“Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . But for Wales!” Thomas More, Act 2, A Man for All Seasons Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency, yesterday released a list of Supreme Court prospects that might fill Antonin Scalia’s vacated seat. The […]
Archives
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The Conservative Soul for a Supreme Court Seat?
19 May 2016
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Make America Grade Again
09 May 2016
Make America Grade Again! You see, there are these tests. Piles of tests, an absolute nightmare. These exams, they are choking the life out of professors. I remember when we did not have these tests. You know, I have it on good authority that these tests, from these freshmen, they are terrible. Terrible! If we […]
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Captain America: Civil War is Superior
06 May 2016
Captain America: Civil War represents the best of the Marvel Universe and American action films. It is far from a message movie, but CA:CW is grounded in the questions that have dogged our world for the past two decades. What is justice? What is truth? Can power and responsibility be exercised together? What is a bearable cost […]
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Batman vs. Superman
19 Apr 2016
(File this under the “better late than never” category.) Hollywood is comic book movies. Comic book movies are Hollywood. The fit seems both natural and perverse. Every film is about the suspension of disbelief. Graphic novels are visual representations that transition simply to the screen now that computer and traditional effects are strong enough to […]
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All of Trump’s Men
18 Mar 2016
“During all that time I didn’t see Willie. I didn’t see him again until he announced in the Democratic primary in 1930. But it wasn’t a primary. It was hell among the yearlings and the Charge of the Light Brigade and Saturday night in the back room of Casey’s saloon rolled into one, and when […]
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Trump. How Did We Get Here?
09 Mar 2016
Donald J. Trump, the New York billionaire, has the political world on a string. If he wins Ohio and Florida on March 15 (as I write, polls have him leading in both states), Trump will emerge as the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Typing that sentence six months ago was fantastical. Six years ago and […]
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GOP Debate Tweets
04 Mar 2016
Cruz–interesting attack against Trump. Does he know the principles that made American great first. He should be asked that. #GOPDebate — Mark Caleb Smith (@markcalebsmith) March 4, 2016 Cruz–we have beaten Donald Trump again and again. Weak sauce when Trump has him 10-4 in state victories. #GOPDebate — Mark Caleb Smith (@markcalebsmith) March 4, 2016 […]
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Trump: The Cultural Costs of the New Normal
23 Feb 2016
Donald Trump (R-NY) is working his way toward the Republican presidential nomination. His opponents may still derail him, of course, but his sustained performance–he has been the front-runner since August–suggests there is a sizable portion of the Republican electorate that sees Trump as not only tolerable, but preferable. Exit polls reveal several possible explanations. Voters […]
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Trump Wins SC, Now Clear Front-runner
20 Feb 2016
Donald Trump decisively won (33%) the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on Saturday, seizing the standard as the G.O.P.’s front-runner. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as I write, are battling for second and third (with 22% each), while Jeb Bush (8%), John Kasich (8%) and Ben Carson (7%) rounded out the field. Given the results, […]
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Many will write better and more personal things about Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court Justice who died today. I did not have him as a professor. I did not clerk for him. I encountered Scalia as a graduate student getting a first taste of constitutional law. Dr. John Maltese, my professor at the University of […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach