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Category Archives: Our Liberties Threatened

New Libel rules for thee but not for me

There are rumblings on the right that the landmark case of Sullivan vs. New York Times should be overruled. The Sullivan case requires proof of actual malice on a libel defendant’s part when the plaintiff is a public figure. The case does have it’s problems. For instance, it’s not unknown for a plaintiff to become […]

Which is it? Stupidity or criminal arrogance.?

Stories like this merely make me curl further into a fetal position as November 3rd approaches. Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser of President Donald Trump, privately bragged to journalist Bob Woodward in April about the president’s decision to shun the advice and opinions of health experts, just as the death rate from the […]

Trump admits guilt

One thing that’s little remarked among the punditry, perhaps because it’s so hard to make a both siderist case about it, is the Republican habit of projection. If they’re doing it, they’re loudly accusing the Democrats of doing it. They even had the chutzpah to claim that the Democrats were trying to destroy Medicare. They […]

Bad Moon Rising

I didn’t practice criminal law, so I never had any reason to bone up on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, but the D.C. Circuit’s decision on the Flynn case baffles me. Well, not really. Given the makeup of the panel, I figured it was at least a 50/50 probability. But it’s difficult to see, […]

Another brick in the wall

Why am I totally not surprised by this: ’Sloppy’ Mobile Voting App Used in Four States Has ‘Elementary’ Security Flaws MIT researchers say an attacker could intercept and alter votes, while making voters think their votes have been cast correctly, or trick the votes server into accepting connections from an attacker. A mobile voting app being […]

Supreme Court about to legalize discrimination

It’s more than likely the case that the Supreme Court is about to legalize anti-Gay discrimination in the name of free speech and/or religious freedom. The case arises out of the refusal of a baker to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. It’s terribly unfair, he says, that he should be asked to […]

Someday I’ll tell you I told you so

I believe I’ve made this observation before, but I want to repeat myself, so when it happens, like Trump I can say “I told you so”. What brought this to mind was the editorial in this morning’s Boston Globe, which, in the course of dissing Trump’s twitter mania, made oblique reference to an extremely troubling […]

Cassandras at the Times

Krugman has it right on the nose this morning, making the obvious historical comparisons to the not quite Republic of Rome: And what happens to the republic as a result? Famously, on paper the transformation of Rome from republic to empire never happened. Officially, imperial Rome was still ruled by a Senate that just happened […]

Everything put together, sooner or later falls apart

I’m slowly unwinding from the fetal position, but it’s still the case that I wake with a jolt every day when I realize that the unthinkable has happened. I’m under orders from my better half not to be too doom-and-gloomy, so I won’t burden this blog, at least right now, with specific predictions. But, I’ve […]

Outrage in Texas

It would be no surprise to hear that Amendments 1 and 3 through 10, possibly 13 and certainly 14 and 15 were being ignored in Texas, but I was stunned to see that the Lone Star State is trampling on Second Amendment rights, the most absolute rights of them all, with nary a word of […]