The military will attempt to shoot down a crippled spy satellite some time in the next two weeks , says the New York Times. OF course, the reasons given are pretty good ones (public safety, etc). But, methinks they protest too much when they say "the Pentagon said that they were not using the exercise to test their most exotic weapons or send a message to any adversaries ." (Emphasis mine) Anything the US Military does sends a message - and as far as messages go this one isn't ...

I pushed the button for Thompson, who the NYTimes is reporting with 0.6% of the vote in NJ (not too shabby). I was also incorrect in my estimate that Romney would take NJ - NYtimes is estimating 55% to McCain - so my message doesn't seem to have hurt McCain's chances...

New Jersey is now a Super Tuesday state, and all of the candidates are still on the ballot So on the democratic part is (and in order from left to right - I wonder how place on ballot is assigned) Barak Obama - Dennis Kucinich - John Edwards - Joe Biden - Bill Richardson - Hillary Clinton On the Republican part is Rudy Giuliani - Fred Thompson - Mitt Romney - John McCain - Ron Paul - Mike Huckabee Names are as spelled on the ballot. I'm taking the opportunity to send a message -...

I have just six words to tell all of you who want to let your "silence" be heard by the Republicans Supreme Court Justice William Jefferson Clinton Sweet dreams...

I'm rifffing on Megan again - but she has an interesting comment about the Democratic debates today. "I look at that debate and it seems to me that Democrats think they can't lose in November--that the only important battle is the one for the nomination." I find that interesting, because I know for a fact this is true of New York City (It's the reason Mayor Bloomberg ran as a Republican), and suspect it's true of much of Illinois. In areas that are heavily dominated by one party, ...

One thing that bugs me about Libertarians (and many libertarians) is their fetish for gold. Megan McArdle takes a shot at explaining some of the things that bug me (economically) about the gold standard here and here . In particular, the gold standard seems to be a solution for a symptom instead of the underlying disease. That disease, of course, being, an untrustworthy government. As Megan says:  "In short, you don't get anything out of a gold standard that you didn't bring ...

I have decided that Amicus Curiae is latin for kitbitzers

The DOJ brief lit the fuse that the SCOTUS tried to quench with their limited definition of the question at hand. What' at the other end of that fuse nobody knows (except possibly Justice Kennedy)... DC asked the Supreme Court to decide "Whether the Second Amendment forbids the District of Columbia from banning private possession of handguns while allowing possession of rifles and shotguns." Heller asked "Whether the Second Amendment guarantees law-abiding, adult in...

I just ran across a literal case of damning with faint praise in a comment on Megan McArdle's blog at the Atlantic. Why are you Obama supporters so depressed? I know he's a great speaker -- I haven't seen a crowd in the palm of any speaker's hand like that since " Triumph of The Will " -- but as a practical matter, there is hardly any policy difference between Hillary and Obama. He's maybe 5% more liberal than her. Is style more important to you than substance? - Posted by...

My wife pointed me at this article in the Consumerist which touched on the policies regarding unaccompanied minors for various airlines. Several of the commentators were shocked that Southwest officially did not escort children of 12+ years; and in general that children of 10-13 or so were not treated as defenseless to the world. By the time I was 13 (I say that because it was 20 years ago, and my memory is hazy for which summers some of this happened in) I had done or was allowed to ...

Are there any firearms restrictions that would have prevented the Westroads Mall shooting (short of an outright ban). Not really. First, despite all the hype abbout how the killer used an "assault weapon", that's a non-started. He used a magazine-fed semi-automatic rifle in a medium caliber. In other circumstances, this would be a hunting rifle. There are purpose-designed hunting rifles with the same pertinent features (semi-auto, magazine-fed, medium caliber) as the rifle that the ...

The Westroads Mall in Omaha, NE was the scene of another massacre by a mentally-disturbed individual last week. The killer's goals appeared to be to become famous and to die. He has suceeded at both, but in opposition to his goals, I will not name him. As with many other shootings of this type, it occurred in a nominal "Gun-Free" zone. Unlike some others, I'm not going to claim that the killer chose his venue based on the lack of legal firearms, as other shooters have gone to police statio...

Very much in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya "You keep on citing that case - it does not mean what you think it mean s". I was reminded recently of “ The Peculiar Story of United States v. Miller ” in the comments there, and re-read that article. I think that the gollums ' continual citing of Miller is going to bit them in the ass, HARD. Review the following from "The Peculiar Story...": McReynolds assumed the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms ...

Sebastian offers us this story of a home defense incident involving a sword. (It turns out well for the sword wielder). Picture yourself in this position, though; especially if you are not a large and fit man. A large man, dripping blood, has just entered your bedroom and is demanding that you keep quiet and don't let the police know he's there. He is evidently not in his right mind. What are your options? What can you do, what will you do? Locking the doors didn't help this couple -...

(Title from a song by Tim McGraw) I was at work when someone said down the row of desks "Did you hear about a plane hitting the World Trade Center?" I assumed that it was a General Aviation (light) aircraft, and said something to the effect that the towers were built to withstand that, having learned from the incident with the Empire State building and a B-25 bomber... Sadly, I was proven wrong. But that's not what was imprinted on my brain that day; rather, a little while later, I was ...