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Eugene Volokh | 9.17.2025 3:00 AM
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Happy Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.
There used to be a well-celebrated day honoring new citizens entitled "I am an American Day." Judge Learned Hand gave a famous speech one such day entitled "The Spirit of Liberty."
Here are two excerpts from his short speech.
"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow."
"The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded."
Have a nice day.
https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/spirit-liberty-speech-judge-learned-hand-1944
Nice sentiments from Judge Hand JoeFromtheBronx. Of course, Jeremiah jumps in with another 'oh yeah? What about [fill in some narrative]'. Yawn.
"Three major assassination cases in US courts today.
Luigi Mangione, Ryan Routh and Tyler Robinson.
What do they have in common?"
https://x.com/davidwebbshow/status/1967994471762796833
Oh no guys, I don't think he knows!
Sorry to break it to you Kaz, but Mangione was a Ted Kaczynski acolyte.
Is the common thread that David Webb thinks the (successful or attempted) assassin is more important and a better person than their target, and thus he only names the criminal?
Is that encouragement of copycat killers intentional, or just yet another case of him being a putz?
The usual: young white men with guns. All mentally ill.
at 59 Ryan Routh isn't exactly "young" oh wait, I'm 63, my bad! These 59 yr old kids today!!!
They should all be summarily executed.
The Smasher remains disqualified. Georgia prosecutors seem unlikely to appoint another person to push such a flawed, partisan case.
https://apnews.com/article/fani-willis-appeal-georgia-supreme-court-trump-7be50feee272612484490b53592e7e08
Sen. Chris Murphy, early last week: "We're in a war right now to save this country. And so you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to save the country."
Sen. Chris Murphy, after Charlie Kirk's assassination: "That means everyone who cares about democracy has to join the fight - right now. Join a mobilization or protest group. Start showing up to actions more. Write a check to a progressive media operation."
How many more conservatives does he want targeted with violence? "All of them" is disappointingly credible.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/dTedsUK14S8
“Because if we lose this election we may not have a country anymore…If we don’t do something, we all know what’s happened with Venezuela…it can happen, because I see it, I see the people that we deal with, and these people, they don’t love our country” Trump
It should be obvious that there's a big difference between winning an election and fighting a war by any means necessary.
Should be.
In which one do you “fight like hell?”
“We fight we fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.” DJT
One might "fight like hell" in either or both. One can fight like hell in a sports match, with rules and respect for one's opponents. One can also fight like hell in a war to exterminate people one has dehumanized ("whatever is necessary" / "by any means necessary"). The left tends to take the latter perspective.
"Fight! Fight! Fight". Amirite? I suppose he could have just as easily be saying all these years "Pray! Pray! Pray!" or "Love! Love! Love!". But where's the fun and outrage in that?
Notice that Mikie insists Trump wasn’t using fight in the most common sense* of a physical altercation but in a metaphorical sense, but if a Democrat uses the word war they must be using it in the violent sense, not the metaphorical one (war on drugs, war on cancer, etc).
* take part in a violent struggle involving the exchange of physical blows or the use of weapons
To be fair to Trump, when he got his ear thwicked, he mouthed 'Fight! Fight! Fight!', but we all missed the subsequent '...the release of the Epstein Files!' because the DEI secret service drug his face below the horizon right at that point.
"Thwicked"?? Yeah right, you'd be crying like a little B-word if you took a 5.56 to the Pinna (lots of nerve endings) remember how in "Fight Club" Ed Norton's character hits Tyler in the Ear? "You punched my ear? why the fucking ear??!?!?!?!?" It's like me saying "JFK's Skull got "Thwicked" in Dealey Plaza
Frank
“people one has dehumanized”
“and these people, they don’t love our country”
Actually...
From a cynical perspective, elections are just war games, where we very ritualistically simulate having a civil war, and then hand over control to the projected winner in lieu of having a real war.
Actual civil wars happen in democracies when people start to doubt that the simulation is giving accurate results...
Sure, and lots of sports are proxies for more-direct, less-regulated violence. Football games still have much lower fatality and permanent-injury rates than street fights. I suspect the total injury rates are also lower.
A coach who told his players to go out and "do whatever is necessary" to win would rightly be seen as encouraging his players to break the rules.
