Who Are You?
So who the heck are you folks? Are you mostly lawyers? Techies? Professional procrastinators like us? Dead Roman males? Neighbors who are trying to ruin our opium-inspired works of genius?
Yeah, yeah, I know the comments aren't going to be remotely representative; yeah, yeah, I know you could be lying; but if you'd like, drop us some pithy lines about who you are and why you're here. Special bonus if you are in strange lines of business, strange places, or dogs.
Good blog, by the way.
This blog gives me something nerdy (but not "too nerdy") to read while I'm waiting for code to compile, for data to acquire, or for my will to engage in geeky activities for low pay and little credit to return.
I immigrated to America from England. It seemed entirely incumbent, having done so, to learn what it is to be American, to understand what America is, how it has developed. Having spent some time trying to understand it, I finally heard Justice Scalia explain the constitution, and my eyes were opened. Although I have since departed from Justice Scalia on some point, I remain profoundly indebted to him, and broadly deferential, for making something that had previously been very abstract seem very real, concrete and present.
As Justice Scalia said just recently, in the panel with Justices Breyer and O'Connor from early this year, America is its constitution. Unlike European countries, which are defined in terms of ethnicity or historical happenstance, America is defined in terms of fidelity to certain political principles, principles evoked in the Declaration of Independence, and given concrete, legal force in the Constitution.
Those whose citizenship is conditioned on naturalization rather than right of birth carry with them a burden that very few native-born Americans who do not hold public office bear: we swear a solemn oath to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic", and I take that oath very, very seriously. I don't know, perhaps that affects my perception, but as far as I'm concerned "enemies foreign and domestic" includes Supreme Court justices who attempt to twist and bend the Constitution to suit their own agenda. Most of the legal scholars who call for the living constitution doctrine, of course, have never sworn that solemn oath (and I don't want to imply that my interpretation is the only permissable interpretation of the obligations of that oath). Those scholars, perhaps, have some wiggle room. I do not, and nor do Judges, who swear an equally solemn oath to support and defend the constitution.
So for me, ConLaw is very deeply and intimately rooted in my personal experience of what it means to be in this country. I grew up in a country with an unwritten constitution. It's often said that anyone who complains about America should live in any other country for a year, and will shortly realize just how wrong they are; I lived for many years in a country with an unwritten constitution, and I think those people who want to turn America into such a polity should do the same.
A proud Volokh Conspiracy fanboy, I am a Midwest-derived, white, male, Protestant of Saxon origin, though I'm a little spare on the Anglo side.
Also, I like sports, if that's what you call Chicago Cubs baseball.
(law student)
Notorious left-wing, First-Amendment-absolutist crank. Jewish by Jewish law, agnostic by upbringing, Buddhist by choice.
Richard Gould-Saltman
(If you don't know the school, it's a small (800 students at two campuses) liberal arts school that hardly makes a stastical blip in anything other the annual sales of Newton's Principia. That, and we represent about 7% of the VC readership as of this post!)
Sleep? After I'm dead, I suppose.... :-D
Fair winds and following seas.....
(--Gus)
...And my son attends St. Johns College (New Mexico Campus).
My location is banal: outside of Boston.
My line of business is a bit odd: working as a software engineer with an interest in tinkering in my shop, I did not expect that I'd end up running an internet video-rental shop.
My dogs are great, but not particularly noteworthy to strangers.
Did I forget anything?
I'm here because this is far and away one of the best conservative blogs. Best in my book meaning thoughtful, informational, thought-provoking, intelligent, and (for the most part) non-partisan.
Yeah, this wasn't pithy and I'm not a dog. Sorry.
I am yet another (Annapolis '75), a PhD in Classics now teaching Latin, Greek, and Geometry at a private high school in North Carolina while blogging both pseudonymously and under my real name and doing old-fashioned Classical scholarship (textual criticism) when I can find the time.
By the way, I'm not surprised by the preponderance of lawyers and techies here, but wouldn't have thought it would be so extreme.
And I am not a dog, never have been a dog, and devoutly hope never to be a dog. The five cats I live with would eat me.
Since another post mentioned this, my name is not Pete Freans. It’s a pseudonym that I have used for non-professional literary purposes for many, many years. Incidentally, the name Pete Freans was created when I was in college. My roommate and I concocted this imaginary student and we would talk about him in the third person as if he were real. He was a double major one year, a triple major the next, he spoke hundreds of languages, he was rich, he was a ladies man, etc, etc. We were so persistent in mentioning his name over the years that a girl asked if "Pete" was attending a party we were throwing because she believed that she and "Pete" would click.
