Identity Justice  —  Responding to early 19th-century rumors that they drank excessively, the Supreme Court justices decided to drink nothing on conference days — unless it was raining.  At the next conference, Chief Justice John Marshall asked Joseph Story to scan the sky for signs of rain.

It Sticks in My Craw  —  Most e-mailers were with me on the post on the pronunciation of Judge Sotomayor's name (and a couple griped about the whole Latina/Latino thing — English dropped gender in nouns, what, 1,000 years ago?).  But a couple said we should just pronounce it the way the bearer …

Exploding debt threatens America  —  Standard and Poor's decision to downgrade its outlook for British sovereign debt from “stable” to “negative” should be a wake-up call for the US Congress and administration.  Let us hope they wake up.  —  Under President Barack Obama's budget plan, the federal debt is exploding.

Majority of Americans Continue to Oppose Gay Marriage  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' views on same-sex marriage have essentially stayed the same in the past year, with a majority of 57% opposed to granting such marriages legal status and 40% in favor of doing so.

North Korea Threatens Armed Strike, End to Armistice  —  North Korea threatened military action in response to South Korea joining a program to seize weapons shipments, and said it's no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.  —  South Korea's actions are tantamount to a …

Flashback: George H.W. Bush On Clarence Thomas' ‘Great Empathy’  —  Conservatives have curiously decided that one of the best ways to battle Obama's first Supreme Court nominee is by declaring a war on empathy.  When he described his criteria for selecting a replacement for Justice David Souter …

AT&T May Have Swayed ‘Idol’ Results  —  LOS ANGELES — AT&T, one of the biggest corporate sponsors of “American Idol,” might have influenced the outcome of this year's competition by providing phones for free text-messaging services and lessons in casting blocks of votes at parties organized …

Supervisor Asks Woman To Take Down American Flag  —  UPDATE: Hospital Says Woman May Re-Hang Flag (Read More Below)  —  MANSFIELD (CBS 11 News) ― Is it okay to show your patriotism at the office?  —  For one Arlington woman, the answer was “no” after she hung an American flag in her office just before the Memorial Day weekend.

Billions in new cuts loom for California — including eliminating welfare and closing most state parks  —  Faced with a ballooning deficit and a clear signal that voters won't pay more to fix it, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a budget plan Tuesday that would eliminate welfare …

Huckabee to endorse Rubio for Florida Senate seat  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has rolled out a succession of endorsements from national Republicans since announcing his entrance into the 2010 Senate race.  —  Now his Republican primary rival, former Florida House speaker Marco Rubio …

A “'Heritage of the Left' of the Right”  —  The political system enters a period of infinite regress: … This seems pretty misguided to me.  In particular, DHE needs to think harder about the fact that there are already well-resourced conservative think tanks with plenty of capabilities.

Levin Takes Down Frum  —  A second guest post from Mark Levin.  Update: A disclaimer of my own for the hand wringing crowd.  If you read Frum's post on ML, linked below - he got very personal and very nasty.  In my opinion, Mark is responding in kind, though perhaps not as nastily, or bizarrely and based on facts, not suppositions.