National Review‘s Stephen Spruiell takes issue with a pair of posts earlier this week that mentioned his recent article on the NSA’s sweeping phone records data mining program. We had a quick e-mail exchange, and I figured I might as well post a bit of that here.

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In my post on Smith v. Maryland below, I forgot to take note of two mindboggling claims from the Stephen Spruiell piece I linked. First, Spruiell finds one Bush-the-First legal flack to claim, incredibly, that… well, I’ll just quote it so you don’t think I’m making it up: “I think it’s fair to say that […]

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Since I’d been focusing on a variety of other things, I never did say anything about the NSA’s call-pattern data mining program, which USA Today disclosed earlier this month. So here’s one belated thought about Smith v. Maryland, the 1979 Supreme Court case establishing that pen registers and trap-and-trace devices (which record the numbers dialed […]

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There’s a post by Brad Plumer at the Mother Jones blog that makes the following argument for the “corporate death penalty” (i.e. dissolution of corporate charters for companies that misbehave): Wal-Mart, along with other corporate interests, gets involved in politics precisely to neuter the legal system that’s supposed to act as a “remedy”–trying to limit […]

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Over at Hit and Run, my colleague Jacob Sullum links to this story about dueling ads in the fight over Samuel Alito. This statement from a spokesman for the aggressively secular People for the American Way caught my eye: As for the commercial attacking his group, Mr. Minceberg said it falsely charged that People for […]

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It looks like the FTC is already aware of the problem of Spanish-language telemarketers ignoring the Do Not Call list: They’ve apparently launched a crackdown, according to a press release from last month.

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One of the things that irritates me out of all proportion about smoking banners is the self-righteousness with which they push their proposals to bully others into catering to their preferences—at its most nauseous when it involves painting the non-smoker as a put upon victim. You’ve probably heard some cretin insist that when he walks […]

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I’ve been on the national Do Not Call List, which telemarketers are supposed to consult so they know not to bug me, for over two years now. (Can a libertarian rationalize being on that list? I gave it a shot here and here around the time I signed up.) I still get calls from charities, […]

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Atrios beat me to linking this John Podhoretz post: HARRIET MIERS [John Podhoretz] I am going to assume that this is a classic Bush head-fake gambit. If I’m wrong, I will spend the weekend banging my head against a concrete wall. This is the Supreme Court we’re talking about! It’s not a job for a […]

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Since I think everyone at Hit and Run is all Keloed out, figure I’ll post this here: My understanding of the way rent control laws work, at least in some cities, is that older buildings will be price-capped at lower rates tied to some function of their monthly rent in the past, while newer buildings […]

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