A friend from Tennessee asked in an online forum: If someone could articulate the distinction between the two parties, I would love to know. It would be lovely to have a major party that I could believe in. Also, it… Continue Reading
No doubt, the way a ballot initiative is described is a matter of some importance for the initiative’s success or failure. Thus the importance of electing an honest Attorney General, since it is that officer in California, and not the… Continue Reading
Continuing in a vein from the past post, here’s a reminder to all my American bloggers that they should cherish and be thankful for their freedoms. In Italy, it is a crime to mock the Pope. After warming up with… Continue Reading
If the results of the Electoral College’s vote for President are tied, the vote goes to the House of Representatives. The House can vote on the top three Electoral College vote-getters. Each state gets one vote; the votes count equally.… Continue Reading
I previously wrote about the rather silly theory that John McCain is constitutionally ineligible to be President. That theory depended on a particular interpretation of a particular law concerning the Panama Canal Zone and its relationship to the United States.… Continue Reading
Yesterday, California’s Supreme Court issued a decision that ordered a fertility clinic to make its artificial insemination services equally available to a lesbian as it did to a straight woman. This means that the lesbian will now be able to… Continue Reading
Traditionally, Chinese society takes a dim but not completely negative view of homosexuality. The begetting of children, particularly sons, is a duty of a good Chinese man; this is reinforced by Confucian and Taoist teachings. So traditional morality in China… Continue Reading
One of the many notions I see from time to time — one held with religious-like fanaticism by its proponents — is the concept of jury nullification. Briefly, this is the idea that a jury (not a judge) may nullify,… Continue Reading
It will come as a surprise to no one who regularly reads this blog that issues of due process of law are particularly sensitive ones for me. So those of you Readers who know a thing or two about China… Continue Reading
A military tribunal has tried Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, and found him guilty of receiving weapons training and delivering arms in the cause of terrorist attacks on the United States. He has been sentenced to imprisionment for five… Continue Reading