stcynic
Posts by this author
November 9, 2004
Thanks to Timothy Sandefur for the reminder that today is the 15th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. A very, very important day for the cause of human freedom.
November 9, 2004
Here is an interesting statement from Thomas Oliphant. The op-ed piece is about the Specter controversy going on, but within it he makes this statement that really jumped out at me:
It's important to see all this through the right's lens. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980; since then,…
November 9, 2004
Jon Rowe looks at the possibility that Bush might nominate either Arlen Specter or Orrin Hatch for the Supreme Court in his second term. A Specter nomination, given the current enmity being shown him by Bush's bulldogs in the Senate, the media and various religious right organizations, seems…
November 8, 2004
Jim Lindgren of the Volokh Conspiracy has weighed in with his thoughts on potential Bush judicial nominees:
Personally, my uninformed guess is that Bush will nominate Alberto Gonzales for the next vacancy on the Supreme Court, though this is far from certain. White House Counsel Gonzales has Bush'…
November 8, 2004
Robert Novak has joined the chorus of dishonesty against Arlen Specter, emphatically repeating the outright lie that Specter said he would impose a litmus test on future judicial nominees that they must be pro-choice and that he said he would block potential appointments. Novak says:
Sen. Arlen…
November 8, 2004
Kelly Hollowell is not the only one making absurd statements about the new Homo floresiensis find. Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, sees her absurdity and raises it to outright idiocy in this interview with Agape Press. The way this is phrased is absolutely precious:
Answers in Genesis…
November 8, 2004
Every once in a while I come across a blog and think, "How on earth did I not know about this one before now?" Reason and Liberty is a perfect example. The blog's owner, Steve Sanders, is a 3rd year law student at the University of Michigan, my home state, and he is, like me, a relentless scourge…
November 8, 2004
Timothy Sandefur has a brief post up about who might be named the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He pointed out a problem with a possible Thomas nomination that I hadn't thought of - why would he accept it? While there might be some lure to being the first black Chief Justice, it would…
November 7, 2004
Via Brent Rasmussen, I just discovered that Ken Layne has a blog. This will immediately make it into my daily must-read list. He's as concerned with the Christian Reconstructionists as I am.
November 7, 2004
She's already won one Idiot of the Month award, can she go for two? Look at this bizarre diatribe on Worldnutdaily about the recently discovered Flores Man. It's just full of absurd statements. To wit:
But the showstopper in the recent discovery of Homo flores came when the 3-foot-tall adult…
November 7, 2004
Editor's Note: Dan Ray left this as a comment on the thread below, but it's so long and detailed that I think it deserves to be up here on its own where everyone can read it. Dan is a law professor and a longtime reader who has become a friend as well and I have extended an invitation for him to be…
November 7, 2004
It seems the liars at the National Review and their ideological brethren are having quite an effect on the rank and file, who have dutifully lined up to whoop and cry without bothering to actually put any thought into the matter. There's a surprise. The AP reports that Senate phone banks are being…
November 7, 2004
As I noted yesterday, presumptive Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter has sparked a controversy that has been blown out of all proportion. The editors of the National Review appear to have lost their minds completely over what was, to any sane person, a very innocuous statement. It begins with…
November 6, 2004
There has been a little brouhaha started between a couple of the Volokh contributors and Stephen Bainbridge, a battle between the social conservative Bainbridge and the more libertarian-minded David Bernstein and Randy Barnett. It began with Bernstein posting a quote from an article for which he…
November 6, 2004
Jon Rowe predicts that Bush will have as many as 3 appointments to the Supreme Court in his second term, and most court-watchers would agree. One seems a bare minimum, two seems quite likely and three is very possible. Much of the focus has been on Chief Justice Rehnquist lately, given his ongoing…
November 4, 2004
Back in January, Pat Robertson pronounced to the world that God himself had told him it was going to be a blowout for Bush:
I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004.
Now, I think we can all agree that…
November 4, 2004
Before the emerging conventional wisdom hardens into an Undoubted Truth, take a look at Eugene Volokh's debunking of today's sudden consensus that it was moral issues that brought Bush the victory. As he notes, in the exit polls about 22% named morality as the most important issue, but 20% named…
November 4, 2004
I know the election is over and everything, but I just can't help but point to this article which contains several American soldiers talking about how they watched the Al Qaqaa site be looted and in late April and early May 2003 and couldn't do anything because they were so outnumbered:
U.S. Army…
November 4, 2004
As I read the reaction around the blogosphere, I can't help but think that people on both sides are overreacting to a point of hysteria. For many on the left, they think we're on the verge of a Fourth Reich, while many on the right seem to think that political nirvana is within reach as the hero…
November 3, 2004
I'm out of town the rest of today for a loan closing and to break bread with an old friend or two. Hope no one kills themselves while I'm gone. If you're feeling depressed, take two shots of tequila and call me in the morning.
November 3, 2004
So much for last minute predictions, eh? First, let's dispose of the obvious - Ohio is going for Bush, and the desperate hope of a miracle by the Kerry folks is a fantasy. Game, set and match for Bush. So with that fact clearly stated, what do we conclude?
First, three major pieces of conventional…
November 2, 2004
Well, everyone is waiting breathlessly to see who wins. I voted today, and I would bet money that I am the only one in this county who voted for Badnarik; the vote counters probably think it was a joke ballot. The voter turnout has been huge, with predictions that it might top 70% of eligible…
November 1, 2004
Somehow I managed to get on the email list for Worldview Weekend, a group on the far right of the far right. Their latest email is quite amusing:
I believe anyone that does not vote on Tuesday is sinning and anyone that votes for Kerry is committing an even greater sin! We not only need President…
November 1, 2004
David Bernstein of the Volokh Conspiracy sums up perfectly what this election is like for the libertarian-minded:
This year, the Libertarian candidate is embarassing. And Ralph Nader has become a parody of the man who once supported some forms of deregulation because it benefitted consumers. I…
November 1, 2004
As badly as this missing explosives story has gone for the administration and their reporters, both reluctant and otherwise, I must confess to being more than a little surprised that Sandefur is still insisting that I somehow "jumped the gun" or "fell" for a false story. The evidence could not be…
November 1, 2004
I was out of the loop a bit from Friday to Sunday, but while eating lunch on Friday afternoon, I did see the press conference held at the Pentagon that claimed that they had blown up the HMX and RDX. By my count this was their 5th different excuse as to what happened and, of course, it contradicts…
October 31, 2004
I was looking at some of the recent silliness from Charles Colson, who often writes for Christianity Today, and came across an article on last year's infamous Lawrence v Texas decision. In it, Colson characterizes the decision in this way:
Three weeks later, in Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme…
October 31, 2004
I have returned. Much better debate at this tournament than the last one, but that was expected. EGR is a major national tournament, with teams coming from far and wide, New Hampshire to California, and that includes probably half of the top ten teams in the nation. The tournament is actually still…
October 29, 2004
I have a couple hours before I have to get hit the road, so let me throw out one last summation on the missing explosives. The videotape provided by the Minneapolist TV station, taken on April 18th, has now been conclusively shown to contain footage of the very explosives that are now missing.…
October 28, 2004
I will be gone all weekend, until Sunday afternoon. I'm going to judge another debate tournament. This one is a major national tournament with teams from a dozen states coming, so the debate should be considerably better at this one. So no more posting on the explosives story, which looks to be…