“Whatever it takes, we have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country. We have a radical left group, going around, these people, there’s something wrong with them, there really is…” DJT
From a cynical perspective, elections are just war games Our Founders didn't think like this. People in modern America thinks like this.
Actual civil wars happen in democracies when people start to doubt that the simulation This is also unsupported.
Sorry, early hours yet. I meant most people in modern America don't think like this. Only a certain gun-obsessed group of conservative Americans think like this.
92 republican groups and individuals, including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point, were targeted by Biden’s FBI in their “Arctic Frost” investigations. 92 groups and individuals harassed for years, having their records, communications, and financial records subpoenaed in an attempt to bolster the administration’s prosecution of political rivals. This in a climate where daily democrats and their media allies demonized any opposition as “insurrectionists” guilty of atrocities worse than Pearl Harbor. (They still do by the way) And Arctic Frost is almost a footnote in years of repressive conduct and corruption. Russia-gate ring a bell?
Yeah, nothing banana republic to see here.
Bot can’t link.
I don't see what talking about Kirk has to do with the White House ballroom.
In May, Mr. Witkoff’s son Zach announcedthe first of the deals at a conference in Dubai. One of Sheikh Tahnoon’s investment firms would deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoffs and Trumps.
Two weeks later, the White House agreed to allow the U.A.E. access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate artificial intelligence. Many of the chips would go to G42, a sprawling technology firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, despite national security concerns that the chips could be shared with China.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chips-witkoff-world-liberty.html
It is surmised that AI will be the last nail in the coffin of the hope for democracy in the kingdom states...allowing unstoppable family rule for the next thousand years.
Potentially, yes, and not just in the kingdom states: If you can combine AI with robots to run lights out factories, you just stop NEEDING most people, and so almost everybody but the owners of the AI/factories ends up with no negotiating power at all, and the people who do retain some don't actually have a lot.
This is why we really need ownership of capital dispersed through the population, instead of concentrated. The value of labor, and thus its influence and remuneration, is continually declining relative to capital, and will eventually go to approximately zero. And potentially within a few decades, even!
This is where idiot leftists start talking about nationalizing things, not understanding that when the government nationalizes industry, it isn't the people who "own" industry, it's whoever controls the government. So that nationalizing industry is just a way of making ownership MORE concentrated.
It has to be REAL ownership, the sort accompanied by control, that is dispersed population-wide, not just nominal ownership, like the sort average people get by owning stocks managed by funds that are often not terribly interested in the welfare of their investors.
I think that some sort of affiliation based organization structure, where capital was owned by groups you could voluntarily join, (And join several, even.) might help. Membership organizations can have more member oriented interests, if organized appropriately, and not absurdly large.
Imagine a future where the AI and factories are largely owned by fraternal organizations, the Arbor society, and so forth.
This is where idiot leftists start talking about nationalizing things
I'm sure a few do, but 'AI means we should nationalize things' is not really showing up much on the public square. The leftists in your head are acting up again.
It's becoming increasingly clear that the societal transforming nature of LLMs is vastly overstated. And LLMs having sucked up most of the attention and cash, other AI's are stalled at best.
I personally also have more faith in capitalism to adapt and find useful things for workers to do than do the silicon valley supposed xtreme capitalists.
The main story here is the conflict of interest/corruption. The same people who were up in arms about a VP’s son working at a foreign company because there may be corruption and inappropriate influence are shrugging while a President and his envoy do foreign policy with entities that they are engaging in multi-million dollar deals.
More damage from minimum wage hikes:
Following a 1-standard-deviation increase in the minimum wage, firms reduce their investment rate (the ratio of capital expenditure to capital stock) by 3.08 percentage points. The negative impact is more acute for firms with a higher fraction of minimum wage workers, stronger employment protections, or higher labor intensity.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/733119 (Hat tip Tyler Cowen)
Minimum wage hikes will make prices go up because they raise the costs of labor inputs.
Now do mass deportations of workers.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART/
I am reminded, again, why I put you on mute.
Because I routinely humiliate your talking points? Americans who don’t do these low paying jobs are not going to rush into the labor force when those who do them for low paying jobs are deported unless the wages go up to entice them. They’re free to do them now for the low wages!
