Pledging Allegiance and Freedom of Conscience

I have heard a lot lately from social conservatives who strongly support “conscience exemptions” for health care professionals who do not want to provide abortions or dispense contraceptives or even refer a woman needing an abortion or contraception to where she can obtain those services. It...

Insane Shoppers, Irresponsible Store Management

UPDATE: I don’t know why this always seems to happen with mattt, but once again I have posted on a news item that mattt also posted on. Sorry, mattt. At least our two posts are somewhat different in focus. UPDATED AGAIN: Two more people dead, at a Toys ‘r Us in Palm Desert, California, this time...

Consumerism Kills Long Island Wal-Mart Worker

Ok, maybe the title of this post is a tad hyperbolic, but Jesus wept–I don’t care what day of the year it is, working retail should not be a life-threatening pursuit: A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning,...

Jack Goldsmith: Rule of Law Is a Threat to National Security

Hard to believe that the same man who resigned from the Office of Legal Counsel after nine months of battling the Bush administration over atrociously reasoned legal justifications for torture and limitless presidential power is now arguing that the incoming president should abandon any plans to prosecute...

Whodunnit?: Thinking aloud about the Mumbai terrorist attacks

In the post-9/11 world, one thing always assumed whenever there’s a terrorist attack is that it was perpetrated by Muslim extremists.  Of course, the empirical evidence shows that they usually are, and I would be more surprised to hear that the Mumbai attacks were carried out by, say, a radical...