The Future of SOPA and Protect IP
Why the Internet blackout shouldn’t signal an end to the fight against online piracy
Post Tagged with: "Wikipedia"
On WikiLeaks: Transparency for Transparency’s Sake
When we sacrifice our national security for the sake of transparency, we have crossed the line
Do Conservatives “Just Hate All Taxes”?
In a generally well-written article, HPR staff writer Will Rafey recently addressed the need to raise the gas tax “to make the private cost of driving a car reflect its actual social costs: global warming, air pollution, traffic congestion, and highway maintenance,” and how difficult this has become in the current political climate. I have no disagreement with the thrust [...]
What Politicians Can Learn From Imperfection
“Nobody’s perfect.” That’s what Detriot Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga told reporters after umpire Jim Joyce blew a call at first base and cost Galarraga his perfect game in the 9th inning with two outs. After reviewing the replays once the game was over, Joyce admitted he was wrong. He provided a heartfelt apology and wiped tears from his face during [...]
Racial discrimination in jury selection still widespread
Thinking about my post from last night, I realized how strange you might think me for assuming that there’s greater risk to liberty from police and prosecutors misbehaving than there is from letting a certain number of criminals get off on “technicalities.” Thankfully, with impeccable timing, we got this report today from the New York Times, summarizing a study by [...]
The New Miranda Decision and Souter’s Harvard Speech
With the predictable 5-4 lineup, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that, in order to exclude from evidence incriminating statements to the police, criminal suspects must have unambiguously invoked their right to remain silent. The case essentially asked, what constitutes a waiver of one’s Miranda rights? Does sitting silent, unresponsive, for nearly three hours, as did the suspect, Van Chester Thompkins, [...]
A Lebanese Angle on the Rima Fakih Story
Apart from being an excellent excuse to boost web traffic with pictures of bikini-clad women (cf. The Huffington Post), you may not have seen Lebanese journalist Hanin Ghaddar’s very interesting article last week in Foreign Policy comparing American and Lebanese reactions to the Rima Fakih story. In America: Not many people — let along beauty pageant winners — have been accused [...]
House Democrats Vote to Raise Taxes
Just before its Memorial Day recess, the House passed a bill that, according to The New York Times, would raise the taxes that investment managers pay on carried interest, just at the moment new long-term investment is most needed. General executive partners of long-term investment partnerships, including investments in real estate, venture capital, private equity, and other investments, are paid [...]
The Relative Value of Valor
The New York Times Magazine has a fantastic article about the puzzle of the paucity of valor awards–those medals given for high acts of courage. Only six Medals of Honor have been awarded in Iraq or Afghanistan: a fraction of previous wars either absolute or percentage terms. In the Pentagon’s defense, the article quotes one spokeswoman: Addressing the drastic drop [...]
Response to Sam on Racism and Rand Paul
Sam, I agree with you that Rand Paul is off base in his remarks about the Civil Rights Act, but I have a few quibbles about the way you make your argument. (I see that when you aren’t going after Ayn, you are going after Rand with equal intensity. Young libertarians seem to love the Rands as much as young collectivists seem to despise them!) Now I [...]
Couple More Thoughts on Rand Paul
First, I think Adam Serwer has really crystallized the basic problem with how conservatives (and a fair number of over-polite liberals) talk about race. It seems really weird to give Goldwater all this credit for not being personally racist while championing a cause supported by racists, and say this is the same thing as Kennedy and Johnson being racist but [...]
Rand Paul a Racist? I Think Not.
Sam Barr’s most recent post makes the rather shocking claim that Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by the retiring Jim Bunning, is a racist, or at least that he is not a non-racist. Sam deduces this from the fact that Mr. Paul is not a “consistent libertarian,” that he “picks and [...]
Rand Paul: Against the Civil Rights Act
As I said yesterday, the Kentucky Senate race between Rand Paul and Jack Conway should be a real battle. Paul is probably not helping himself by insisting, as many libertarian ideologues but few Senate hopefuls do, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was wrong to ban racial discrimination in private establishments like restaurants and movie theaters. INTERVIEWER: Would you have [...]
Blumenthal Follow-Up
Like Scott Lemieux and Nate Silver, I foolishly trusted the New York Times bombshell about CT attorney general Richard Blumenthal. I jumped immediately to the question of what should be done about Blumenthal assuming he lied about his military service. It’s very easy to assume the worst about politicians, but sometimes (probably not too often) their denials and explanations can [...]
Reality Check: Democrats Continue House Special-Election Streak
Last night probably could not have gone better for Democrats, even though the party establishment is shedding crocodile tears over Arlen Specter and Blanche Lincoln (the latter of whom is in serious trouble, as Lt. Gov. Bill Halter outperformed polls and has three more weeks to close the deal). Even in Kentucky, Democrats probably got the more exciting (not to [...]