Needless to say, no one ever met Pete during our four years of studies. At graduation, my roommate and I queried where Pete was…only to remember that he graduated one semester early and he was resting comfortably in the South of France.
I thought I should unburden myself with that, thank you.
I write history books, specializing in the role of firearms in American society, and secondarily, in black history. (See published books here; scholarly journals here; popular articles here.) I don't write scholarly papers anymore; I made the mistake of helping exposing a gross scholarly fraud, and since then, I am persona non grata in scholarly circles--papers I submit aren't even considered, and the editors send back insulting notes. (Dishonesty in the purusit of political goals is a fundamental part of the academic history profession now.)
I live in Boise, Idaho where, contrary to popular opinion, we do have flush toilets and we don't marry our sisters.
I am one of the maniacal Children of Satan from the (now exposed) Secret Kingdom of Leo Strauss. Be afraid, very afraid.
Why am I here?
The late Admiral James B. Stockdale gave an admirable Stoic response in his vice-presidential debate.
-Software Engineer, C/C++ for DoD Contractor (Property Rights-- Intellectual and Real)
-Conservative (Second Amendment Rights)
Really, more of a Social Conservative, Economic Libertarian -- Yes, there are some conflicts that I struggle with...
Fan of yours when you appear on Fox, which isn't often enough. Libertarian-Republican in most respects. I'm not a dog, but I have one at home. :-)
Alumna of Harvard Law School. Anti-big-box blogger: http://www.BigCitiesBigBoxes.com. Owner of bar preparation business. Author of Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays. Ph.D. in linguistics. Writer.
I've been a VC reader since I started blogging just over two years ago. Among my early interchanges with y'all was over poor Jesus Castillo, convicted by a Dallas state-court jury for obscenity after selling a pornographic comic book to an undercover cop. Prof. Volokh blamed the Texas courts; I thought the blame properly ought to be placed on Jesus' lawyer, who'd failed to make the key objections. And things have just gotten weirder ever since.
Andrew Smith:
Sure we can't tempt you over to originalism more broadly? I probably should have mentioned that I'm something of an evangelist (or at least, a lay preacher) for that particular cause...;)
But I do think it's interesting that when you ask the question, "Who are you?" You're asking for a profession or occupation, as though there's an expectation that we identify ourselves primarily by what we do from 7 to 5. It's a fair expectation, but I think largely a cultural one. That is, I would expect that in some cultures/countries the proper response to "Who are you?" is more along the lines of an ethnicity or religion or city origin. I know, I know, you followed on by prompting possible answers, but when I read the initial question I wanted to respond, "I am a lover of life who embraces beauty, truth and really good cheeseburgers."
Yours,
Wince
Just got a copy of Volokh's book, it's great so far!
My ambition however is to be a professional procrastinator, however I keep putting that off.
Trying grow the company enough that I can take time off to go to law school without sinking it.
Politically, a weird libertarian (is there any other kind?). Extremely socially liberal, extremely economically conservative. At least, my libertarian friends tell me I'm an extremist, while my liberal ones call me an "old school Republican", which I try to take the right way.
I am not a dog. I may depose a dog soon though. Really. (Well, almost really.)
Los Angeles-based former general counsel to multi-national corporation, and trial attorney with nearly 20 years multi-state experience in federal and state courts. I've handled diverse issues on both sides of the bar.
Now on a health disability and frustrated. I occasionally live vicariously through the law-related blogs.
Having sworn on six occassions to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic" I have a soft spot in my heart for said Constitution... And VC is a very interesting place to read about matters in this area.
Sometimes think I could/should have been a lawyer but keep remembering the misquote from the Bard "first, we kill all the lawyers..."
Sometimes seems my whole world is going to the dogs, especially Maltese...
Good job. Keep up the good work.
A caffeine addict.
Developing a network of senior professionals throughout the USA for pro-bono projects assisting all kinds of charitable organizations.
Volokh.com's value to me is the manner in which it's posters are able to explain complex (to me at least) legal issues clearly and concisely, in a manner even this BFA-beaten layperson can comprehend.
Sorry, not a dog.
Tech Tech VPI!!!
(I forgot to mention I am a VT alumnus)
at an engineering graduate
school.
Not a St. Johns grad, techie, or dog.
I think EV's series of posts on academic freedom, and on unusual punishment/death penalty have been highlights.
Cheers!
As a result, frequently misunderstood/misleading (take after Hegel) and ostensibly opinionated skeptic at heart (take after Hume). Now, 2L at Columbia. Where I discovered the VC through Blaine.
Champion of the underdog. Especially in college football. Disaffected young non-voter from the reddest part of the reddest state. Political wallflower. Skier. Looking for jobs in NorCal.
