As part of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update tonight, Tina Fey did a bit in which she recalled some of the misconduct that Andrea Mackris accused Bill O’Reilly of committing. Fey ended by saying, “Don’t Forget That Bill O’Reilly is Disgusting,” with the screen filled with a title with those words. Although it might have […]
Author Archive | Jim Lindgren
Bill O’Reilly criticized by judge.–
A judge criticized by Bill O’Reilly responded: It was the third time that O’Reilly has attacked the judge on TV. Months ago, O’Reilly vowed to make sure Rapkin was not re-elected — when Rapkin announced he was retiring at the end of this year, O’Reilly took some of the credit. Wednesday night’s salvo was over […]
Freedom of the press = Freedom to publish.–
I finally got around to reading Eugene’s NY Times op-ed and the odd response to it by Terence Blacker in the Independent (see Eugene’s post on this). I am not an expert on the First Amendment (as Eugene is). But I found the Independent’s argument unpersuasive and questionable in a way that suggests why people […]
The Lying Study Appears to be Misdesigned.–
If the news accounts are correct, the new study distinguishing the brain scans of liars from truth-tellers has a serious design flaw that goes beyond the small sample size. Indeed, it is such an obvious flaw that I wonder whether the researchers really made it, or whether instead the reporters got the story wrong: Faro […]
Solum’s detailed account of the Raich argument.–
As our blogfather Eugene notes, Larry Solum has an amazingly detailed account of the argument in Raich, paraphrasing the main moves. It appears that both sides of the argument did well, but (if Solum’s account is accurate) Randy Barnett did brilliantly (with the harder side). Here is the most interesting exchange for me: Souter: Suppose […]
An account of the argument in Raich.–
Here is an early account of the oral argument in Raich. It sounds tough. Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed doubts that states can let seriously ill patients ease their symptoms by using marijuana, a drug the federal government has designated as illegal. [portions of original post deleted for copyright reasons] […]
Good luck to Randy Barnett in fighting for drug rights.–
Our co-blogger Randy Barnett is arguing for the first time before the US Supreme Court on Monday in the marijuana cases, taking the liberal, libertarian pro-drug rights position. We all wish him luck. Not only does Randy have an able and much more experienced adversary arguing the case for the government, but Randy’s case will […]
Tide may be turning against Allawi in efforts for January Iraqi elections.–
Pressures may be mounting for a 6-month postponement of the Iraqi elections. There are now sketchy and inconsistent reports coming out of Al Jazeera and Debka that major parties besides the Sunni ones mentioned in the MSM have joined in asking for a postponement. Debka reports in a headline without a story (no permalink): “Fifteen […]
Lileks on Annie’s Ice Cream Parlour and Best Rock Songs,–
In his Thursday Bleat, James Lileks makes fun of Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest songs of all time and talks about taking his daughter Gnat to an old Minneapolis haunt after 15 years away–Annie’s Ice Cream Parlour. For me, there were even more resonating observations than is usual with Lileks’ bleats. First, Lileks on […]
The First Thanksgiving (the original account).
It is worth remembering the only specific contemporary account of the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, that of Edward Winslow. His letter was dated December 13, 1621. I include most of a paragraph about farming methods because it indicates some of the foods that they would have served: We set the last spring some twenty acres […]
So far, the Ohio provisional ballots are trending for Bush.–
With about half of the Ohio provisional ballots counted, Bush has 29,285 additional votes to Kerry’s 23,947. Most of the larger and more Democratic counties have yet to report, so expect the trend to move in Kerry’s favor, but nothing close to the number of votes needed to undo Bush’s substantial lead. The numbers given […]
The CBS Rathergate Report: Distribute a Draft First.–
If ever there were a situation for releasing a draft before releasing the final report, the CBS Rathergate investigation is it. Given the rather Olympian duo chosen to investigate the affair–“Louis Boccardi, a former chief executive of the Associated Press, and Dick Thornburgh, a former U.S. attorney general”–it would be good if they released a […]
Religious Law Schools and Political Diversity.–
Adam Litvak has an article in the New York Times describing Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Law School. Excerpt: The new law schools say they are a sort of counterweight to the views that dominate the legal academy. “The prevailing orthodoxy at the elite law schools is an extreme rationalism that draws a strong distinction between faith […]
Debunking the most common vote fraud rumors.–
As the New York Times indicated yesterday, internet rumors of vote fraud in Florida based on Democratic registration counties voting Republican were quickly spread and quickly debunked. Here is a nice summary by Howard Troxler (tip Instapundit) of some of the most common internet rumors about the election: At any rate, here are some of […]
A new OAH Report on Academic Freedom.–
The Organization of American Historians (OAH) has issued a rather superficial report on academic freedom. Ralph Luker and KC Johnson have interesting comments. UPDATE: David Beito at Liberty & Power agrees with Luker that the OAH makes much of the Patriot Act, but fails to mention campus speech codes, which result in almost daily restrictions […]