A question I’ve often asked myself; Slate has some plausible answers. “Bad” here means “bad at getting me the information most people want from a Web site with the least time, effort, and distraction.” Specific examples of “bad” are unasked-for music, long introductions, and other things that keep you from quickly getting to what you […]
Archive | August, 2011
The Eleventh Circuit on the Class of Activities the Mandate Regulates
As regular VC readers know, I believe a central issue in the individual mandate regulation is properly defining the class of activities regulated by the mandate. (See, e.g., here and here.) This is important because this determination is central to the question of whether the mandate represents a permissible exercise of the commerce power. Among […]
Why is the Media Ignoring Ron Paul?
Jon Stewart comments. The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
Q: What Causes Professors to Think About the Business Model of Higher Education?
A: When they send a child off to college. I don’t know who first said that, but it’s true in my case. Apologies for the light posting this summer; our daughter has been dropped off at Rice University (Baker College) as of Sunday, I’m back in DC and blogging again. I’ve talked in the past […]
Reagan’s infamous speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi
By David Kopel on August 16, 2011 6:18 am in Elections, History, Housing, Political Ignorance, Racism, Tenth Amendment
In 1980, one of the major party presidential nominees opened his general election by delivering a speech in a small town in the Deep South that just by coincidence happened to be the national headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan. That same candidate had previously complained about federal housing policies which attempted “to inject black […]
Swedish Government Apologizes to Baltic States for its Failure to Recognize Communist Crimes
The Swedish government recently apologized to its Baltic neighbors for its previous whitewashing of Communist atrocities in the region: Sweden owes its Baltic neighbours a “debt of honour” for turning a blind eye to post-war Soviet occupation, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told his counterparts on Monday. During a ceremony in Stockholm attended by the […]
Backslash
People sometimes get the backslash (\) confused with the slash (/) (see this xkcd item). If this ever happens to you, remember that the slash is the normal ordinary slash that you’ve seen in ordinary writing outside computers — 1/2, and/or, w/o, and the like. (You can call it a virgule if you’d like, and […]
“A Person … Can Be Convicted of His Own Lynching”
An odd-sounding statement, but accurate under Cal. Penal Code § 405a. From In re Anthony J. (Cal. App. 1999): Under California law, “lynching” includes not only the notorious form of lynch mob behavior that aims to take vengeance on the victim, but also any participation in riotous conduct aimed at freeing a person from the […]
Distinguishing Wickard
By Jonathan H. Adler on August 14, 2011 12:59 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate
Another interesting portion of the Eleventh Circuit’s decision striking down the individual mandate is its discussion of Wickard v. Filburn. As the court’s opinion notes, the Supreme Court (in Lopez) characterized Wickard as “perhaps the most far reaching example of Commerce Clause authority over intrastate activity.” As a consequence, the Eleventh Circuit concluded, Wickard “provides […]
The Reasoning of the Eleventh Circuit’s Mandate Opinion
When a court hands down a 207-page majority opinion on a Friday afternoon in August, close scrutiny of its reasoning in the blogosphere generally waits for Monday. But I’ve given a quick read to the Eleventh Circuit’s majority opinion in the mandate case, and I thought it might be helpful to offer a tentative overview […]
Has TSA Learned Its Lesson?
Noah Shachtman suggests the Transportation Security Administration may (finally) be adopting a more rational approach to airport security. Let’s hope so.
The Eleventh Circuit on the “Unprecedented” Mandate
One of the more interesting passages of the Eleventh Circuit’ decision striking down the individual mandate concerns the “unprecedented” nature of the mandate – a subject that has been much discussed on this blog (see, e.g., here). After cataloging some of the uses to which Congress has put the commerce power, the court observes the […]
Three Judges, Four Opinions
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its opinion in Estate of Mark Parsons v. Palestinian Authority. The case is interesting in its own right, concerning whether the Palestinian Authority can be held liable for Mark Parsons death under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991, but so is the disposition. The three […]
An Unusual (But Likely Constitutional) Speech Restriction
From BART, a San Francisco-area public transportation agency: Organizers planning to disrupt BART service on August 11, 2011 stated they would use mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART Police. A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco stations could lead to platform […]
The 50th Anniversary of the Erection of the Berlin Wall
Today is the 50th anniversary of the erection of the Berlin Wall. In November 2009, I wrote a post on the 20th anniversary of the Wall’s destruction. What I said then is also appropriate to today’s less happy anniversary: In several ways, the Wall and its collapse are fitting symbols of communism. They demonstrate several […]