Category Archives: Mere Opinion

Thoughts, often reaction, off-the-cuff and perhaps short on research

An Asymmetry Observed: Partisan Obituaries

by James J Heaney Posted on 6 July 2021

Let’s talk about Donald Rumsfeld, sort of. As longtime readers know, I generally cleave to the theory that the two American parties are symmetrical: in general, for every bad thing Party A does, Party B is doing exactly the same … Continue reading →

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Worthy Reads This Week (2021 June 25)

by James J Heaney Posted on 25 June 2021

After finishing up my interview with Commissioner Simington, I immediately left for vacation, so this feature was delayed. However, I kept reading. As a result, my list is a bit longer than usual. Retweets are not endorsements! I found these … Continue reading →

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My Chat with Commissioner Simington (Or: Fifteen Questions I Asked a Republican FCC Commissioner)

by James J Heaney Posted on 9 June 2021

Readers, I owe you an apology. Three weeks ago, when I posted Fifteen Questions I Would Like To Ask a Republican FCC Commissioner, I very strongly implied that it was a hypothetical exercise. See? Senate-confirmed Officers of the United States … Continue reading →

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Worthy Reads This Week (2021 May 27)

by James J Heaney Posted on 31 May 2021

Instead of just sharing articles on Facebook when I feel like it, I thought I might try rolling all the “shareworthy” things I encounter into a single weekly blog post. Like most “new features” on De Civitate, I expect I … Continue reading →

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Reading the Tea Leaves in the Supreme Court’s Grant of Dobbs

by James J Heaney Posted on 17 May 2021

Quickly dashing one off after today’s big news… The Supreme Court has “granted cert” in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, regarding a Mississippi ban on most second- and third-trimester abortions. (“Granting cert” means it will hear the case.) It is … Continue reading →

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Fifteen Questions I Would Like To Ask A Republican FCC Commissioner

by James J Heaney Posted on 16 May 2021

(UPDATE: This whole post was secretly just preparation for my interview with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington a couple weeks later.) (TW: net neutrality, pasta racism, NCTA v. Brand X, brief but alarmingly favorable quotation of Justice Breyer, Ted Stevens Dance … Continue reading →

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Breaking Down the Chauvin Charges

by James J Heaney Posted on 20 April 2021

As we await a verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd, I took some time today to figure out exactly what the jury is weighing in their ongoing deliberations. The full jury instructions are here. … Continue reading →

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WandaVision Title Sequences, Ranked

by James J Heaney Posted on 8 March 2021

This isn’t a spoiler because it’s in all the trailers and the first 60 seconds of the first episode. Obviously, as someone who has 11 hours of TV theme songs in his iTunes library and who spent much of childhood … Continue reading →

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The Truth about Dr. Seuss Nobody Wants to Hear

by James J Heaney Posted on 5 March 2021

Cover of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Senne for the AP. Photo is technically under copyright until, most likely, the mid-2130s. By order of his estate, six Dr. Seuss stories got cancelled … Continue reading →

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What I Got Wrong About Lockdowns

by James J Heaney Posted on 4 March 2021

The Uptown Theater in Minneapolis on March 28th. Photo by Lorie Shaull under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license. Last March, I strongly advocated strict stay-at-home orders (aka “lockdowns”) throughout most of the United States. When they said “two weeks to … Continue reading →

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