Indiana Congressman Mike Pence and I clearly occupy different planets. On May 19th, the Congressman issued a press release in which he answered the election-year question "Are we better off today than we were four years ago?" with a resounding yes.
Continue reading “Mr. Pence’s Planet”
Circles
Libertarians insist that the political spectrum is not a straight line, with ?right-wingers? on one end and ?left-wingers? on the other. Instead, it is a circle, where extremists on opposite poles touch?and share a desire to impose their particular brands of political correctness on the rest of us. Extremists may disagree on ideology, but they share a real fondness for authoritarianism.
Continue reading “Circles”
Texas Morality
The Texas challenge raises two very important constitutional issues, privacy and equal protection. The privacy argument makes the same point my students made: government doesn?t belong in anyone?s bedroom. Sodomy statutes, like statutes against fornication or laws forbidding the use of birth control, are simply not within the proper power of the legislature. If the Justices rule on the basis of privacy, overturning the infamous Bowers v. Hardwick decision, then all sodomy statutes will be invalid.
Continue reading “Texas Morality”
In Over Our Heads
I was piling the food from my grocery cart onto the cashier?s conveyor when the headline caught my eye; one of the tabloids next to the checkout announced ?Now It Can Be Told: Saddaam and Osama?s Gay Wedding!? Beneath the headline was a ?photograph? of Saddaam Hussain in a suit, walking down the aisle with Osama Bin Ladin, tastefully attired in a long, white bridal gown.
Continue reading “In Over Our Heads”
Using Restraints: The Legal Context of High Risk Interventions
The treatment of children by mental health professionals–particularly in an institutional setting–implicates three sets of important, and frequently competing, interests.
Continue reading “Using Restraints: The Legal Context of High Risk Interventions”