Ronald Reagan

After a long bout with Alzheimer's disease, former President Ronald Reagan, 93, passed away Saturday.

It's hard to imagine what the world today would look like had it never seen Mr. Reagan.

Watching the young actor's classic performances in movies like King's Row, moviegoers in the 1930s and '40s had little inkling of the man he was to become.

Dating back to his days as president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan's involvement in politics had a galvanizing effect on American conservatism. His speech nominating Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Republican Convention alerted the American public to the power and optimism of the Great Communicator.

That optimistic outlook gave Reagan, as President, the courage to seek the end of the "Evil Empire" and the Cold War. While historians will argue over his role in the demise of the Soviet Union, few will dispute the hope his words - "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" - gave to those behind the Iron Curtain.

Ronald Reagan's strength, his courage, and his words had and have few parallels.

We'll miss you, Mr. President.

Lost & Gone Till Monday

I'm going home for the weekend... Now. "But," you say, "the weekend doesn't start for another day! What about your Friday morning class?" To which I can only respond: I don't care.

To keep busy over the weekend, you can feel free to argue here about Tenet's departure from the CIA, Chalabi's accusation that Tenet set him up, and what it all means.

The "Victim" in the Kobe Bryant Case

Also from the world of the courtroom: the judge in the Kobe Bryant case has barred participants from referring to Kobe's accuser as a "victim."

The judge sums up his logic better than I could: he says that "use of the term 'victim'...'could improperly suggest that a crime had been committed such that the presumption of innocence might be jeopardized.'" I agree. To me, this issue is just one of many possible problems with rape shield laws. Granted, I understand why rape shield laws and such were put in place - but on the whole, I think they stand a much larger chance of doing harm than doing good.

Judge Overturns Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

A U.S. District Judge has declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban unconstitutional.

For those of you who'd like a lot more analysis than an AP news article can provide, I highly reccomend this post by Jack Balkin. He explains in depth all of the issues with the law and why (as it is written) it is unconstitutional.

As always, the debate on whether abortion should be legal or not comes down to what one thinks of the status of a fetus - is it alive/human or not? In this case, however, I think that because of current jurisprudence, the law is given to be unconstitutional regardless of whether or not abortion should be legal. That is to say: abortion is currently legal, and given that, I don't think that the PBA ban is constitutional.