Government
IRS
Flat tax
Sweet home Alabama ...&Chi-town
Live free or die
Macintosh
Samuel Johnson
Elvis, Hank, Johnny, Bob, Louis &Johann
Bonnie Rideout
Coverville
army brat
Nordlinger
Samuel Ramey
Scalia bobblehead
Mayor Daley
Rudy/Condi
"Let George do it."
Toledo commercial litigator.
I came because this is the highest-quality blog around.
Like the different views on politics/law of the conspirators, and, except when flamewars break out, of the commentators in the comments.
No dog here, as passing US-Canada customs as (or with) a dog is a pain on the scale of an appendectomy.
Can't decide if I want to try the CA Bar Exam.
Currently working at a Beltway non-profit; devoted Chicago lifer; have resolved to return for law school after this--my third--year of deferral ends.
Doctor, and almost a lawyer.
I've had several brief encounters with Eugene through some mutual friends from back when I lived in the L.A. area. My politics are somewhere between libertarian and Bush (the Elder).
Likes: good wine, bad science fiction movies, sincere people, long walks on the beach, and puppies.
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and the celebrated statue of David. In 1514 he returned to Florence and...
Have all of you beat! HA! :)
I have been reading the Volokh Conspiracy since before I decided to go to law school, and I guess it was sort of reponsible for my deciding that I was interested in law. In a weird twist, I did not realize Randy Barnett was at BU until shortly before school started and I found that my section had him for Con Law.
I don't remember how I first found the VC, but I kept reading because it's actually a pretty good news source given my interests.
I take my notes in emacs, and I miss owning a dog.
The fact that my career could become illegal at any moment drives much of my interest in tech law. :)
started reading volokh because jacob was one of the bloggers.
U of C undergrad. Northwestern now.
Cubs fan (alas).
Real Supreme Court &Con-Law junkie.
Hey! I know this isn't the point of this topic, but I can't wait for DOD:Source!
Keep up the good work at valve!
I'm currently a month away from defending my Ph.D. in social neuroscience in the Psych. department at the University of Coloraodo. The rest of my family went to UCLA, I went to Cal (but have a soft spot in my heart for the Bruins). I also walk dogs.
You camped right across King George Street from me for four years. Then you dispatched an agent to keep tabs on me in law school. Now you're shadowing my movements on the Internet.
What do you want from me?! ;)
I come here because Eugene has twice blogged my comments on his blog entries, and has turned me into a stalker. In actuality, this is in my opinion the best blog on the Web (in fact, it's the only blog on my "favorites" menu), and the links are great.
also women's basketball blogger. also gardener. also drink-sodden ex-trotskyite.
I don't have any dogs, but I do have lizards.
Oh, and socially liberal libertarianish? Eh. I like the perspective after reading Leiter.
I like VC for the legal articles they link in, and for the lack of personal posts--I'm not a fan of diaries.
currently considering both law school and st. john's western civ program. and international poli sci.
minor blog man crush on orin kerr.
Roman Catholic convert but married to an Asian immigrant who attends an evangelical church. (They pray for, inter alia, John Robert's confirmation, which is a tad ironic given his Catholicism.)
Thomas Aquinas and Ayn Rand are fighting for my soul, though Marx lands a good punch once in a while!
I came here because some of my favorite blogs (polipindit, PowerLine, Betsy's Page) often refer to your postings. Good endorsement.
Thanks for the wonderful blog - I've been a reader for about 6 months.
Reading Volokh and Bainbridge gets me away from writing about atoms (which I appreciate).
I appreciate the well-articulated, civil arguements at VC which are so rare in the blog world.
Bass player, Blogger, Business owner (Pool and Spa Service / Repair sole proprietor who is too lazy to make money as a businesman), Pseudo professional student (two classes away from getting Masters in Education - will teach 9 - 12 history / economics), Geology school drop out (love seismology, hate calculus), CCNA drop out (well, got borred), Have B.A. in Telecommunications (OK, it should be radio, video, film production, but the former is what the degree says, so I'll take it), Linux / Open souce advocate (currently have five different OS's running on one computer), Repub-libertarian, Back yard mechanic (fix cars not back yards), have I left anything out...
Oh yeah, as my band would gleefuly point out: "Mike is a Homo"! I keep forgeting that one.
PS. I WILL be a lawyer in my next life - I'm too complacent and lazy to be one in this one.
Together, we live in a house for friends that we built.
I'm here because I enjoy critical thinking and civil discussion, and to increase my understanding of the forces that shape my country.
