I wrote earlier today that I agree with Jack Balkin, though, that: The fact that a terrorist attack might influence voters one way or the other is not a reason to cancel an election. Lots of things happen before elections that can influence voters. Rather, the reason to postpone an election is that it is […]
Archive | July, 2004
I didn’t know this was even possible:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, sitting en banc, just certified questions related to the constitutionality of the Sentencing Guidelines to the U.S. Supreme Court. So instead of a party’s asking the Supreme Court to consider a question (via a petition for certiorari or, in some cases, an appeal), it’s the Court […]
Minimum wage
This Steven Landsburg piece in Slate has prompted blogospheric commentary (Brad DeLong, Tyler Cowen, John Quiggin, others) about the core empirical/ policy claim: that minimum wage increases (at least of the scale that we’ve seen in the U.S. in the past couple decades) have at most a small negative impact on employment. I have a […]
1=2:
OpinionJournal’s Best of the Web repeats an old math gag: Let a=1 Let b=1 Therefore a=b Multiplying both sides by a gives a^2=ab Subtract 1 from the left and b (which equals 1) from the right: a^2-1=ab-b If you remember your quadratic equations, this factors to: (a+1)(a-1)=b(a-1) Dividing both sides by a-1, we have a+1=b, […]
More on elections and terrorism:
Rick Hasen has more: In this discussion, I think it is valuable to disaggregate a few different issues: (1) Who should decide on whether an election should be postponed in the event of a terrorist strike? Jack Balkin’s post makes it clear that, so long as we are talking about presidential elections, it is for […]
Goodness.
I’d forgotten about this entirely. Way back in July of 2001, my former professor Robert P. George made the first public argument I know of for the Federal Marriage Amendment. He doesn’t claim to have originated it; Pro-marriage activists are inclined to back an amendment that would read: “Marriage in the United States shall consist […]
Naming a character after a famous person costs writer $15 million:
The St. Louis Dispatch reports (thanks to How Appealing for the pointer): Tony Twist, the former rock ’em-sock ’em Blues hockey player, was awarded $15 million Friday by a jury that concluded comic book artist Todd McFarlane had profited by using Twist’s name without his permission. McFarlane, formerly the principal artist and writer of Spiderman […]
Easterbrook on Moore:
Gregg Easterbrook, writing in The New Republic online, states that Fahrenheit 9/11 contains fabrications and “classic propaganda” techniques meant to deceive the audience. OK. But Easterbrook also makes the bizarre claim that the movie “is exactly the kind of political speech the First Amendment was designed to protect.” It seems obvious to me that the […]
“Another Libertarian For Kerry”
Over at Liberty and Power, Steven Horwitz writes that I’m a “conscientious abstainer,” and that if I were to vote, I would still vote Libertarian. However, if I was coerced into voting and could only vote for one of the two major party candidates, I think at this point I would, in fact, vote for […]
The November election and terrorism:
Leading election law expert Rick Hasen (Election Law) writes: A number of blog readers (some with alarm) have sent me a link to this Newsweek report, which begins: “American counter-terrorism officials, citing what they call ‘alarming’ intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow […]
CNN goof on Supreme Court’s military detention decision:
Unlearned Hand points out this item: [Edward] Lazarus said several unusual alliances were formed in many of the bigger rulings, where traditional liberal and conservative justices came together. Such was the case of Yaser Hamdi, a Saudi Arabian man born in Louisiana. He was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, and eventually transferred to U.S. military […]
Famous European scientists and inventors, by country:
Here’s the puzzle for the week: For each of the following European countries or areas (basically those that now have a population of 4 million or more) — Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, […]
Sunday Song Lyric:
“Get Born” by Jet has to be one of the best rock debut albums in quite some time. You can hear their influences (Rolling Stones, the Kinks, AC/DC, Oasis) throughout the album, yet it remains fresh and new. The lyrics aren’t the most profound, but they work with the music. This is true rock and […]
Mac glitch fixed:
For several weeks, the blog didn’t show up right on some Mac browsers. That seems to be fixed now.
Should you vote for a third party candidate?
About a week ago Jacob Levy asked whether he should vote libertarian for President, and concluded in the negative, at least for this time around. I have no qualms with Jacob’s points, but I will suggest an alternative option for thinking through the problem. 1. Your vote will not count, no matter what. If the […]