Author: david

  • How Very Modest the Rule of Law Turns Out to Be

    “Lawmakers cannot reverse wrongdoing that has already occurred. But they can express outrage (in a resolution or on the floor) that the president saw fit to usurp Congress’s power to set the ground rules for secret surveillance.” –From legal commentary by NYU law professor Noah Feldman in the NYT Magazine 2/5/06 DKo: Similarly, when a…

  • “Drop a dime, and we’ll bust a cap.”

    AP today: As Democratic lawmakers argued for more details, CIA Director Porter Goss lamented the leak of classified information on a variety of ongoing intelligence operations. “I’m sorry to tell you that the damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission,” Goss said. “It is my aim, and it is…

  • Last Minute Request

    Reuters tells us that the Supreme Court refused last night “to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection…turning down Missouri’s last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.” That’s right, the “last minute request” was from the state. They were irreparably deprived of their last opportunity to kill this man yesterday at midnight. I…

  • Unfair Ridicule

    This sentence structure may not really deserve to be criticized, but it is still always fun to misread: Philip Jackson, who studies brain systems responsible for empathy at the University of Laval in Quebec City in Canada, said he found the sex differences intriguing and worth following up on. Article

  • Elections–A Luxury in Wartime?

    In peacetime, it is vitally important to our American democracy that we adhere to the legally scheduled election-cycles in choosing and changing our high public officials. This allows candidates and parties who are not currently in power to challenge and, if they prevail, to replace those presently in office. In wartime, however, when the very…

  • Basic Facts as a Wondrous Surprise

    There are so many basic facts about the world that we, as grownups, take for granted, yet to a child are matters of wondrous surprise. Living here with my eight-year-old grandson Seaney has really brought that home to me. The process of opening up the wider world to him has been an inspiration and a…