Monthly Archives: April 2014

What I’m Reading, April 30, 2014

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By Constitution_Pg1of4_AC.jpg: Constitutional Convention derivative work: Bluszczokrzew (Constitution_Pg1of4_AC.jpg) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsLibertarian Law Prof Debunks Bundy Nonsense, Ed Brayton, Dispatches from the Culture Wars, April 25, 2014

As some of the more militant libertarians, especially the anarcho-capitalists, flock to the support of Cliven Bundy in his standoff with the federal government, most of the libertarian-minded law professors are debunking their absurd claims and pointing out how gloriously wrong those people are. Josh Blackman is one of them.

First, Bundy seems to reject the Constitution’s property clause. (It was a wonderful twist of scheduling fate that I assigned the “Property Clause” in ConLaw the week after the Bundy Ranch standoff. ) In an interview he said that the federal government has “no jurisdiction or authority” on his grazing rights. Under the Property Clause, Congress has the power to “dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” The land at issue was owned by the United States prior to Nevada statehood as a territory. I suspect Bundy will argue that his family has obtained a prescriptive easement on the land, as it has continuously, openly, and (absolutely) hostilely, grazed on the land for 170 years. Though, adverse possession is not permissible against the federal government. Continue reading →

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What I’m Reading, April 29, 2014

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Tom Woodward [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)], via FlickrBe Exploited By the People You Know! Scott Lemieux, Lawyers , Guns & Money, April 25, 2014

Ahead of today’s vote at Northwestern, the actions of proponents of the NCAA’s indefensible status quo were predictable:

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Coach Pat Fitzgerald, a former football star who is revered on campus, has framed a vote for the union as a personal betrayal.

“Understand that by voting to have a union, you would be transferring your trust from those you know — me, your coaches and the administrators here — to what you don’t know — a third party who may or may not have the team’s best interests in mind,” Fitzgerald wrote to the team in an email.

And don’t kid yourself: the people and organizations reaping huge amounts of money off of your unpaid, physically taxing labor, and yet impose extraordinary rules that prevent you from even being compensated by third parties, totally have only your interests at heart.

“Due process? What due process? We’re rescuing hookers!” Donna Gratehouse, Blog for Arizona, April 17, 2014 Continue reading →

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Eight Amendments

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Here’s something you might not know about the Bill of Rights, from Gerard Magliocca:

Is the Bill of Rights the first eight amendments or the first ten? No doubt many of you would say 10 because ten were ratified in 1791.

Many cases and commentators, though, define the Bill of Rights as the first 8. Learned Hand took this view. So did Hugo Black and Felix Frankfurter. Why is that? Partly it’s because they did not care for the Tenth Amendment and thus wanted to read it out of the Bill of Rights. (Black also didn’t like the Ninth Amendment). Another thought is that the Bill of Rights must really be about specific individual rights, which leaves the 9th and 10th out in the cold. You can find many authorities that use this formulation, and as far as I know there is no definitive statement from the Supreme Court to the contrary.

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What I’m Reading, April 28, 2014

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klsgfx [Public domain, CC0 1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)], via OpenclipartPlease, Please, Please: Do Not Make Your Kid The Center Of Your Universe, Cassie Murdoch, Jezebel, July 6, 2012

It’s impossible to say for sure that intensive parenting leads to depression and stress and being dissatisfied, but the links don’t really make sense if you flip them around. It’s also not clear whether intensive parenting has any great impact on the children, but Liss concludes that anything that makes moms depressed probably doesn’t benefit children in the long run. Plus, anecdotally some of us have observed that making your child the center of the universe tends to result in rather obnoxious offspring.

Justice Sotomayor accuses colleagues of thinking they can ‘wish away’ racial inequality, Robyn Pennacchia, Death and Taxes, April 23, 2014

Just yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the people of Michigan had the right, via mob rule, to ban the practice of Affirmative Action at state institutions such as the University of Michigan. It wasn’t a good ruling. Ever since the state voted to ban it, minority enrollment has declined significantly. Which is not surprising, because when you ignore unearned privileged and advantages, it’s hardly shocking when the priviledg and advantaged pull ahead. Obviously the person who starts the race in the middle of a marathon is going to have a better chance at winning.

