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Eugene Volokh | 9.21.2025 3:00 AM
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Am I the only one who thinks this website would benefit greatly by a few simple changes, the most valuable being means to make immediately clear who a comment is replying to? Ought to be quite simple and would IMO be a great improvement.
Following the line down can make it slow in some cases, however, one gets used to it or doesn't bother as the comments repeat daily, but yes, a 'reply to ...' would make it easier.
Keep dreaming of those things that will never happen (ht RFK). Purkinje Cells in the Brain, Purkinje Fibers in the Heart, that Purkinje was a versatile dude.
neurodoc < Do that.
Would someone tell me how to go to a previous date of the VC. That would be much appreciated.
Follow down to the bottom and click 'more'
If you know the exact date you want, you can just type it into the address bar of your browser, e.g.: https://reason.com/volokh/2025/09/18/
Its kinda wild how the national dialogue has swung from Dems on the defensive about free speech with one of their own killing Charlie Kirk to Reps on the defensive about free speech for Trump (as most people seem to believe) picking up the red phone and ordering Iger to fire Jimmuh Kimmel.
And the people just a few days ago 'well but'ing an outright assassination over speech are now proudly marching with the no holds bar free speech banner held high for a guy actually disciplined over insubordination to his boss. And its as if its all happened in a vacuum. Its all about Kimmel, its always been about Kimmel and just Kimmel being bullied by drumpf out of nowhere in complete isolation, and you would think Kirk never existed from the way this was covered and talked about.
Gotta give the media manipulation wizards on the left their due. They really know how to work miracles.
“one of their own killing Charlie Kirk”
Kind of a shitty accusation. Luckily it seems the rest of the country isn’t buying. You all were just sooo eager out of the gate.
Your outrage is hard to credit when you specifically have been at maximum outrage based on dodgy versions of the facts for years and years.
There are no media manipulation experts at work. Vast left wing conspiracies are not as common as you think. I’m sure Kirk’s funeral will get wall to wall coverage, not that such would mollify your outrage addiction.
>There are no media manipulation experts at work
I'd say you're naive. But I know better...
https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/29/busted-the-inside-story-of-how-the-kamala-harris-campaign-manipulates-reddit-and-breaks-the-rules-to-control-the-platform/
https://thepostmillennial.com/dhs-leaks-starting-in-2020-dhs-began-meeting-with-twitter-facebook-wikipedia-and-more-monthly-to-coordinate-content-moderation-efforts
https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/1bkj0pl/comment/kw0yv2e/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Note your sources. All of the, with not just bias but credibility issues.
Of course you believe all sorts of weird false strawmany stuff - you seek it out, and then don’t check if it’s bullshit.
As I said, outrage addict.
There are no conspiracies, just coincidences which pan out to real collusion and group-think.
With the amount of technology today are you safe from being found out ?
Sarcastr0: If the shoe fits, wear it.
You keep saying stuff that and not keeps revealing you as a broken angry man who needs therapy.
"There are no media manipulation experts at work. Vast left wing conspiracies are not as common as you think."
And war really is peace, too!
Remember, Brett is so ready to believe in left wing conspiracies he fell for the Biden green screen one.
Haha Brett being super into a massive inchoate liberal conspiracy was overdetermined.
What a rant!
Trump overplayed his hand in the way petty authoritarians do.
It’s interesting that even the most Trump today’s here don’t try to defend the FCC and Trump’s overreach, it’s just whataboutism and versions of “Kimmel had crappy locks on his door and was gonna get broken into anyway.”
Trump’s an incredible coward. If his cult called him out on anything he’d reverse course. But cult’s don’t call out much.
delete
I keep wondering if we're ever going to have a serious discussion about whether or not NYT vs Sullivan may have gone a little bit too far.
Reading comparisons of the legal regimes before and after, if "before" was a zero, and "after" was one hundred, I keep thinking that maybe we should have set the needle to more like seventy-five or so.
One of these days, someone's going to propose implementing some sort of small claims court for social media libel, but NYT vs Sullivan is the biggest problem to overcome with that.
I would think Section 230 is the bigger impediment for social media platform liability. The hayseeds keep thinking that if they could get rid of Sullivan they could finally take down the NY Times. But it seems that Sullivan does far more to protect Fox and the supremacists' than it does the Times.
