch of stuff she didn’t do. It’s ridiculous. The training they required didn’t even touch on the unique needs of braiding black women’s hair or doing weaves, and who exactly was at risk from this lady not having a license?

And on interior decorators — come on. What risk is there to clients over the placement of throw pillows or choosing the wrong color wall paint?

UPDATE: Regarding interior designers, my friend Radley Balko had this a while back.

With comments shut down on FrontBurner, I’ll have a daily open thread here for comments on the day’s FB postings.

Let’s see if this works.