Category Archives: law

qualified peeve

Not a week goes by when I don’t read that some trial court has “granted qualified immunity” to some criminal with a badge. That’s inaccurate. The aggressor was granted qualified immunity by the Supreme Court when it invented that doctrine … Continue reading

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my citizenship(s)

The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States begins: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. I … Continue reading

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stick a finger in my eye

After wearing glasses for thirty-odd years, I’m tired of it. I’m thinking of surgery; since I’m on the verge of needing bifocals, my bright idea is to have one eye adjusted for distance and the other for arm’s length (the … Continue reading

Posted in law, me!me!me!, psychology | 4 Comments

the horrors of anarchy

Since Somalia’s state collapsed in 1991, life expectancy has increased by two years, vaccination rates have increased, deaths from measles have dropped by close to a third, telephones and radios have multiplied . . . I wish I’d said that: The golden … Continue reading

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anarcho history

Before I lose the link again: An American Experiment in Anarcho-Capitalism: The Not So Wild, Wild West (PDF), by Terry Anderson and P J Hill, Journal of Libertarian Studies vol.3 no.1.

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do they didn’t done it or don’t they?

There’s an old joke that “there are no guilty men in prison,” i.e. that practically all inmates claim to have been unjustly accused. I’ve also heard that in fact most convicts cheerfully admit to the charges. The latter seems more … Continue reading

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classifying legislation

I find that I wrote in private mail a few years ago: I’d divide legislation into three broad classes: that concerned with the structure and management of the state itself; codifications and harmonisations of existing custom (basic criminal law, the … Continue reading

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