No, because a 13-year-old makes more cogent and sensible points than you do. Now back on mute you go.
What a sensible, cogent point!
Projection is a hell of a drug
Ahh did widdle Qweenie get his widdle fee-wings hurt?? And you didn't end your last sentence with a Period, what are you? an Ignoramus??
Frunk
Should I go into a rent schtick with deranged capitalizations, sentence spacing, punctuation and such now?
Somebody got their feelings hurt, and ran away as usual after trying get in the last dig (also as usual).
I don't know Mr. Bones, why DID da Chicken cross the road?????
So, let me understand this. You are in favor of illegal immigration because they will accept lower wages than people who are here legally. Is that so?
That sounds a lot like the argument in favor of slavery, which was that if we don't have slavery, who's going to pick the cotton?
MAGAns don’t get consent, example 112,314.
Are you for raising the minimum wage? Or do you argue that it will raise prices so we need to keep wages lower. Just like slavery!
Mamdani says “hold my beer.”
“It is a vast domestic terror movement,” said Stephen Miller. “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people,” he added.
People often forget just how large the Klan was in the North in the 1920s, the marches through the streets of DC and the rest. Is it a fair analogy to compare the current radical left to the Klan a century ago?
In 1925 it was the death of Madge Oberholtzer. She had been kidnapped by the head of the Northern Klan, D. C. Stephenson, who proceeded to rape and bite her -- I'm glossing over the more sordid details here but infection of these bites killed her, that with the mercury chloride she'd taken a few days earlier in a suicide attempt.
Stephenson had dumped her with her parents to die, which she did -- after giving a statement. This shocks the nation and the Klan evaporates.
There’s one party that still fights like hell to memorialize and monumentalize the Klan.
You're correct for once, and even has their POTUS speak at a Grand Dragon's funeral. That was Barry Hussein at Robert KKK Bird's for those with Sleepy Joe's Disease.
Byrd, who recanted his involvement in the Klan, died 25 years ago. Here’s the current War Secretary: "That's right, Bragg is back!”
2010 was 25 years ago?? Must be "Queenie Math"
15, mea culpa. Point stands (but given Francis on periods don’t be surprised if he doesn’t get it).
Oh right, "Mea Culpa", why can't you just admit it's your fault?
Yeah, there's one party that doesn't want the Klan and who they were allied with shoved down the memory hole. The other party would prefer that they just be forgotten.
Yeah, y’all just want everyone to know the evils of the Klan! What Hegseth meant was “Bragg is back, now no one will forget that awful traitor in the defense of slavery!” Stop beclowning yourself.
The Trump administration has ordered several National Park Service sites to take down materials related to slavery and Native Americans, including an 1863 photograph of a formerly enslaved man with scars on his back that became one of the most powerful images of the Civil War era.
The moves by the administration were outlined in internal emails reviewed by The New York Times and two people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The directives stemmed from President Trump’s executive order in March that instructed the Park Service to remove or cover up content that “inappropriately disparage Americans,” part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to promote a more positive view of the nation’s history.… At Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia, Trump officials have instructed park employees to take down a sign that criticizes the post-Civil War “Lost Cause” ideology, which romanticized the Confederacy and denied slavery’s central role in the conflict… In a social media post last month, Mr. Trump accused the Smithsonian of focusing too much on “how bad slavery was”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/climate/trump-park-service-slavery-photo-tribes.html
I do not see any efforts by Democrats to elide the history of the Democratic Party and Jim Crow.
What is Brett even getting this from?
In fact, as noted above Trump is leaning in our cultural institutions because he thinks they focus on slavery, the Klan and Jim Crow too much.
No, it’s the memorials and monuments to Klansmen that they are excitedly fighting for.
Yeah right, so why is there a "Senator Robert KKK Bird" Highway, Bridge, "Education Center", there's even a "Senator Robert KKK Bird Telescope" A friggin Telescope, let me know when they re-name those (maybe to honor Larry Bird, who last I checked, ruined more Black Guys lives than even the (DemoKKKratic) KKK
Because he recanted and showed it with deeds. Weirdos like Francis can’t comprehend that people can change (or basic English) but most people can.
