Also, the ATF's position for 10 years prior to the change was that bump stocks were legal under the same statute -- they changed in reaction to the Las Vegas shooting and pressure from Trump. This was essentially a change in law without benefit of Congressional action.
A lot comes down to whether the goal is to find a way to justify a desired result or to apply a set of interpretive best practices regardless of the specific topic. Reading this summary, it sounds like the majority simply did the latter.
The statute, however, "does not define a machinegun based on what type of human input engages the trigger—whether it be a pull, bump, or something else," Thomas writes. "Nor does it define a machinegun based on whether the shooter has assistance engaging the trigger. The statutory definition instead hinges on how many shots discharge when the shooter engages the trigger."
...
While all this arcane analysis might seem like nitpicking, it is exactly what a court must do in seeking to apply a statute as written. As Fletcher conceded, Congress did not define a machine gun by rate of fire. "This is not a rate-of-fire statute," he said. "It's a function statute." Although it may seem logical that any weapon that can approximate a machine gun's rate of fire should be placed in the same category, that is not the law Congress wrote.
"There can be little doubt that the Congress that enacted [this law] would not have seen any material difference between a machinegun and a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock," Justice Samuel Alito writes in a concurring opinion. "But the statutory text is clear, and we must follow it."
Recently, in a moment of clarity, I deactivated my Twitter account so as not to waste so much time scrolling the endless feed in a half-stupor while putting off more important and/or rewarding efforts. Since then, naturally my main response has been a dogged determination to find alternative sources of Content to waste time and scratch the same itch, and one of those has been to browse Substack instead.
All this is intro to my sharing a link I found there that's relevant to a recent exchange between Jaybird and CJ -- a summary of several well-known 2x2 games in Game Theory and the ways they're relevant to real-world situations. It does assume the reader has some familiarity with the Prisoner's Dilemma and so just summarizes it quickly; but the article was a nice reminder that there are many other ways to structure the payouts of PD to model other situations.
The weather forecast says 75% chance of rain tomorrow, but I have a big outdoor party planned and I don't want to cancel it. I just thought of a few other times when the forecast was wrong, and also i came up with some arbitrary reasons why I don't personally think it should rain tomorrow, so I'll just go ahead with the party with no backup plan.
The policy went into effect about thirty minutes ago. The Northern District of California has not yet enjoined the policy, but it will. Judge Tigar probably has a macro for these sorts of TROs. I'm sure the Department of Justice will go through the motions to defend the policy. But does the Biden DOJ actually want to win here? Wouldn't the best case scenario be for Biden to take political credit for doing something about the border, and then blame the courts not allowing him to do so something, as his supporters will be content that asylum seekers can continue entry?
Huh i didn’t realize the provenance was in question. I’d remembered it as de Tocqueville, googled and found it attributed to him, and didn’t look further.
I was at a Columbia PhD ceremony yesterday (which they held 100 blocks away from main campus). Protesters broke out shortly after the Dean started his speech -- from where we were in the audience, we couldn't tell who exactly was doing it and assumed these were outside agitators, but we found out later it was several of the PhD candidates themselves who stood up and slowly walked out, chanting loudly and waving a Palestinian flag.
Either way it was really annoying and rude, but there would've been slightly less aggravation among our crowd if we'd realized who was generating it.
Not long after they finally left and the speeches picked back up, the A/V stopped working and then a fire alarm went off -- I haven't heard who/what was behind these disruptions, whether they were random events or acts of sabotage. But after a bit of confusion, the crowd was invited to move up closer so that we could hear & see without amplification & video screens, and the rest of the ceremony went smoothly.
Hah, completely unrelated, but re-reading some of those jokes, this one reminds me of some of the foibles of our current "fact-checkers":
Moskowitz met his business rival, Levinson, at the airport and asked him, with an elaborate pretense of casualness, "And where do you happen to be going, Levinson?"
Levinson, just as casual, responded, "Chicago."
"Aha," said Moskowitz, shaking his finger triumphantly. "Now I've caught you in a flat-footed lie. You tell me Chicago because you want me to think you're going to St. Louis, but I talked to your partner only this morning and I happen to know you *are* going to Chicago, you liar!"
This to me is the more effective approach to actually move someone who thinks that both candidates are horrible -- rather than making tenuous arguments about who's the least worst, talk about the likely population of Congress and which one is likely to be held more in check based on the expected balance of power.
Whether it was a "good" ad for Apple depends on what they were trying to achieve, but I appreciated it as a depressing but accurate metaphor for our current reality.
Exactly - everything was fun and games when the protests were purely symbolic because everybody on campus already agreed (or otherwise had long ago learned to keep their mouths shut). But oops, who could’ve predicted that that might not always be the case going forward.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Supreme Court Strikes Down “Bump Stock Ban” 6-3”
Also, the ATF's position for 10 years prior to the change was that bump stocks were legal under the same statute -- they changed in reaction to the Las Vegas shooting and pressure from Trump. This was essentially a change in law without benefit of Congressional action.
