Author: Mark of New Jersey

Pop Quiz

In how many different ways is Arizona’s “Birther” bill potentially or likely unconstitutional? At first glance, I count at least four, but I may be missing some: The Full Faith and Credit Clause The...

Playing God with the Poor

At the new blog Bleeding Heart Libertarians (whose roster of contributors is impeccable, I must add), Matt Zwolinski has an outstanding couple of posts responding to arguments by Bryan Caplan that libertarians should be,...

Why I’ve Been Quiet

So I went on vacation for a week, got back, got buried in real, actual work, and now I’ve been fighting off some sort of fun little illness for the last week.  But I...

Friday Afternoon Jukebox

I was reminiscing this morning about college, late 90s ska-punk, The Single Greatest Party Ever Thrown (dude, we made a six-foot tall working volcano!), and drinking with said ska-punk band until 5AM. So, uhh,...

Shirley Sherrod’s Defamation Suit

As some will recall, this past summer I argued that Shirley Sherrod would be ill-advised to file suit against Andrew Breitbart for defamation, largely on the grounds that, wherever my sympathies may lie, “her...

Pigford: A Tragedy and a Non-Troversy

[UPDATED] Conor Friedersdorf points to a pay-wall blocked piece by Daniel Foster in National Review on the recently-passed “Pigford II” legislation.  This story, of course, is largely being driven by Andrew Breitbart’s reporting, which...

“Reasonable” People

[Author’s Note: Rumors of my demise have been very marginally exaggerated.  However, despite the full-bore reappearance of Brother Will in my absence and our failure to blog at the same time for many moons,...

Oscar Nominations Open Thread

I’m not normally interested in the Oscar nominations but because this is the first time since Return of the King that I have actually seen one of the leading nominees, this year is marginally...

An Original In Every Sense

Pro football legend, civil rights hero, sports labor icon, and original Buffalo Bill Cookie Gilchrist passed away the other day at 75 after a long bout with cancer.  I wanted to pass along two...

Be the Change You Want to See

The “debate over debate” that has arisen in the wake of the tragic assassination attempt of Congresswoman Giffords in Arizona on Saturday, which left 6 dead, including a 9 year old girl, a federal...

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...

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...

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...

Hypothesis

With the exception of posts that pontificate on the deeper meaning of libertarianism or other political philosophies, the number of comments a given post (exclusive of “Off the Cuff” posts) at the League of Ordinary...