News & Media
You Are Not Going to Resist the Government With Your Guns
I’m not prepared to get rid of our right to keep and bear arms unless we do get rid of the Second Amendment. But, doing that requires tinkering with the Constitution, which makes me nervous. Once you open the hood, you never know what else someone will fuck with. With the state of our idiocracy, opening the Constitution is just as likely to wind up creating a right to keep and bear rape monkeys as it is to have its intended effect. So it is what it is. We have the Second Amendment, and while we can debate all we want about how we should interpret it, DC v. Heller pretty much did that for us. It is an individual
Third Amendment Lawyers Association
by Jay Marshall Wolman In asking what to do with this blog, Dan suggested that we blog about the Third Amendment. Marc actually blogged about a Third Amendment case here and here. If people thought Second Amendment jurisprudence was thin (at least until DC v. Heller rolled around), Third Amendment cases are fewer and further between. The text reads: No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. Based on the text alone, it is understandable, then, why it would rarely be called up. When the country was founded, the memory of British troops commandeering a house
Trump Cybersquats on Jeb – The Legal Analysis
Type in jebbush.com to your browser. If you would rather not, I can just tell you what happens. It brings you to the Trump campaign website. There are plenty of news sites reporting this, but we at Popehat, we’re the only ones to give you the hot and bothered legal analysis. Someone at the Bush campaign is about to get a stern talking to. Yes, he should have thought to register that domain first. But, we often hear that from cybersquatters, who take the position that you should think to register every permutation of your name, from zero to infinity, or it is fair game. Morally, we can debate that. Legally, it isn’t the case. It seems to me that
Randazza: Some Peace of Mind for Free Speech in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has given the world its fair share of musical greatness. From the Dropkick Murphys back to Jonathan Richman, The Cars to the Pixies, Aerosmith to Mission of Burma. Bim Skala Bim to the Lemonheads. The Unband to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Lets put it this way, your musical life would suck without the 617/413 and later fragmented area codes. (Fine, we apologize for New Kids on the Block. That abomination cancels out the points we gained from Til Tuesday and Billy Squier.) But, I gotta be honest. Like any Patriots fan has to admit that the Pittsburgh Steelers are, to date, the better franchise. It doesn’t mean I love the Pats any less, but… you might love your wife
Randazza: You Are Not Going to Resist the Government With Your Guns
I’m not prepared to get rid of our right to keep and bear arms unless we do get rid of the Second Amendment. But, doing that requires tinkering with the Constitution, which makes me nervous. Once you open the hood, you never know what else someone will fuck with. With the state of our idiocracy, opening the Constitution is just as likely to wind up creating a right to keep and bear rape monkeys as it is to have its intended effect. So it is what it is. We have the Second Amendment, and while we can debate all we want about how we should interpret it, DC v. Heller pretty much did that for us. It is an individual
Marc Randazza Popehats on Trump’s Bush Squatting
by Jay Marshall Wolman Though I have my own feelings about how to blog here now that Marco Blanco f/k/a Marc Randazza (what I think his Popehat name should be) has taken up with the competition, I should probably be supportive. His first post there was uncharacteristically Second Amendment focused. But, he has now seen fit to return to his roots. Marc just posted an interesting piece on the Trump campaign’s ownership of JebBush.com . Marc does a good overview of the cybersquatting law and how it has been used. Something to consider, though: Jeb is not Gov. Bush’s first name. He’s an ATM Machine, a PIN number. He’s really, as you probably know, John Ellis Bush, and JEB is just
What to do? What to say?
by Jay Marshall Wolman Now that Marc is off Popehatting, the rest of you can now chime in on what you’d like to see more of in this space. Marc is a First Amendment bad ass, hanging out with his peeps. Me? I think all of the Amendments are important. Here I am on the 7th Amendment. Here I am on the 22nd Amendment. Here I am tweeting on the 3rd Amendment. And my scotch collection is a fan of the 21st Amendment. My preferred focus in law is employment law, but as a civil litigator I’ve handled workers’ compensation, copyright, medical malpractice, real estate disputes, and many more. I’ve done arbitrations, mediations, state and federal administrative agencies, state and federal
Randazza is Hatted
Yes, some of you guessed it, I joined PopeHat. Let the conspiracy theories fly!!!
Things are going to change around here
If you are a regular reader, you know that I have neglected the blog, for the most part, for some time. I’m just busy with other shit. Dad, husband, working… so feeding The Satyricon is just too sporadic. But I do love writing my shit. I just think I need to be in a bigger boat. I do play well with others. So, there may be updates here, but from here on in, the only updates will likely be teasers sending you over to where I will be doing most of my writing from now on. Where? That’s a surprise…. Til Monday.
