I am getting seriously sick of elections in the U.S. being decided by: This is dumb, wrong and an affront to the idea of “democracy”. I have done this rant before, so I’ll try to keep it short this time.…
Unfixable: The U.S. Constitution Is Irreparably Broken
The U.S. constitution was, for it’s time, a pretty impressive piece of work. But that time was over 200 years ago. And in those 200 years, various factions within the U.S. have managed to warp it into the weak, twisted…
Devolution: Stick A Fork In America’s Ass
And turn it over. It’s done. OK, I’m mixing up my musical references there (and probably offending non-U.S. Americans), but you get the point? It’s time to talk about a post-U.S. America. While it’s possible that the United States as…
Oversight or Overlook: The Inspector General System Is Broken
So, Trump is firing Inspector Generals again. Second verse, same as the first. I’ve addressed this specific problem with the U.S.’ concept of executive oversight here several times; see the search. There’s a wrinkle that I hadn’t mentioned before, at…
Pardon Us: This Needs Some Rules
I realize there’s an ongoing … issue … that may be more interesting, but I don’t have any new thoughts on that problem that I want to write today and this topic has been bothering me for a while. We…
Freedom & Consent: There Are No Legitimate States
Countries like to claim that they are constituted “with the consent of” their populations. This is generally nonsense. While many countries today have constitutions that were adopted by referendum within living memory, few of them were adopted recently enough that…
Legal Zombies: Laws Should Not Come Back From The Dead
When the courts declare a law to be unconstitutional, it should actually be removed from the books. It shouldn’t just be ignored. If I understand correctly, the actual term is “unenforceable”, but it’s the same thing. The courts will ignore…
Political Party Time: Ezra Klein Is Wrong About A Thing
It’s not really surprising that I’d think that, mind; I see Klein as kind of a squishy centrist’s idea of what a liberal firebrand looks like so I often think he’s wrong about things. This time he’s wrong about something…
No One Thinks You’re Objective: Just Answer The Damn Questions
No one is a completely objective conduit of a judicial philosophy and the law. Not least because judicial philosophies are subjective positions. Declaring a judicial philosophy, “originalism” for example, is declaring a subjective position. And there’s no value to espousing…
Hate: Not Good, Not Fun, But Legal
Having Freedom of Conscience means the State cannot outlaw Hate Crimes, because it cannot make law based on motivations. Otherwise, the State gets into the business of determining what motivations are acceptible. And frankly no State can be trusted with…