Republicans Win Big in Local Races

The loss of a Republican seat in NY-23 under highly unusual circumstances notwithstanding, yesterday was a good day for Republicans. After crushing defeats in successive elections, they won back the Virginia governor's office in a blowout and knocked off a billionaire incumbent governor in New Jersey despite having their vote split between two candidates. I would, however, resist the temptation ...

Martians Can’t Sue

Eugene Volokh brings to our attention, rather belatedly, the case of Joly v. Pelletier, in which Rene Joly brought a suit some ten years ago alleging that Pelletier and others had conspired to suppress evidence that he was a Martian.  The judge dismissed the case on two grounds: 1. Neither pleading discloses a cause of action. While conspiracy to do harm ...

Don’t Bring a Knife to a Coffee Fight

A self-professed gun nut named Caleb: Saturday leaving my office, I was the subject of an attempted mugging by a member of the Indianapolis Choir Boy School of Good Men Who are Only Down on Their Luck.  As I was leaving my office, said altar boy came around the corner of my building to the left into the side parking lot, ...

Prosecutors Investigate Innocence Project Students

A rather bizarre case in Illinois -- even by the standards of that state. For more than a decade, classes of students at Northwestern University’s journalism school have been scrutinizing the work of prosecutors and the police. The investigations into old crimes, as part of the Medill Innocence Project, have helped lead to the release of 11 inmates, the project’s director ...

Limbaugh, Obama, and the NFL

Joseph Ashby argues that something fishy is being ignored in the matter of Rush Limbaugh's failed bid to buy the Rams. NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith served as counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder and was a member of Barack Obama’s transition team. [...] Despite the fact that Smith’s opposition was based on Limbaugh’s political commentary, the report failed to mention ...

Punt the NFL

Glenn Reynolds links some poor sap who is angry at the NFL because Rush Limbaugh has been dumped from the group bidding for the Rams and is going to start a one-man boycott under the banner "Punt the NFL." I have cancelled my DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket package (including the Supercast). I will not watch ONE MINUTE of NFL games or ...

Wizard of Oz Turns 70

Glenn Reynolds' post noting "The Wizard of Oz turns 70 years old" was the latest of what is becoming for me an all-too-frequent occurrence: reading a completely different context and being momentarily confused.   My immediate reaction was "There's no way in hell Ozzie Smith is 70."   (He turns 55 the day after Christmas, making him older than I'd have guessed.) Of ...

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

A well-done Star Trek - Monty Python mashup: via Glenn Reynolds

Town Halls and T-Shirts

WaPo fashion critic Robin Givhan has irked some conservative bloggers by going after the town hall protesters for being a mite casual in their choice of couture. By and large, the shouters are dressed in a way that underscores their Average Guy -- or Gal -- bona fides. They are wearing T-shirts, baseball caps, promotional polo shirts and sundresses with bra ...

Iraq War Casualty Predictions

Tim Lambert linked some prewar Iraq War casualty predictions collected by John Hawkins in early 2003: If we go into Iraq, how many casualties do you expect to see (on the side of the US and our allies) John Hawkins: "Probably 300 or less" Charles Johnson:"Very few" Henry Hanks: "Less than 200" Laurence Simon: "A Few hundred" Rachael Lucas: "Less than three thousand" Scott Ott: "Dozens" Glenn Reynolds: ...

Obama’s Empathy Team

Following a link from Glenn Reynolds to a Salon piece by Frances Kissling on whether "Regina Benjamin is too fat to be surgeon general," I was instead struck by a closing that took a wild tangent: Watching the Sonia Sotomayor hearings, I've found myself thinking about our president's nominees and how many of them share elements of his background: People who ...

State Liquor Stores

Glenn Reynolds points to a story by Doug Winship about Washington State's liquor stores running out of, um, liquor just in time for the July 4th weekend during which all good Americans celebrate their country's independence by getting hammered. Naturally, all liquor stores in Washington State are run by the government of the state of Washington who 1) screwed up ...

Madoff vs. Murderers

Dr. Helen Smith (aka Mrs. Glenn Reynolds and The InstaWife) asks, in re Bernie Madoff's 150 year sentence, "Why is it that someone who set up a Ponzi scheme gets more jail time than the majority of murderers?" Glenn Reynolds, Esq. (aka, the InstaPundit) answers, "I think it’s because he made powerful people look stupid." There's something to that.  But "the majority ...

Too Much [Internet] Bad for Marriage

Glenn Reynolds points to an incredibly thinly sourced AFP report that "Too much time spent on the Internet" is straining marriages in Ireland.   One naturally extrapolates that to other countries causing the man who spends approximately 27 hours a day online to quip "Uh oh." Rather than spend time harping on the fact that professional editors let this horribly written piece ...

Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week

When I saw Glenn Reynolds' post "Can you get fit in six minutes a week?" I was sure I had a candidate for an Asked and Answered post:  No. But, dutifully clicking the link, I found a NYT health blog from Gretchen Reynolds (presumably, no relation) with the same title. There was a time when the scientific literature suggested that the only ...