Chris Bertram reports that Stuart Hampshire has died, and will link to obituaries as they become available.
Archive | June, 2004
Interesting recent poll:
From Pollingreport.com: ABC News PrimeTime Poll. Feb. 6-10, 2004. N=1,011 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. Fieldwork by ICR. “I’m going to ask about a few stories in the Bible. [See below.] Do you think that’s literally true, meaning it happened that way word-for-word; or do you think it’s meant as a lesson, but not to […]
Establishment of politics:
A reader writes: You blogged a few days ago on the amount of tax-payers’ dollars spent on this [federal employees’ day off to commemorate Reagan’s death]. I’m wondering about another potential issue with [this]. I know very little about the doctrine of government speech and it has always confused me. It seems to me that […]
Does the City of Berkeley, and the Peace and Justice Commission,
have the right to free speech? Some people pointed out that Berkeley is a municipal corporation, so the Peace and Justice Commission proposal would strip Berkeley itself (and presumably its agencies) of free speech rights. Well, it turns out that cities do not have federal constitutional rights vis-a-vis the state government. Cities are seen as […]
Suicide-facilitating speech:
A proposed Australian law would ban the electronic distribution of “suicide promotion material,” defined to include “material that, directly or indirectly . . . provides instruction on how to commit suicide,” with the intent that “the material . . . be used by a person to commit suicide.” I touched on this subject briefly, and […]
There should be no First Amendment rights for New York Times,
Sierra Club, and other groups, says the City of Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission. Check out the resolution that they ask the Berkeley City Council to endorse: Now therefore, be it resolved that the Council of the City of Berkeley supports amending the United States and California Constitutions to declare that corporations are not granted […]
Jews and Koreans:
I thought I’d mentioned this on the blog a while back, but a search didn’t reveal it, so maybe I had only been planning to blog it. And, hey, there’s nothing wrong with repeating yourself. There’s nothing wrong with repeating yourself. So here it is: The overseas Chinese are sometimes called “The Jews of the […]
Justice Thomas defends Ninth Circuit in the Pledge case:
After the Ninth Circuit’s decision in the Pledge of Allegiance case, many people faulted the Ninth Circuit. Others, myself included, said that the Ninth Circuit’s decision was a perfectly plausible reading of the Supreme Court’s precedent (even if not necessarily the one that we ourselves would take), and the fault, if there was fault (as […]
The limits of solar cells:
Clayton Cramer criticizes a California bill that would mandate the installation of solar cells.
City seals and city names:
In the wake of the L.A. County seal controversy, some people (including me) have given city names as an analogy — city names such as “Los Angeles,” “Sacramento,” “Corpus Christi,” “Providence,” and the like are religious references, the argument goes, but surely we shouldn’t hold them to be an Establishment Clause violation, even if one […]
Dennis Prager Show:
I ought to be on the Dennis Prager Show this morning at 11 am Pacific, talking about the Los Angeles city seal controversy (here’s my initial post on this).
Pledge:
Eugene lists some possible responses to the Court’s dismissal of Newdow on standing grounds. My own reaction isn’t on the list, though: “Well, at least they didn’t affirm ‘Under God’ on the merits, thereby creating a lousy precedent that we’d be stuck with.” I was never especially otpimistic thst Newdow would win (though I thought […]
Contractor immunity in the new Iraq:
This topic is far outside the area of my blogging expertise, but I couldn’t help but notice this article in The Washington Post: In an early test of its imminent sovereignty, Iraq’s new government has been resisting a U.S. demand that thousands of foreign contractors here be granted immunity from Iraqi law, in the same […]
Everyone has his own perspective:
The Supreme Court, press accounts report, reversed the Ninth Circuit’s Pledge of Allegiance decision, holding that Michael Newdow didn’t have standing to challenge the Pledge (since under state law he didn’t have sufficient custodial rights with respect to his daughter). The Court didn’t reach the Establishment Clause question of whether “under God” in the Pledge […]
“Numerous”:
It really bugs me when people say “numerous” instead of “many” (e.g., “there are numerous alternatives to . . .”). Just as with “individual” used instead of “person,” or “utilize” used instead of “use,” “numerous” makes writing clunkier, more bureaucratese, and less accessible. Words like this have what I’ve heard called the MEGO effect — […]