Mark Kleiman

No doubt Keith Humphrey (citing Jonathan Haidt) is right to say that poor people who are victims of Republican downward class warfare and who vote Republican anyway because they think Republicans agree with them on “values” questions aren’t necessarily acting irrationally. As as Weber pointed out a long time ago, “ideal interests” are just as […]

Pay close attention, class. The one moves fast 1. Mitt Romney criticizes Barack Obama for saying we need more police, firefighters, and teachers. 2. Mitt Romney gets roasted for saying that. 3. Romney surrogate John Sununu says remark wasn’t a gaffe, and defends it. 4. Obama campaign is all over Romney about wanting fewer police, […]

I haven’t seen any polling on this, but if Mitt Romney wants to make this election about whether we need more cops, firefighters, and teachers I think Barack Obama ought to accept the invitation. Of course the real hard-core Randian libertarian Teahadis think it’s a good thing if a schoolteacher loses her job and has […]

George Bernard Shaw once said that democracy wouldn’t be a viable form of government until the man-in-the-street learned to resent a fallacy as much as an insult. Typical Shavian overstatement, but pointing at an important truth. To paraphrase Tom Lehrer (on folk music), the problem with democracy is that it is rule by the people, […]

The lack of press attention to Florida Gov. (and corporate fraudster) Rick Scott’s attempt to steal the 2012 election as the 2000 election was stolen – by disenfanchising Democratic voters – is really striking. The Justice Department has challenged it and local election officials are now in open revolt, but the national media has treated […]

Under which of the enumerated powers of the Congress may it impose criminal sanctions on physicians for the otherwise lawful practice of medicine based on the intentions of their patients? Anyone who claims that the individual mandate is unconstitutional but a Congressional ban on sex-selective abortion is constitutional must be either a fool or a […]

The LA Times is upset that the LA Coliseum was used for a porno shoot. But given the industry’s new emphasis on safe sex, what more appropriate venue could there be than the home of the Trojans? [Cross-posted at The Reality-based Community]

About a third of a million men died on the Union side of the War of the Rebellion. Consequently, I got to sleep late yesterday. Now, don’t get me wrong: I needed the sleep and I’m deeply grateful for it. Still there seems to be a disconnect between the two basic purposes of our system […]

I see New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan has taken a break from lobbying to protect child molesters from lawsuits by their victims in order to intervene in the Presidential campaign by picking a fight with Barack Obama over sexual morality. That’s not as funny as Bristol Palin reading the President a lecture on the […]

During his visit to UCLA to give the Marschak Lecture (which was terrific) Robert Frank asked me a question for which I didn’t have a very good answer. Bob reminded me that during the Obamacare debate I predicted that the law would become much more popular once it passed, because the beneficiaries would feel a […]