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The next time a conservative tells you that he believes in the free market and balanced budgets, just show him this: Republicans senators who in the past have supported ending tax subsidies to big oil companies are prepared to vote Tuesday night with their party leadership to keep those subsidies in place. “I’m going to [...]
Archive for May, 2011
May 17th, 2011
May 17th, 2011
Category: Torture, Watching Conservatives
Rick Santorum thinks that human beings are things that you’re allowed to break. He cannot therefore properly be called either a Christian or a conservative.
May 17th, 2011
Category: Crime Control, France
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is experiencing the presumption of innocence at the heart of the American system of criminal justice. When he goes to trial, it will be up to the DA to prove the charges before he can be punished as a criminal; a jury, probably, will get to decide whether he is guilty or not. [...]
May 16th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
Bleg for a remembered photo: a political rally where most people aren’t watching the stage.
May 16th, 2011
Category: Crime Control
In law, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is innocent until proven guilty. But outside the courtroom I see no reason to suspend the ordinary rules of common sense; if I had to bet, I’d bet that he was guilty in fact not merely of this alleged assault but of previous ones. (The endorsement of Bernard-Henri Levy, last seen [...]
May 16th, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
“Poor young radical becomes rich old conservative” is strictly dog-bites-man.
May 16th, 2011
Category: Teaching, Technology and Society
Last week, I gave grand rounds at a small hospital in Northern California, and they filmed it for medical staff who couldn’t attend in person. A few days later I attended a drug policy conference where every talk and every comment from the floor was filmed. My university has a deal with YouTube to post [...]