Gifts for ROFTERS #2

The other War on Christmas
Right-wing media outlets are fond of reminding us this time of year that Liberals are out to destroy Christmas.  It seems that if the political left had their way Christmas would be reimagined as a crass Secular event focused on excessive shopping, and outlandish light displays paying homage to flying reindeer, elvin toymakers, a jolly fat man with Ninja-like stealth skills, and other symbols of pagan magic that would make Hogwarts seem positively Muggle-ish.  And we would never stand ...

Alison Rose Levy: Wisdom 2.0 Panel Explores the Power of New Media for Inner and Outer Transformation
Social Media has the power to connect us like never before, but the constant buzz of new messages, tweets and information can also fragment focus, induce a frenzied pace and produce overwhelm. Perhaps we need a new name for this state of constant information consumption -- Attention Excess Disorder? Yet what are the actual up and downsides of social media's impact on spiritual awareness, compassion, authentic interconnection and social transformation? To explore these questions, Wisdom 2.0 ho...

Proof that liberals are sheep
My heading above is mainly spin. I put it up to counter the Leftist spin that has been put on the findings below. Several interpretations are possible but by far the safest conclusion is that it needs much more research before we do ANY generalizing from the admittedly rather striking set of findings below. There is a considerable history of perceptual findings such as those below not generalizing at all, the research on perceptual “rigidity”, for instance It goes without saying that...

Unequal Democracy Roundtable Wrap-up
We thank Lane Kenworthy, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, Will Wilkinson, and Larry Bartels for their contributions to last week's rountable on Unequal Democracy. For future reference, you can find all of their posts here. There is also a link in our list of subject categories at right. We plan to do future roundtables on other notable Political Science books. Suggestions welcome. ...

"No Labels"
Everything you need to know about the new political group No Labels is contained in its slogan: "Not Left. Not Right. Forward." It's smug. It sounds like an Obama campaign catchphrase. And it ignores the whole reason politics exists, which is that not everyone agrees on what "Forward" is. That's Chris Beam, writing in Slate in a piece that is nicely inflected with some Political Science. For example, this: No Labels sounds noble in theory. But the group misunderstands what Bipartisanship is. ...

Obama Embraces 'Christian' Label
Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service When President Obama lit the National Christmas Tree behind the White House last year, he spoke of a "child born far from home" and said "while this story may be a Christian one, its lesson is universal." This year, Obama referenced that same "child born far from home," but added a more personal twist: "It's a story that's dear to Michelle and me as Christians." Three days later, at a Christmas Benefit Concert, the president again talked about how the sto...

Beyond Political Science
Reacting to the Dot Earth discussion of Republicans and science, two readers, Redmond Clark of Barrington, Ill., and Christopher Yaun of Portsmouth, N.H., offered very distinct, and compelling, approaches to fostering progress when science frames, but does not determine, politically charged policy Debates. I thought it worth featuring their comments here as “Your Dot” contributions. Here’s an excerpt from Clark’s comment, but I encourage you to click the link and read it...

David Epstein Incest Charges: Columbia Professor Charged With Sleeping With Daughter
A Columbia Political Science Professor has been charged with having a sexual relationship with his 24-year-old daughter, the Columbia Daily Spectator reports. David Epstein, 46, was charged Thursday with one count of third-degree Incest. Police told the Spectator that the relationship appeared consensual. Epstein is currently on administrative leave. According to the New York Daily News, Epstein and the woman had a three-year sexual relationship and often exchanged "twisted Text Messages." Th...

Are the Assange Rape Charges a Pretext to Bust Him for WikiLeaks? Maybe And Thats Okay
This weekend at NewsRealBlog , we had quite the brawl over the sexual-assault charges against Wikileaks’ anarchic head honcho, Julian Assange. Today, let’s look at the arrest at a different angle: regardless of whether or not he assaulted anyone, is it right to use these charges as an excuse to punish his cyber Terrorism? Child Abuse and Sex Crime Victims’ advocate Wendy Murphy isn’t so sure. At the Daily Beast, she says the charges, if true, would be worth pursuing, but ...

The 40 Best Conservative Blogs For 2010 (Version 4.0)
It's time for me to rank my favorite blogs for the 4th quarter of 2010. Do keep in mind that as the quarter has progressed, some blogs have, of course, moved up and others have dropped, based on how often I visit them, how much I like what I see when I get there, how often the blogs are updated, etc., etc. Also, as per usual, do keep in mind that this sort of list changes frequently over time based on a variety of factors. So if a blog didn't get included, it's no Big Deal -- it could be on the ...

Passive smoking risk in apartments
What about the effect on the family living next door? Children living in flats have 45% more exposure to tobacco smoke than those in detached houses, a US study says. Researchers from Harvard and Rochester Universities say that is because the smoke seeps through walls and shared ventilation systems. They tested cotinine levels in blood samples from 5,000 children across the US for the study in Pediatrics. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said there was a "strong case" for making blo...

Copyright defense restricted
The Court splits 4-4 in denial a legal defense for those who buy copyrighted goods abroad and then seek to bring them into the U.S. for re-sale without the Copyright owner’s permission. The Court grants no new cases. Dividing 4-4, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court’s denial of a discount retailer’s right to buy overseas a consumer item that is protected by Copyright — in this case, a Swiss watch, then bring it back into the U.S. for re-sale without the copyr...

Oddly Enough, This is Not Judicial Activism
Just because: A federal District Judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that the keystone provision in the Obama Health Care law is Unconstitutional, becoming the first court in the country to invalidate any part of the sprawling act and ensuring that appellate courts will receive contradictory opinions from below. Judge Henry E. Hudson, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, declined the plaintiff’s request to freeze implementation of the law pending appeal, meaning that...

