The wrong place to push the envelope on gay marriage. If, that is, that’s what these people were trying to do — which seems unlikely, since it’s such a wrong place to push the envelope on gay marriage. (Thanks to reader Erica Sadun for the pointer.)
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Why Aren’t Libertarians More Upset At Bush’s Politicizaton of Government Science?
Every once in a while, I’ll notice a liberal blogger querying why libertarian bloggers, who, after all, tend to be rationalistic, scientifically oriented, and not especially religious folks, aren’t up in arms about the Bush Administration’s politicization of science, generally on behalf of the Christian Right–everything from the rigged Kass bioethics panel to the delays […]
Reboot:
My father, who has worked with computers his whole life, called to wish me a happy birthday. I had just turned 36, and 36 is how old my father was when my parents, Sasha, and I emigrated from Russia to America. You’re turning 36 the way people are supposed to, he told me: You’re settled, […]
Speaking truth to Nader:
Continuing the ‘it’s time to speak honestly abouy Nader’s whole career’ moment: Jonathan Chait.
Oscar recap:
I’m entirely delighted, of course– though I did oddly badly in the prediction pool at our Oscar party but not picking LotR every time. (I figured that a spread-the-wealth impulse would take hold among voters who were committed to giving LotR the top two prizes, and so I didn’t, for example, pick ‘Into the West’ […]
Anti-judicial-review poetry:
I express no opinion on its sentiments or reasoning, or for that matter its poetic quality, but anti-judicial-review poetry is rare enough that it seemed worth quoting. It’s from Poet’s Corner, Kentucky Gazette, June 2, 1826, quoted in Theodore W. Ruger, “A Question Which Convulses a Nation”: The Early Republic’s Greatest Debate About the Judicial […]
FORTH:
A bad memory from the past has resurfaced: In response to my post Friday about national security dangers from intentionally buggy source code, a reader suggested that the problem was in today’s programming languages, such as C; FORTH, he argued, was a simpler language and therefore helps programmers make better systems. Well, FORTH sure is […]
Law requiring clergy to marry people regardless of race, religion, or national origin?
Texas Family Code, Chapter 2 (“The Marriage Relationship”), Subchapter C (“Ceremony and Return of License”) provides, in relevant part: [sec.] 2.202. Persons Authorized to Conduct Ceremony (a) The following persons are authorized to conduct a marriage ceremony:(1) a licensed or ordained Christian minister or priest;(2) a Jewish rabbi;(3) a person who is an officer of […]
More on administration science policy:
The Bush administration has removed two members of the bioethics advisory council– two who favored stem cell research. The two were a medical ethicist and a biologist. They’ve been replaced by a neurosurgery specialist; a political theorist with a University of Chicago connection who writes about Montesquieu; and a political theorist who has started to […]
Marriage amendments:
Some e-mails I’ve gotten lead me to return to a couple of items I posted last September 11. First, I think it’s wrong for the nation as a whole — even if 38 states agree to it — to block state voters and legislators from allowing same-sex marriage, just as it’s wrong for the federal […]
Good Dennis Prager Column on “The Passion”:
Prager:For two hours, Christians watch their Savior tortured and killed. For the same two hours, Jews watch Jews arrange the killing and torture of the Christians’ Savior…. Why does this bother Jews so much? Because for nearly 2,000 years, attacked as “Christ-killers,” countless Jewish men, women and children were tortured and murdered in ways that […]
Blogs by Metro station:
For the Washington, D.C. area, that is, here is the link. Move around your mouse for a fascinating study in economic and intellectual geography. We’re on the Orange line, of course, on the Virginia side, check out the contrast on the eastern side of that same line. Thanks to Andy Roth for the pointer. Addendum: […]
Book Tour Schedule for This Week:
This week, I talk about Restoring the Constitution in Southern California. All events are open to the public. Be sure to let me know that you read the Volokh Conspiracy. Monday 3/1:Chapman law school (noon)Tuesday 3/2:UCLA law school (noon)Pepperdine law school (4:00pm)Wednesday 3/3:USC law school (12:20pm)Loyola-Marymount law school (5:00pm)Thursday 3/4:Univ. San Diego law school (Grace […]
Only 48 years of piracy left for me.
Is the Volokh Conspiracy that Famous?
This paper, which is discussed over at Crooked Timber, has the Volokh Conspiracy in its title [basic thrust: those on the left shouldn’t read, for example, the Volokh Conspiracy, because we are not morally wise, and given their lack of expertise on the issues we are experts in, may lead them astray], but, oddly enough, […]