Unassailability: Meta Analysis
Did Rush Limbaugh really tell his caller, “Tony from Tampa,” to not watch FOX? No, he told his caller not to watch a particular panel of “liberals” on FOX Business Channel. As Mr. Limbaugh...
Author: Burt Likko
A Persuasive Argument
Many times in the past when I’ve written of the Declaration of Independence, I’ve emphasized that it is not law. The Constitution is law, but not the Declaration, which is a political document. This...
The Best Video Game Ever: “Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord”
Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on the Best Video Games Ever. To see a list of all posts in the Symposium so far, please click here. I’m an RPG guy....
Big Wednesday 2013
I thought this would only have been a one-day thing. But we’re here on the third day in a row of huge decisions from the Supreme Court. At last, we have rulings on the...
Big Tuesday 2013
We got the Voting Rights Act case today, but not same-sex marriage. Please join the discussion at NaPP!
Big Monday 2013
Today is the last scheduled day for decisions and opinions scheduled by the Supreme Court. In the comments to this post, I’ll be glossing the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action, and same-sex marriage cases.*...
Hot But Dull
I really wanted Man of Steel to be fun movie. And at times, it was. It was worth the matinee price. [Continued at NaPP]
For The Cold Case Files
Does the Fourth Amendment allow law enforcement to gather an arrestee’s genetic sequence and compare it with a large FBI database of genetic material gathered from old, unsolved crimes? [Continued at NaPP]
How Metadata Could Have Squelched The Civil Rights Movement
Perhaps it would be of interest to the ongoing discussion about NSA accumulation of phone use metadata to see how some math gets mixed with metadata in a relatively simple universe. Professor Kieran Healy does...
Triaxial Epistemology
By way of Popehat, Arnold Kling on a root problem with contemporary political discourse, summarized in the Wall Street Journal: Mr. Kling’s three “languages” are ways of talking about politics and government, and they...
The Text Is All We Have
Today’s story about the Justice Department obtaining two months’ worth of telephone records from the Associated Press, apparently without a warrant and without any sort of prior notice to the people or entity thus...
1,776 Feet
Construction workers bolted a communications spire atop the New World Trade Center in Manhattan today, bringing the still-under-construction skyscraper to its final height of 1,776 feet. Rightly: New York has rebuilt, and are taller and better than before....
Introducing Vikram Bath!
Not A Potted Plant is thrilled and proud to announce the arrival of its third contributor. Please drop on by and get to know Vikram Bath!
Gun Printing: A Call To Inaction
Once something is published on the Internet, it’s too late to take it back. Ask Anthony Weiner. Pictured to the left is a 3D printer. As predicted here more than half a year ago,...
Gastrodestination Portland
To the left is a meal I had in Portland, Oregon this weekend. It was not the best meal I had. But it was the gayest. (Read more at NaPP…) Burt Likko is the...
Standing For Silence
Today marks the annual Congressionally-mandated ritual of disrespecting the Constitution in the name of pleasing the pious. [Continued at NaPP, with music video…]
A Terrible Starting Point
From today’s Boston Herald (via memeorandum): The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance — a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section...
Vive La France!
Félicitations, nos amis. C’est la triomphe de la liberté, égalité, et l’amour. Célébrer et soyez joyeux!
Panic Stains Tsarnaev’s Apprehension
I cannot think of a time in American history, or indeed in world history, in which an entire city has been shut down to apprehend a single criminal. On Friday, the city of Boston and its neighboring...
