Author Archives: olneyce

Part II – Federalism in the 21st century (Part I of this series is here) In the last few months I’ve had several fairly drawn-out conversations about federalism with some friends. I have taken the position that it is essentially … Continue reading →

An informal poll: Q1: if you could restructure our constitutional system slightly, so as to remove the decision over gay marriage from the states and place it solely in the hands of the national government, would you do so? Q2: … Continue reading →

So there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about Obama’s announcement. For one thing, it isn’t really a surprise. It’s been obvious for a long time that Obama wasn’t ‘really’ troubled by gay marriage. Which means there’s clearly a … Continue reading →

Lots of talk in the last few days about Obama, his administration, and their opinion on gay marriage. I want to come at this from a slightly different direction. Let’s assume that Obama really is pro-gay marriage, but is pretending … Continue reading →

The Face That Launched 1000 Shits – Death Cab for Cutie Empty Cans – The Streets This is, I think, the one thousandth post on Heartache With Hard Work. When I started this blog six years ago, I had no … Continue reading →

I very quickly grow bored with the standard argument about hypocrisy in politics. I definitely think that people ought to make judgments about abstract notions of the good in politics (my Rawlsian influence shining through), but I am certainly not … Continue reading →

The Boss is still very much The Boss. The few doubts I had after his disappointing album a couple years ago have been completely wiped away in 2012. Wrecking Ball is right there in the conversation for his best work … Continue reading →

Scott Lemieux points out a very silly column about the death penalty. He points out the lunacy of acting like the morality of the death penalty should be judged based on extreme cases. That is, of course, a good point. … Continue reading →

Today I was reading Scalia’s dissent in Clinton v. City of New York (the case that ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional) and was struck by one of his argument, and its applicability to the ACA case: The short of the … Continue reading →

Engine – Neutral Milk Hotel It’s going to be hard to discuss my experience seeing Jeff Mangum last night without treading a bit into the Messianic.  To start with, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is basically a sacred text. It’s … Continue reading →