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I Am a Gentrifier

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Natalia Wilson [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)], via FlickrA little over a year ago, we moved into a neighborhood in east Austin that was entirely unknown to me even a few months earlier. We are, to phrase it as pretentiously as possible, part of the vanguard of gentrification in this area. Our zip code ranks in the bottom half of Austin zip codes in terms of median income and education level. The signs of future gentrification, from a rising abundance of house flippers to the beginnings of actual road maintenance, are making themselves known—and part of me feels very bad about this.

The conventional wisdom among progressive white Gen Xers is that gentrification is a Bad Thing, but no one has ever come up with a viable alternative if you can’t afford to live anywhere else within a city. We wanted to live somewhere with convenient access to downtown (where my wife works), with a big yard (where our dogs run and poop), and with at least one extra bedroom to put my desk (where I “work”). Other neighborhoods didn’t just exceed our price range, they actively mocked it. But should I actually feel any sort of complicity in the fact that prices are going up in this area, and that sooner or later, people who have lived here longer than us won’t be able to afford it any more? Was there actually anything we could have done differently? Maybe, but maybe not, if a recent article by Daniel Hertz in The Atlantic Cities is any indication (h/t Marley): Continue reading →

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Puppycide and Other Problems

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Austin police officers shot and killed another dog last week. They described the dog as a pit bull, because of course. They also say that dashboard camera footage supports their version of the story—”that the officers had no choice but to respond that way to this dog that was charging at them,” and that “they didn’t have time to have a plan B to draw their Tasers or draw their pepper spray this is a matter of seconds”—although the family adamantly disputes their account:

[Alicia] Guerrero says when the family member holding on to the dog let go, officers shot the animal in the head. She says the dog was retreating to the house when it was shot a second time, ultimately dying on the front stoop.

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Monday Morning Cute: Bucket of Sloths

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This is a bucket full of baby sloths. The two at bottom right are French kissing.

That’s all for this week. Trust me, you couldn’t take any more than this.

(See Slothville for more sloths if you don’t want to heed my warning…)

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Mental Health Reading: Drip Drip

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A comic entitled “Drip Drip” starts out with two girls taking a shortcut through the woods, but then goes somewhere else entirely. Here is a sample:

drip-drip

The ending may be subject to different interpretations. I think it’s about finding some shred of hope, or something to live for, when things seem at their worst. In this case, it’s friendship.

The full comic, by pirrip, is available on Imgur and Tumblr. I also reblogged it to Tumblr.

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What I’m Reading, April 25, 2014

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By Robin klein (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsPut Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, evolved beyond the fist mistermix, Balloon Juice, April 19, 2014

The Will/Krauthammer justification for unlimited campaign contributions is that it is free speech protected by the Constitution, and it’s just a happy coincidence that the political party they back has more money to spend on political donations. Now that they’ve installed a Supreme Court that agrees with them, they’re trying to turn the reasonable consequences of free speech into some form of persecution.

Hellraiser vs. The Hellbound Heart, Mark Pellegrini, Adventures in Poor Taste, October 12, 2012

Personally, I prefer Hellraiser over The Hellbound Heart just as I prefer Candyman over The Forbidden; I found it took all the elements I enjoyed from the story and improved upon them. However, there were a couple of items from the book which I either liked better or thought added a bit more to the story. In the book, when Frank summons the Cenobites, they make him feel every orgasm he’s ever had in his entire life all at once before tearing him to pieces (as opposed to the movie, where they just eviscerate Frank as soon as they arrive). This was important to the plot in that the spillage of Frank’s semen acted as a catalyst to his resurrection when Raury/Larry spilled his blood in the attic. Additionally, this version better represented the “pleasure and pain unified” concept which the Cenobites are supposed to embody. I suppose the only other detail from the book which I wish had made it into the film is what happened after Kirsty made her deal with the Cenobites. In the book, they give her a time limit and as each minute passes she can feel an invisible “noose” squeeze tighter around her neck. This added a bit of suspense to the climax, as Kirsty struggles to get Frank to verbally admit to his escape from Hell.

Technically, this is from “Hellraiser 2,” but shut up.

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