This guy is so worried that powerful public figures don’t have enough protection against speech.
To Somin and the CATO report ... https://humanevents.com/2025/09/17/ari-hoffman-no-political-violence-is-not-primarily-a-right-wing-problem
So yesterday we learned that (a) Trump fired his own U.S. Attorney nominee to the EDVA because the guy wouldn't prosecute people based on insufficient evidence; (b) Trump tried to secretly order Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies but accidentally did so publicly; and (c) Trump dropped the investigation into the corruption of his evil "border czar" for accepting a literal bag of cash as a bribe.
To quote the Simpsons, Trump has crossed the line from everyday villainy to cartoonish supervillainy.
MSNBC is reporting:
"In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC. ... Undercover FBI agents posing as contractors communicated and met several times last summer with a business colleague who introduced them to Homan, and with Homan himself, who indicated he would facilitate securing contracts for them in exchange for money once he was in office, according to documents and the people familiar with the case.
On Sept. 20, 2024, with hidden cameras recording the scene at a meeting spot in Texas, Homan accepted $50,000 in bills, according to an internal summary of the case and sources."
People have widely differing views on things, of course, but video showing $50K in cash changing hands seems pretty hard to explain.
Will the pardon be issued now or later?
I don’t see MSNBC even being around to accept a Pardon
Francis, why would you capitalize pardon? What’s today’s story? Is it that you failed to learn third grade English while supposedly being educated here for K-12, undergrad and medical school? Is it you are ESL? Left handed?
I mean, it’s not that you’re doing some sad, pathetic Trump like act here is it?
Same reasons the Germans do, languages change, whens the last time you heard someone say Nig-ra?(it was the “Darn” of Racial Epithets), and in spoken Engrish nobody can tell I’m capitalizing Nouns. OTOH you’ll never catch me saying “Chief” “Back in the Day” or my favorite your people use billions of times a day “Nome Sane” Nome Sane?
Frank “what’s the longest word in Ebonics?”
But you don’t capitalize every improper noun. So what explains your derangement? Do you think deranged people like yourself are particularly attracted to Trump? You’ve said you had a weak, effeminate father who was regularly cuckolded by black guys in the neighborhood, does that make you think Trump is a type you’d have liked your father to be and you try to emulate his writing style as some type of sad, pathetic tribute?
"Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, called the Homan case a “blatantly political investigation,” and said it showed the Biden administration “was using its resources to target President Trump’s allies rather than investigate real criminals and the millions of illegal aliens who flooded our country.”"
Interesting article about America's prison population.
Too bad the murderers didn't get a date with Old Sparky.
With all the innovations in killing people a properly done long drop hanging is probably the most “Humane”. One of those Captive Bolt guns like they use with Cattle would be even better(ht A Chiguhr).
Frank
There are acts committed that are so heinous toward human beings that the penalty for doing that is forfeiture of the murderers life. The murderers have placed themselves outside of humanity by their deliberate and depraved acts.
The problem is swift and certain application. The needle works too, for the squeamish. The murderer is just as dead. Hanging is the preferred form of execution in Iran, I believe.
Besides, who wants to support these murderers at 40K annually, for decades? Go ahead, raise your hands.
The OP cited an interesting substack article. I was surprised at the high %-tage of violent offenders relative to prison population. When you do the math, it is sobering. Especially the 'dark crimes'.
WWJD
He already did it
That snark might carry a little more weight if that same religious text didn't say things like an eye for an eye, and literally ordered the execution of gay men.
It’s interesting that Francis mocks black people using Ebonics when he writes like a Third)grader on Crack .
https://jonathanturley.org/2025/09/19/federal-judge-rules-for-parents-in-case-involving-concealment-of-childs-gender-changes/
What is the legal rationale for school officials to deliberately contravene the parents' instructions; specifically, the parents engaged mental health professionals to help their child and specifically asked the school not to interfere with those efforts.
From the article: The parents were initially told only that their child was experiencing mental health difficulties, including depression. Silvestri (child's mother) said they would seek mental health support for their child and asked that administrators “not have any private conversations with (the Student) in regards to this matter.”
