Archive for 2010
July 1, 2010
NRA ON KAGAN: The Hill: Gun rights concerns mean Kagan’s nomination may be scored as a ‘key vote’. “Kagan’s description of Second Amendment cases, including Monday’s high court ruling limiting the right of state and local governments to regulate gun ownership, as ‘settled law’ has done nothing to allay the gun rights group’s worries about her, according to an NRA official.”
POLITICO: Dems In A Jam As Jobs Bill Falls Short.
PORTLAND POLICE reopen Gore sex assault case.
And, from Jim Treacher: “Considering his accuser claims to have DNA evidence, it looks like Al’s fate is in the hands of his old friend: science!”
“Obama said many things during September and October 2008, when the election hung in the balance, that in retrospect turn out to be pretty laughable. Depending on your sense of humor, etc.”
THE U.S. ECONOMY: Too big to bail.
JACOB SULLUM ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL HYPOCRISY OF SECOND AMENDMENT OPPONENTS:
In their dissenting opinions, Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer (joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor) worry that overturning gun control laws undermines democracy. If “the people” want to ban handguns, they say, “the people” should be allowed to implement that desire through their elected representatives.
What if the people want to ban books that offend them, establish an official church, or authorize police to conduct warrantless searches at will? Those options are also foreclosed by constitutional provisions that apply to the states by way of the 14th Amendment. The crucial difference between a pure democracy and a constitutional democracy like ours is that sometimes the majority does not decide.
Likewise, Stevens defends “state and local legislatures’ right to experiment,” while Breyer is loath to interfere with “the ability of States to reflect local preferences and conditions—both key virtues of federalism.” Coming from justices who think Congress can disregard state decisions about the medical use of marijuana because a plant on the windowsill of a cancer patient qualifies as interstate commerce, this sudden concern about federalism is hard to take seriously.
Read the whole thing.
June 30, 2010
APPLE WORKING ON iPhone 4 signal issues?
FIGHTING CRIME AT HOME: Blount County man catches alleged thief, holds him at gunpoint.
THREATENING BLOGGERS IS GENERALLY A BAD IDEA: Legal Threats Aimed At QuackWatch.
WHAT DID THE POST KNOW, and when did they know it?
OBAMA GOES TO WISCONSIN — but where’s Russ Feingold?
HEH. I can’t think of a more pointless assignment.
HOMEOWNER KILLS BURGLARS: “Both of the men killed during an alleged South Knox County home burglary Sunday night had criminal records, according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.”
MARKDOWNS ON Men’s And Women’s Watches.
REASON TV: Citizenship And The Pursuit Of Happiness.
GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE: VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV.
THE HAZARDS OF DISTANCE LEARNING.
DOG BITES MAN: Andrew Sullivan busted for hypocrisy on privacy issues. The thing to remember about the “have you no decency” hypocrites is that the rules are whatever they say they are and they’re only what they say they are until they say they’re something else.
UPDATE: The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent lauds Sullivan for defending the confidentiality of The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein’s “JournoList” media-collusion email list. No home cooking here!
But I’ve got a question: The Washington Post’s David Weigel called on the other journalist members of The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein’s JournoList to refrain from sending traffic to The Washington Post’s competitor, The Washington Examiner. Is there any sort of antitrust liability there? Because if there is — and especially if there were other statements like this on the list from The Washington Post’s employees who participated — then I can see why The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent would like to see The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein’s JournoList archive kept “private.”