Author: Burt Likko

In his powerful biography of Peter I Romanov, Robert Massie puts words in the mouth of the czar: “I will drag you, kicking and screaming if need be, into the modern world.” Peter could...

At Outside the Beltway, Doug Mataconis points us to a governmental job for which the regular consumption of alcoholic beverages is not only not a problem, but a job requirement. Almost makes me want...

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White today ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the case of Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management. Karen Golinski is a research attorney for the U.S. District Court...

Pseudonymous blogging strikes the right balance, for me, between the ability to project a clear and consistent identity to those interested in exchanging ideas, and buffering my sometimes unpopular ideas from meatworld decisionmakers, some...

Over the past week or so, we seem to have had a rash of misunderstandings, misread intents inferred, misread comments, and just plain misstatements and the unpleasant retractions thus obliged. There’s been a lot of...

I was going to offer this as an update to my post from earlier this week, but the comment grew too long in the composition. As much as I enjoy the idea of authoring...

There’s been quite a bit of discussion recently about the Obama Administration’s manner of implementing provisions of the Affordable Care Act by requiring that employer-funded healthcare plans include contraception. By now, every Reader here...

When a big case is released, I want to read it right away. But unfortunately, courts release big cases at precisely the time lawyers are working. So it’s taken me a day to digest...

The porn industry is quick to raise the First Amendment as its primary argument against governmental intervention of any sort. And not without justification — governments from the Feds down to municipalities are notoriously...

If you do, be sure to step out tonight, preferably in an area clear of bright city lights or other light pollution. The Earth has been hit with a large coronal mass ejection for...

It’s been over twenty-four hours since I wrote about Newt Gingrich, so I’ll complete my trilogy of observations about his insurgency here. I’d be less interested in Gingrich if it didn’t look for all...

If everyone said they saw “X” and you didn’t, would your first instinct be to wonder if there was something wrong with your vision, that “X” was there and you had somehow missed it?...

Newt Gingrich channels the legend of Andrew Jackson*: [Gingrich] told a forum of anti-abortion activists ahead of South Carolina’s primary election that as president he would ignore supreme court rulings he regards as legally...

At my sub-blog, I have completed the third of my “Great Cases” series of posts. This installment introduces us to an eccentric British nobleman, the personal assets of America’s then-leading jurist, the collapse of...

Yesterday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an injunction against Oklahoma’s anti-Sharia law. I guest-blogged about this issue more than a year ago on the front page, even before I was anointed a...