"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
Sebastian My Japanese grandmother died on July 5th, but my Grandpa Yosh left notifications to some people in the church who didn’t realize my part of the family didn’t know, so I was not notified until yesterday. As a result I missed the memorial, which is sad for me though of course memorials are for the living so I can find my own way. In any case I’m going to repost (below the fold for those who don’t need the non-political stuff) a Thanksgiving post about her which I wrote a while ago.
I’m incredibly unthrilled to see that Oliver Stone is going to be making the first big Hollywood reaction to 9/11. "It’s an exploration of heroism in our country — but is international at the same time in its humanity," said Stone, who won best director Academy Awards for his war epics "Born On the Fourth … Read more
Brian Boitano would probably clean up after his dog. I have recently come across an interesting case of what some bloggers are calling cybershaming (see also here). The gist of the story is: It began in a subway train with a girl whose dog made a mess on the train floor. When nearby elders told … Read more
When I first heard about the Kelo case I was worried because I thought there was a greater likelyhood of the Court expanding the eminent domain power than there was of them limiting it. The drift from an already expansive meaning of public use to the very broad understanding of public purpose is unfortunate. It … Read more
The international community is generally quite bad in dealing with issues of war or mass slaughter. Whatever the utility of the UN on trade or health (and its successes there are decidedly mixed) it is very bad at dealing with the issues its charter makes preeminent. The international community is especially bad at responding to … Read more
I’m not a big fan of anonymous sourcing. I think it tends to pervert the process of critical news reading by making it impossible for the reader to judge the source independently of their judgment of the journalist. I accept that in certain extraordinarily important cases anonymous sourcing may be the only way to get … Read more
Gary has an interesting point about disinterest vs. uninterest. The paragraph which triggered it is I don’t think it has much of an influence at all so I’m not made uncomfortable by it. The world community isn’t much interested in acting. The marginal interest in acting pre 2001 vs. 2005 based on reports of US … Read more
Sorry for the month-long hiatus. It was necessary. In the meantime my volleyball team won 3rd out of 43 in Dallas over the Memorial Day weekend. While the Amnesty International discussions below have not been very fruitful, and I’m loathe to reopen them, a perfect example of what I have previously argued as their lack … Read more
Tyler Cowen has an interesting thought experiment that is very useful in explaining why legalized torture is so bad. He analyzes what you would do if you had information and were being tortured for it. He posits that you want to give the information and you want to minimize the torture, so he tries to … Read more
–Sebastian One of the more influential Supreme Court Justices in US history once said: "This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice." Or at least Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is often credited with saying that, though after a bit of searching on the web I can’t find anything further about … Read more
I just went on a blind date. It was mildly bad insofar as I was relatively sure he wasn’t attracted to me from the start [clearly something wrong with him đŸ™‚ ]and while we were at dinner he saw someone he knew and talked to them for 20 minutes. I asked how long he knew … Read more
Upon rereading it, I think I wasn’t very clear in my last post. I can’t comment directly on the AIG case because it is so cryptic, but I want make a more specific comment on status crimes. I am uncomfortable with the current state of financial/tax/economic sphere crimes. I understand the difficulty being addressed–intent is … Read more
–Sebastian This opinionjournal piece reminds me of one of the classic problems of law: Although Mr. Greenberg was Chief Executive magazine’s CEO of the Year in 2003, we are not defending him. Rather we want to ask whether CEOs have a right to due process. Reflecting their dismay at the high-handed conduct of King George, … Read more
This weekend I went to wedding. It can be a bit odd going to a wedding where you only know the bride (she won’t be talking to you much) and a few other people who have been seated at other tables. But that isn’t what I wanted to talk about. During the ceremony, the minister … Read more
Apparently the Connecticut legislature has passed a law to authorize civil unions. This is the first legislature to have done so without a court judgment. This is a very positive step in gay rights in that it represents one of the first (of hopefully many) legislative wins.