For the 2003–2004 session, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)[106] rated Byrd's voting record as being 100% in line with the NAACP's position on the thirty-three Senate bills they evaluated. Sixteen other senators received that rating. In June 2005, Byrd proposed an additional $10,000,000 in federal funding for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., remarking that, "With the passage of time, we have come to learn that his Dream was the American Dream, and few ever expressed it more eloquently".[107] Upon news of his death, the NAACP released a statement praising Byrd, saying that he "became a champion for civil rights and liberties" and "came to consistently support the NAACP civil rights agenda".[108]
Larry Bird recanted?? That I'll have to see first. OK, you saw your error (Illegal use of Indefinite Pronoun, 5 yard penalty, replay First Down!) and Edited, you have 1 Edit remaining, "Colored People"??? That wasn't what Grand Klaxon Bird called them, he called them "Niggers" he even went as far to say there were "White Niggers" and that he knew alot of them
What harm could a vile lie asserting that the republican party “fights like hell to memorialize and monumentalize the Klan” do? How could anyone ever object to repugnant lies and the demonization of political opponents? It can only foster unity and dialogue.
You know what doesn’t foster unity and dialogue? Fighting like hell to maintain and restore memorials and monuments to those who literally fought like hell in committing treason in the defense of race-based slavery.
https://apnews.com/article/confederate-memorial-arlington-cemetery-trump-10-million-5dd49c0cc16244e3e09a7a7f0008cbcc#
Uh... there's nothing klan-like happening on the left. Remember Durham's failure? Remember Musk's failure? How many deep state prosecutions has Bondi brought? You guys are looking for a boogeyman that doesn't exist.
TR acted alone, you're not going to find a Soros money trail or whatever you're fantasizing about. Stephen Miller is just trying to leverage CK's death to score some political points, obviously.
Your Anti-Semite Neglect Syndrome is showing.
Sure, masked gangs of people show up to conduct "fiery but mostly peaceful" protests, attacking people and damaging property while shouting their slogans. Sure, they have regular meetings of core groups and the rabble show up in response to summons by that core group.
But they're not burning crosses specifically (... yet, except the ones at churches they target) and they don't have a formal membership registry. That totally means there is "nothing klan-like happening". (/s)
You just live in fear of stuff you make up, every day.
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1968155474328686909
“Sure, masked gangs of people show up to conduct "fiery but mostly peaceful" protests, attacking people and damaging property while shouting their slogans. Sure, they have regular meetings of core groups and the rabble show up in response to summons by that core group.”
Another Jan. 6 discussion?
79 Year Old President Can’t Remember
The president then mentioned solving a war between “Azerbaijan and Albania” which was “going on for many, many years.” Trump continued, “I had the prime ministers and presidents in my office. They sat so far apart, one chair was there, one chair was there. I said, ‘Fellas, get together, come on.’”
Albania, a Balkan country some 1,430 miles from Azerbaijan, has never been at war with the country. Trump did, however, broker a peace deal between Azerbaijan and its neighbor Armenia in July, after hosting the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia at a peace summit at the White House, bringing an end to decades of fighting between the two countries.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-cant-remember-which-countrys-war-he-solved/
Nothing happens in Azerbaijan without Putin's say so. Perhaps Trump and Putin can share the Peace Prize. That would be hilarious.
It's Armenia that is aligned with Russia. Or rather was. It's been falling out of Russia's orbit for a while now, something only accelerated by Russia's inability to protect it's client state's interests with so much of its attention tied up in Ukraine.
Azerbaijan is aligned with Turkey and while they can get on with Russia, the Turkish alliance is very much meant to be a counter balance to Russian power.
Typically Russia was supporting Armenia more heavily during the conflict....
The first man arrested after Charlie Kirk's shooting was arrested for a good reason:
Police say that a Salt Lake City man — who was no stranger to the state's political scene — claimed responsibility moments after the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, in an attempt to "draw attention from the real shooter."
https://www.ksl.com/article/51373320/man-claimed-to-shoot-charlie-kirk-to-draw-attention-from-the-real-shooter-police-say
I have no idea why he agreed to let police look at his phone, much less why he would make the impromptu confession that he repeatedly made about his phone's contents. "Don't talk to police without your lawyer" is such common advice that I would expect a long-term gadfly to know what would happen.
Sometime it's as simple as, "Yes, he was as stupid as he appears."
