In a heartening grassroots pushback against our HOA’s attempt to forcibly enact its execrable “Approved Shed Size Reform Bill”—which, while granting “amnesty” to those homeowners who have already skirted the covenant policy and built outsized monstrosities, would deny those of us wanting slightly larger sheds the ability to go beyond the 8x8x10’ template now available to us without first signing on to an onerous “guest shed usage program,” the specifics

From Reason’s Daily Brickbats: Officials at Tennessee’s Portland High School did not notice Samantha Elliott’s facial piercings for almost a year, but a week before graduation they did, calling them violations of the school’s dress code. And officials then barred Elliott from her graduation ceremony. “Walking the line at graduation is a privilege, it’s not a right,” said Sumner County Schools spokesman Steve Doremus. Elliott’s 14-year-old brother was slated to

Somebody asked me a while back who I believed gave the GOP the best chance to retain the White House in 2008.  In the course of touting Giuliani and Pelosi/Reid, I noted that a GOP ticket I think could gain real traction would be Giuliani / Thompson. McCain, for all his laudable commitment to seeing the Iraq campaign through, was done, I thought (and God Bless frickin’ America for that!

Addressing the new report set to be released today by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—including, tangentially, how it is likely to be framed by the media—Dan Collins, in an email, parses this MSNBC story, which (predictably) begins thus: “In a move sure to raise even more questions about the decision to go to war with Iraq, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will on Friday release selected portions of

Apocalypto (2006) Directed by Mel Gibson.  Stars Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernández, Jonathan Brewer, Morris Birdyellowhead, Carlos Emilio Báez, and Espiridion Acosta Cache Five words or less review: Oscar-worthy—if not fortheinterferenceoftheHollywoodJooooooos…!

Unless there are some facts here that are missing from the news coverage, this prosecution strikes me as a clear and serious constitutional violation. And it is evidence that fears that “hate crimes” laws will become “hate speech” bans are not implausible. So argues Eugene Volokh, referencing a case in which two 16-year-old high school students have been arrested on felony hate crime charges in Illinois for posting fliers with

oatmeal:  “The Cream of Wheat man?  An affirmative action hire, no doubt in my mind.  I mean, the guy can’t even boil his own water, for Chrissakes—and he wouldn’t know kasha if it showed up at his door wearing a sign saying, ‘Hello, I’m FUCKING KASHA.” “Of course, you didn’t hear any of this from me…”

From the Sidney Morning Herald: The human rights pressure group [Amnesty International] has accused [Australia’s John] Howard of portraying asylum-seekers as a threat to national security. In a report released overnight, it also criticised Australia’s role in the war on terror and its treatment of female victims of violence. Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard “thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership”. Ms

From The Rocky Mountain News: Sergei Ivanov, the man considered to be a leading contender to succeed President Vladimir Putin, criticized a landmark Soviet-US arms treaty Wednesday as a “relic of the Cold War,” and promised that Russia would have a “sword” capable of piercing a U.S. missile shield. Because evidently poisoning a US missile shield with polonium-210 would require a bit too much leg work. BAM! Thanks.  I’ll be

Courtesy of The Smoking Gun (h/t Robert): In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like “blowtorch to the skin” and “eye removal.” Along with the images, which you’ll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. […] The images, which were just declassified by the