Psalm 107:23-31
I’m not a religious man by any definition of the term, but I’ve always had a place in my heart for Psalm 107:23-31, especially at times like this.
Merry Christmas, South Carolina
South Carolina representative Chris Corley has sent a heartwarming Christmas card to his colleagues urging them to repent for their sins. Specifically, for voting to remove the Confederate flag from the state’s Civil War memorial after a racist lunatic slaughtered 9 people at a church. Corley’s heartwarming missive invites recipients to think of “a happier time when South Carolina’s leaders possessed morals, convictions and the principles to stand for what is right” and invited them to “take this joyous time as an opportunity to ask forgiveness of all your sins such as betrayal.” Corley concluded his message of holiday cheer by quoting Dante’s Inferno and condemning his fellow lawmakers to “Cocytus, the ninth circle, the fourth and last great water of Hell” for their
The Seventh Amendment Calculator
by Jay Marshall Wolman There is an interesting financial quirk in the Bill of Rights. The Seventh Amendment states: In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. As some of you may know, the Bill of Rights does not automatically apply to the States; particular clauses are individually held to be incorporated into the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. This is why, until only recently, the 2nd Amendment was not deemed to restrict a State’s ability
The Man in the High Castle in Albany and The First Amendment
The Man in the High Castle is a piece of alternative history fiction. It imagines an alternate future in which fascist forces won World War II. The Nazis occupy the eastern part of the United States, while the Japanese take up residence in the west. The Italians are non-existent in the series. You would think that they would get Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey… but I digress. So there is an alternate future in which America loses its civil liberties and fascist forces occupy it. There is a surveillance state. Political dissent is not tolerated. Hmm… add in a butterfly ballot and some hanging chads and its… well, I digress again. Suffice to say, it is quite thought-provoking to
My Precious Erdogan
Bilgin Ciftci is a Turkish Blogger who posted a meme of Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) comparing Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to the fictional character. He stands accused of insulting a public figure, which is a crime in Turkey. The judge reportedly has now called in a team of five experts to determine whether this is, indeed, an insult. Ciftci faces up to a month in jail if he is convicted. His lawyer Hicran Danışman joked that the trial has now turned into “a case of saving the pride of Gollum”. (source)
Patriots Bitchcast
I don’t care if you’re a sports fan, Pats fan, or neither… this is fucking genius. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcassBXCkZc]
The Hasmoneans Lost
by Jay M. Wolman Next Sunday night, December 6, marks the beginning of Chanukkah. The tl;dr version of the story is that Judah Maccabee and his brothers beat back the occupying King Antiochus, restored the Temple, and the oil lasted 8 days. And, thus, we eat latkes, spin dreidels, light menorahs, and give presents. Except… Judah and his band of brothers were religious zealots. Their father, Mattathias, kicked off the whole rebellion when he killed another Jew for sacrificing to a Greek god. When they won, they founded the Hasmonean Dynasty, acting as both High Priests in the Temple and as kings. Some of the biggest enemies weren’t the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), but rather Hellenized Jews. Think more Ayatollah and
More on Nury Martinez' Surveillance State
This weekend I wrote about how LA Councilwoman Nury Martinez wants to use, promote, and expand the surveillance state – all in the name of discouraging prostitution. (post here) If that wasn’t enough for you, Mimesis law has even more analysis on it, here.
Ivy League Protests Mean Black Lives Won't Matter
Martin Luther King knew that institutional racism was about “them” fucking “us” over, but making sure that “we” split into at least two fragments — fragments that don’t get along with each other. “The Southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow,” King said in 1965. “And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than a black man.” Scott Greenfield explains why the BLM campus movement is just more of the same – and virtually ensures that nothing will get done.
I might have to apologize to the Saudi justice system
I wrote a somewhat vituperative screed (who me???) about the Saudi justice system a few days ago. And now, perhaps just to spite me (heh), they’re considering pardoning a blogger that they imprisoned for criticizing Islam. A Swiss newspaper is reporting that imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi could have his sentence of 1,000 lashes suspended, but Amnesty International has yet to confirm the news. The Swiss Secretary of Foreign Affairs Yves Rossier told the Fribourg daily newspaper La Liberté that Badawi’s sentence was suspended. “A royal pardon is in the works thanks to the head of state, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud,” he said. (source) If this is true, I will have some apologizing to do. Of course, its not like this one act makes up for decades of brutality and censorship, but lets just
Ask Syrian Refugees About Male Privilege
The newly politically correct Canadian government, citing security, will not allow single Syrian men into the country. Single women are ok though. Because now even the left is using “terrorism” as its bullshit boogeyman to push its agenda. (source) Remember when that was just a right-wing thing? Ah, the good old days.
