New at Reason

The complete Citings from our June issue are now available online. Should British Olympians keep their mouths shut about China this summer? Should the U.S. follow Iran's example and make kidneys available for sale? And if the Supreme Court upholds the Washington, DC gun ban, will that give Montana the right to secede from the Union?

Read all these and more here.

Comments

robc | May 13, 2008, 12:03pm | #

As has been shown many times through out history, the "right" to secede depends on the power to pull it off. I dont know if the south had the right to secede in 1861 or not, but Abe Lincoln won the "legal" battle.

bluebeard | May 13, 2008, 12:08pm | #

Careful, robc. You'll be fried alive here! Abe Lincoln is a saint to cosmotarians, and the South had no right to secede. It was all about the slaves, y'know.

Jake Boone | May 13, 2008, 12:17pm | #

If you're going to secede, though, now's probably a good time, what with our military bogged down in foreign adventures.

And I don't know whether I'm a cosmotarian (I don't like martinis) or a yokeltarian (I don't think UN black helicopters are watching me), but I think Lincoln was a tyrant. I also abhor the very idea of slavery, so take that as you will.

Drew | May 13, 2008, 12:26pm | #

Abe Lincoln is a saint to cosmotarians, and the South had no right to secede. It was all about the slaves, y'know.

There's a big difference between owning another human being and owning a tool which protects you from the aggression of others.

!Viva Montana Libre!

Rhywun | May 13, 2008, 12:46pm | #

athletes who violate the gag order by discussing, say, China’s dismal human rights record can be barred from competition and put on the next plane home

Better than being tossed into prison and left to rot.

guy in the back row | May 13, 2008, 12:53pm | #

re: Montana's secession.

Aren't there nuclear missile silos scattered around Montana? I think they're holding more punch than Bobby Lee's troops!

http://montanakids.com/db_engine/presentations/presentation.asp?pid=334&sub=Montana+Missiles

James Anderson Merritt | May 13, 2008, 1:15pm | #

I do wonder why evidence that the Montana State Constitution was consistent with the US Constitution in its RKBA protections at the time Statehood was approved can't be considered by the Supremes. But frankly, as much as my heart loves this argument, my head says it sounds too much like the "Post Office acknowledges Kris Kringle as Santa Claus" argument in "Miracle on 34th Street."

Will there be a similar "Miracle at 2nd and Constitution?"

Invisible Finger | May 13, 2008, 1:19pm | #

Does Montana really serve any purpose for the central government anymore? Gold and silver aren't central government money anymore, so there's no need for that stuff. There's some oil and gas, maybe some coal, but that's about it.

prolefeed | May 13, 2008, 1:39pm | #

It would be cool if Montana did go ahead with that, preferably before the general election since then the major party candidates would be forced to pander to Montana voters. I'm guessing McCain would say they have the right to secede, but their electoral college votes should still be counted, while Obama would be trying to straddle the fence on secession while insisting the electoral college votes should not counted.

prolefeed | May 13, 2008, 1:48pm | #

Interesting map showing

how big cities influence the electoral college.

robc | May 13, 2008, 2:03pm | #

prolefeed,

scale?

Height is margin of victory in absolute votes, maybe?

R C Dean | May 13, 2008, 2:41pm | #

I dont know if the south had the right to secede in 1861 or not, but Abe Lincoln won the "legal" battle.

Some king or other had an inscription cast around the mouths of his cannons: "The last argument of kings."

Brandybuck | May 13, 2008, 2:54pm | #

The South fired on us first! Lincoln was our greatest president because he defended the North AND freed the slaves! He freed the slaves before the war started, and not afterwards. He never imprisoned any reporters for negative stories about him. He only suspended habeus corpus out of dire need for the Union. There were no military tribunals in the North trying Northern citizens.

Anyone who says otherwise is a damned filthy paleocon and should be arrested!

Rhywun | May 13, 2008, 4:54pm | #

Height appears to be population. The unit appears to be the county. Which explains why Cook and Los Angeles tower, while NYC has shorter peaks with a pile of rubble around it.

Quick | May 15, 2008, 9:37am | #

Rhywun: No way scale is population. Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas are #'s 4,7,&9 in terms of population, and appear as ant hills, while Miami, which ranks #43, looks like the Sears Tower.

Quick | May 15, 2008, 9:47am | #

And before someone argues that those rankings are for core city data, Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area is #4, with a pop of 6.1 mill, while the South Florida metro area is #7, with a pop of 5.4 mill. Apparently the scale is percentage of socialistic/liberal idiots, in which case the scale is inverted. Instead of towers, those areas should appear as deep pits of despair.