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As you may recall from yesterday, I asked whether an immortal would necessarily be considered a murderer, given that accidents happen sooner or later. Drive on the roads for a few million years, and you are likely to run over a pedestrian. A related question is whether we should prohibit such actions, such as driving […]

George Lane, one of the plaintiffs in a state sovereign immunity vs. disabled rights law case that the Supreme Court just heard, has often been described as quite sympathetic and deserving of empathy. And surely there’s something to that; but, on the other hand, as reader Robert Schwartz points out, there are other things that […]

Based upon this report, it seems the federal government’s plans to dispose of (read: store for a really, really, really long time) nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain in Nevada may be in trouble. Yesterday’s oral argument in Nevada’s suit challenging the plan seems not to have gone well for the federal government’s attorneys. Specifically, judges […]

Slate has “Bushisms,” which have been ably critiqued by our own Eugene Volokh (see, e.g., here and here). Now NRO has “Deanisms” — but they’re not quite the same thing. Whereas the former are intended to portray the President as inarticulate or uneducated, it seems the latter will portray Dean as a hothead. Of course, […]

From the New York Times: He said he was fired by ABC in 2002 after two seasons as a commentator on “Monday Night Football” when the network had a chance to hire John Madden. Mr. Miller’s reviews had been mixed. He said he enjoyed being a sports commentator and had no ill will toward ABC. […]

Here is a link to a recent short piece by Virginia Postrel. My personal opinion, consistent with Virginia’s presentation, is that gay relationships are indeed an evolved part of a voluntary market order, and also deserving of various legal protections. A Hayekian therefore can without contradiction embrace the idea of gay marriage, although admittedly simply […]

Yesterday Mario Rizzo sent me the following, which I pass along for your interest: “An exciting new journal has been founded at the NYU Law School. It will be called, The NYU Journal of Law and Liberty. Its mission is to publish articles that develop classical liberal approaches to legal issues as well as those […]

I’ve been overwhelmed by responses to my query from yesterday as to whether an immortal necessarily is a murderer with a probability approaching one, given the risk of accidents. Thank you all for writing, I can’t thank you all individually and respond to each, I will distill some of the responses once they stop arriving. […]

I’m teaching the Civil Rights Cases (1883) tomorrow, which invalidated the Civil Right Act of 1875’s prohibition on discrimination by inns, public conveyances, and places of public amusement, as beyond Congress’s power under the 13th and 14th Amendments. In debates over Lochner and constitutional protection of economic liberty more generally, liberal scholars will sometimes refer […]

Thanks to Eugene’s defense of me below, but it raises an interesting issue: there are a few folks out there who love to complain about my posts (you know who you are). Others have complained about other Conspirators. [Edit: And I don’t mean occasional disagreement or criticism, I mean, “So and so is ruining the […]

My previous post on Burger King’s “generous” offer to give customers a Whopper without a bun for the same price as a Whopper with a bun reminded me of an even better story about BK. In the days before the Veggie Whopper, at a time when I subscribed to Vegetarian Times, I recall that BK […]

A blogger complains that my friend and coblogger David Bernstein’s posts “about judaism” are “getting on [his] nerves,” and says that if David doesn’t “shut up about judaism (or at least post about something else every once in a while),” or else the blogger will “chang[e] the permalink” (“or maybe not”). I’m actually delighted that […]

We all know about the common “silent e,” but which letters in English are silent at least in some words? “Silent” is, I realize, not a fully well-defined term, but I mean a letter that is not pronounced (rather than just pronounced in a distorted way, as the first “l” in “colonel”). I exclude situations […]

A year and a week ago, I said the following. With the Democratic presidential field almost complete, I offer my first NH primary prediction, 55 weeks in advance. Richard “Eyebrowless Man” Gephardt, who utterly failed to connect with NH voters in 1988, will utterly fail to do so again in 2004. Protectionism, unionism, and midwestern […]

Here is a philosophical problem I am working on, it also draws on some aspects of tort law, your comments are always welcome: “There is an arbitrariness in defining the relevant class of risky events. In my lifetime as a driver, I stand some (fairly low) chance of killing an innocent pedestrian. Few people would […]