Author: Eric Scheie

Oh yes indeed. She wants to impose her morality on Santa Cruz County and make it a Bag-Free Zone: For the most part, complaints about a ban on plastic bags come from three constituencies: dog owners that don’t want to pay for puppy poo bags, grannies that reuse their CVS bags as garbage can liners…

A Michigan professor of journalism thinks the Westboro Baptist Church is important enough to warrant a lot of class time. He has previously had members of the crackpot group speak to his class, ostensibly to teach them about “the breadth of First Amendment protections.” (At that lecture, Shirley Phelps-Roper called Obama an “antichrist” and said…

Future Pundit makes me want to get down and dirty. I often worry that I am too clean. I mean, I bathe daily, I brush my teeth and I floss, I do my laundry every week, and it sometimes gets to be a real drag, and I wonder what’s it all for? Am I going…

Regular readers know I have an occasional penchant for verifying the accuracy and sources of popular quotes attributed to famous and respected people. There is a widely circulated quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that I just haven’t been able to verify: The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could…

The copyright slimebags have gone after Matt Drudge for using an allegedly copyrighted photo in the Drudge Report. What I find especially remarkable about the lawsuit is their damage demand: As the Wild West of online copyright enforcement very, very slowly sorts itself out, a group that seems to be trying to enforce — or,…

An FBI alert over a Barbie doll with a video camera has generated a lot of interesting discussion by people who are worried that the dolls might somehow be used by pedophiles to make kiddie porn: …that the new “Video Girl Barbie” comes with a hidden camera, which could be used to record child pornography.…

Not only did I love Sarah’s latest post (“Don’t Hate Me ‘Cause I’m Human“), I also loved her comment: …if I hear ONE MORE twit-line (or read it) in move or book saying something like “We are a plague on the Earth” I’m going to… become even more angry than I am. Those who say…

I haven’t written much about WikiLeaks, but I think there are two separate issues: one is the First Amendment, and the other goes to the damaging nature of the leaks (often called “national security”). It’s pretty basic that the right to say or publish something does not make saying or publishing it right. The principle…

This morning I was irritated to find a stupid piece of spam posted in my name on my Facebook Wall. Eventually I figured out what happened (no, they had not hacked my actual FB account), and I tried to post a helpful warning to whoever might be reading my Wall. But I can’t do that,…

A lot of people are hoping to start a war between social conservatives and libertarians in the Tea Party, and I think that represents wishful thinking on their part. That there is no denying the existence of sharp differences in philosophy within the Tea Party tent has long been obvious; I have written a number…

When I was younger and considerably more irresponsible than I am now, I bought a used car for almost nothing, which the guy sold me because the (automatic) transmission had conked out and he couldn’t move it. Actually, the car could be moved, but only in reverse. The transmission was dead in all forward gears,…

I try to remember every year. And I can’t think of a better reason than the fact that (unlike Bing) Google would have us forget. So what did I do? In spite of if not because of the obvious irony involved, I promptly Googled Google on the subject and found a Google discussion — titled…

Repeating myself is no fun. Nor is saying “I TOLD YOU SO.” But in today’s news, I see that President Obama is selling out the left, and making a right turn: Obama sells out the left: a Republican win on taxes By Jennifer Rubin There really is no other way to say it: the Republicans…

Quick question. What gives the Drug Enforcement Administration the right to determine what pain medications elderly people should be getting, when they should get it, and who gives it to them? Kohl wants to change DEA rules that allow pharmacists to dispense drugs to nursing home patients only with a verbal or written prescription from…

When I was exploring a blog which Glenn Reynolds linked recently, I found a fascinating left-wing comparison of Sarah Palin with Mike Huckabee, which is so refreshing in its honesty that I couldn’t resist sharing it: * General GOP crap: Palin believes and pushes a bunch of asinine right-wing nonsense about the economy, environment, guns,…

There is right and wrong. At least I still like to think there is. Drug laws contaminate our sense of right and wrong. Think about it. The big divide in criminal law is the distinction between malum in se, and malum prohibitum. Prohibitory substance laws treat malum prohibitum crime more seriously than many malum in…

Glenn Reynolds has a very amusing editorial comparing Barack Obama to Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel, who has cranked up the knobs to 11. The more I watch this administration at work, the more I think we’re seeing the first Nigel Tufnel presidency. Nigel Tufnel, many will remember, was the fictitious heavy metal guitarist in the…

Well, it looks as if I’ve been in denial about Global Warming. Turns out that it’s killing people: At least 60 people have died across Europe during the current cold snap, as snow plagued transport in Britain on Friday and serious flooding prompted mass evacuations in the Balkans. Seventeen people died in Central Europe in…

While there don’t seem to be very many film directors in Afghanistan, I recently watched an excellent film — Osama — about a girl in the era of Taliban rule whose mother encouraged her to disguise herself as a boy, because that was the only way for the family (which had no remaining men alive)…

I really liked Glenn Reynolds’ latest InstaVision interview: I talk with Jim Meigs of Popular Mechanics, who explains the creepy side of the information age. Corporations compile information on you. Can this information be used for nefarious purposes? What happens if a stalker gets a hold of your information? I like to think that at…