American Empire

Bill Whittle writes on why an American Empire won't happen. A must read.

Christmas Eve

One more day until Christmas. Teresa and I exchanged gifts last night around 3 in the morning as she had to work today and we didn't want to drag everything down to my parents only to bring it back. She's working at her job at the bank today, so I got to setup my (for the most part) present (a home theatre system) while cleaning the house and packing for the next few days that we'll be at my parents. I'll be posting pictures over the next few days from Christmas events. I'll put up as much of Teresa as I can for all of her family that wants to see what she received this year. More later. . .

Our Next President?

Howard Owens predicts Condi Rice in 2008.

Christmas is almost here

Christmas is almost here. I spent last night at two seperate parties. The first was the yearly Christmas party in Winchester at my Grandmother's house. It was a different experience as I brought my girlfriend for the first time to meet most of the extended family. It was the first time I had ever brought a girl to a family function that included anyone besides my immediate family. Unfortunately, both my parents and I forgot our cameras so I don't have any photos from that event. After heading back to Louisville, Teresa, Samantha, and I headed over to our friend Jessica Nimmo's place for a little party. It was nice seeing many of the people there as I hadn't seen many of the people there since starting law school in August. Right now I can't wait until the 24th as Teresa and I are exchanging gifts before heading to my parent's for Christmas and Christmas Eve. I just want to see the look on her face when she gets her gift, I'm hoping she likes it.

The Trouble with the Left

Paul Greenberg has a must read piece out today on the trouble with the left.

What's Playing

Got bored this evening and added the section on the right. It shows what I've been listening to recently at home on the ol' PC. If the top one has a black background, it's currently playing.

Race and the GOP

Alvin S. Felzenberg writes a good article on Race and Republicans in the Weekly Standard.

Much as they insist on their commitment to "inclusion," the Republicans will never recruit minority voters back to what was their natural home until the party stops believing the "progressive" view that has denied the long history of Democratic vices and Republican virtues on black-white relations. Only then can the party return to its original ideas of equality of opportunity and equality before the law. Only then can the party cease to oscillate between behaving as a shamed clone of the Democrats on issues of race, and simply ignoring blacks as a Democratic interest group.

Freedom

Rachel Lucas has a good post up on the meaning behind the second amendment and the integral part of American Freedom. Read the whole thing.

Another One Bites the Dust

DIRECTV DSL has announced that it's ceasing operations. Wonder who I'm going to have to use for DSL now.

Fisking Krugman

Matt Hoy does a good job of pulling apart Paul Krugman's latest column.

Surprise

And to everyone's surprise, U.S. officials say that the Iraq arms report has big omissions. No, couldn't be. . .

Blogs 1, Reinhardt 0

Pejman Yousefzadeh has a rundown of arguments against the decision written by the 9th Circuit Court Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the 2nd Amendment.

More On Internet Libel

In a report on ZDNet, the recent decision in Australia is raising fears about limiting net speech. However, the article quotes Glenn Reynolds, a professor of law at UT, as saying that this is a bad thing, not a horrible thing.

The likelihood of a US Court enforcing a foreign courts ruling is slim, but not certain. The main people that have to worry are those with assets in foreign countries that the suits are brought, like Dow Jones in the case in question.

He thinks this will help

To safe money it looks like Gov. Patton is going to release as many as 500 inmates from prison to get prison costs under control. Don't you love the way our Gov. thinks.

The Problem with Lott Staying

David Frum points out on NRO today my main worry of what will happen if Lott stays in the Majority Leader position.

Can Lott be replaced? It’s hard to see how. No Republican Senator will challenge him for leadership when the Congress meets in January – the Senate just doesn’t work that way. Nor will Lott resign, unless the White House tells him he must, which is again extremely hard to envision. The likeliest result is that Lott will keep his job, but will do it in an even more half-hearted way than he did in 1995-2001. All those bold, unapologetic conservatives who believe that Republicans should rally around Lott and not yield the Democrats an inch should understand: The party will probably be able to save him – but only by selling you out.(emphasis original to article)

His prior leadership as Majority Leader, as Frum mentions, was anywhere near stellar. He often sold out or seriously watered down Republican agenda items and he can be held responsible for a lot of the problems in the Senate during the impeachment of Clinton.

However, Jonah Goldberg doesn't think the whole situation could be good news for the Democrats:

So this could be bad news for the Democrats, too. Trent Lott may represent some old baggage the GOP could do without. But so does the Congressional Black Caucus. With few exceptions, the CBC — and much of the civil-rights establishment, for that matter — are as ossified and embarrassing as Lott. I haven't been able to take Jackson seriously since he called D.C. statehood America's most pressing civil-rights issue. That's like saying the lack of gold doorknobs is the most pressing problem for public housing. In other words, it demonstrated to me that Jackson mints civil-rights crises for his personal benefit. He's a shyster and shakedown artist who only looks like an estimable statesman alongside Al Sharpton. Maxine Waters, Castroite thug that she is, might as well wear one black-leather glove to work.

