stcynic
Posts by this author
Timothy Sandefur has decided to leave the world of blogging, I am sad to report. Now that he is preparing to wed the lovely Erin and owns his own home (one can almost visualize the honey do list), the time and energy he has to devote to Freespace has dwindled and he has decided to cash in his chips…
I can't imagine what on earth he's thinking, but Cale Bradford, Chief Judge of the Marion Superior Court in Indiana, has issued the most blatantly unconstitutional opinion I've ever heard of. In a divorce in which both of the parents are Wiccan, the judge placed a provision in the divorce decree…
Interesting little tidbit. William Pryor, who was a recess appointment to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals by President Bush, has issued a ruling denying Roy Moore's Foundation for Moral Law attempt to file an amicus brief in the Cobb County evolution disclaimer case. Pryor was the Alabama…
The parents of a gay man in Massachusetts have written a wonderful op-ed piece for the Boston Globe on the one year anniversary of the legalization of gay marriage in that state. Here is how it concludes:
But how could we as parents not do all we could to embrace our child? How could we not do all…
Stephen Bainbridge has an excellent post up about the filibuster and its essentially conservative nature. He rightly blasts today's partisan right wingers - as opposed to genuine conservatives - who are seeking to get rid of it purely for short term political gain. After linking to everyone from…
Timothy Sandefur has tagged me to answer some questions about books. Here are my answers:
1. Total number of books I've owned. I have no idea. At this point, I have boxes full of books, probably numbering somewhere close to 2000. And I've never sold any books at garage sales or to second hand…
My fellow In the Agora contributor Paul Musgrave has a brilliant post on the nature of political parties as opposed to philosophies. Paul isn't a good writer, he's a great writer and the clear and lucid arguments in this essay demonstrate that.
Here's the text of an email I received last night in response to my post about the Maryland governor from my personal pet troll, Robert O'Brien:
Thanks for the news; it brought a smile to my face, as do all victories against the institutionalization/legitimization of deviant sexuality. Your…
Via Jason Kuznicki, a story I missed: the governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich, has vetoed a bill that would have given gay couples the legal right to be treated as a relative in medical situations. As the Washington Post reports:
Modeled after laws in California, Hawaii and other states, the…
Jon Rowe has a fairly good fisking of a post by Ed Feser on the alleged "unnatural" nature of any sexual act that is not intended for procreation. I think he gives Feser too much credit for coherency, though. Feser's argument is not terribly coherent. Here is Feser's argument in a nutshell: the…
Chalk up another prediction for Lynn. I told her the other day that I saw a smoker that I really wanted and came *this* close to buying it, but didn't. The first thing she said was, "You'll buy it before long." Hey, I waited three days! This morning I got to thinking that since I won so much…
Last night was a bittersweet one for me as a basketball fan. Yes, the Pistons beat Indiana to advance to the conference finals. But they did it by ending the career of one of my favorite players, Reggie Miller. Miller was the guy you loved to hate and then came to love out of sheer respect for his…
The Worldnutdaily has a headline, Judge in Terri's Case Had Conflict of Interest, which links to this story about Federal District Court Judge Whittemore from a hilariously biased website about Terri Schiavo. The article claims that Whittemore had an "overwhelming conflict of interest in the matter…
This is just perfect, Bill Frist babbling on the floor of the Senate yesterday trying to explain why 5 years ago he was voting to sustain a filibuster against Richard Paez, a Clinton judicial nominee, when today he keeps claiming that it's unprecedented, unconstitutional and obstructionist to do…
Jon Rowe has another excellent essay on the role of religion among the founding fathers. He draws on an op-ed piece by Mark Lilla in the NY Times on the same subject. Lilla rightly hammers the "schlock history written by religious propagandists like David Barton" while pointing to more serious…
My colleague Howard Van Till attended the school board meeting in Gull Lake on Monday. The superintendant announced there that the internal committee had completed its work and would announce a decision on whether they would allow ID to be taught by two junior high school science teachers in the…
From a concurring opinion written by Roy Moore in a custody case in 2002. In this case, the father had been accused of abusing his children and the mother was petitioning the court for custody. The fact that the mother was now a lesbian was not at issue in the case, only the question of whether the…
Jack Balkin has a couple of fascinating essays on how easily originalism is used to justify a particular result, an argument I have long made myself. I'm not an enemy of originalism, nor am I a "living constitutionalist", and I think that both original intent and original understanding or original…
This past weekend was the Memphis in May BBQ Competition, one of the largest such competitions in the world. As some of you may know, I am a BBQ fanatic (and I finally just perfected my babyback ribs, by the way) and I love competitions like this, though I've never participated in one. And being a…
A reader named James Cameron emailed me a link to an interview with Alan Keyes that is pretty much par for the course for him (incidentally, I hope this isn't the James Cameron who directed Titanic or I shall forever have to hate him for foisting that damn Celine Dion song upon the world - your…
Deb Price has a great column about the clear trend of other nations allowing gay couples to get married, a trend that will surely put the lie once and for all to the absurd claim that banning gay marriage somehow "protects the sanctity of marriage." One can only sigh when reviewing the leadership…
This is good news. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has overturned state laws banning the shipment of wine over state lines. 24 states have laws that treat direct shipments of wine from winemakers out of state to customers in that state differently than shipments from winemakers within the…
In response to Friday's Federal district court ruling that struck down that state's anti-gay marriage amendment, Jon Rowe and Kip Esquire both have written thought provoking essays.
Update: Jason Kuznicki and Josh Claybourn also have interesting posts on this ruling.
Last night's radio appearance with Herb Titus went pretty well, I thought. Jim Babka invited me on the show to discuss the 14th amendment and incorporation with Titus primarily because I had written critically of a brief he filed in the McCreary ten commandments case that is currently before the…
Just a reminder for anyone who is interested in listening, I'll be appearing on the Jim Babka show, Culture Repair, at 5 pm eastern time to debate the 14th amendment with Herb Titus, former dean of the Regent University Law School. To listen online, click here. High quality streaming is available…
One of the things I've been saying for a long time about "intelligent design" is how frustrating it is trying to get IDers to spell out what they think actually happened. They've got lots of criticisms of evolutionary theory, but no model of their own for the natural history of the earth. Some of…
In a major victory for free speech, and for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in particular, Dartmouth College has decided to do away with its 4 year old "hate speech code". FIRE has been involved in negotiations with Dartmouth for many months, and it became a major issue in the…
Jon Rowe has an excellent post about originalism and the application of general principles in constitutional law. As he points out, one of the major problems for conservative originalists is that they often get stuck having to defend the heinous results that their version of originalism would lead…
Timothy Sandefur has a follow up on my post about fulfilling the promises of the Declaration of Independence, discussing why he loves the Constitution so much. It's a fascinating read, as usual, and I love this quote he gives from Frederick Douglass:
There is no negro problem. The problem is…
Mark Ganek has a very funny column about Gerald Allen and his brilliant plan to ban all the gay books from Alabama. It begins:
Alabama has once again seized the educational initiative, despite being ranked 50th in the country in per pupil spending. A state representative recently introduced a bill…