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Criminal Law

Crime & Federalism

Discussing recent news and court opinions, with an emphasis on federalism, criminal law, and civil rights actions.

Post Frequency: 8.6/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 15:45:19

Is Omar S. Thornton a Black Joe Stacks?

Posted on August 07, 2010
While I was quick to decry the media's blame-the-victim framing of the Hartford Massacre, Norm Pattis presents an interesting analysis of the massacre. While the victims didn't deserve to be murdered, Omar Thornton does represent another man so consumed by rage that he attacked what he viewed as his oppressors: When I first learned that the shooter was black and...

Ethicists Aren't Ethical: Or, Why Sin is In

Posted on August 06, 2010
Eating meat is likely the most immoral thing any of us do. Animals are sentient beings. They feel pain. They feel fear. The animals we eat are tortured hourly until slaughtered. I've never met a person who researched factory farming conditions who would argue that eating meat is moral...

Links: The United States is a Farce Edition

Posted on August 05, 2010
Some skinny guy might have used illegal drugs (or something) in order to cheat Frenchmen out of a bicycle racing victory. Why care? I don't. Why does the United States Department of Justice care? Isn't there fraud on Wall Street to investigate? Imagine what a world would look like if we started paying attention only to the stuff that impacts...

World's Best Boss?

Posted on August 04, 2010
Yes, it is this guy. (Via Bamber.) He has clear expectations. He is direct. The worst bosses are passive-aggressive whiners who lack the will to state their expectations. That, or they lack the vision to articulate what is expected. I'd be curious to see what the guy's payroll looked like...

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Illegal Immigration: Self-Interest Disguised as Morality

Posted on August 02, 2010
If you're able to afford to hire an illegal immigrant to do your lawn or clean your house, you support illegal immigration. That's a demographic fact. Rich people support illegal immigration. Those who actually live around illegal immigrants are more likely to oppose illegal immigration...

The Root Cause of Obesity

Posted on August 02, 2010
Since obesity is the great public-health hazard facing the United States, everyone is talking about it. It's a fun issue to think deeply about, because there are numerous causes of obesity. Growing up, I was chubby while my two brothers were rail thin...

A Narcissist Mistakes Love With Possession

Posted on July 31, 2010
"This isn't about love as in caring. This is about property as in ownership." Imagine the One Who Got Away is getting married today. Imagine you have a national column, read by tens-of-thousands of people. Imagine you love the One Who Got Away. What do you do? If your answer is anything other than, "Shut up," then like Andrew Cohen,...

Breach of the Social Contract

Posted on July 30, 2010
Until I studied banking and Wall Street, I was the most-useful idiot mankind had ever seen- a libertarian. People would complain about unfair deals, to which I would answer, "It's a free market." The bailouts forced me to re-examine my libertarian assumptions...

How to Increase Your Attention Span

Posted on July 28, 2010
This article was too long, so I didn't read it all. Probably there is something good inside...

U.S. Taxpayers to Pay for BP Oil Spill

Posted on July 28, 2010
It is criminal, as well as totally lawful, for BP to force United States taxpayers to pay for the BP oil spill: Under the U.S. corporate tax law, companies can take credits up to 35% of their loss. Since BP reported $32.2 billion charge related to the cost of the spill, 35% of that will give you roughly $10 billion...

H+ Links

Posted on July 26, 2010
H+ is short for transhumanism, which is something I've studied in various forms since adolescent ventures into Ralph Waldo Emerson's remarkable essays. Today the H+ movement is focused on scientific methods of improving the human condition. Properly understood, H+ should be about total transcendece of mind and body...

The Hell of Sex Offender Registration

Posted on July 26, 2010
Today Scott Greenfeld reprints a depressing e-mail from a person who is a registered sex offender. The person's life on Earth is more-or-less over: I wake up and cant believe whats happen . this has been going on now for 8 1/2 years i have no job i am broke i have nothing i am going to lose my home...

On Anonymous Blogging and Commenting

Posted on July 23, 2010
Who's a bigger weakling: The guy who posts anonymous comments on a blog; or the blogger whose feelings he hurts? *** The answer is obvious, and yet nothing hurts a blogger's feelings more than an anonymous insult. We want people to identify themselves, so that we may salve the wound...

Jonathan Zasloff and the World of Passive-Aggressives

Posted on July 22, 2010
Does UCLA law professor Jonathan Zasloff represent all that is weak about America? Consider this: Zasloff, tired of listening to FoxNews (and listening to people talk about FoxNews) decided that ignoring morons was too difficult. That would require some level of self-control and virture...