Got here through Instapundit, which I got to via WSJ online. I like the thoughtful discussions of the "big" (ie, easy to grasp)constitutional issues like the one on originalism today - something I never had any schooling in - so it is an easy way to get a lesson over lunch, which is typically at my desk.
About the closest I ever came to practicing law was being on the high school debate team.
I'd describe myself as politically moderate, although contra a number of comments here, I've tilted more liberal in the last 4-5 years. I have little use for the lefty, moveon.org wing of the Dem Party, but I despise the current administration, and, post-Afghanistan, don't think they've done a damn thing to make America safer.
Re: VC content, mostly enjoy the commentary: Eugene, of course; find Randy Barnett provocative and interesting, even when don't agree; miss Jacob Levy--may have been the best conspirator; Orin Kerr has been really good lately as well. Others, not so much.
Background in engineering and finance, for-profit, non-profit, and unintentionally non-profit, I am currently a Presbyterian minister. Midwest to NewSouth to IvyLand and back. I'm either slightly further ahead of the curve than I'm comfortable being, or missing the curve entirely these days.
= )
"For an idea ever to be fashionable is ominous, since it must afterwards be always old-fashioned."
- George Santayana
So, I offer this for your readers instead: I'm 43, got a J.D. in 1990 (Pierce Law, patents + IP stuff, won the school's Patent Lore Moot Court Thingie), passed the NH Bar in 1991 but was hauled in for an Ethics Hearing after a judge's nephew squealed to the bar authorities that I'd been accused of smoking pot (while teaching at a ski academy to pay the rent when I was studying for the bar); I argued the case in the NH state supreme court (before justices who were impeached a bit later and removed from office for corruption, I had various motions rubber-stamped "denied" as part and parcel therein), filed a Petition for Cert. with The Supremes (denied) while "playing catch-up" working for a professor of rocket science (aerospace engineering) at Princeton, then clerked briefly in the patent/ip dept. at McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing), then became Anheuser-Busch's chief technology contracts negotiator for a few years afterward (glug glug), traveled around the U.S. teaching webmasters for a bit, webmastered at a medical school 1999-2000, and once arrived in Cleveland, Ohio (Sept. 10, 2001) with a stack full of research articles on terrorism law / antiterrorism law and two computers ("2=1,1=0") to try and get an article published in law journals while up for a job as a law school prof ... my hobby is psychological warfare; accidentally put myself through Chinese water torture earlier this summer, as well as a few purposeful exercises which resulted in mild to moderate injuries, replete with bleeding, scars, etc. I'm currently in the process of trying to propose a doctoral program (for 2006) in Neuroethics, Social Engineering, or both, as well as trying to market a feature-length film script of my adventures to Hollywood (script distilled from my writings semi-published o'er at my propeller-head.com site .. cf. my girlrobot.com too).
(Whew)
Oh yeah, almost forgot. Was once asked by a beautiful Fox News reporter (2001) to use my hacking skills to break into a university computer in order to help her out on a news story she was working on. I turned her down flat, after which she turned me down flat for a cuppa coffee.
What else? When I needed a hobby whilst recovering from major surgery, I corrected hundreds of web sites on a purely volunteer basis ("Mr. Cyberjanitor") including (my fave) the Oxford University Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents ("What if there'd been a typo on that papyrus you translated?"). Also proud to have spotted and corrected an error of logic in a published medical journal article. I believe in the value of medicinal marijuana, and am proud to have once had my blog cited by Randy Barnett (+ I'm avidly following the case of Dr. Lyle Craker vs. DEA et al.).
Recently rendered unemployed due to an ex-boss ("Roberta" in my oeuvre now) who's a GLAPOC ("Goddamn Little Asinine Piece of Crap"). I was recently baptized a Mormon, and one of the things I'm praying about is help from the Lord as far as my cavalier use (at times) of the vernacular + slang. My current objective is to someday execute the duties of the office of Vice President of the U.S., from a secure disclosed location (viz., Mars) while leading a team up there which conducts psywar ops vs. terrorists and bureaucrats "from the high ground" as it were. I like alternative tunes, such as manufactured by the band Garbage. Plus I like Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, IMHO they make the best hybrid guard-dawgs + bombsniffers.
Happy Friday. Watch yer six + keep your powder dry.
Lawyer, primarily business and transactional, but also significantly involved in government defense (primarily 1983 stuff).
Why do I visit? I mean, it's not as if I don't get enough lawyer interaction. Maybe it's because I don't get enough intelligent lawyer interaction. Or because I'm a masochist. Or because I'd like to think you'd visit my blog on the odd occasion. Just being neighborly, you know?
Oh -- and I am my dog's best friend.
