Thursday, February 4th, 2010
SWAT team responds to second-grader with a cap gun.
Guy’s wife cries at the end of every movie. Naturally, he videotapes her and makes a website.
Great photo. Takes a master photographer to squeeze so much ego into one frame.
Stories like this one are enough to make me embrace my inner William Bennett. Who thought this was a good idea?
Cheetahs vs. baby antelope. No blood, just nuzzling.
AC/DC’s Brian Johnson tells Bono to get over himself.
Fourth-grader reprimanded, nearly suspended for bringing two-inch Lego gun to school. Looks like they did at least manage to avoid calling the SWAT team.
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Friday, January 15th, 2010
Via the comments, police break into Pennsylvania man’s home, arrest and jail him after he exchanges words with an off-duty state trooper. The man says he was confronting the trooper about parking in a no-parking zone. Even if the guy was drunk and cursing, as the cops allege, that isn’t cause to break into his home. The refusal to release the 911 recording certainly inclines one to think the cops are lying, here.
D.C. Metro general manager John Catoe resigns. ‘Bout damn time.
“…there could be two Americans receiving the exact same benefits, but one American may be taxed and one wouldn’t, and the only difference would be one of them being a member of a union.” Welcome to Obamacare, where some people are more equal than others!
He does work in mysterious ways.
Federal judge blocks FDA’s attempt to prohibit electronic cigarettes. The campaign against e-cigarettes is one of the dumbest things the agency has done in some time. It could quite literally kill people.
Another fun blog: Letters of Note.
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Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
Roundup of all the new laws that will take effect in California this year. Remember when people once described Schwarzenegger as libertarianish?
I want one.
Man commits robbery for jail time away from his in-laws.
Interesting: The Michaelangelo Effect and relationships.
“They killed my lawyer.”
The true odds of airborne terrorism.
The top blog posts and articles at Reason last year.
Ninth Circuit panel rules that Tasers can’t be used for mere noncompliance. This is a huge decision if it holds up.
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Is anyone remotely surprised by this?
Or, for that matter, this?
Police enter home unannounced after receiving reports of a neighborhood prowler, shoot and kill family dog. No prowler.
Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley, a frontrunner for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, was the AG who argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that forensic experts shouldn’t necessarily be subject to cross examination. Apparently, she didn’t do so well. Coakley has also been aggressive in the crackdown on prescription pain medication and has defended the controversial “recovered memory” sex abuse scandals from the 1980s and 90s.
British towns requiring parents to pass a criminal background check before being allowed to supervise their own children on public playgrounds.
Why I like Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
Read the bills? Why not just read the Constitution?
Pretty cool way of illustrating the tininess of atoms.
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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Want to banish a sex offender enclave? Build a day care center near them.
Martin Short as Jerry Lewis singing Bob Dylan in an old SCTV bit. Found this SCTV skit on the same page, and it’s even better. (Via Max Sawicky.)
Interesting story about the A.P. reporter whose beat is to cover executions.
SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts wants to broaden the drunk driving exception to the Fourth Amendment.
Hi Britain. Welcome to the drug war, American style.
Food activists finding that idealized school lunch proposals will . . . actually cost money. I don’t have a problem with the idea that if we’re going to have public schools, they should try to serve the kids healthy food. In fact, I support that idea. But these nutrition activists often seem rather detached from reality.
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Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Okay, this is a pretty great Halloween costume.
DOJ civil rights division says North Carolina town can’t have non-partisan elections, because black people wouldn’t know for whom to vote. Seems like that is rather racist, no?
Credit card companies respond to tighter regulations by charging fees to people who pay their bills on time.
This op-ed doesn’t make much sense. The authors argue for a ban on domed stadiums for NFL teams. But it conflates teams that play in domes with teams, like this year’s Colts, that play in a closed stadium (and even then, the roof is retractable). It argues that dome teams have some huge advantage, but concedes that two of the worst teams in the league (the Rams and Lions) play in domes. So do the Falcons, who haven’t had back-to-back winning seasons in the team’s history. And only two dome teams have ever won the Super Bowl. I’m not convinced.
“…guy pissed all over himself after he got tazed. Hahaha.”
Rand study says fast food ban in some parts of Los Angeles won’t have an effect on obesity rates. The study says the problem is convenience stores and processed foods, not burgers and fries. Once again, I’d submit that the answer here is to let Walmart open stores in urban areas. But we can’t have that. It would be unsightly.
More mind-blowing pictures of Saturn.
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Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Don’t blame you, Penn. Padma Lakshmi would get me tongue-tied, too.
Co-founder of Feminist Majority okay with Roman Polanski’s rape. A few people have emailed to ask what I make of the Polanski affair. I think he ought to go to prison. And Hollywood’s defense of him is pretty disgusting. That Woody Allen signed a petition calling for Polanski to be freed would be hilarious were we not talking about, you know, a drugging and raping.
British government considering mandating plastic pint glasses in pubs.
Puppycide.
The gas masks are a bit much, don’t you think?
Here’s more on the Ukrainian woman who created those stunning sand animations.
L.A. mandates graffiti-proof homes.
Mississippi judge convicts Motorhome Diaries crew on all counts.
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Thursday, September 24th, 2009
Al Franken reads the Fourth Amendment to a DOJ official. Good to hear that Al’s a Fourther. His time in the Senate may be of more value than I thought.
Jack Shafer about sums up my thoughts on Andrew Breitbart and the ACORN videos.
Four New Jersey cops shot during 2am no-knock raid on drug suspect’s home. Stay tuned.
What does America’s biggest Nanny eat? A lot of the stuff he’s trying to stop you from eating.
Fire department saves man’s penis.
Nice story about an Indian girl who has become a national hero by refusing to become a child bride in an arranged marriage.
The ABA profiles Institute for Justice co-founder Chip Mellor.
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Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
This is pretty incredible.
Head of the WWE resigns to pursue the one profession more theatrical, fake, and absurd than professional wrestling.
Cadre of realist foreign policy experts urge Obama to reconsider war in Afghanistan.
Richard Epstein offers well-argued, sensible reasons to oppose Cass Sunstein. Most of those opposing him to this point have offered neither.
Two Georgia cops arrested for filing false police report, sentenced to jail time on weekends, allowed to continue working as cops during the week.
Supreme Court may hear challenge to state laws banning sex toys. UCLA law prof and blogosphere legal guru Eugene Volokh believes the laws will likely be upheld.
Dan and Jennie read Atlas Shrugged.
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Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Fire chief shot in the back in court by cop will be charged with battering a police officer. Seems there’s a disagreement over who shoved whom first.
Checking Obama’s math on the number of people without health insurance.
Kittycide.
Wonderful photo collection from Afghanistan and Nepal.
I told you this would happen. We don’t even have a health care plan yet and the anti-fact advocates are already figuring out how to use it to police what you eat.
9/11 didn’t change everything. And that’s a good thing.
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