A short hiatus and other things

1) As I write this, I will be getting married in six hours. We then leave the country for ten days. I don't know what level of internet access (if any) I will have, and if we do have access, I have no idea what level of patience the new wife will have with me blogging when we are supposed to be touristing. She's extremely patient (sadly, it's a required personal trait for anyone willing to put up with me for any extended time period), but that might be a bit much.

Anyhow, it's possible, likely even, there may be no posts for the next 10 days or so. That doesn't mean I've given up the blog. Regular posting will resume on our return.

2) I was interested by this NY Times article, which discusses how some liberal legal scholars are arguing the 2nd amendment gun rights were intended to be individual rights, not collective ones.

Historically, case law has favored the "collective rights" position and most scholars continue to do so (as the article makes clear). I certainly am in this camp personally (although I certainly am not a legal scholar). However, I had a slight fling with the "individual right" argument in my post from Friday, although my argument was based something other than pure 2nd amendment grounds.

3) The times also had this article discussing today's run-off elections in France. It notes the turnout for the general election was 85%, and an even higher figure was expected today.

This sounds (and is) very impressive, and groups interested in increasing voter participation in US elections would be ecstatic to see a figure like that. However, France isn't even close to the top of the chart in this regard.

If voter turnout is one sign of a healthy democracy, we as a nation have a lot of work to do.