The Obama Administration responded to the North Korean provocations testing the resolve of our new president by supporting expanded UN embargoes on weapons shipments. The US Navy is now tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transferring military weapons to Myanmar, which is also subject to embargoes: MSNBC: South Korea’s YTN news network reported that […]
Archive | June, 2009
Will Cap and Trade Pass Congress?
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on cap-and-trade this week. The bill seeks to lower US per capita cabon emissions to levels below those of the US colonial period. As I blogged four months ago: The goal is an 83% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 compared to 2005 levels. That would bring […]
What Your Body is Telling You:
It’s a very interesting article on personal health in the Personal Journal section of the WSJ today, all about looking for various signs of illness or disease from things like skin changes, nails and hair, teeth and gums …. However, though no doubt designed to be inflammatory or at least to sell some papers, the […]
President Obama’s Press Conference.
President Barack Obama opened his press conference today with statements on three issues: Iran, the energy bill, and health care. On health care, Obama claimed: “It will not add to our deficits over the next decade.” As he has in the past, Obama claimed: “There’s no doubt that we must preserve what’s best about our […]
Iranian gun laws bleg:
The Small Arms Survey suggests that Iran’s per capita gun ownership rate is 0.053 (that is, about one gun for every twenty people). This is fairly low by global standards. (See Tables 6 and 7 of my recent article in the Texas Review of Law & Politics.) Could commenters please supply information about the gun […]
The 1969 Cuyahoga River Fire — Forty Years Later:
Forty years ago today, some oil and debris floating on the surface of the Cuyahoga River began to burn. The resulting fire was not much of a local event — it was out within 30 minutes and caused minimal damage — but soon became a national symbol of environmental ruin. The image of a river […]
Monday Bear Blogging:
I’ve been in Montana the past several days for a conference and some talks. Over the weekened, my wife and I hit Yellowstone National Park, and got quite a few wildlife photos. One of my favorites — more for the subject than the picture quality — is this picture of grizzly bear taken between Madison […]
Helping the Iranian Protestors:
This seems like a good idea for Twitterphiles: Do you twitter? Change your twitter setting to GMT +3:30 (Tehran time) and your location to any city in Iran. If all of us are Iranians then it is a little harder for government censors to track down Iranian tweeters. (See list of Iranian cities at http://is.gd/13UCt.) […]
New Yale Law Dean–Robert Post:
An email from Yale: It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Robert C. Post
Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Comstock Federal Power Case:
I blogged about the case in January, as did Ilya. Having had a (rare) success predicting the grant of certiorari, I now predict that the Supreme Court will reverse the Fourth Circuit decision, chiefly for the reasons I mentioned in my initial post.
Horace Comes to Law School:
A law professor e-mailed me this (prompted by my Correcting Students
Court Takes Commerce Clause Case:
This morning the Supreme Court accepted cert in United States v. Comstock, a commerce clause challenge to post-sentence civil commitment of sex offenders. This case will be the first test of the Roberts Court’s commitment to the federalism principles embraced (even if somewhat inconsistently) by the Rehnquist Court. The cert papers are on SCOTUSBlog here. […]
Sunday Song Lyric – Father’s Day Edition:
By request, a Sunday Song Lyric for Father’s Day: “My Father’s An Accountant” by Peter Himmelman. The song begins: My father’s an accountant and I used to think that he was dull He sits all day long crunching numbers in his skull He’d get up to sharpen his pencil Or put a spoon of sugar […]
Father’s Day Gifts.
Amazon has some sales on Father’s Day gifts, including exercise equipment, 45% off on South Park DVDs, and 50% off on men’s sandals. Oh Boy!
A Sequel or a Commentary on “Catcher in the Rye”?
The New York Times has an interesting story on a copyright case involving a possible sequel to The Catcher in the Rye: The judge, Deborah A. Batts of United States District Court in Manhattan, granted a 10-day temporary restraining order forbidding publication in the United States of a new book by a Swedish author that […]