AFF's Doublethink

“Purity-test libertarians” stand in the way of any libertarian influence on politics.

What can Borat teach us about ourselves?

Has cheating become part of the academic learning process?

The Pope’s recent comments about Islam were well stated–an atheist should know.

Have you noticed there have been no hurricanes this season? The science of global warming isn’t nearly as settled or simple as the alarmists would like to believe, and cooler heads are needed to counter the overheated claims of a global apocalypse.

If conservatives want the president to wield wartime power so that the Hamdans of the world can be shoved under the rug, all that is needed is a declaration of war from Congress.

Should politicians be fined for lying in their campaigns? The Washington State Supreme Court will soon decide that question.

Why does Steve Jobs insist on keeping all songs on the iTunes Music Store priced equally at 99 cents? Has he never heard of supply and demand?

There’s no good reason for televising Supreme Court oral arguments, and plenty good reasons not to.

What do the French labor protests and the American immigration protests this week have in common?

In the end, pro-lifers may eventually get the reversal of Roe that they have always wanted, but with it will come the realization that ending abortion simply isn’t possible.

In the PR-savvy Western world, extremists of all stripes have learned that if you make a big fuss about something, everyone will want to see what all the fuss is about.

Most newspapers pay for the op-eds they publish in their editorial sections. Think tanks are in the business of paying scholars to write op-eds, studies, and books. Does that make those published opinions dishonest?

The Right is scared of a judge who actually argued against Roe, while the Left is starting to walk away from Roe altogether. How times have changed.

Movies tickets are priced the same, regardless of whether the movie is a much-anticipated blockbuster like “Revenge of the Sith” on opening night, or a proven bomb like “Gigli” after three listless weeks. In a supply-and-demand economy, flat pricing like this makes little sense.

No Supreme Court nominee can be against the constitutional right to abortion while also being for it, so the “consensus candidate” is a mythical beast.

Many who have supported Bush are wondering whether his other decisions, such as the war in Iraq, were wise as well. Unfairly or not, Bush will be defined by the destruction of New Orleans.

Despite all the speculation brought about by John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court, the only thing secret about the Federalist Society is its membership list.

Unlike Chief Jstice Rehnquist, Justice O’Connor was a pragmatist without a theory. As a result, her consensus opinions tend to teeter uneasily, never quite satisfactorily settling the matter at hand.

With President Bush having suggested that he is looking to nominate to the Court a judge in the mold of Justices Scalia or Thomas, their split on the recent medical marijuana case should have conservatives and liberals thinking carefully about which one they would rather have.

In evaluating judges, Congress needs to look beyond the mere results of particular cases and reflect on how a particular judge’s approach to the law would affect how Congress does its own job.

Reconciling opposition to the death tax with antipathy to the idle rich (i.e. Paris Hilton).

The belief that Terri Schiavo will get better is what makes her parents for fighting to keep her alive. And while such hope is understandable, the issue isn’t about what we believe. It’s about what Terri wanted.

Taxes may be a necessary evil, but property taxes we can do without.

Anti-privatizers have been quick to publish op-eds arguing either that Social Security isn’t in “crisis,” or that privatization just can’t work. They’re wrong.

Government-funded educational programs try to scare children with exaggerations about sex and drugs, but children should be educated with the truth so that they can be prepared to make tough decisions.

Democrats in 2004 made the same mistake the Republicans did in 1996: they let their hatred of the incumbent overcome their ability to craft a coherent and appealing message to voters.

A recap of the debates, and an election prediction, featuring George “Bumble” Bush, and John “Magic Wand” Kerry.

As tragic an event that 9/11 has been for America, it must be admitted that slowly, ever so slowly, things are getting back to normal.

A new Michigan case that limits government’s power of eminent domain is good news for property advocates, but Justice O’Connor may be standing in the way of broader reform.

The recent Supreme Court decision in Blakely v. Washington has thrown sentencing guidelines out the window. Hallelujah!

A look at the judicial opinions that aren’t, but should be.

Is a paperless, digital government bureaucracy something to aspire to, or an expensive pipe dream that should be avoided?

Outsourcing, like new innovations in productivity, might immediately hurt a few workers here and there, but will benefit all consumers in the long run.

Revisiting the recusal question and proposing a system to prevent Supreme Court 4-4 ties.

What’s in a word? A whole lot if the word is “marriage.” But can the legal definition be separated from the cultural meaning?

Why should Justice Scalia recuse himself for his duck hunting trip with Vice President Cheney when Justice Ginsburg hasn’t recused herself when the ACLU has been a party to a case?

The story of a an immigrant with a criminal record, stuck in a limbo between the U.S., which doesn’t want him, and his home country of Cuba, which doesn’t want him back.

Now that we have him, should we put Saddam Hussein on trial? And if so, how do we try him?

The District of Columbia exists so that the federal government can have a seat of government free from the interests of any individual state, but it doesn’t follow that D.C. residents should be taxed and denied representation.

Reframing the affirmative action debate, a group of SMU students held a bake sale in which they charged people different prices based on their race and sex.

Is the Constitution’s amendment process underused? Here is a modest proposal to bring our founding document up-to-date by enacting a “housekeeping” amendment.

If Justice Ginsburg had her way, American courts would look to foreign law for precedent–but only precedent that fit her worldview, of course.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal…” So wrote the Founders of this nation 227 years ago in the Declaration of Independence, and yet we have struggled ever since to realize the potential of that timeless ideal. Equality was an orphan as the institution of slavery marched on. Even [...]

Talk about the “missing WMDs” and the notion that President Bush lied about Saddam Hussein having them in order to push America into war has more to do with a discredited anti-war movement desperate for something to be right about than whether the war was justified. The more astute observers have recognized that the issue [...]

In McConnell v. FEC, the case that examined the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, federal District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly began her 706-page share of the sprawling 1,600-page opinion by quoting from several politicians and scholars regarding the dangers of corruption through private contributions to political campaigns. She cited Elihu Root, who said, “The [...]

Just when you thought it was safe for a Republican to go off the cuff again–after the whole Trent Lott debacle had subsided into distant memory–along comes Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) to stir the pot once more. < p> In an interview with the Associated Press, Santorum said, “I have no problem with homosexuality. I [...]

Every once in a while there will be a news story–usually an innocuous one that nobody pays attention to–that makes me think, “That’s it, that’s the paradigm for trouble.” Today’s paradigm comes as a two-wheeled gyroscope-balanced invention for humans of the future: The Segway Human Transporter. The Segway was making headlines long before the public [...]

Recently, Secretary of State Colin Powell made his presentation to the United Nations Security Council, hoping to convince its member nations that Iraq has deliberately violated the terms of Resolution 1441, which directed Iraq to fully comply with U.N. weapons inspectors and prove that all weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed or else face [...]

Last Wednesday marked the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade–I was but a fetus at the time the opinion was handed down–yet the rhetoric flying around today from both sides of the debate has only gotten shriller from the passage of time. Protests and marches are still organized, abortion clinics [...]