President Obama should withdraw his nomination of David J. Barron to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the first Circuit. Rand Paul calls him out in The New York Times here:

WASHINGTON — I BELIEVE that killing an American citizen without a trial is an extraordinary concept and deserves serious debate. I can’t imagine appointing someone to the federal bench, one level below the Supreme Court, without fully understanding that person’s views concerning the extrajudicial killing of American citizens.

But President Obama is seeking to do just that. He has nominated David J. Barron, a Harvard law professor and a former acting assistant attorney general, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

While he was an official in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Mr. Barron wrote at least two legal memos justifying the execution without a trial of an American citizen abroad. Now Mr. Obama is refusing to share that legal argument with the American people.

On April 30, I wrote to the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, urging him to delay this nomination, pending a court-ordered disclosure of the first memo I knew about. Since that letter, I have learned more. The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to all senators on May 6, noting that in the view of the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, Dianne Feinstein, “there are at least eleven OLC opinions on the targeted killing or drone program.” It has not been established whether Mr. Barron wrote all those memos, but we do know that his controversial classified opinions provided the president with a legal argument and justification to target an American citizen for execution without a trial by jury or due process.

I believe that all senators should have access to all of these opinions. Furthermore, the American people deserve to see redacted versions of these memos so that they can understand the Obama administration’s legal justification for this extraordinary exercise of executive power. The White House may invoke national security against disclosure, but legal arguments that affect the rights of every American should not have the privilege of secrecy.

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Rand Paul is far better positioned for a presidential run than is commonly believed. Here is some interesting perspective.

The Republican National Committee may have just paved the way for a strong primary performance by Rand Paul.

The RNC recently decided that Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada will hold their primaries first. This lineup is widely considered to have given Rand Paul a decisive advantage. By giving Paul what could be his easiest battles first, the RNC’s schedule may help Paul establish himself as a promising candidate early in the primary.

“If Rand were to win two of those first three or three of those first four, he would be a train gathering a lot of steam,” says Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak.

“He already has his team in place in Iowa. I don’t know too many presidential candidates who can say that in May of 2014,” says Republican strategist Chris LaCivita.

Iowa and New Hampshire were two of Ron Paul’s strongest states in the 2012 primary.

Real Clear Politics’ 2016 Republican Presidential Nomination data shows that Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee are currently tied for first place.

Making the case that extreme exercise may not be good for you are two new studies (here) from the British journal Heart.

Two studies in the British journal Heart add new evidence to the case that extreme amounts of exercise may be detrimental to health.

One study followed 1,038 patients with heart disease for 10 years and found that those who vigorously exercised daily were more than twice as likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than those who exercised only two to four days a week, while those who exercised rarely or never had the worst outcomes.

That finding is startling because current medical recommendations call for heart-disease patients (like everyone else) to exercise five to seven days a week. Those recommendations aren’t likely to change on the basis of a single study, especially one drawn from potentially unreliable patient reports of how much they exercise.

The second study adds to already substantial evidence that endurance exercise increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, a generally non-life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia that greatly increases the risk of stroke. This finding parallels that of a previous study that found a 74% increase in the risk of atrial fibrillation in men younger than 50 who exercised vigorously five to seven days a week.

The two studies will intensify debate within sports medicine about the health implications of endurance athletics such as serial marathon running. By all accounts, exercise at low to moderate levels confers dramatic protection from disease of nearly every kind, and many studies suggest that greater amounts deliver greater benefits.

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has apparently cast his lot with the War Dogs of intervention. In a speech before “philanthropists,” Christie sat at the same table with one Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire supporter of John McCain and a strident War Dog. History is clear, a policy of military intervention has paid no dividends for America. Interventionists would label those who disagree with the clear facts of history isolationists, or perhaps pacifists. Any actual student of history knows that such labeling is farcical.

