John Sexton - Page 35

Last night, William Shatner tweeted out his response to the IRS Star Trek video (h/t Dan Riehl): So I watched that IRS video. I am appalled at the utter waste of US tax dollars. — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) March 26,

If you remember your Shakespeare, you’ll recall that Mark Antony does a masterful job of turning his audience against Caesar’s killers even as he praises them as “honorable men.” In a similar vein, an author at Live Action comes not

Daily Kos and a group called the Courage Campaign are running petitions to keep the LA Times out of the hands of the Koch Brothers. Together the two groups have gathered about 45,000 signatures. The LA Times is up for

The Herald-Times in Florida reports on the upswing in squatting. In a representative case, neighbors have repeatedly called police but officers are unwilling to take action until ownership claims have made their way through the backlogged courts. That can take

Reason magazine highlights a recent analysis of the cost of setting up and maintaining the Obamacare insurance exchange in California by health consultant Robert Laszewski: The California exchange, “Covered California,” has so far awardeda $183 million contract to Accenture to

Dylan Ratigan left his job at MSNBC last June. Since then he’s been investing in a hydroponic farm which has backing of Whole Foods. Ratigan recently explained the dramatic shift on his blog: Last Fall, I moved from NYC to

France’s economy fell off sharply in March indicating that the nation–whose annual growth was already predicted to be around 0.0% again this year–is about to enter it’s third recession since 2009. The new figures are bad news for socialist President

When you’re as successful as he is you can say anything you want to say: Nature doesn’t need people. People need nature. Nature and this planet would survive easily, beautifully without the pressure of the human animal and it would

Conor Friedersdorf devotes a column today to bashing Michelle Malkin for something she wrote back in 2002. Yes, that’s right, an 11 year old column was in desperate need of a rebuttal. Here’s the bit Friedersdorf is upset about: How

The President’s predictions of doom and gloom if the sequester cuts took place seems not to have convinced most Americans.  A Fox News poll released today found 49 percent of respondents labeled the cuts a “good thing” while just 37

Today the NY Times has a case study on the cost of Obamacare to one small business. The business in question is Baked in the Sun, a California baker with 95 employees. Baked in the Sun does about $8 million

In response to Party Nightmares: I don’t know if you’ve watched Ramsay’s show but the premise is that he intervenes in restaurants that are truly desperate, i.e. in every case they are at the point of closing their doors. Often

It occurs to me that after the 2012 election the GOP is in the position of one of the failing restauranteurs on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. In the show, which is worth watching (especially the British version), Gordon Ramsay comes in

He who frames the debate, wins the debate. It’s time to re-frame the debate on the GOP relationship with Hispanic voters. Chris Cillizza had an interesting piece in yesterday’s Washington Post. Titled “The Republican problem with Hispanic voters — in

In response to Sympathy for the Devil: I must have a good imagination because I think there is a resemblance. In fact, when I opened the screengrab this morning I assumed it was a Photoshop. Headshots of the actor with

As his trial opened today, Jack McMahon, defense lawyer for Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, claimed his client was the victim of “an elitist, racist prosecution.” He also accused the prosecutors of turning the trial into a “lynching.” Gosnell is on

Last week we saw what can happen when a photo of a dead child is used to make a political point. The photo, which appeared on the front page of the Washington Post, showed a 10-month-old victim of an Israeli

One of the incidents which prompted Sen. Rand Paul’s day-long filibuster last week was the drone strike that killed Abdul Rahman Anwar Awlaki. Abdul was the 16 year-old son of Anwar Awlaki. He was killed in an airstrike on October

According to the USGS website it was a 4.6 located near Palm Desert. That’s down from an initial estimate of 5.1. Depth is listed as 0.1 km. The epicenter is about 100 miles due east of me and I felt

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center is making the media rounds again. Today he’s quoted in a NY Times story about the moderation being expressed by Christian group Focus on the Family. For contrast, the story mentions the

In response to They’ve Already Done the “We’d Never Do this” Spiel: You’re right. They did use the “of course” line once. As you noted that was the response Sen. Paul found unsatisfactory since it leaves the door open a

In August 2007, candidate Obama gave a major foreign policy speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington DC. In the speech Obama outlined five points that would define his approach to foreign policy if he were to be

In response to Ace: The White House has not responded to Sen. Paul all day. Even Politico couldn’t get them to talk. But it seems unlikely the President will be able to simply ignore this. It will be network news.

In October 2007, Barack Obama had some pretty tough things to say about George Bush’s approach to civil liberties. He also promised things would be different if he were elected: You know I taught constitutional law for 10 years at

In response to I’ll Chalk It Up to Zombie Habit-Viewing: So I started watching The Following mostly because I generally like Kevin Bacon. Let me just say that the characters on The Following make the ones on Walking Dead look

The USDA contains a department called the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service whose role is to protect the nation’s agriculture from pests and disease. Like everyone else, their budget is being cut by the sequester. Yesterday a regional manager

In response to Narrative, Narrative, Narrative: In June 2009, during the health reform battle, my co-blogger Morgen found video of Klein admitting that the public option was a “sneaky strategy” to get the country to single payer. When Klein saw

In response to Deb: Seen from the outside they are a remarkably insular group. There can’t be more than two dozen of them who constantly create their own conventional wisdom which is always, of course, amenable to progressive goals. I