The parents later learned that the school’s staff had continued to meet with their child without their knowledge, implemented the change in gender identity and took active measures not to reveal the change to them (including using the student’s birth name in communications with the parents). The school, without the parents’ knowledge, arranged for changes in everything from the use of male bathrooms to the exclusive use of the child’s new name in class.
The upper middle class simple solution is to remove your child from the school. What if that is not an option?
What's the bright line that defines a violation of parental rights by the State?
All of the School staff who participated should be “Transitioned”
Yesterday on NPR, a psychologist that has studied hayseedism (Hasidism!) says that to a have a beneficial outcome in a debate with a hayseed without triggering their 'contemptuousness', I need to list five positive things about the subject before saying the mean thing I'm dying to say.
So I picked Charlie Kirk...and I'm struggling. The thing that makes Charlie Kirk a hero to the haysseds - like the bigotry and the white supremacy - I just don't find positive at all. So I switched to AI and asked:
"Name five positive things Charlie Kirk has accomplished"
First to Gemini, which answered:
"He co-founded Turning Point USA at the age of 18, which grew into a large conservative organization focused on engaging young people.
He was described as a "champion for common-sense values" who gave a platform to talk about various issues and championed countless people.
He inspired millions of young people to get involved in politics and advocated for what he believed was the truth through debate and persuasion on college campuses.
He was praised for his commitment to dialogue, being kind, respectful, and a dynamic thinker who listened to and engaged with his opponents.
He was an Eagle Scout and was recognized for his discipline and service, values that he later incorporated into his political philosophy."
Then to Grok:
"Founded Turning Point USA at age 18 in 2012, growing it into the largest conservative youth organization with chapters on over 2,000 college and high school campuses, empowering young people to advocate for free markets and limited government.
Mobilized youth voter turnout for Republican causes, including helping shift the youth vote toward Donald Trump in the 2024 election and launching a Get Out The Vote campaign that enlisted 1 million students for Trump in 2020.
Hosted "The Charlie Kirk Show," a daily radio and podcast program that reached 500,000 to 750,000 listeners monthly, providing a platform for conservative ideas and engaging a broad audience. Authored multiple bestselling books on conservative principles, including "The MAGA Doctrine" (2020) and "Right Wing Revolution" (2024), contributing to political discourse and inspiring readers to engage in activism.
Received the Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition in Law & Policy in 2018 and an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Liberty University in 2019 for his leadership in conservative activism and youth engagement."
IDK, this all sounds like the resume of any run-of-the-mill podcaster
Pretty sure run of the mill podcasters don't build anything as big as Turning Point.
So he built a business that earned him over $500M. However, knowing the ultimate policy goals of Turning Point, how can I as a Lib spin that shit positively? Or should I just hold my nose and list its policy objectives since that's what excites the rubes?
Hold your nose, cross your legs and fart, you could clear out your mind.
Bellmore — Getting rich in this country is pretty easy if all you want to accomplish is stuff rich people favor, and to get rich yourself. If you think that an admirable way to live a life, and don't get rich yourself, then that is kind of a disgrace. It bespeaks mediocrity at best.
It's much harder to accomplish stuff rich people oppose, and still achieve even minimal financial security. Maybe that's why America's upper middle class is so full of folks who avoid being caught visibly in support of stuff rich people oppose.
I offer no opinion about whether that result is attributable to natural selection, or meticulously tailored personal presentations. Probably some of both, but my hope would be more of the latter. Lying hypocrites seem better prospects for change than true believers.
He didn't turn up here at all.
As DMN said, MAGA is more into having the martyr than the man.
I'd also note that MAGA usual around here are all in on using Charlie Kirk of all people to do a massive cancel culture push.
No; you lot don't care about him at all. It's all instrumental outrage because you want to go at the left in unprincipled authoritarian ways, and outrage helps cover the sting of being so hypocritical and anti-American.
Those are accomplishments, I don't know if they're good, maybe neutral if you squint hard.
The one thing I did like was his change my mind attitude, not afraid of open debate with others. Fear of this is more indicative of being an NPC surrounded by a safe echo chamber.
As for the content, I though Shapiro and Peterson had better ideas of his colleagues. They seemed to have some interesting things to say, but then again, I haven't seen much but the more neutral stuff Google AI seems to want to shove in front of me.
Then I told Google to stop that shit and show me music and physics videos, so it dried up.
