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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster
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Sunday, February 26, 2006 :::
Professor Volokh (PBUH) writes about a bill in the Virginia legislature that would punish any pediatrician who asks a child's parent about firearms in the home (with a few obvious exceptions). Volokh expresses regret that this legislation is supported by the NRA. And I guess I would rather they not support it, but I don't find it as objectionable as I would from someone else.
It reminds me a bit of an incident a few months ago, where Volokh was taken off of someone's blogroll because he had worked with the ACLU. I agreed with the Professor that this was unreasonable — a lot of law professors have done work with the ACLU, and have disagreed with the ACLU on other things, and I assume almost everybody has a point of agreement with the ACLU on something — but I found it a lot less unreasonable when I found out that the blog in question was called "Stop the ACLU". I don't think they would have to blacklist anybody with an affiliation with the ACLU, but having such a broad policy would seem compatible with their charter.
Also, last week I got a mailing from the Republican National Committee. The mailing lists, among "out-of-touch Democrats" running for reelection to the Senate in states won by Bush, Ben Nelson of Nebraska. I don't know him all that well, but I'm pretty sure he's substantially to the right of, say, my Senators, and I don't think he duped Nebraskans into electing him to state-wide office multiple times. But I can forgive the RNC for tarring all Democrats as evil and all Republicans as unfallen. I'd be more critical of a more explicitly ideological group that tried to draw such lines; on the other hand, I'm appalled by the RNC's attacks on Laffey in his primary battle against Chafee.
On all three issues, I cut the group slack for playing the one note they exist to play. I don't celebrate their positions, but I don't consider their disagreement with me to be reason for dismay so much as a reminder that I have more than one value and they don't.
::: posted by Steven at 11:32 PM
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