IBiblio reports: In a move shocking to all, Duke University, of Durham, North Carolina, purchased the entirety of the public domain late last evening for a fee of 2.2 trillion dollars. . . . As a result of the purchase, Duke University is the sole rights-holder to a huge collection of materials, including the Bible, […]
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My Name:
One of the greatest things about blogging is hearing from readers. I try to answer or at least acknowledge messages, but all too often they slip past me, especially when I am traveling. A couple weeks ago, I blogged about anti-Semitism and one reader whose last name is “Barnett” wondered how someone Jewish like me […]
Crypto-Jews in Spain and Portugal:
Hard to believe, but more than five hundred years after the forced conversion/expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal, there are still individuals in those countries that retain vague ties to their Jewish pasts (one entire community in the town of Belmonte, Portugal managed to maintain a secret quasi-Jewish life into the 1970s, when the […]
Schmitt redux:
More on that odd Alan Wolfe article I lmentioned a couple of days ago, the one that documents the fascination of the intellectual left with Carl Schmitt and then proceeds to say that contemporary American conservatives are Schmittians-in-practice, the evidence for which is that Ann Coulter is vicious. 1) The link I gave was subscription-only, […]
You can’t take it with you:
The following article might stimulate your thoughts in several different directions. It asks whether you should give away or invest your money. How much you should leave for your heirs. Whether religion is needed to stimulate more charity. And whether you should target the poorest people with your aid or seek to build up institutions […]
Search engine query
that somehow got someone to our site: jewish woman fetish what to call it? I have no idea.
The new (2005) U.S. News rankings
of law schools are being posted and discussed all over the web. Biggest surprise: Boalt drops to thirteen. George Mason continues its climb, to 38. I’m sure Brian Leiter will have some choice words to say about the rankings, as usual. I’m not a huge fan of U.S. News’s methodology. As an example of why, […]
Procedure in death penalty cases involving foreign nationals:
Hofstra lawprof Julian Ku passes along the following: I thought you (and maybe your blog readers) would be interested to know that the International Court of Justice today issued a Final Judgment in Avena (Mexico v. United States) finding that the United States breached its obligations to Mexico under the Vienna Convention for Consular Relations. […]
Still more stuff that will prevent this blog from passing your web-filter:
As if all Eugene’s child-pornography posts weren’t enough. Both of the following via Radley Balko. Someone has finally slipped down a slope that I’ve been mentioning (awkwardly) for a few years. A Georgia bill to ban female genital mutilation (already a federal crime, by the way, and I’d argue that the cases we really want […]
Crime and Federalism:
I became a state court prosecutor for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago after graduation from law school, rather than a federal prosecutor, because I cared about the most serious of real crimes with real victims: murder, rape, home invasions, armed robberies, etc. (While I am extremely proud of my service there and […]
Child porn and pictures of naked kids:
Someone asked: Are pictures of naked children per se child pornography? As I understand it, most laws define child porn as pictures of minors engaging in sexual practices or lewdly exhibiting their genitals; that is the basis on which the child porn statutes were upheld against a First Amendment challenge. A picture of a nude […]
BedRoc: Marty Lederman (SCOTUSBlog) tries hard to make this Supreme Court decision interesting — in my book, he succeeds, but I find all sorts of odd things interesting.
Sex and pictures of sex:
A friend of mine sent me a message with the title “Child porn,” and the body: I’ve never sent an e-mail with such an explicit title before… In most (all?) states, it’s legal for a 16-year-old girl to have sex with her 16-year-old boyfriend. Thus, it’s perfectly legal for them to see each other naked. […]
Child prosecuted for child pornography — of herself:
Michael Froomkin reports and comments, quoting this story: State police have charged a 15-year-old Latrobe girl with child pornography for taking photos of herself and posting them on the Internet. Police said the girl, whose identity they withheld, photographed herself in various states of undress and performing a variety of sexual acts. She then sent […]
Heh.
Y’know, this is made even better by the fact that it’s Rhode Island, traditionally home to corruption in state and municipal government that could have kept a super-hero busy for years, and home to Buddy Cianci, who would have been vetoed as a crimelord-mayor villain by any comic book editor for being too unrealistic. (Registration […]