"California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office could be investigated for a social media post that some Republicans perceived as a threat to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid a heightened threat environment for political figures.
“Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today. You’re welcome, America,” Newsom’s press office said in a post on X on Saturday morning....
...Newsom’s press office said in a separate post hours later that the original post was referring to an immigration-related legislation that the governor was signing into law, that includes a ban on federal law enforcement wearing masks.
White House communications director Steven Cheung slammed Newsom’s press office for posting “a threat” ahead of Kirk’s memorial on Sunday...
...“To make a threat like this, especially on the memorial weekend for Charlie, is beyond the pale and totally disgusting,” Cheung said in a post on X. “This is what happens when Gavin Newsom lets deranged Leftist lunatics post messages on his behalf.”"
Nixon, Reagan, Haight-Ashbury, The Berkeley Free Speech Movement, The Black Panthers, Harvey Milk, the Watts riots, Silicon Valley, decrepitude of Democratic Party leadership—so many things which happened in California have had profound effects on American culture and politics. I wish I could remember any which proved beneficial long-long term. California seems to have become the nation's laboratory for backlash experiments. Not optimistic about a Newsom presidential bid.
Just don't say, 'Have a bad day!' to any one in the administration.
P.S..you DO seem depressed this morning. Cheer up. I'll victimize some of the rubes here this morning and you'll start to feel better
Hobie — Problem is, Chinatown is one of my favorite movies. What can you do about that? Or about LA Confidential, for that matter.
That's a bit cryptic, Stephen. Are you saying you want those movies to be more impactful than they were?
I'm saying they are good movies, and I like them, and they are anti-cheerful. For a person who prefers to live as an optimistic fatalist, that presents dilemmas.
Hegseth's bid to quash journalism about the U.S. military ought to get come consideration. But I can't remember perspective anymore. You get multiple government initiatives daily which would have been political death knells to previous administrations. They last in today's news as long as ripples on a tiny pond.
That seems the ultimate scandal, but somehow it gets little more traction than the ripples. Meanwhile, the nation's biggest publishers compete to see which can cave most convincingly to Trump, without being noticed doing it by the public.
Overall journalistic bandwidth continues in decline. Internet utopians applaud that, while a substantial balance of the rest are too young to have seen journalism practiced.
But that does not mean national public life will not affect politics going forward. It just means it will not be experienced as public discourse, but instead as personal pain.
Fox is reporting Charlie Kirk’s killer found dead in his “Special Custody” Cell
If I seem pessimistic this morning, it's because I read the VC commentary.
The Guardian today reports that Oklahoma Republicans have introduced legislation to require every state college to display a Charlie Kirk statue. Unexplained is why the Oklahoma Rs stopped at one statue per college.
My suggestion? A requirement for a central plaza at each campus, featuring a compass rose at least large enough to be visible from space, with a Charlie Kirk statue at each cardinal point. I suggest that because I am a moderate. To demand equestrian statues would be taking it too far.
It should be a statue of him holding the Ten Commandments.
Just don't put it near any of the millions of "MLK Jr. Blvd/Street/Avenue/Way" if you want them to stay standing.
Kirk statues should be horse mounted brandishing a sword. It would be a way to raise Confederate monuments without 'raising Confederate monuments'...if you catch my drift
Hobie — Not bad. What would you inscribe on the plinth? My suggestion: "You Speak of Laws, To We Who Have Swords?"
On the more general issue of Confederate monuments. I urge the next D president to issue an EO on day one. Round up all the Confederate monuments, and cart them to Stone Mountain, GA, for placement in an outdoor, "Museum of the Lost Cause." Each statue gets a detailed history, to say where it was originally emplaced, who sponsored it, and when. Viewing all that together in the same place ought to prove sobering.
The failing New York Slimes:
There are limits to free speech, yes, but they involve edge cases, like falsely shouting “Fire!” in a theater
It's a shame that their layers and layers of fact checkers and editors didn't know that Holmes's line about shouting fire was dictum in an overruled case that upheld Charles Schenk's conviction for obstructing the draft.
So Trump's wanking that he's gonna re-invade Afghanistan.
Peace prize here he comes!
What a silly man. Pitty he has all that power.
Just realized that Charlie Kirk was shot from the same distance, with the same Caliber, in the same spot as the Late/Great MLK Jr. an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.
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