David Neiwert has an interesting post about the crucial Dred Scott issue (you heard it here first!) The general thrust of his argument is correct: when you hear “strict constructionism” it means “jurisprudence that produces conservative policy results.” However, I do strongly disagree with a particular framing of the argument, which is common among some progressive students […]
And another thing. . . I’ve been arguing recently in class that the Iraq War doesn’t pass the laugh test as a pre-emptive war. A pre-emptive war, of course, requires the presence of an imm
The hawk response to the Duelfer Report has been to emphasize Saddam’s intentions, rather than his capabilities. Because he intended to acquire WMD in the future, he remained a threat. The absur
Fascinating article in the NYT Week in Review about legal claims on arctic waters. It seems that Russia and Denmark have designs on claiming vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean because of legal and geographical oddities that center on an underwater mountain range. Why should either Denmark or Russia care? As the global ice pack melts, […]
With due respect to our own Scooter, if that goddamn talking baseball keeps showing up on Fox playoff telecasts, I will personally hunt down and kill Tim McCarver.
When Cheney mentioned El Salvador in the Vice Presidential debate last week, I was briefly reminded of something I had seen a couple of days before. Couldn’t put my finger on it, but Erik at Al
A former student actually paid attention to one of my 10 minute diversion/rants on the use of the term “identity politics.” I know because she kindly sent me a link to this excellent blog post on the subject. I know that blog posts over a year old are never read and linked to (unless we’re proving […]
Paperwight and Mark Kleiman are, of course, correct: the President’s bizarre invocation of Dred Scott is about abortion. Lest you think this is a reach, let’s turn it over to Nino, in hi
I’m not going to try to tell you that Jacques Derrida wasn’t an “abstruse theorist.” The appropriateness of this adjective would be a perfectly appropriate subject of debate, a
John Howard has won re-election! This means that Australia’s contingent will remain to fight for freedom, order, and the Anglo-Saxon way in Iraq! On bended knee, I thank God for the fierce fighting spirit of our brothers down under. They know to stay the course; they know what kinds of sacrifices are needed. Just as we […]
The best line of debate coverage, I must concede, is from Sully: Bush promised at one point that he’d be more “facile” in future. That’s going to be a hard promise to keep. On
I just hope Atrios is right. I think Kerry did what he needed to do, but as I said below he let too many distortions lay out there. It’s probably correct that responding to each one would be co