Archive | July, 2004

The Valley Morning Star in Harlington Texas ran this editorial on July 17th, in which they employed the Presumption of Liberty. (They appear not to have an archive so I cannot provide a direct link) EDITORIAL Gay marriage: The debate disappoints Advocates on all sides assure us that the failure of the Senate, by a […]

I also got a lot of reader responses to my post on “You’re not the boss of me!” Most of them wrote to tell me that if I had not been so quick to filter the They Might Be Giants song “Boss of Me” out of my Google search, I would have learned that it […]

Several VC readers responded to my post about the hook Everybody does what they do best the best in a children’s song (“The Mighty Worm,” on Ralph’s World: Peggy’s Pie Parlor). Maestro and Russ Petti noted the existence of a reasonable, non-tautologous, fifth reading of the line. It’s that whatever activity is your personal best, […]

I saw “The Bourne Supremacy” this weekend, the sequel to the spy-thriller hit “The Bourne Identity.” I enjoyed the film, especially the frenetic car chase, even if it had even less to do with the Robert Ludlum book upon which it was based than the first one. (For the record, Ludlum’s “The Bourne Identity” is […]

I’ve been listening to Everlast‘s “Whitey Ford Sings the Blues” a fair amount of late. This album was Everlast’s reemergence as a solo artist after his tour with the hard-edged Irish rap group, House of Pain. (In his first incarnation he was an ’80s b-boy, and part of Ice-T’s Rhyme Syndicate.) Although I hadn’t listened […]

The latest twist in Nipplegate is that CBS chief Les Moonves has been threatening to sue the FCC if it imposes fines against the network because of Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction.” There’s a backstory here, though, which is that this came from a response to a question posed during the TV press tour last […]

I am on my way to the airport for my trip to the IES “Europe and Liberty” summer seminar in Gummersbach. I am sorry I did not get a chance to reply to some of the interesting responses to my previous post on Libertarians on War, including a thoughtful message by David Beito. Perhaps I […]

This announcement was forwarded to me by Professor Itaru Shimazu of the Faculty of Law and Economics at Chiba University: Workshop on Libertarianism at the International Congress on Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy The International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (a.k.a. IVR) will hold its 22nd IVR World Congress in Granada, […]

The Washington Post has a very interesting artice today on CIA efforts to infiltrate and destroy Osama Bin Laden’s leadership circle. Some excerpts:   The CIA has intelligence agents inside Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network — as it did before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — but they are not within the terrorist leader’s inner […]

Every now and then I’ll read a column on English grammar where the author or one of his readers is complaining about the unnecessary of in phrases like this: too big of a job The columnists that I’ve seen address this issue always stick very boringly to the tiny question of whether the of belongs […]

I’m looking, on a tight deadline, for Oregon lawyers with expertise in both criminal law and civil rights/ racial bias litigation, whether private practitioners or public interest/ non-profit attorneys. Any leads or contact information would be much appreciated; further details can be discussed via e-mail.

NPR’s All Things Considered has a 4-minute segment available here. I make a brief appearance around the 2:10 mark.

I was pleased to see that my suggestion a while back that there should be a debate on the relationship between Libertarianism and foreign policy was taken up by some bloggers. Most recently by Brian Doss at the always thoughtful Catallarchy (The Problem with Libertarians Today). Some like David Beito considered this an invitation to […]

I’m on CNBC’s Dennis Miller tonight. If they let me float a segment (that is, choose a topic), like they’ve let my friend Jill Stewart do — she’s also been on more than me, and gotten to hold the chimp, not that I’m competitive or anything — I’m going to talk about the ridiculous notion […]

Here’s a trivia question for readers interested in the Supreme Court and the legal system’s response to terrorism. In what year did the following passage appear in a Supreme Court opinion? We cannot avoid taking judicial notice that crimes such as airplane hijacking, kidnaping, and mass terrorist activity constitute a serious and increasing danger to […]