You remember Alan Sokal, right? Well, he’s back and he’s no less concerned about subjugation of objective fact to cries of “social construct.”

Imagine that the election really had been stolen. Four-hour lines and broken voting machines in Black neighborhoods of Milwaukee and Atlanta. Thousands of absentee ballots thrown out for minor technical flaws in Michigan and Arizona. Massive postal delays leading to late delivery of mail-in ballots all around the country. Finally, by a 5-4 decision—with Amy Coney Barrett as the key vote—the Supreme Court rules that, under Pennsylvania law, ballots postmarked prior to election day but arriving after election day cannot be counted. This throws Pennsylvania, and the election, to Trump. Continue reading →

Listening to Biden’s inaugural address, I was struck by his mentions of racial justice. I’m not a fan of the word “justice,” used too often to promote whatever outcome someone preferred. It was the go-to word for why convicted killers had to be executed. It was “justice,” we were told. But pairing the word with “racial” confused me even more. I keep hearing the phrase, but I don’t know what it means. It sounds good, but it doesn’t tell me anything.

In his inauguration speech, the president pledged to defeat “white supremacy,” using a burst of executive orders on Day 1 to declare that “advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our government.”

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It was Skink who came up with the notion that SJ was like hotel, and the comments were its bar. All were welcome until you annoyed the other patrons or the barkeeper, and then, well, you might be politely asked to leave. Okay, not always politely.

A few people have asked of late why it “seems” as if SJ has become a magnet for people with conservative views, together with the usual assortment of lefty libs one would expect of a criminal defense blog. And I’ve asked myself that question as well, many times, over the past few years. This started well before Trump, though he exacerbated the problem, as the criminal defense bar grew increasingly progressive and became increasingly dedicated to anger and outcomes with increasingly less concern for principle, honesty and balance. Continue reading →

NCAA Football is to many a way of life. Here in the South, College Football is almost a religion, especially in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

And in Knoxville, the cathedral we lovingly call “Neyland Stadium” is starting to stink.

Coach Jeremy Pruitt was fired Monday by the University of Tennessee allegedly “for cause” following an NCAA investigation over recruiting irregularities. Nine other staffers got the axe. The Athletics Director announced his resignation. The University leaked the email outlining the rationale behind their decision to the press. Continue reading →

Joe Biden’s inauguration speech, compared to Lincoln’s by some guy named “Wolf” on CNN, emphasized unity. Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, who sucks on lemons for pleasure, pointed out that unity was not a core American value like freedom, to which former DNC chairwoman and cheat Donna Brazile replied that unity just meant civility.

None of this matters. If by unity, Biden meant stop hating each other, engaging in violence to achieve political ends and doing everything possible to vilify the other side, is there really anything to complain about it? But if by unity, Biden meant seek common ground, then he was being disingenuous. He asked us to hear him out, then signed a flurry of Executive Orders without saying a word as to why, not making any effort to explain, to persuade, to at least inform people why. This isn’t to say that the EOs were bad or wrong, but that you can’t call for unity while signing it away. Continue reading →

To be fair, I was already aware of what the New York Times was talking about before I read its headline.

Hours After Biden Inauguration, Federal Agents Use Tear Gas in Portland

Did federal agents go off on some random gassing spree in Portlandia? Not quite.

Protesters who spent months in the streets over racial injustice and inequality said they don’t expect immediate change from President Biden, who they declared “will not save us.”

No, they aren’t insurrectionists, as they did not attempt to breach the Capitol and prevent Congress from performing its duty. But no, they weren’t quite protesters either, not that the Times concerns itself with such nuance. Continue reading →

Eric Posner makes a point, both accurate and disturbing, arguing that Democrats, and thus President Biden, should not shy away from the unilateral use of Executive power to get things done.

This discomfort with the “imperial presidency,” as the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. called it, is not new. Liberals have worried about an excessively powerful presidency since at least Richard Nixon.

But Democrats should be careful what they wish for. While undoubtedly many reforms of the presidency are overdue — including elements of the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which would increase congressional oversight and reduce conflicts of interest — a weakened presidency would hamper national governance, and Democratic policies in particular.

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It remains unclear to me whether Joe Biden was elected president or whether Trump was not. Biden, who tried and tried back when he had a bit more spring in his step to be the Democratic nominee for the presidency couldn’t get any traction. He was an uninspiring speaker, prone to gaffes, without much of a vision beyond himself sitting in the Oval Office.

This time, he was the default, not Trump and yet not the craziest of the left. To some, Joe Biden was the least offensive choice. To others, he was the last chance to return to moderate politics, to reject the extremes. Maybe he was the best choice, as the last liberal left in the Democratic Party, if only he was strong enough to fend off the most radical of his left wing that left us with Trump last time. Continue reading →

An interesting debate appeared at Arc Digital between L.D. Burnett, a history professor at Collins College, and Cathy Young on the subject of Cancel Culture. Burnett was the target of cancellation a few months ago for an unpleasant but otherwise unremarkable twit about Mike Pence. Nonetheless, she took the position that cancel culture doesn’t exist.

There is no such thing as “cancel culture” — there is only culture.

There are social mores, norms of public behavior and expression, norms and customs that both exert and absorb constant pressure and negotiation in the public square. One of the tactics of negotiation, one of the sources of pressure that shape these social norms, are public denunciations for shameful behavior.

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The New York Times reports that Trump plans to issue perhaps 100 pardons on this, his final day in office.

As President Trump enters the final hours of his term, he has been intently focused on who should benefit from his clemency power. Along with the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, and advisers including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. Trump has spent days sifting through names and recommendations, assembling a list that officials say he intends to disclose on Tuesday, his last full day in office. Continue reading →