Megan McArdle has a good post on Congress’s decision to hold hearings about corporations’ disclosing their charges against earnings based on estimates of health care costs: The Democrats, however, seem to believe that Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are some sort of conspiracy against Obamacare, and all that is good and right in America. Here’s the […]
Archive | 2010
The Second Amendment and People with Medical Marijuana User Cards
The AP reports that Steve Sarich — who “runs CannaCare, an organization that claims 7,000 members in the state,” which among other things “provides patients with marijuana clones or starter plants and delivers about 50 patients a week with usable marijuana” — has been told by the King County Sheriff’s Office that he may not […]
Why?
Google AutoComplete strikes again. Thanks to GeekPress for the pointer.
(Continuing) Speculation About Authorship of Remaining October Supreme Court decisions
With today’s decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, there are only three cases undecided from the Supreme Court’s October sitting: United States v. Stevens, 08–769 (the First Amendment challenge to the federal prohibition on depictions of animal cruelty); Salazar v. Buono, 08–472 (involving an Establishment Clause challenge to a cross used in a war memorial that […]
Interesting SCOTUS Line-Up
Today the Supreme Court released its opinion in Shady Grove Orthopedic v. Allstate Insurance. The case concerns whether state law can preclude a federal court from considering a class-action when the federal court is exercising diversity jurisdiction over a case that primarily raises state law claims. I’m sure others will have plenty to say on […]
Ten Rules for Dealing with Police
Outstanding new film, premiered at the Cato Institute last week. Watch it here. Lots of useful advice for law-abiding citizens about how to properly exercise their rights to refuse searches that are not based on warrants or probable cause, and other efforts to trick citizens into waiving their rights.
Communicating With Those Who Have No Privacy Rights: The Hard Question in City of Ontario v. Quon
On Monday, April 19, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in this Term’s only significant Fourth Amendment case, City of Ontario v. Quon. Quon considers whether a city violated the Fourth Amendment by obtaining copies of stored text messages sent over a city-provided text pager used by a city employee. In an earlier post, […]
“Population of the 24 Urban Places [in the U.S]: 1790”
From the Census site: Rank Place Population 1 New York city, NY 33,131 2 Philadelphia city, PA 28,522 3 Boston town, MA 18,320 4 Charleston city, SC 16,359 5 Baltimore town, MD 13,503 6 Northern Liberties township, PA 9,913 7 Salem town, MA 7,921 8 Newport town, RI 6,716 9 Providence town, RI 6,380 10t […]
Unexpected Flight Delay => Hotel Stay => Criminal Prosecution for Gun Possession
An unfortunate story, detailed in Revell v. Port Authority (3d Cir. 2010): Gregg C. Revell was flying from Salt Lake City to Allentown, Pennsylvania, via Minneapolis and Newark. He had an unloaded gun legally checked in his luggage, which was supposed to meet him at Allentown. Supposed to. In fact, the flight to Newark was […]
“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it” (continued)
I mean this in less snarky way than the title of this post suggests, but I continue to be surprised by some of what worked its way into the health care reform bill. Today the Supreme Court held 7-2 in an opinion by Justice Stevens that 31 U.S.C. 3730(e)(4)(A), a provision of the False Claims […]
Cooking Bacon with a Machine Gun
Read all about it — and see the photos — here. “I gave this about 250 rounds[,] but I think around 150 might actually be enough. But then again I don’t mind when bacon is crispy. Ahh the smell of sizzling bacon mixed with the smell of gunpowder and weapon oil.” Thanks to InstaPundit for […]
Duke Reverses Exclusion of Pro-Life Talk from the Duke Women’s Center
Here’s the letter from Women’s Center Director Ada Gregory: Dear Ms. __: I wanted to write concerning the recent problem you experienced after reserving space at the Women’s Center for a Duke Students for Life event during pro-life awareness week on campus. First, I am so sorry that your event was cancelled due to actions […]
Colorado Attorney General Explains the Obamacare Lawsuit
My 23 minute podcast interview with Colorado Attorney Geneeral John Suthers is here.
“Big Bang”
People asked about the “Big Bang” example, so here’s the source. It’s of course only an extreme case, used only to amusingly show how far some people are willing to go — I don’t want to claim that it’s at all a common demand (unlike the demands to rename “handicapped,” “American Indian,” and the like): […]
Soccerphiles & Soccerphobes, Lay Down Your Arms!
I know that the world (at least the VC world) is sharply divided into opposing camps on all matters soccer-related, but we should put aside our differences and gather together at our favorite watering-holes tomorrow (Wednesday — 230 PM EDT, rebroadcast at 8 PM EDT on Fox Soccer Channel) for a match that should be […]