My dad was a beat cop and career FBI. I was preached the perils and uncertainties of law enforcement my whole life. You just don’t know what you’re about to face in a car stop or home search or raid. And, so the justification follows that police should be accorded some measure of grace when […]
Category: constitutional
Freedom Trail Reprise
I’ll plagiarize myself from a year ago. I can’t say it any differently: If you’ve ever been to Boston you’ve probably been forced to walk, likely by a mom or wife, some portion of the “Freedom Trail” against your will. You have to wonder why one must abandon so much self determination to walk a […]
Call Me Maybe
You know the telephone game. Everyone sits in a circle. The first person whispers a secret to their neighbor, “I like to eat mushroom pizza.” And by the the time it circumnavigates the group it’s morphed into something like, “I liked to beat up my lunchroom teacher” or “I spiked a peach with a much […]
It Only Takes One
The President’s gun violence plan seems pretty reasonable. It doesn’t strike me as executive power too far. Without boring you the history, executive orders are constitutional, especially where they are made within the context of some explicit or implicit congressional authorization, see Dames & Moore v. Regan. Here, the President has tweaked the efficacy of […]
Red Ryder Air Rifle
James Holmes has appeared for his preliminary hearing yesterday and today regarding charges that stem from alleged involvement in the Colorado shooting at a showing of The Dark Knight Rises. These kinds of gun atrocities have not, and have largely never been, committed by the typically vilified criminal element of our inner city gangs or […]
Color My Map
My wife couldn’t get over John King’s hands. (King, along with Wolf Blitzer, is one of CNN’s main electoral analysts on election night.) They were frozen in a sort of claw position no matter the gesture. I told her, “Uh. Everyone knows the molded action-figure-finger is the optimal hand positioning for manipulating the Magic Board.” […]
Don’t Drop the Soap
There is a lot of hidden tragedy. So to get too dogmatic about one seems a high horse amongst Clydesdales. One in a crowd. But prison rape to me has long been infuriating. (Not where you thought I was headed?) It’s just totally unacceptable, with any regularity, in a civilized criminal justice system. It’s like […]
Battle of Wits
I mostly hate the cultish “Princess Bride.” I hate it precisely for other peoples’s exaggerated praise for it. Typically juvenile of me. “Oh, it’s dialectic is so rich.” “Andre the Giant is superb!” Whatevs. Rocky IV, by contrast, slays every time. “Whatever he hits . . . he des- thtrrroys!” (That’s thick phonetical Russian, right […]
For and Against Part Deux
North Carolina voted today to approve a constitutional amendment that would essentially prohibit same-sex unions of whatever name or design. The amendment reads: “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.” The lang]]><![CDATA[uage will effectively bar the state from giving legal […]
The Stream
Sorry that things have been a little slow. Preparations for TEDxGreenville, in addition to the normal ramping of spring activities, have left me pretty thin. I’m hoping a couple more posts before this Friday’s presentation. Until then, an oldie from the archives, below, in light of the Supreme Court’s consideration of the health care bill […]
modern personal publishing 