Legal Commentary

A blow to third party candidates.

Posted on March 18, 2008
The Supreme Court in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party reversed the 9th Cir. and upheld Washington State's top-two primary system. The way it works is that every candidate puts down the party that they self-identify with, Washingtonian's vote for whomever they want, and the top-two move on – it could be two 'democrats' or two 'republicans' or one of each...

Quizzin' is more better than studyin'

Posted on November 30, 2007
Which Federal Rule of Civ Pro are you? If this is accurate I am one relaxed cat, Rule 8(a). Perhaps why I haven't started studying?

A bad assignment

Posted on October 23, 2007
I've been around some smaller wildfires but it is hard to relate to the suck this guy must have been feeling. As a side note, awhile back I saw this article (or a similar one) on insurance companies hiring private firefighters. Here are the details of the service provided by AIG.

A quick smoke break

Posted on October 10, 2007
I have get back to reading about federal subject-matter jurisdiction and don't have time to talk about all the ways in which this is disgusting, but here's the quickish version of my rant... First off, I hate walking through, smelling, and generally being around cigarette smoke...

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I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

Posted on September 25, 2007
Since Addison is regaling you with his riveting stories from the frontlines, I may as well mention that my third year started yesterday. There are distressingly few crim classes left for me to take; I probably could have put one off to take professional responsibility before the MPRE ("not a test to determine an individual's personal ethical values") in November...

Campaign Finance Reform (Law School Post 1)

Posted on September 24, 2007
Steve Simpson from IJ came over to the law school to give a little chat on 527s and free speech. The takeaway: money may not be speech but it can be used for speech, and when you limit that ability you infringe on 1st amendment rights. The fact that people want to influence government (a charge often levied against 527s and their supporters) shouldn't come as a surprise and neither should the fact that it takes money to do on a large scale.

Back, by Petulant Demand

Posted on September 04, 2007
My blogging gears are rusty; maybe I'll ease back in with some go-read-that-other-thing posts. Like, say, D.C. finally filed its petition for cert in Heller today. It is mostly well written, though snide in some places and maudlin in others. Not one original idea in there, by my count...

Bad ads

Posted on August 30, 2007
When Google downgraded the search ranking for An Inclination to Criticize, I sank into a deep, self-loathing depression. How was that teenager in Stockholm to learn that he was not alone, that others too were "inclined to criticize Chavez"? Certainly not from the Venezuelan press...

Statistics Season

Posted on April 02, 2007
Baseball keeps stats on everything. You could find the day game batting average for third year players, when playing in stadiums with retractable roofs, when the roof is closed. But having statistics only does so much. Economist J. C. Bradbury's NY Times Op-Ed tells us why he thinks all the talk about the impact of steroids on stats is overblown: Baseball commentators have been quick to blame performance-enhancing drugs...

Thinking about Pareto

Posted on March 21, 2007
Say there are two parties, the SWs and the PIs, who always know the exact outcome of their legislation: The SWs subscribe to the ideology that legislative action should be taken anytime it will improve aggregate social welfare. The PIs will only act when it will result in a Pareto improvement...

Everyone's doing it...

Posted on March 14, 2007
To be completely honest, I don't know much about insider trading. I know you shouldn't lie about it -- I'm looking at you, Martha (thank you for explaining the difference between all-purpose and cake flour, the egg-dyeing tips, and, oh, everything). But the recent NY Times Op-Ed by R...

What we didn't hear (much)

Posted on March 05, 2007
When US financial markets took their biggest single day hit in four years, what was most notable was the silence according to Sebastian Mallaby, op-ed columnist for the Washington-Post. People may have been a little nervous, but, for the most part, they didn't run around blasting the market's inefficiencies or proposing new regulation of hedge funds...

NASCAR, seriously

Posted on March 01, 2007
I was watching Sunday Morning around the time Toyota was gearing up to make its NASCAR debut (which is to say, recently), and I heard one middle-aged southern gentleman proclaim, "I'm an American. I want to see American cars. I fought for this country...

When I read some blogs...

Posted on February 27, 2007
...I want to ask the author what exactly his point is.* Russell Roberts, over at Cafe Hayek, reviewed a Wall Street Journal article on instrumental variables, television, and autism. The WSJ article explained instrumental variables better than my economic statistics professor, and then made fairly modest claims about the data (as did, I believe, the authors of the economic study)...

Science Times

Posted on February 27, 2007
The Op-Ed section of the NY Times has been a lot less thought provoking since John Tierney left. But for those who are tired of Brooks and Krugman, his articles in Science Times offer a bit of refreshment. This week, Tierney profiles the unusual Stewart Brand...

Hugo's handout

Posted on February 26, 2007
Living in Boston, the neon Citgo sign is a constant reminder of Hugo Chavez and his state run oil industry. In the winter there is another reminder nearly every time I turn on the TV. Citgo has been running commercials featuring old people who receive subsidized heating oil "from our friends in Venezuela...

What I've been thinking about

Posted on February 26, 2007
I spent my weekend in the wonderful (and oh so cold) Saratoga Springs. I promise not to make a habit of thinking anyone cares what I do, but I was there for Skidmore's first APDA debate tournament and there were some interesting topics: Abolish Indian Reservations Repeal Holocaust Denial Laws You are a death row prison guard; do you execute an innocent but fairly convicted inmate? You're an Afghan farmer; do you grow opium or a food crop?

Lobbying for regulation

Posted on February 21, 2007
Using government regulation for business advantage has become just another part of the game. It came as a surprise to me, but Wal-Mart has been particularly supportive of government programs lately as Glen Whitman points out. And they are not alone...

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