Fear of Fascism and Fear of "Fascism"

I have both a fear of political and social trends reminiscent of fascism in the United States and Europe and a fear of overusing the word the word “fascism.” Much use at all, I think, would be overuse.

God and the Friendly Universe

The proposition that the universe is hospitable to human life, potentially supporting a teleological argument for God, is implausible at a first glance. So far as we now know with certainty, the universe is congenial to human life only on the rind of one minor planet of one among 10²¹ stars. Almost all of the real estate of the universe is distinctly hostile to biological organisms, and this will remain the case as a matter of the percentages even if the recent success in finding extrasolar planets turns up some that are good candidates for life.

A second glance, however, reveals some developments in theoretical cosmology that may seem to give currency to the old saw that God made the world for our use and enjoyment. Theists (and a few of the very few deists there are) draw our attention to the “fine tuning” of certain physical constants and initial conditions, a fine-tuning that makes the existence of life possible.

The Purpose of the Second Amendment Failed Long Since

The American colonies and the new United States were deeply distrustful of a standing army, a distrust inherited from their English Whig forebears. That is why the army and the navy were treated so differently in the Constitution.

Nothing is Certain – Cromwell's Rule

I here defend the proposition that absolutely nothing is absolutely certain, where certainty is understood as a flat 0 or 1 as a Bayes prior.

Pope Francis, Thomas Bayes, and the Existence of God

Should liberal atheists find their Bayesian level of rational credence in the existence of God to go up because of the election of the pope?  Should conservative theists find it to go down?

Plea Bargaining in Federal Court Is Unonstitutional

If you are with me that the best reading of Article III, § 2, clause 3 of the US Constitution denies to the federal courts the power to conduct a non-jury criminal trial (post of 1/11/15), then the question for both of us is whether that provision also makes federal plea bargains unconstitutional.  At this time this is only a theoretical question, as the Supreme Court has resolutely resisted reading the Article III provision in its natural way. Were the Court, however, suddenly to see the light, perhaps by declaring federal bench trials to be unconstitutional, then the issue of plea bargaining would be brought front and center, and plea bargaining is a matter of immense practical importance. Guilty pleas now account for 97% of federal cases.

More on the Waiver of Article III Requirements: Wellness International Network v. Sharif

My post of  1/11/15. “Are Federal Bench Trials in Criminal Cases Constitutional?”, argued  that the Article III jury trial requirement in criminal cases is a matter of the power of the federal courts and cannot be waived by the defendant. A similar issue of Article III requirements, this time in a bankruptcy context, was just decided in favor of waiver by the Court. Again practical considerations of court administration trumped the structural provisions of Article III, if not in quite as clear and dramatic a way as in the doctrine that the jury requirement is merely a waivable right.