Author Archive | Jim Lindgren

Just over a week ago, Ben Adler reported that John McCain had not yet come up with a national service plan: John McCain, who’s predicated his presidential run in no small part on his distinguished military record, frequently exhorts Americans — and especially young Americans — to serve their country. Despite that appeal, he has […]

In several posts at Climate Audit, Steve McIntyre reviews a “remarkable decision” by Ofcom, the U.K. television regulator. After Channel 4 showed “The Great Global Warming Swindle,” a film skeptical of the “standard model” on global warming, complaints were filed by dozens of academics and ordinary citizens against Channel 4 for showing the film and […]

Every year around so-called “tax freedom” day, people talk about moving from working for the government to working for themselves. But this is too glib because it conflates paying taxes with compelled physical labor. There is a big difference, one central to the history of Anglo-American liberty. Under the medieval system in much of Europe, […]

According to the Americans for a National Service Act, “Service Nation is coordinated by Alan Khazei and the hard-working and talented people of ‘Be The Change.’” Last year Alan Khazei argued in a speech at Harvard that a year of “volunteer” work should be a mandatory requirement for admission to college. In return, the student […]

On this thread, you are welcome to post on Barack Obama’s “civilian national security force,” Service Nation, and possible political responses by John McCain.

[UPDATE: For some of Service Nation’s response, see the update below.] A relatively new group, Service Nation, is planning to kick off a campaign with a Summit for “National Service” on September 11. Time Magazine has signed on to promote the effort. The website trumpets its training of “Change Agents” in cooperation with “Change, Inc.” […]

Some people thought that I was too hard on the former managers of Fannie Mae, whose greed and misconduct in their Enron-style accounting scandal of 2003-4 helped to destroy the soundness of a huge quasi-government agency. Now comes Paul Gigot recounting just how thuggish their behavior was. The Fannie Mae officials at the time made […]

Vincent Carroll at the Rocky Mountain News attacks Al Gore’s latest proposal on electric power: He’s a former vice president of the United States, Nobel Prize winner and best-selling author, so the lavish news coverage of Al Gore’s latest brainstorm was inevitable. Less understandable is why an idea so irresponsible — in economic terms, in […]

Drudge Reports: An editorial written by Republican presidential hopeful McCain has been rejected by the NEW YORK TIMES — less than a week after the paper published an essay written by Obama, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. The paper’s decision to refuse McCain’s direct rebuttal to Obama’s ‘My Plan for Iraq’ has ignited explosive charges […]

For the last week Barack Obama has been highlighting his proposed surge in Afghanistan. Yet Afghans are worried about whether this is the right strategy: “As president, I would pursue a new strategy and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a foreign policy […]

A. Obama on National Service. In Barack Obama’s July 2, 2008 speech calling America to national service, Obama proposed “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as our military. This has prompted some in the blogosphere to raise the specter of a huge new domestic paramilitary organization. […]

If you want to comment on John McCain, his candidacy, or any Volokh Conspiracy post relating to him, you may do so below. Please be substantive and civil.

If you want to comment on Barack Obama, his candidacy, or any Volokh Conspiracy post relating to him, you may do so below. Please be substantive and civil.

The McCain campaign has a long, nearly 8-minute ad up on its website, which is mostly just video clips of Barack Obama’s statements on Iraq, interspersed with derogatory slides expressing negative conclusions about Obama. Personally, I could do without the ominous music and most of the slides (which are sometimes fair and sometimes not). Yet […]

Dave Kopel argues that the use of the word “the” in “THE right to keep and bear arms” indicates that the right was pre-existing. A similar — though significantly different — argument has been made about “THE freedom of speech” in the first amendment, that including the word “THE” indicates that the right was pre-existing. […]