Author Archive | Jacob Levy

Chris Bertram notes that today is the 200th anniversary of Kant’s death.

(See post immediately below.) In short, the FMA would be almost unique in that, for almost the first time, the federal government would say not only that federal law overrides or supersedes state law, but that the former could define the latter. The miscegenation statutes were (rightly, of course) held to violate the Fourteenth Amendment. […]

One further thought about the proposed marriage amendment. (You have all read Eugene’s careful parsing of it, right?) Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that […]

Eugene has (rightly) given Tim Noah a very hard time for his “Bushisms of the Day.” [UPDATE: My apologies. As Will Baude just pointed out to me by e-mail, it’s Jacob Weisberg who writes that feature.] But Noah is spot-on in highlighting the grotesque lie in Bush’s Meet the Press appearance: RUSSERT: But your base […]

Pilot begins flight by asking people whether they’re Christians, calls those who aren’t ‘crazy.’ Partway through the flight he apologized– but only to the flight crew, who were having to bear the brunt of passenger complaints.

The U.S. and Australia have finally agreed on the text of a freer trade agreement. Australia declined to insist that the U.S. adopt its domestic environmental and labor regulations, which is a good thing. (And, presumably, even Richard Gephardt and Fritz Hollings won’t be able to complain with a straight face that the Aussies are […]

Oxbloggers, Crescatters, and others under the common rubric of the Nathan Hale Society will be meeting Sunday at 7 pm, at Cosi (116 S. Michigan), for a discussion of the Department of Homeland Security. I’ve been away at a family funeral, and the backlog of student e-mails has priority over the backlog of blog e-mails. […]

(SEE SECOND UPDATE BELOW.) Howard Dean has, of course, been the candidate usually compared to McGovern. But something just dawned on me. If Kerry is nominated, he’ll join McGovern as being the only sitting Senator to run against an incumbent President in the modern electoral era– since Bob Dole resigned from his seat before the […]

This morning’s NYT reports on an Italian doctor who is proposing a small symbolic cut to replace female genital mutilation, offering a procedure that really is roughly analagous to male circumcision (which the usual forms of female genital cutting are not). The question is, soughly, whether the substitution of a relatively humane procedure performed hygenically […]

(See my earlier post, complete with updates, and Brad DeLong’s original.) Follow-up posts from:Dan Drezner, James Joyner, Steve Taylor, Mark Hasty, Bryan S, Josh Cherniss. By the way, I entirely agree with all those writing that coffee is superior to diet soda. Well, good coffee is. But a) good coffee isn’t always available, and b) […]

Mickey Kaus notes: Psst: President Bush got 87% of the vote in the Republican primary. Isn’t that not so good? Answer: The New Hampshire primary’s just like that. Dozens of candidates pay the filing fee and get their names listed on the ballot, and many of them spend serious time conducting their more-or-less unserious campaigns […]

In preparing for office hours, Brad dialectically downs 40 ounces of Coke. Thrasymakhos: Ah. Proof that demand for some commodities is effectively unbounded! Glaukon: What are you talking about? Thrasymakhos: Diet coke. You’re buying two bottles of diet coke. And not just two normal bottles. Two 20 oz. bottles. That’s 40 oz. of diet coke […]

The flood of e-mail on the Missouree-Missourah question has run about 3-1 in favor of people saying “I’m from there/ grew up there/ have family there, and I’ve never heard anyone say Missourah who wasn’t on TV– they only say that in rural areas in the southwest of the state.” Some of the others claim […]

[NB: I dislike calling such things ‘memes.] The Manchester Union-Leader’s Bernadette Malone: When the extent of Howard Dean’s irascibility became clear, they said, “Thanks, but no thanks, nut-ball.” Kerry slowly was ticking upwards in New Hampshire polls even before the Iowa caucuses. But the size of his victory Tuesday night ? or even his victory […]

I’m watching television news tonight, which I almost never do. Maybe this is long-established. But: when did this affectation begin of talking about ‘Missourah’? I know it’s how some natives say the word. But it would sound silly for commentators with whitebread middle-America accents to name my hometown as “Pahtsmath, New Hampshah,” just like it […]