William F. Buckley reports on the raging controversy: The major battleground next week is in Nevada, where people will vote on Question 9. If the vote is affirmative, in 2004 a constitutional ratifying amendment will be on the ballot which would legalize pot, which is to say, permit 3-ounce packets of it to be sold [...]

This topic been circulating for a while. Jim at Philosoblog kicked things off by discussing (scroll down, Blogger permalinks busted as usual) the role of envy in leftist politics. I pointed out that envy can be animated by such tiny distinctions that placating it is of no use. Michael of Team Blowhard jumped in, arguing [...]

I was listening to Jerry Cronin, the Right-to-Life Party gubernatorial candidate in New York, on the radio this morning, and he claimed that the Hippocratic Oath proscribes abortion. This sounded wrong to me, so I looked it up. Turns out he’s right. The injunctions of the original oath are remarkable. They are: To tithe one’s [...]

Is here. Worked for me anyway.

Radley Balko finally unburdens himself about war with Iraq. He’s against: Id say yes if I could see definitive proof that Iraq had nuclear capabilities and had plans to put them into action. Id say yes if I could see definitive proof that Saddams own sense of self-preservation and survival were overwhelmed by his hatred [...]

Iintelligent people whom I usually agree with like Misha and Arthur Silber have argued that Wellstone ought not to be eulogized. I was going to reply but there’s no point in writing about anything Lileks has written about first.

From The Sum of Life Nothing to do but work, Nothing to eat but food, Nothing to wear but clothes, To keep one from going nude. Nothing to breathe but air, Quick as a flash ’tis gone; Nowhere to fall but off, Nowhere to stand but on. Nothing to sing but songs; Ah well, alas, [...]

Title: Those Evil Warbloggers Stardate: 20021026.1025 Word Count: 2,247 Impetus: Some Brit blogger who’s upset that actual conservatives use the Internet too. And that whole Little Green Footballs vs. Anil Dash MSNBC hate speech thing. Thesis: If speech is unrestricted, truth will out. Historical Reference: Justice Holmes’ 1919 dissent, in Abrams v. U.S.: “The best [...]

Senator Paul Wellstone, who was killed in a plane crash this afternoon, was a professor of political science at Carleton College in the early 1980s, when I went there. Even then he was a charismatic figure, with a cadre of student followers, the “Wellstoners,” who tried to stir up the usual lefty trouble, organizing the [...]

Now that “meta” and “fisk” have been removed, one hopes, from discourse by Stephen Green and Colby Cosh, respectively, can we lose “meme” too? “Meme,” like “meta,” is a useful technical term. It was coined by Richard Dawkins and it means “cultural information transmitted by imitation,” like bird songs or dolphin whistles. It does not [...]