America, since the disastrous administration of Woodrow Wilson has been controlled by the corporate-statists and the military industrial complex. Republicans and Democrats have been largely in the same camp. Ralph Nader’s ground breaking new book, Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State, lays out the whole raw story with chilling and compelling logic. Ralph’s historical perspective alone makes Ralph’s message to Americans both powerful and urgent.

I have regularly advised Cato Institute’s Chris Preble’s The Power Problem. The Power Problem is certainly the bible on American foreign policy from the perspective of historically attuned Americans. Chris Christie and the War Dogs offer no conceivable solution for America and their interventionist views should be looked upon with both sadness and fright.

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“Your life is made of two dates and a dash. Make the most of the dash.”

Twice a year a client of mine leaves the comforts of home to patrol 26,000 sq. miles in Southeastern Utah for the Department of Interior. He spends two weeks in the Spring and two months in the Fall, September and October. I spoke with him the other day, the first day back from his Spring trip. I asked him what he does out there. He said he is either out on his own for 3-5 days patrolling, or working from the base station going out on day jobs to fix things, do field study, or work on his research at the base station.

His passion is southwestern archeology. It has been his passion since studying it in college, but eventually he had to get a “real” job to pay the bills. After a successful career in corporate America he is back doing what he wants to do in retirement. I asked him where he sleeps on the 3-5 day solo trips. He said outside under the stars. I asked if he ever brings a tent. He said not if he can help it. A tent is heavy.

The Spring trip is nice because the weather can be beautiful. It starts off chilly and gets warmer with each passing day. But the Fall trip starts off warm and by the end of October he said the nights can be brutally cold. He said it’s a good way to lose ten pounds. Not that he needs to a lose an ounce.

His wife is supportive of the trips. I joked, “she may look forward to it more than he does.” He laughed in agreement but in all seriousness said they both get pretty lonesome after a little while. Sounds to me like a healthy relationship and retirement for both of them.

Canyon country.

Typical Anasazi dwelling deep in an obscure canyon. The challenge is getting into it!

“Government governs best, which governs least.” Attributable or not to Thomas Jefferson, it’s fair to say that the less government, the less corruption. Jonah Goldberg of NRO asks why fixing the VA has not been a priority for the Obama administration, let alone for Republicans who claim how much they love the military. Rationing, incompetence, bloat, waste—all problems Obama knew were plaguing the VA six long years ago. In most of the State of the Union addresses, Obama has boasted ad nauseam how he is improving government efficiency. If big government is the answer, as Obama and Democrats claim, why hasn’t the disgraceful VA mess not been front and center?

Many have noted, including our own John Fund, that the VA scandal poses an acute threat to the Obama administration because of how much its problems resemble the criticisms of Obamacare itself. But let’s imagine there was no Obamacare. Let’s imagine that Obama had actually followed through on his occasional promises to focus on the economy and jobs first and foremost and didn’t blunder into the huge wasteful distraction that is the Affordable Care Act.

The lessons of the VA would still be a problem for Obama and for liberals generally.

Why? Because the Democratic party simply is the party of government. It is the party that insists on the nobility, efficacy and intellectual superiority of government. The VA is at the intersection of all the things liberals insist are wise and good and just about government. It is government-run healthcare. It is the tangible fulfillment of a sacred obligation the government has with those who’ve sacrificed most for our nation. It is also the one institution and/or constituency that enjoys huge bipartisan support. The VA, rhetorically and politically, is more sacrosanct and less controversial than Medicare, Social Security, road building, the NIH, or public schools. We are constantly told that we could get so many wonderful, super-fantastic things done if only both sides would lay down their ideological blah blah blah blah and work together for yada yada yada. Well, welcome to the VA. How’s that working out for you?

The White House keeps saying these horrible cases of deception and wrongdoing are “isolated incidents” and not “systemic.” As I asked last night on Special Report, how many isolated incidents do you need before they become systemic? Right now, allegations have surfaced in 19 states. That feels systemic to me. But what do I know?

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