To review: I have long been on record as rejecting outright the notion that jury nullification is either: (a) an explicit prerogative of modern juries, (b) inherently just, or (c) inherently libertarian. The latter two points are self-apparent to anyone who analyzes the question objectively. Nullification is a tool, and like all tools it can [...]
Filed under: Constitutional Issues, Law, Libertarianism | 4 Comments »
Ezra Klein does what he does best: be wrong — As [Jacob] Sullum says, "If customers really were clamoring for conspicuous calorie counts, restaurants would provide them voluntarily." That sentence competes for space with a poll showing 84 percent of Californians support caloric labeling requirements, and the basic reality the article is responding to: Democratically [...]
Filed under: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists, Capitalism, Politics, Property Rights | 2 Comments »
–Should chronically truant students be required to wear GPS ankle bracelets? –A related Special Guest Question: When did college go from a place where people receive an education to a nanny and temperance institution? –How do you think Ezra "Zoning is No Big Deal" Klein would react to using zoning to try to ban Jews [...]
Filed under: Questions | 3 Comments »
…for they know not what they do? Ron Prentice, director of the coalition of religious and social conservative groups that qualified the amendment for the November ballot, said the group has ordered 1 million yard signs and 1 million bumper stickers. "Unless the people are angry, nothing will happen," Prentice said. "We are going to [...]
Filed under: Gay Rights and Issues, Society, Religion, Culture Wars | 1 Comment »
I thought I'd break these two updates out of the normal Sunday post. ITEM: The Washington Post ran a feature on how airlines are debasing their frequent flier miles (e.g., by raising the "price" of tickets and upgrades in terms of miles required). One aspect of the revisions caught my eye: [Mark] D'Arrigo has been [...]
Filed under: Economics & Finance, Updates | 3 Comments »
Time to clean out the aggregator — ITEM: Another bigoted theocrat (or is it theocratic bigot?) has taken up the petty "pray for rain" campaign abandoned by Focus on the Family member Stuart Shepard. FoF purged all record of the immature and offensive video, hoping for torrential rain on the day of Barack Obama's acceptance [...]
Filed under: Updates | 1 Comment »
It's so rare for me to agree with a New York Times editorial that I feel compelled to take advantage of the occasion: Beijing got what it wanted out of this globally televised spectacular. It reaped a huge prestige bonanza that it will surely use to promote its international influence and, we fear, further tighten [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Libertarianism | 4 Comments »
Considering how serious last week's CuteTuber™ video was, and how serious my next blogpost is, I thought it might be a good idea to go through my stash of videos and pick the most lighthearted for this week's CuteTuber™. And I ended up crashing straight into Kip's Law:
Welcome [...]Filed under: Kip's Law, Sunday CuteTuber™ | Comments Off
…and T. Boone Pickens has taken a flying Jedi leap right over it: Roberts County, Texas, sits atop the Ogallala Aquifer, a huge underground reservoir that stretches all the way to South Dakota. It's in Roberts County that T. Boone Pickens set aside eight acres from his ranch for drilling deep into the aquifer. Then [...]
Filed under: Economics & Finance, Kip's Law, Rent-Seeking | 2 Comments »
"I think that this is time for unity in this country, and maybe it is time to have a guy like John McCain — a Republican — on the ticket with a guy he does like." –Joe Biden, praising John McCain, in 2004 Between that and the numerous plagiarism scandals, Obama's choice can be summed [...]
Filed under: Politics | 2 Comments »