Sarah Palin To Resign

Having decided not to run for re-election, Sarah Palin has made a follow-on decision not to govern as a lame duck. She announced this morning that she will "transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor Parnell" effective July 26.

AP story here. Rather rambling official statement by the governor here.

Update: Better treatment of the story at the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

She said she discussed with her family the decision to step down. They took a vote.

"It was four yeses and one hell yeah," she said.

I bet the "hell, yeah" was Piper.

Should Have Gone Without

The headline this morning was not good.

Nation's Unemployment Rate Climbs to 26-Year High at 9.5 Percent

And headed for double digits, everybody says.

Geoff at Innocent Bystanders has an interesting chart.

It shows Obama's projections of unemployment with and without the stimulus bill, and superimposed on it the actual numbers. It looks as if we would have been better off Without.

A Libertarian Argument Against Abortion

Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute in The American Spectator.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

The Bacone.

Filled with scrambled eggs, hash browns, and cheese, topped with gravy and a biscuit.

The Bacone won judges' choice at Bacon Camp, San Francisco, 2009.

Hat tip to Breda.

Also Not To Be Missed

There, I Fixed It.

Thanks to Say Uncle.

This Term and the Next

Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSBlog has some interesting thoughts on what the Court is doing, and where they are headed.

Here is what strikes me most about this Term. The Court is moving steadily in the direction of rolling back Warren Court-era precedents that conservatives view as significant overreaching of the judicial role. To be clear, that isn't the Court’s principal occupation. Most of its docket is filled with important but ordinary questions of federal law. But it is a significant trend.

I am struck in particular by the opinions of the Chief Justice that seem to lay down markers that will be followed in later generations of cases. NAMUDNO details constitutional objections to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act that seem ready-made for a later decision invalidating the statute if it is not amended. Herring contains significant language that can later be cited in favor of a broad good-faith exception to the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule that applies to individual police mistakes.

If I’m right about the direction of the case law, the Court’s methodology is striking. It is reinforcing its own legitimacy with opinions that later can be cited to demonstrate that it is not rapidly or radically changing the law....

More On Ricci

I don't have anything to add to what's already been said, but for those who would like a concise summation of the case and its implications, read Jess Bravin and Suzanne Sataline in The Wall Street Journal.

Monday's ruling affects any employer of 15 persons or more that uses any type of exams for employees, including test of personality, computer skills, physical fitness or honesty, said Christine Jolls, a Yale Law School professor and a former clerk to Justice Scalia.

Employers that rely on tests may now worry about being sued no matter what they do. "This decision is going to be trouble for business," she said.

I think the best way to avoid charges of discrimination in hiring is to hire indiscriminately, say on a first-come-first-served basis. Yeah. That'll work!

Ricci Wins

Sotomayor loses. SCOTUS Blog is live-blogging:

Ricci result: Kennedy finds a violation of Title VII. An outright reversal 5-4....

Ricci is decided 5-4 on ideological lines. The middle ground suggestion of remanding for further proceedings is rejected....

Kennedy delivered the 5-4 majority opinion of the Court in Ricci. Justice Scalia filed a concurring opinion. Justice Alito filed a concurring opinion, in which Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas joined. Justice Ginsburg filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Stevens, Souter, and Breyer joined....

More later.

Forest Grove v. T.A.

Debra J. Saunders has the back story.

This is not a joke. Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision that required an Oregon public school district to pay a $5,200 monthly tuition (plus fees) for a private boarding school for a high-school senior whose psychologist had diagnosed him with ADHD, depression, math disorder and cannabis abuse.

Math disorder? Let me translate: the kid has a case of the stupids.

Let me give you a clue, T.A. Self-medicating won't help.

Who Wrote Dreams?

Once more, Jack Cashill piles on the evidence that Bill Ayers wrote Dreams From My Father.

I'm convinced; not that that matters to anyone else. Believing, or even caring, that Bill Ayers wrote Dreams From My Father is like wondering who killed Vince Foster. The mainstream punditocracy is more interested in gamesmanship than truth. This is a matter that they have decided is unimportant, and their decision is final. Don't bother asking.

The only way we will ever know who really wrote Dreams is if the author — or one of the other three who certainly know — confesses. They won't. Bill Ayers will follow the lead of his hero Alger Hiss, and lie about it to the bitter end. Likewise Bernardine Dohrn. Barack Obama has nothing to gain from the truth about this or anything else in his past, and Michelle will certainly stand by her man, as long as she can stand the man.

Have they told anyone else? Does anyone else know, anyone who craves their fifteen minutes of fame? I doubt it. The moment to step forward has passed. Bill and Bernadine and Barack and Michelle are the only ones who know who really wrote Dreams.

The media don't care. "No one," they say, "will ever know." I hate that phrase. It's never true. You might say that "everyone will never know" but not that "no one will ever know." Four people know.

They're just not telling.

The Box O' Truth

A fascinating site full of backyard ballistics tests profusely illustrated.

The Box O' Truth.

I could spend hours there. I already have.