Beware Spoilers! My sister and I went to see wall·e this afternoon. After the extra­or­dinary success of Ratatouille, I had high expec­ta­tions for Pixar. Pixar has consis­tently offered excellent films with lovable char­acters, engaging stories, and exquisite imagery. When Disney bought out the studio, I was seriously worried that their inde­pen­dence and creativity would suffer — Disney’s in-​​​​house animation projects had been famously bad up to that point. Home on the Range and Brother Bear come imme­di­ately to mind. I was worried. Ratatouille started production before the acqui­sition. I believe wall·e is the first Pixar film produced fully under Disney ownership. When I saw the early [ . . . ]

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Via SCOTUSBlog: The Court has released the opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller (07–290), on whether the District’s firearms regu­la­tions – which bar the possession of handguns and require shotguns and rifles to be kept disas­sembled or under trigger lock – violate the Second Amendment. The ruling below, which struck down the provi­sions in question, is affirmed. Justice Scalia wrote the opinion. Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg. Today’s opinion by Justice Scalia in District of Columbia v. Heller (07–290) is now available here. The breakdown of the dissenting Justices is a bit more nuanced than [ . . . ]

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Please be advised: Meatloaf, though unbe­lievably tasty, is not a low-​​​​fat food. That is all.

California Everybody’s got their knickers in a twist over the California Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Prop 22 (a popular initiative to enact a statutory ban on same-​​​​sex marriages) was uncon­sti­tu­tional under the California State Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. The court declined to recon­sider, and also declined to issue a stay of its order directing state officials to stop denying marriage licenses to otherwise eligible same-​​​​sex couples. Apparently, same-​​​​sex couples started getting married a few days ago. My position on gay marriage is that equal protection does not, in this case, justify expanding the welfare state, because all (or very nearly all, more on [ . . . ]

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