Combating Oil Supply Myths

In which the author disputes “drill baby drill” rationale

And These Are Only the Things That I Know About

He taught me how to shine my shoes and that cordovan is a color.  At the time, he also kitted me out with a shoe valet, a horsehair brush, a few tins of waxy polish, a dauber brush, and a buffing rag, all of which were at least several years older than I was.  It is a substantial sadness that I no longer have that kit.  It spoke of an older, more proper age.  His workshop tools did the same, many of which had belonged to his father.

A Quick Review of Citizens United

By now you’ve heard about the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC.  If you watched the State of the Union Address, you heard President Obama call out the Court for it’s poor jurisprudence.  There are two main reasons why I think Citizens United was, in fact, poor jurisprudence.

Pat Robertson, Cancer on Society

Conservative wingnuts have outdone themselves today.  I cannot think of a sufficiently repugnant metaphor to adequately describe Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson.  Pustulent genital sores comes close.  (Apologies to those with weak stomachs.)

Great Books

Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”  Our habits speak volumes about us.  It strikes me as a corollary that what we love also reveals much about us.  And to be clear, I do not mean the things we profess to love.  Although, even what we profess to love says much about us.

Tort Reform

Michael Getnick, President of the NY State Bar Association, published last weekend, this editorial in the NY Daily News, discussing tort reform.  Having been a personal injury attorney, Getnick predictably opposes tort reform.  I neither oppose nor support tort reform per se, but would like to see it as part of a discussion about health care reform. Which is why I become so frustrated by knee-jerk reactions like Getnick’s, which exudes false exasperation.

Legislative Sneakery: A Brief Review

This article was first published on the Journal of the American Bull Moose, but since they were having a little trouble with some of the hyperlinks, I have reposted in its entirety here.