I see that health care questions are making the rounds again on the internet. At Crooked Timber, Ted Barlow posts on the topic and initially makes what I think is a characteristic error on the topic: he talks about the government paying for health care as if it repeals the problems of limited supply and … Read more
–Sebastian I think I have a better handle on what bothers me about Cornyn’s comments and similar ‘explanations’ of suicide bombing against Israel. In both cases, the speaker pretends to be engaging in an intellectual analysis of a problem. But the explanation is framed to both blame the victim (often by a pretending that a … Read more
–Sebastian Stupid, stupid, stupid. If you think that the existence of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict doesn’t provide a good excuse for intentionally blowing up coffee shops don’t even think of nodding your head to this bit of idiocy: Sen. John Cornyn said yesterday that recent examples of courthouse violence may be linked to public anger over … Read more
–Sebastian I don’t know if it is synchronicity or just my fevered imagination, but it seems as if two disparate posts among the many I read on the blogosphere often end up revealing a deeper truth than either can do individually. Jane Galt has an interesting post with the amusing title of "A really, really, … Read more
–Sebastian The typical critique of affirmative action centers on one of three related ideas: that the government ought not discriminate on the basis of race, that affirmative action can increase the intensity and frequency of racism by casting suspicion on the accomplishments of its recipients while causing certain racial groups (typically white and Asian groups) … Read more
–Sebastian I can’t tell if it is lack of information or bad reporting, but it seems to me that the important details of the Berger document stealing story aren’t accessible. (See for example The Seattle Times or ABC News). From what I can tell, Berger was supposed to be helping the 9-11 Commission get information … Read more
I haven’t commented on the Schiavo case earlier because it has already received too much attention. The case cuts across some of the more traditional American left-right faultlines, yet remains very divisive. I strongly believe in supporting a person’s right to choose to terminate or refuse medical treatment. I also believe that when matters of … Read more
Captain’s Quarters Blog has two excellent stories on its front page. First there is this story about the Irish terrorist group, the IRA, and how it may have finally exhausted its support. I won’t be the first to say it, but it is about time. Long before 9/11 Irish-Americans should have been able to … Read more
–Sebastian Matthew Yglesias has a post which reminded me of a topic I wanted to write about. When talking about politics/diplomacy/foreign policy in the Middle East, the comment "It’s about the oil" will typically come up if the conversation goes on long enough. The problem with that line is that it has just enough of … Read more
–Sebastian Despite early reports to the contrary European negotiators have been reminded again that their carrot-only approach to diplomacy doesn’t work so well. In an attempt to bolster the European effort and coupled with a European commitment to refer the stop blocking attempts to refer the matter to the UNSC if Iran continues along this … Read more
Todays topic is the best modern rock band that I’m currently listening to through my headphones. Actually I want to say that they are the best modern rock band still producing new material, but I’m not really up enough on rock to be sure. In any case 3 Doors Down is a darn good band … Read more
I am not one of the subset of conservatives who denies that there are still race problems in the US. I disagree with affirmative action in most cases because the small plus factors which are argued for often become much larger in practice, and because I think such programs can actually cause or deepen racial … Read more
–Sebastian This is an interesting story about unions. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney last week won the latest round in a bitter internal clash over the future of the labor movement by insisting that more money go for future campaigns to unseat Republicans than for trying to shore up the federation’s sagging membership. That showdown … Read more
–Sebastian I haven’t had a music blather entry in a while, so I have so catching up to do. Two artists on my "will buy without hearing any of the songs" list have just come out with albums. But I won’t be talking about Tori Amos or Erasure this time because I want to digest … Read more
–Sebastian
I don’t know enough about Indonesia to understand why this would happen, but it can’t be good that the leader of the conspiracy beind the Bali bombing is getting a slap on the wrist of 30 months in prison.
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir should spend the rest of his "miserable life" in jail, says Opposition Leader Kim Beazley.
Bashir was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail yesterday after a court in Jakarta found him guilty of conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Mr Beazley said a life sentence would have been more adequate and the Australian government should do all it could to extend the jail term.
"This man should spend the rest of his miserable life in jail and the Australian government should be doing what it can to put pressure on for an appeal to extend his sentence," Mr Beazley told reporters in Sydney today.
"He has been convicted of a conspiracy that involved the killing of a large number of Australians and others and Indonesians.
"People who do that should spend their lives in jail."
But Mr Beazley did not blame the Indonesian government for the lenient sentence.
"I think the Indonesian government is as horrified as we are," he said.
Is this a case of judicial intimidation or other pressure being exercised by the terrorist group? Is something else weird going on? Is Indonesian conspiracy law really weak? I can’t tell from the reports, but whatever the problem is, it is disturbing.
–Sebastian Over at Left2Right what started out as a rather uninteresting discussion on jurisprudence got very interesting at the end of the comments (the last 30 or so out of 160+). Proving that long comments threads aren’t always unfruitful at the end. Untenured Republican makes an interesting point toward the end: You spend the first … Read more
In the vein of hatred is a poison, Democratic Senator Byrd goes off the deep end: Many times in our history we have taken up arms to protect a minority against the tyrannical majority in other lands. We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini’s Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men. … Read more
The death penalty decision is stirring the pot about jurisprudence again. Orin Kerr has what I think are the best comment on the case itself so I won’t try to top him. There just isn’t much there to justify overruling a 16-year-old precedent and striking down 18 state laws. I’m not sure about the juvenile … Read more
I’m from the still waters run deep set of emotional responses. This has the disadvantage of being confused with cold or unfeeling from time to time, but you can’t force yourself too far out of character. When things were going very poorly in Iraq (most of 2004) I thought that it was way too early … Read more
–Sebastian It has long been my contention that while the Supreme Court theoretically allows abortion restrictions for viable fetuses, in practice attempts to make any restrictions in the third trimester are eviscerated by the courts to the point of complete ineffectiveness. Statistics on late-term abortions are not kept. Statistics on the reasons for late-term abortions … Read more