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Archive for the 'Judicial System' Category

A Liberal’s Thoughts On A Conservative’s Problem

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

by Mike

A commentator on this site Blue Foot, just posed a really interesting question that I thought I would take a shot at answering. But the answer got long, so I thought I’d put it in a post instead of a comment. The question was:
“So what’s the path to small government?”
So I’m pretty liberal [...]

Second Chances

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

by Mike

The Supreme Court will soon hear a series of cases on whether or not juveniles can be sentenced to life without parole for crimes that aren’t murder.
Personally, I think it is silly to sentence a juvenile to life without parole for any crime.
Take this quote, which is actually a defense of the practice by the [...]

Why Conservatives Are Liberal (But Not Vice Versa)

Friday, October 9th, 2009

by Mike

I believe that the two most confusing and misunderstood words in the English language are “conservative” and “liberal”. I’ve talked about this before, but given that I had to clarify this for my wife last week, I realize that maybe I should revisit it. Both phrases have multiple, often contradictory, definitions, so let’s [...]

A Good Idea

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

by Mike

Make sure to check out this op-ed in today’s New York Times. The author, John Cougan, is a lawyer for the public commission in Rhode Island that oversees the health care industry. He argues that a huge problem that contributes to the confusion, denial of care, and legal hassle that surround the health [...]

A Disturbingly Bad Idea

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

by Mike

Politicians are strategic actors. They plan. They scheme. They compromise when they think it will get them what they want, and they hold out for a better deal when they think it won’t. When legislators can’t reach a compromise position (on a budget, or on health care, or on immigration, or [...]

Empathy and Prejudice (but sadly no zombies)

Monday, July 13th, 2009

by Mike

“In Ricci, Judge Sotomayor’s empathy for one group of firefighters turned out to be prejudice against another.” — Senator Jeff Sessions, R-AL, Ranking GOP Senator on the Judicial Committee
Let’s look at that statement closely.

Things That Don’t Belong on Television

Monday, July 13th, 2009

by Mike

I’m not advocating legal action here; just making a subjective statement that these things are unhealthy for everyone involved (especially the American people).

Conservative Jurists

Friday, May 29th, 2009

by Mike

I haven’t been posting much lately because I’ve been spending most of my time packing all of my possessions into boxes. Ah, the joys of moving. But I have been paying attention to the news, especially the resignation of Justice David Souter and the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. I can’t remember [...]

Prison Reform

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

by Mike

There are about 1.4 million Americans currently in state and federal prisons. And that’s not even counting the hundreds of thousands more in jail. Just so you know, prison is different than jail. Jail is designed as a temporary holding facility for those with short sentences (usually less than one year) or [...]

On A-Rod, Steroids, and the Media

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

by Mike

As you probably heard, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez just admitted to using steroids. It seems to me that everyone is in the wrong here: A-Rod is certainly in the wrong for taking steroids, but the blame doesn’t end with him. The testing lab, the Justice Department, Sports Illustrated, the Players [...]