Personally, I just think it's time for Lott to either step aside or be forced out. He's already been a drag on the party in the Senate and will only get worse after this instance.

Lott Should Go

Senator Lott says he's not stepping down from the Majority Leader position. That's fine, let's just have someone remove him. If the Republican majority doesn't do so I'm afraid we'll have given the Democrats their first campaign issue in '04.

Chilling Free Speech

The Wall Street Journal has an article on a decision by the High Court of Australia. The decision allowing a libel suit to continue against Dow Jones in Australia for an article published to it's website. If this is held to be valid by more then just Australia, an environment less friendly to freedom of speech then the U.S., then it could be far worse if other countries manage to impose their law on Americans and American business and press. Imagine what would happen if a U.S. citizen was held to the laws of Iran, Zimbabwe, or some other dictatorship.

Some Sense in Norway

The Norwegian paper Aftenposten is reporting that a group of protestors gathered outside of the Norway's National Theater. What were they protesting? Jimmy Carter's Nobel Prize. The group shouted "Shame on the Nobel Committee" and "Shame on Carter."

The demonstrators claimed that both the US and Jimmy Carter, as a former US president, share responsibility for the revolution in Iran in 1979 that unseated the shah and allowed the Ayatollah Khomeini to seize power.

The demonstrators were a group of Iranian exile.

MOOREWATCH

A group of bloggers are attempting to pick up the slack to keep track of one of the left's favorite morons, Michael Moore. MOOREWATCH.com - Watching Michael Moore's every move

A Good Decision Comes out of the Hague

In what amounts to good news a U.S. reporter wins his legal battle in the Hague Tribunal.

The ruling from the appeal chamber's five judges said: "If war correspondents were to be perceived as potential witnesses for the prosecution, two consequences would follow:

"First, they may have difficulties in gathering significant information because the interviewed person may talk less freely with them and deny them access to conflict zones.

"Second, war correspondents may shift from being observers of those committing human rights violations to being their targets, thereby putting their own lives at risk."

It's better to have the journalists in the area to cover what's going on to the best of their ability without having to worry anymore then they already do about their own safety. If the knowledge of what's going on gets out, that will make it less likely that these things won't get noticed and dealt with in an appropriate manner.

New PhotoBlog

After some effort I have a new photo blog up and running. The New Pinacotheca will be general photos that I take over time. I probably won't move any of the pictures from the old gallery page though.

Finish, Fini, Done...

My first semester of law school is now behind me. It's a nice feeling, especially since I now have a break away from it all. I'll probably spend more time looking for a job now though. At least I won't have to write another answer to an essay question for a few months.

Catch-up

Finals are done. I have a few things in the queue that will be showing up on the site shortly that I didn't take the time to write on while I was studying. Blogging should occur with more frequency now.

The New Demotivators are out

Despair, Inc. has released the 2003 Demotivators. Picked this up over at Denise Howell's site. I think my favorite out of this years group would be Intimidation.

So Close

I've finished three of my finals so far with only one left on Monday afternoon. Not much longer and I'll be done with my first semester. Thank God.

Ninth Circuit and the 2nd Amendment

Taking a break from studying for my Torts final I came across this opinion filed Dec. 5th, 2002 in the Ninth Circuit on the second amendment.

Eugene Volokh has a rather extensive critique of the decision. Clayton Cramer has more on the subject with an extensive list of references on state court decisions related to the second amendment. From Cramer:

Unsurprisingly, Reinhardt quotes at length from the one-sided Chicago-Kent Law Review symposium issue published two years ago in which only those opposed to the individual rights view were invited--and paid for their articles. (This is almost unheard in scholarly publications.) Of course, Reinhardt cites the well-known soon-to-be former Professor Michael Bellesiles for support for the collective rights view, apparently unaware or unconcerned about Bellesiles's scholarly integrity problem.

This is the sort of decision I expect from the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals: long on verbal sleight of hand, short on examination of original sources, very trusting of gun control advocate opinions.

And Glenn Reynolds has his standard coverage. He also makes an interesting point about the "states' right" argument on the 2nd amendment:

I don't think it's meant to be taken seriously, though. The "states' right" argument is usually employed by gun control supporters like a chain of garlic against a vampire -- pulled out at need, but then hastily tossed back in the cellar afterward, lest its odor offend.

Since the opinion is 69 pages long, I haven't had the time to go through the whole thing yet. However, I'm sure to have more on this subject once I read it.

CFR

George Will on Campaign Finance Reform.

Come Wednesday, in a District of Columbia courtroom, litigation begins that will reach the Supreme Court and determine the future of political speech in America. At issue is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA, alias McCain-Feingold), by which the just-adjourned 107th Congress followed in the footsteps of the 5th Congress, which enacted the Sedition Act of 1798.

Read it.

And yes, I know I said I was taking a hiatus. . .