“Me? I didn’t do nothin’. I didn’t kill anyone. I just drove away with the body.” –Zero Mostel to Humphrey Bogart, “Murder Inc.” Read more

DC COP HARASSES MAN WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT POLICE RESPONSE. From the Old Oligarch. How surprising. Not. And from Zorak, his wife, a link to this interesting little item. I’d heard about this class before, but I managed to miss the hilarious requirement that “Students must assume ‘that people—both the people we study and the members of the class—always do the best they can.'” I dunno, maybe this course is being misrepresented, but I doubt it. Would that mean that every... Read more

WHILE YOU’RE WAITING FOR BLOGSPOT TO REVEAL ITSELF… here’re some links. Very very interesting (uh, if you’re very very interested in this sort of thing) reviews of Catholic churches. A guy hoofs it from church to church throughout his diocese and reports back to you, the viewer. I was again reminded to be grateful for the excellent preaching, architecture, and liturgy I’ve found. Start at the bottom of his links and move up; apparently the later pages are missing. (Link... Read more

“I don’t like crooks. And if I did like them, I wouldn’t like crooks who are stool pigeons. And if I did like crooks who are stool pigeons, I still wouldn’t like you!” –Bar Girl, “The Thin Man” NOTE: If you use Blogspot, check your site. If you get a “Page not found” message, you may need to publish a new post or re-publish an old one. Click here for more info. UPDATE! You may need to do that more... Read more

ON THE BRINK OF THE SLOPE: (Sorry! Sorry!) Brink Lindsey sends a helpful and sensible reply to my item in the blogwatch below. “Two quick comments. First, I said that the ‘life begins at conception’ position is justified in part by slippery-slope arguments – I certainly recognize that there are other reasons as well. Also, note that the pro-choicers have their own slippery-slope problem – which drives them to defend atrocities like partial-birth abortion. Which produces a convoluted and tragic... Read more

It’s good to watch your blog, you know it’s been so long If I don’t watch your blog then everything goes wrong… The Edge of England’s Sword: Worrying round-up of bad news from Italy. Amy Langfield: Why do people think they’re entitled to have sex on my stoop? Via Matt Welch. Brink Lindsey: Interesting posts on slippery-slope arguments; a tragic and terrible euthanasia case; and more on the slippery slope. In general I agree with Lindsey’s position on the use... Read more

“When I have nothing to do at night and can’t think, I always iron my money.” “What do you press when you’re broke?” “When I’m broke, I press my pants.” –Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, “His Kind of Woman” Read more

NEW CONTEST!!! Actually, it’s two, two, two contests in one. Send me entries for either of the contests; best ones will be published in approximately two weeks. (Note how cagey I’ve become about making promises….) Send all entries to eve_tushnet@yahoo.com . 1) When capitalism gives you lemons… This was inspired by this post over at The Volokh Conspiracy. You know those lists of different political systems and what they’d do with two cows? I want similar ideas–but fresh, funny, tart... Read more

With a clockwork jerk pluck cogs from blogwatches for dinner on Friday then recoiling say excuse me… This post from The American Prospect‘s blog, about the “what did Bush know?” questions, gets most things right. I have a few nits to pick but I won’t bother. Link via Barlow. The Professor has also been keeping an eagle eye on this stuff, of course. Michael Dubruiel: Lousy scandal-news about Archbishop Elden Curtiss; and how to meet God. Mickey Kaus, Enemy of... Read more

CAN THERE BE A DECENT FEMINISM?: (Inspired, of course, by Michael Walzer’s “Can There Be a Decent Left?“) This was initially going to be installment #2 of The Politics of Dancing–my ramblings about rock lyrics–but it outgrew its limitations. Over the weekend, a friend of mine mentioned the idea that feminism is primarily “an unsuccessful attempt to tame male lust.” That rings really true to me, and I’m going to blog a bit about what feminism has accomplished and why... Read more