BP Oil Spill: "We now have killed the Gulf of Mexico"

Posted on July 21, 2010
How bad is the BP oil spill? Is the well really capped? Even if the well is capped, so what? Unfortunately, we do not know, because we cannot know. One EPA official claims: Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that...

The Trial Lawyer's "Tax Cut" That Isn't

Posted on July 20, 2010
Running a business costs money, and under normal accounting practices, ordinary and necessary business expenses are tax deductible. If I buy a printer cartridge, for example, I'm able to claim that expense as a tax deduction. I am also able to claim that business expense immediately...

Links, Links, Links

Posted on July 19, 2010
* "Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police." The government tells us that we shouldn't concern ourselves with privacy, because only those with something bad to hide need privacy. Why then does the government prosecute American citizens for simply recording an interaction with police? * The Beauty Bias surfaces again...

Triumph

Posted on July 18, 2010
Holocaust survivor dances at concentration camp. It's amazing what a person can get over when he decides to actually get over it.

The Two Selves: Experience v. Remembering

Posted on July 18, 2010

Scientific Framing

Posted on July 16, 2010
Philosophy is the most importance discipline, because everything you believe results from a philosophical claim. This is so even with "hard science." Consider the issue of defining disease. What is aging? Really, let's talk about this in a classroom format...

Science v. Science-Fiction

Posted on July 16, 2010
Most of what we hear from mainstream scientists is best understood as science-fiction - though since scientists hide the fictional aspect of their stories, we should call them liars. For decades have doctors and other scientists claimed that, "Steroids don't work...

Tyson

Posted on July 16, 2010
Fascinating interview with a fascinating man. If you haven't ready, watch the documentary about his life - appropriately titled Tyson.

Watching the News is Way Worse than I-Dosing

Posted on July 15, 2010
The TV hasn't been on in months, and there shouldn't even be one in my apartment. This is one of many reasons why one must never watch television - especially "news": That video is not satire. It's not a joke site - or at least not to the news producers...

Why Partisans Are Wall Street's Useful Idiots

Posted on July 15, 2010
Both Democrats and Republicans took bribes from subprime fraud, Countrywide: U.S. senators or Senate employees received 30 loans?far more than had previously been known?under a controversial lending program at Countrywide Financial Corp. that provided cut-rate terms to favored borrowers...

Links, Links, Links!

Posted on July 12, 2010
* The Middle Class has always been boring. See Class. It's thus unsurprising that they aren't having sex. Boring is another word for stable, however, and thus Wall Street's destruction of the Middle Class means more instability. * Who would imagine that someone earning six figures should receive overtime protection? Aren't overtime laws designed to protect low-wage workers? The plaintiffs'...

Strategic Default and Slave Morality

Posted on July 10, 2010
Months ago an online dispute arouse between two people - slave masters and slave revolters. Though not a homeowner, I advocated strategic default - walking away from an below water mortgage that you can afford to pay. People like Megan McArdle (herself a welfare queen) argued in favor of slave masters: Pay your debts, plebeians! It's your duty...

Nudge Yourself Out of My Life

Posted on July 08, 2010
Although physics and other legitimate sciences currently lack a Theory of Everything, the litmus test of policy philosophy and other pseudo-sciences is consistency of political theory. If you're a libertarian who would nevertheless tax people to prevent children from starving in the streets, prepare your armaments...

Barefoot Running

Posted on July 08, 2010
You are wearing shoes when you walk and run because you've been lied to. I avoided buying these shoes for years - mainly out of obstinacy. Too many yuppies and white people have them, and therefore I couldn't. Yet the logic is unassailable, and not buying the shoes is only torturing my body for the sake of not being yuppie...

Computer Graphic Indicating BP Oil Spill Flow

Posted on July 08, 2010
Lebron James is some basketball player, I gather. This video seems much more relevant and important to my life. Lebron James could die tomorrow. Oh well. It would mean nothing. The BP Oil Spill is something we're going to live with for decades. How did it happen? Why has the CEO been paid millions in salary - that he'll never...

A Criminal Defense Lawyer Explains the BART Shooting Verdict

Posted on July 08, 2010
It was (in my view, at least) the right verdict. The BART shooting is what happens when you give every monkey a badge, gun, and Taser. That doesn't mean the monkey commits (legally-defined) murder when it shots someone.

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