Political Scene
Supreme Court Kagan: 'Steep learning curve' on High Court Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says she is facing a "steep learning curve" in her first months on the bench as she drafts her first opinions and tries to acclimate to life as a judge. In her first interview since joining the court in August, Justice Kagan told the C-SPAN Cable Network that she will not have to sit out many more cases because of her previous work for the Obama Administration. Justice Kagan has taken herself out of mo...

Opinion: Health Care Ruling Is Good News for Reform Backers
(Dec. 13) -- Supporters of the Affordable Care Act should take a great deal of comfort from Judge Henry Hudson's decision today. Yes, Judge Hudson did strike down one provision of the landmark Health Care law, but his opinion is so poorly reasoned, so bereft of legal analysis and so inconsistent with precedent that it has no chance of convincing the Supreme Court to strike down this law. If this is the best that opponents of health reform have to offer, than the act's supporters have nothing to...

Kindle and iPad Help Kagan and Scalia Read Briefs on the Go
At least two members of the U.S. Supreme Court are apparently saving some trees by reading briefs with electronic readers. Justice Antonin Scalia uses an iPad, while Justice Elena Kagan uses a Kindle, C-SPAN reports. The network has posted excerpts of a 48-minute interview with Kagan, her first since she joined the court, the Associated Press reports. “I have a Kindle that my briefs are on,” Kagan told C-SPAN. “I saw that Justice Scalia said that he had them on an iPad and I th...

Virginia Health-Care Case: Virginia v. Seblius
For those who are opposed to ObamaCare and mandated health-care coverage today was a big day for us. A federal District Court in Virginia ruled that the Individual Mandate portion of ObamaCare does indeed violate the Constitution and it is too much of an expansion of the Commerce Clause. You can read the full ruling here if you have the mind. I’ve had some time to digest the ruling and here are some of my initial thoughts. First of all let’s remember that this is a district court, s...

Leftovers - December 14, 2010
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, passes away. Justice Scalia agrees to teach Rep. Bachmann's first class on the Constitution. Tea Party conservative Allen West wants to censor the News Media. The new Centrist group No Labels doesn't want to label its funding sources. A former Reagan operative questions Sarah Palin's Electability. Anti-health care crusader Ken Cuccinelli seems to have beef with George Washington. The Daily Show looks back on the GOP's form...

Justice Kagan says she faces
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says she is facing a "steep learning curve" in her first months on the bench as she is drafting her first opinions and trying to acclimate to life as a judge. In her first interview since joining the court in August, Kagan tells the C-SPAN cable network that there will not be many more cases that she has to sit out because of her previous work for the Obama Administration. Kagan has taken herself out of more than two dozen cases so far, ...

Do they still clap erasers?
been up to since yesterday when she noted that Porking has gotten out of hand? Well, it seems that she realized she skipped Civics class (as did most of her follow inmates at the Asylum) and none of them know anything about government, so she has asked her fellow RWNJ, Antonin Scalia, to teach them about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence. Which of course seems only fair since Fat Tony doesn’t have an opinion on Separation of Powers, etc, as long as it serves...

The Health-Care Overture.
Right now, the legal machinations regarding the Affordable Care Act are kind of like the overture you hear before a musical starts. It's a little preview of the different songs to come, but it isn't really the show itself. So today, Judge Henry Hudson ruled that the Individual Mandate is unconstitutional, in contrast to a series of other judges in other jurisdictions who have found the opposite. Should you be worried? Well yeah, but not because of this ruling. Hudson was hearing the case because...

Fate of health-care law likely to be decided by Supreme Court
Perhaps the only issue on which opponents and supporters of the health-care law can agree is that its fate will probably be decided by the Supreme Court. This Story Fate of health-care law likely to be decided by Supreme Court Live Q&A;: Virginia health-care ruling strikes down key provision of Obama's plan Poll: Do you think the Health Care law is Unconstitutional? Ezra Klein: Is the Hudson ruling good news for health reform? Behind the Numbers: Status of Legal Challenges to Obama health care...

Kagan's Kindle vs. Scalia's iPad
(Credit: Getty Images) When I interviewed Justice Antonin Scalia at last month's Federalist Society dinner, it surprised me to learn the 74-year-old justice is enthusiastically technologically savvy. Not only does he read Supreme Court briefs on his iPad, he even loads his favorite music (all classical) onto his iPod. When you think of the tradition-bound Supreme Court, there's a tendency to imagine the justices still writing opinions with quill pens, as they ponder the great legal questions ...

Scalia To Teach Bachmann's Inaugural Class On The Constitution
Last week we noted that Rep. Michele Bachmann intends to have David Barton as one of the instructors for the weekly class on the Constitution that she is organizing for members of Congress. Dobbs : You've got a terrific idea that you're going to implement with the new Congress: a course on the Constitution for incoming Congressmen and women. Tell us about that. Bachmann : We're going to do what the NFL does and what the Baseball teams do: we're going to practice every week, if you will, our craf...

Virginia v. Sebelius: Judge Hudson & Justice Scalia
Criticism of Judge Hudson’s opinion today in Virginia v. Sebelius has centered on his rejection of the government’s argument that the Insurance mandate is a necessary and proper means to effectuate federal Regulation of the interstate Health Care and Insurance markets. Andrew Koppelman, writing on this blog, and Orin Kerr, at Volokh Conspiracy, complain that Judge Hudson’s analysis ignores the command of McCulloch v. Maryland that in exercising its enumerated powers, Congress c...