Wasn't my point, Sis. South Carolinians are good people, and they know that. Just wanted to put Newt's actions into perspective next to a governor forced to leave and a man run out of his party for similar actions.

Michael, if you'd like to see cheerleading, go to this guy's profile and look at the conversations he's started. James, well done on not sinking to this juvenile's level on the personal insults. 

There are a couple Newt fanboy meetings out on the main feed. Just be sure to leave your shoes on, for obvious reasons.

Perhaps they miss Sanford, and want another politician that disrespects his wife, God, and word by cheating on her. I mean, John Edwards did well there in 2004.

Feel free to toss in an "As a historian" somewhere in there as well, possibly an "Is that a rhetorical statement?" instead of the "No". 

While I love Ron Paul, I'd be afraid to bump into him, for fear of breaking a hip.

Sikhs are the toughest people on the planet. An Indian buddy was telling me about kids who did spying in Kashmir and Jammu during some of the tenser times. Sikh preteens would crack later than grown Hindu and Muslim men. 

I wish I knew more about Slovenia, it seems such a transitory country between Eastern and Western Europe. The word "tycoon" has never left a bad taste in my mouth; I've always thought of one as an "eccentric industrialist". And when I think of Eastern European tycoons, only the oil barons of post-Soviet Russia come to mind. 

The primacy of property rights? I wouldn't include IP in there, NP. Traditional property rights relating to using tangible property go back a long way. IP is a restriction, granted by the government and enforced by a third party, on those traditional rights of property use. There may be a good reason for it, but it's an empirical policy reason, rather than an established and ordered reason as in tangible property.

James, I'm confident that if you read through the day's posts on intellectual property, you'll see one group calling the other socialists, totalitarians, juveniles, and thieves, and it isn't the libertarians. I'm a libertarian and an intellectual property attorney, and if I come off as uncivil when discussing IP it's because I'm frustrated that you cannot have an honest argument with many conservatives who have made up their mind on this matter. There have been many moderate positions advanced on the role of IP as a government created and 3rd-party-enforced policy, but they've been met with heel-dragging, ear-plugging, and name-calling. 

"General" and "Colonel", though I don't think it's the officers who bring it on. I know McChrystal insisted on being called "Stan" to his students when he taught at Yale after his Rolling Stone incident. The worst is when Hannity says  "Mr. Speaker", so nauseating. That's one reason I liked Herman. 

This is really great. Hopefully people start realizing that teachers are a resource, not a requirement, and take it up to educate themselves. 

Nailed it, Will. Did you see yesterday's unfortunate ruling in Golan v. Holder? Breyer's dissent, which Alito joined, brings up a similar point.

For those arguing that effort -> property: property is a system for efficiently allocating resources. Once you start bringing fairness into it, you run into a host of problems. The best we can do is make a fair set of exchange rules, but creating new property over pre-existing and better established property rules is asking for problems, especially when this new "property" is created through artificially restricting non-scarce resources. There are good reasons for having intellectual regulation, but it isn't natural and that "added value" needs to be framed in the context of regulation.

The Supreme Court considered this issue in Dowling v. United States, and came down on the side of it not constituting theft. The three dissenters thought the federal statute should be construed more broadly, though even they seem to prefer conversion over theft. I agree with Stephen, but I'm glad a lot of people are arguing the meaning of use, because it's an element of the crime that must be proven. To the others who argue a general sense of wrongness - may your fortune forever busy you from sitting on a jury. 

Livestock smells are like spicy salsa - you want to take it as far to the edge as you can without going over. Horse sheds smell great, but cattle's just about perfect to me, just that little bit richer. Pigs are too much though, as are chickens. I can't comment on distance cattle haulers, because all I ever experienced growing up was a few hours' drive to the auction house. Perhaps the smells fester, I don't know. 

Dave, do you think truckers are the cowboys of the 21st century? I was talking to a friend about this, and we narrowed it down to truckers and oil rig mechanics/engineers. We had shale workers too, but moved them into the "pioneer" category due to the probable development boom. 

Audio-only makes the news more digestible; at least you can be looking at the mountains when you're hearing all that. Did you know that the furthest West Jesse James ever settled was Hole-in-the-Wall? He was a southerner, though he did love Kansas City. He tried to run, but he came back home, and that's what did him in. May we have more luck.

I started shearing sheep for a local farmer when I was 16. I learned the increased value of my purchases when I earned the money, the satisfaction of starting your day early, the respect and trust you received from being dependable and working hard, the stupidity of following the creature in front of you, and that I'm not allergic to wool.

I don't suppose you'd mind sharing that juicy nougat. The advice, not the girl.