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As the blogosphere gears up for the Blix report to the UN, Howard Bashman soldiers along talking about legal matters. His post on yesterday's Supreme Court decisions is so good I felt like linking to it. It ought also to be of particular interest to Californians and Alaskans, since two of the cases decided relate to California's three strikes law and one of them is about the Alaska sex offenders registry.

Remember, folks, if you've previously served jail time for theft, then in California the prosecuter can convert petty theft (a theft of under $400 worth of goods) into a felony. This combines elegantly but unfortunately with the three strikes law. You too can earn life in prison for stealing $150 worth of children's videotapes, if you have prior offenses.

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Eugene Volokh goes over the differences between Iraq and North Korea. He's right, as far as he goes -- but now let's ask the next question.

"If we can live with North Korea possessing and actively making nuclear weapons, why can't we live with the possibility that Iraq may get nuclear weapons?"

Or, put differently: assuming inspections fail, and assuming it's impossible to stand between Saddam and nukes, what makes that world more dangerous than the one we live in? And please. Don't tell me Saddam is more loony than Kim Jong-il.

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The EBay auction I blogged about earlier turns out to be blocked for a bunch of people -- including myself, when I check it from home. EBay has voluntarily blocked German IP addresses from accessing auctions of Nazi memorabilia. Now, the item in question is an Enigma machine, which is not exactly prime fetish material, but I guess it counts under German law. It's interesting how wide EBay's net is, though. I'm in Worldcom IP space at home -- I wonder if EBay blocks all of Worldcom? Or if not, why the chunk of IP space I'm in?

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There are geeky ways to ask someone to marry you, and then there are geeky ways to ask someone to marry you. I think that's terminally sweet, but it is also terminally geeky. I will now demonstrate my own geek nature by asking if the One Ring isn't kind of the wrong symbolism for a marriage? But I will come back from the brink at the last moment by not suggesting one of the other rings as a better choice. Phew.

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On my way home from work today, I heard an interesting rumor on NPR. James Bone, a London Times reporter, claimed that Blix left some details out of his oral report. If this story is accurate, Blix's written report includes a note on the possibility that Iraq has developed unmanned drones. If these drones exist, and certainly if Iraq has tested their range as over 500 kilometers, Iraq is clearly in serious breach of UN resolutions without any escape hatch. They can't say "Well, we didn't think those missiles were in breach" with any plausibility. If the story is accurate, I'm sure it'll break more widely by tomorrow morning.

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Things I learned from watching Mister Sterling tonight:

Being a Senator gets you laid by the hot actress, plus if you're noble and honest the sly fellow Senator from Nevada will still be interested in you for your mind. In a carnal way.

Also, if you look agonized and persevere, you can write the letters. Even if you're so poorly paid you have to live in a group house.

Finally, Strom Thurmond is a Democrat from North Dakota.

More next week, I'm sure.