Football Talk
Does anyone else think that Oregon’s blur offense is uniquely ill-suited to the long break between college football’s regular season and the major bowl games? If their opponents get a month off to condition...
Monthly Archive: January 2011
Euripides: Helen (of Egypt)
I remember a friend once commenting, “The truth is I’m unnaturally beautiful.” It’s one of those comments that sounds pretty terrible coming from most people; in her case, it was forgivable because she was,...
Space Oddity
I spent some of my lunch hour delving into Jared Lee Loughner’s pre-massacre writings. The media generally haven’t given us the full context here, only edited bits and pieces, and I think this is...
One Last Word on the Shootings
This discussion about the Tuscon shootings, as necessary and intelligent as it has been, is also exhausting to me. The only thing I really have to say at this point is that, at times like this and after events...
Worth Watching
If you have a spare hour, I’d highly recommend watching this dialog on the Giffords shooting and abortion. I don’t think it will change any minds, but it’s a model of clarity and intelligent...
Happy Meal Conservatism
This is an appropriate time to turn back, once again, to one of my favorite John Derbyshire pieces published waybackwhen in The American Conservative: How Radio Wrecks the Right. A long excerpt: Taking the...
Rightwing Duck
Bob Cheeks wants an example of Glenn Beck being inflammatory. Well that’s Beck’s whole schtick, and while I think the left overblows both his influence and the level of his inflammatory language he is nonetheless...
Crazy people doing crazy things
A lot of conspiracy theorists are considered right-wing because they have a deep mistrust of the government. But I think that conservative or limited government beliefs in most conspiracy theorists or lone-gunmen nuts is...
A Closer Look at Jared Lee Loughner
Anyone trying to understand what happened on Saturday needs to read this piece in Mother Jones, which features an exclusive interview with one of the few people who still had contact with Jared Lee...
Government and Violence
Radley Balko writes: [I]t’s worth remembering that the government initiates violence against its own citizens every day in this country, citizens who pose no threat or harm to anyone else. The particular policy that...
Notes on “Black Swan” (2010)
An expressionist horror film currently in wide release, Black Swan deserves recognition for dealing with such heady subjects as the duality of human nature, the fragmentation of personality by mental illness, the projection by...
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shot at Tucson rally
Andrew Sullivan is live-blogging the shooting today so that’s a very good resource. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson this morning, allegedly by 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner. Laughner appears to be pretty delusional...
Constitutionalism and Reasonability
The comments on Mark’s post below have grown to the point where I’m not sure I want to intervene, and my Internet access is limited this weekend anyway, but Freddie’s comment early in the...
Insert stock blog post title about being “shocked, shocked” here
Bad science used to justify torture: “. . . much of the research cited in okaying these “EITs” came from training that was used to prepare soldiers to have these same techniques being used...
The Statist Constitution, Ctd.
Given my post this morning arguing that there is no more evidence for a narrow interpretation of the body of the Constitution than there is for a broad interpretation, Alex Knapp’s quoting of Alexander...
Quote of the Day – Daley Kos Edition
“Is there anyone out there who thinks Obama is going to come to the podium on Monday and say ‘I was pretty confident about my pick of Daley as my Chief of Staff, but...
Limits? What Limits?
In the comments to Jason’s post yesterday afternoon defending the act of reading the Constitution on the House floor to open the legislative session, even though Jason acknowledged it as being an empty act...
Apparently, our diplomatic corps now doubles as Boeing’s overseas marketing department
Seriously. This isn’t exactly surprising, but Tim Carney has done yeomen’s work by digging through Wikileaks for the sleazy details.
It’s Not Accuracy They Want…
…it’s authority. And fangs. The day will come when drug-hunting dogs will seem as cruel as human-hunting dogs, tout court. Because that is, ultimately, what they are.
A Meaningless Constitution, Thankfully.
My former co-blogger Timothy Sandefur is spot-on here, regarding the GOP decision to read the Constitution in Congress: This symbolic move is refreshing to those of us who take the Constitution seriously, and it’s...