"
A lot comes down to whether the goal is to find a way to justify a desired result or to apply a set of interpretive best practices regardless of the specific topic. Reading this summary, it sounds like the majority simply did the latter.
"
I don’t know what media people are relying on for good info on this decision, but it seems a lot of folks need to look for additional sources.
On “Open Mic for the week of 6/10/2024”
We need to figure out how to get people to believe "A is made of fire!" again.
"
Recently, in a moment of clarity, I deactivated my Twitter account so as not to waste so much time scrolling the endless feed in a half-stupor while putting off more important and/or rewarding efforts. Since then, naturally my main response has been a dogged determination to find alternative sources of Content to waste time and scratch the same itch, and one of those has been to browse Substack instead.
All this is intro to my sharing a link I found there that's relevant to a recent exchange between Jaybird and CJ -- a summary of several well-known 2x2 games in Game Theory and the ways they're relevant to real-world situations. It does assume the reader has some familiarity with the Prisoner's Dilemma and so just summarizes it quickly; but the article was a nice reminder that there are many other ways to structure the payouts of PD to model other situations.
"
Oh look, I found another forecast site that says it’s only a 40% chance — I’ll go with that one.
"
The weather forecast says 75% chance of rain tomorrow, but I have a big outdoor party planned and I don't want to cancel it. I just thought of a few other times when the forecast was wrong, and also i came up with some arbitrary reasons why I don't personally think it should rain tomorrow, so I'll just go ahead with the party with no backup plan.
"
Oh but there’s a 30-day residency requirement, so you have to close by October 6th.
It would be about a 50-fold increase in my voting power, according to 538 - might be worth it…
"
Hmm what’s the deadline to move to Pennsylvania and be able to register to vote there?
On “Biden Executive Orders on Southern Border: Read Them For Yourself”
Josh Blackman's writeup at Volokh includes the following possible outcome:
On “Judging Trump’s Greek Chorus After His Verdict”
Huh i didn’t realize the provenance was in question. I’d remembered it as de Tocqueville, googled and found it attributed to him, and didn’t look further.
"
de Tocqueville: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money"
On “Open Mic for the week of 5/20/2024”
That was Scott Alexander’s conclusion, though I think he might’ve backed away from that a bit in his followup post (too lazy to check):
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/ivermectin-much-more-than-you-wanted
"
See: https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and-reptilian-muslim-climatologists-from-mars/
On “Open Mic for the week of 5/13/2024”
I was at a Columbia PhD ceremony yesterday (which they held 100 blocks away from main campus). Protesters broke out shortly after the Dean started his speech -- from where we were in the audience, we couldn't tell who exactly was doing it and assumed these were outside agitators, but we found out later it was several of the PhD candidates themselves who stood up and slowly walked out, chanting loudly and waving a Palestinian flag.
Either way it was really annoying and rude, but there would've been slightly less aggravation among our crowd if we'd realized who was generating it.
Not long after they finally left and the speeches picked back up, the A/V stopped working and then a fire alarm went off -- I haven't heard who/what was behind these disruptions, whether they were random events or acts of sabotage. But after a bit of confusion, the crowd was invited to move up closer so that we could hear & see without amplification & video screens, and the rest of the ceremony went smoothly.
On “Republicans Defending Joe Biden”
That's fine...I just think maybe y'all didn't really read my comment, which was about persuasion strategy and not my personal opinion on Trump.
"
It was a mistake for me to have responded to Chip -- I should've thought ahead about the likely consequences.
"
Omigod, a partisan Democratic is positive the Democrat is the better choice! That sure convinces me!
On “Class in 21st Century America”
Hah, completely unrelated, but re-reading some of those jokes, this one reminds me of some of the foibles of our current "fact-checkers":
Moskowitz met his business rival, Levinson, at the airport and asked him, with an elaborate pretense of casualness, "And where do you happen to be going, Levinson?"
Levinson, just as casual, responded, "Chicago."
"Aha," said Moskowitz, shaking his finger triumphantly. "Now I've caught you in a flat-footed lie. You tell me Chicago because you want me to think you're going to St. Louis, but I talked to your partner only this morning and I happen to know you *are* going to Chicago, you liar!"
"
See Isaac Asimov's take here.
On “Republicans Defending Joe Biden”
This to me is the more effective approach to actually move someone who thinks that both candidates are horrible -- rather than making tenuous arguments about who's the least worst, talk about the likely population of Congress and which one is likely to be held more in check based on the expected balance of power.
On “Apple Ad Misses the Mark”
Whether it was a "good" ad for Apple depends on what they were trying to achieve, but I appreciated it as a depressing but accurate metaphor for our current reality.
On “Class in 21st Century America”
This SMBC comic got some knowing laughs from me and most everyone I’ve shared with.
On “Open Mic for the week of 4/29/2024”
I bet Twitter already has an abundance of tweets along those lines. Going on TV is old school.
"
Exactly - everything was fun and games when the protests were purely symbolic because everybody on campus already agreed (or otherwise had long ago learned to keep their mouths shut). But oops, who could’ve predicted that that might not always be the case going forward.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.