They had Briscoe and Green work him over
Top 20 Most Transgender Porn Obsessed States Transgender Porn related Google Searches using the terms: “shemale”, “tranny”, “femboy”, and “ladyboy” https://lawsuit.org/general-law/republicans-have-an-obsession-with-transgender-pornography/
1. Texas 2. Georgia 3. Kentucky 4. Missouri 5. Kansas 6. Virginia 7. North Carolina 8. Illinois 9. Mississippi 10. Tennessee 11. Ohio 12. Indiana 13. Arkansas 14. Iowa 15. Louisiana 16. Michigan 17. Oklahoma 18. Alabama 19. Florida 20. Pennsylvania
Almost all States 45/47 won (except for Illinois, "What's the matter with Kansas"??? should be "What the (Redacted) is wrong with Illinois??(Hint, it's Chicago)" And as 45/47 famously said "We won with the Porn Obsessed, we won with the Gay-Porn Obsessed, we won with the Transgender Porn Obsessed! We love the Transgender Porn Obsessed!!!!!! and I search alot about King Cobras, I'm fascinated with them, doesn't mean I'm going to get one (Hmmm, release a swarm of King Cobras during a joint Session of Congress....... Nah, that would be a cruel thing to do to the Cobra's
I know. What's the deal with Illinois? In truth I do a lot of searching for 'talking crows'. Unlike cobras, I can train my crow to perch on my shoulder and speak.
I'm also planning on getting this shirt: https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/Sd11b059cba444137a14ea6eb78ac7defy.jpg_640x640q90.jpg
Trump on Russia-Ukraine War
March 4, 2023. Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine settled. It will be settled quickly. Quickly. I will get the problem solved and I will get it solved in rapid order and it will take me no longer than one day.”
Last Week: “I'm not happy about anything having to do with that whole situation. But hopefully it's going to come to an end."
You Fucked up, You Trusted Him!
"“I'm not happy about anything having to do with that whole situation."
Uh oh. I guess Ukraine is going the way of the Epstein files. Everyone just needs to stop talking about it. Which also means next week it will be another democrat hoax. How many dem hoaxes does that now make for 2025? [asking for a friend]
Reading 'The Mercy of the Gods' the followup to the Expanse series by the same composite author.
I'm about 1/3 of the way through and...it's a lot more bleak! I'm not sure I'm a fan. It reads quickly even so, so there is that.
Congressional Republicans target DC's speed camera system as 'revenue grab'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congressional-republicans-target-dc-s-speed-camera-system-as-revenue-grab/ar-AA1MGfNg?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=68ca977eb4d64b1986ff3a23b6f39f09&ei=241
I've mentioned before that DC should cede most of the land back to Maryland and just have a small section around the White House, Congress, mall, monuments, etc.
We don't need Congress wasting time about speeding tickets.
Hey, Pirro has to get places!
Dems steal the election | It was MAGA Dems are pedos | It was MAGA Dems do all the political violence | it was MAGA
So we know by now that when dems get accused of something, its really a MAGA confession.
With that in mind, I've been thinking about why of all songs does MAGA keep bizarrely pumping YMCA? An allegorical song about cruising for and picking up young boys. You hayseeds should have stuck with Lee Greenwood, but you just can't help yourselves from broadcasting your crimes
New book recommendations:
1. The Will of the Many, James Islington.
A solid fantasy novel in a pseudo-roman type system. Islington does a few things well. A single viewpoint, all the way through. A novel "magic" system with the social implications. A "coming of age" storyline by a young man through the orphanage - adoption - academy storyline. Writing in the Sanderson-Jordan type epic fantasy, may be the best new Fantasy of the year.
2. Dungeon Crawler Carl. -Incredibly amusing LitRPG series, most of these were listened to via audiobook and it was a riot. Just recently got the hard covers printed.
3. The Devils, Joe Abercrombie. -Reasonable. Suicide Squad meets medieval fantasy.
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J.D. Tuccille | 9.17.2025 7:00 AM
Charles Oliver | 9.17.2025 4:00 AM
Jacob Sullum | 9.17.2025 12:01 AM
Jacob Sullum | 9.16.2025 5:35 PM
Christian Britschgi | 9.16.2025 4:50 PM