I consider myself a student of interesting things, and I try to actively seek out divergent opinions, and I find lots of food for thought by many of the posts here. I also find myself marveling at some of the posts that seem to equate "personal opinion" with reason and logic.
The general calibre of people here seems more conducive to exploration of important issues than most of the blogs I read. I thoroughly enjoy the legal viewpoints that stretch my lay understanding of the rule of law.
And apparently the only one who reads VC. At least I'm unique.
Trained computer engineer, former Wall Street analyst, current economics PhD student at MIT. I tell my advisors I read the blog to keep up with the latest "Law &Economics" research, but I think I come back more for the interesting constitutional law discussions.
no connection to st. john's.
I started reading VC in spring 2002. I sure miss having Sasha Volokh and Jacob Levy posting. Though the additions of Orin Kerr and Kevan "I knew him when he was 17" Choset are excellent.
Spring 2002 was also back before the war in Iraq polarized the blogosphere, when I could actually read and enjoy non-moderate blogs. Now I'm down to VC (and occasionally Crescat) on the right, and Matt Yglesias and Kevin Drum on the left. I miss the smaller friendlier more reasonable blogosphere, and on a good day VC still reminds me of that era.
I'm here because I enjoy the postings, even those which I think are misguided. More than anything, I appreciate the tone of the Conspiracy - understanding of reasoned opposing views, and less understanding of unreasoned opposing views. I'm lightly right of center, and would never be confused with a capital-L Libertarian.
But also because I try to read a broad range of political opinion and find most political blogs to be thoughtless echo chambers of convenient rumors. You're one of the few right-ish blogs I've found which has been interesting over the long term. Interesting left-ish blogs are similarly hard to come by.
I like some Volokh commentators more than others, in roughtly inverse proportion to their frequency of publication in the National Review. :) Eugene, Orin, and Randy are probably the folks I read most carefully.
My personal politics are lower-case-l libertarian bordering on anarchist. I'm a strong fiscal conservative and socially very liberal in a live and let live sense.
See also: aspiring lawyer for the likes of big-pharma, once I figure out that whole "how the heck to I find time and money for law school" thing.
Why am I here? In my former life as editor of a libertarian student magazine, I discovered the VC and have always been pretty impressed with the breadth of interesting topics covered.
I come here because there's a high percentage of worthwhile material--carefully reasoned, fairly framed, on substantive topics that interest me. Also, I have libertarian leanings, which perhaps predisposes me.
I see many dogs in NY, but know mostly cats. I miss the alligators in the 14th St. subway passage.
libertarian, anarchist, atheist, ex-conservative, ex-fundamentalist Christian, corporation and patent sceptic, British speller
not Jewish, never owned a dog, didn't go to St. John's but does use their great books list as a reading list
By night: Master's student in psychology at Pepperdine's GSEP.
24/7: Husband to the most wonderful wife in this or any other universe.
Future plans: Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Have applied to UNL, UVM, UMass, UMD and WVU. It's all over but the waiting (oh, and the GRE Psych).
Being not so old that I'm feeble, but not so young that I always manage to be elsewhere when there's work to be done, I always get stuck burying the rest of the family's dogs after they join the Choir Invisible.
I have had a long-standing interest in politics and economics. I sometimes read court opinions for fun. I consider myself a pragmatic libertarian. Cutting the federal government back to what I consider a reasonable interpretation of the constitution would limit it to would be a wonderful start. We could argue where to go from there. I don't expect that argument to occur in my lifetime.
I am also a 2nd Amendment absolutist. If someone in government does not trust the citizens with firearms they have a profound misunderstanding about where the governments power comes from.
And I went to a high school modeled off of St. John's college, to continue the trend.
Given that you came to Creighton to talk, being in Nebraska probably doesn't qualify as a strange enough place, but how about this for a strange line of business: I work for a company that makes plastic using corn as a raw material.
My view of lawyers? They over rate themselves and their profession and their value to society. They get rich on the miseries of others. They are essentially an unproductive and parasitic class of society (By this I mean they don't add to our economy, but rather take from it.). Lawyers are, and have been for sometime, a detriment to our society in many ways. Can you say TORT! Eg: the Vioxx decision is indefensible from a social point of view. No one's life is worth that much money! Not mine and not yours! The tobacco decision; the asbestos suits... One can make an almost endless list of big tort cases that have deminished our society, and made only the legal class rich. Here's new area that will do the same for Louisiana's sharks: 9.18.2005 4:59pm
Anyway, the URL was rejected (it was a long one) so if you want to read it go to the archives at Arizona Republic for Saturday and look in the business section. You'll find it.
Read VC for some months now; never posted comments because, frankly, this is the first topic about which I haven't been out of my league.