While we’re speculating, what do you think the decision of the Ferguson grand jury will be and why do you think they’re dragging their feet about arriving at it?

I think that the law probably dictates no indictment but the jury is worried about that and they’re trying to come up with some strategy for following the law while avoiding mob action.

I know that if I were a Ferguson police officer I’d be looking at the grand jury’s actions very closely.

Sean Trende muses over whether President Obama’s executive order on immigration will establish a precedent for future presidential actions:

Most Democrats were apoplectic over the so-called “nuclear option” to end the judicial filibuster, but somehow convinced themselves that Republican use of the filibuster was different enough to warrant the use of the device. Likewise, Republicans who complained about the use of the filibuster for Court of Appeals appointments didn’t think twice when they had the opportunity to use it. Democrats were apoplectic over liberalized use of signing statements by President Bush, yet President Obama often uses the same device.

To make it a bit clearer: Litigants often fight about the creation of precedent, and it is somewhat unseemly to argue one way in one court while simultaneously arguing a different way in a different court. But once you’ve lost the argument, you’ve lost the argument. The precedent is there, and it applies to all parties equally.

President Obama is likely to win this argument on legal grounds. Once he does, there will be nothing to stop a future president from using the precedent for his benefit. There’s simply no unringing this bell, and we’re all likely to regret its having been rung in the near future.

In quick bullet form here are my views on the subject:

• The President’s action was probably legal.
• It was also probably unconstitutional because the empowering legislation allows the president too much discretion.
• What’s a little unconstitutionality among friends?
• It’s likely to encourage more illegal immigration.
• It’s highly popular with some Americans but not a particularly popular move with most Americans.

I would like our immigration policy to move more towards that of Canada, the United Kingdom, or France—other developed countries with which we have much in common. To do that we’ll need to constrain “family reunification” as the bedrock of our immigration policy and be a bit more steely-eyed about it. But it would be very unpopular with some which will make it a hard sell which means it won’t happen regardless of the color of the lapel pin the president wears.

I have updated WordPress to the current version and doing so has introduced a problem with my old theme. While I update my old theme, I’ve switched to one of the WordPress default themes temporarily.

Pardon our dust!

Update

I’ve updated my old theme to its current version. Unfortunately, it’s going to take me a little time to get things looking the way I want them to. As I make modifications please leave your observations on the site’s aesthetics and readability.

As I have been predicting since it was enacted, the patch that Illinois’s legislature attempted to put on the state’s public pension system has been struck down by the court:

Strikeout: Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Belz has ruled Illinois’ pension reform law unconstitutional.

“The Act without question diminishes and impairs the benefits of membership in State retirement systems,” he wrote in a firm, six-page ruling released Friday.

And the import of that? Illinois law, Belz wrote, clearly states that “any attempt to diminish or impair pension rights is unconstitutional.” He said Illinois courts consistently have held that the protection “is absolute and without exception.”

Notice the phrase “pension rights.” In essence Belz is saying that whatever benefits were in force the first day of a worker’s employment are in force until the moment of his or her death.

Now it’s on to the Illinois Supreme Court where I have little doubt the state’s case will suffer the same fate.

The Illinois legislature needs to stop wasting time and actually address this pressing problem. They created the problem and it’s up to them to solve it.

Can you name the only living top box office silent movie star? Don’t look it up. You may know the answer if you’re a movie buff but otherwise you probably won’t.

Diana Serra Cary, whose real name was Peggy Montgomery and who became a star as “Baby Peggy”, is 96 now. She appeared in her first comedy short in 1921 and became a major star in the silent era, the only child actor to compete for the title with “the Boy King”, Jackie Coogan. Later she appeared in vaudeville and I wonder if she and my mom ever crossed paths. There is something indefinable about Mrs. Cary that reminds me of my mother. A certain poise or flair.

Last night my wife and I managed to catch a documentary on her, Baby Peggy, the Elephant in the Room. It’s not available streaming or I’d give you a link. If you have the opportunity to catch it, do so. It’s illuminating and heart-rending.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it mentioned before but several of Shirley Temple’s vehicles were in fact Baby Peggy movies remade as musicals.

I’d seen Mrs. Cary in a previous documentary some years ago and one thing that struck me was that she seems to have come to terms more peaceably with her childhood over the last decade. I wish her all the best.

The comic, writer, and director Mike Nichols has died:

Mike Nichols, who emerged in the late 1950s as half of a groundbreaking satirical comedy team and found his true calling in the next decade as director of the landmark films “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate,” has died. He was 83.

Nichols, who was married to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, died Wednesday night, ABC News President James Goldston announced. His representative, Leslee Dart, told The Times that Nichols suffered a cardiac arrest at his home in New York.

Along with Elaine May, Nichols created two-person character sketches that deftly ridiculed the neuroses and pretensions of American life during the Eisenhower and Kennedy eras. Their Grammy Award-winning partnership peaked in a 1960-61 Broadway run of “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May,” then the duo parted ways and he changed course.

As a director over the next five decades, he won an Oscar and multiple Tony and Emmy awards while amassing a string of movie credits that includes “Catch-22,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “Silkwood,” “Working Girl” and “The Birdcage.”

Many of the obits mention that Mr. Nichols was a member of a select club: people who’d won a Grammy, and Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy. Too infrequently when mentioning others who are among that number one name is not mentioned so I’ll do it here: Rita Moreno.

The first time I ever heard of Mike Nichols was from my mom and dad. Every week my mom and dad made a point of getting away from the house and children and going on a real date. Sometimes they went out to dinner. Sometimes they went to a movie. Other times they went to see live acts at Gaslight Square, a nightclub district in St. Louis now long gone, which I’ve written about before.

One night they came home from an evening at Gaslight Square raving about the wonderful comedy team they’d just seen: Nichols and May. These were Mike Nichols and Elaine May. They were cerebral, funny, incisive, and not blue, as even back then live comedy was increasingly becoming.

I have seen plays directed by Mr. Nichols on stage (Luv, Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, all of which I still quote), his movies on the screen, and heard his records but, sadly, I never saw him perform live. Here’s a video (I think from the Jack Paar show) of Nichols and May:

If Rasmussen’s daily presidential approval tracking poll is any gauge, there is no notable upswing in presidential approval as a consequence of the president’s immigration announcement last night. Rather, more along the lines that I predicted, what happened was a very mild uptick before the announcement and a return to trend afterward.

Much as I predicted. I wonder if those who predicted a 5 point improvement in the president’s approval rating after the announcement will feel chastened. I’m guessing not.

Speaking of things that haven’t gone away just because we’re not looking at them, our bombing runs in Syria and Iraq may have slowed ISIS’s advance but they aren’t rolling it back. And we’re spending about a half billion a month doing it.

I wonder how long it will take before people figure out that you can’t coherently argue in favor of the Administration’s strategy in the Middle East and want to make dramatic cuts in defense spending at the same time? My guess is that, like the war they favor, it’s forever.

Just as a reminder the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is far from over. There are signs that as it’s waning in Liberia, it’s gaining force in Sierra Leone.

There are two conflicting explanations for why so many of the beds put in place for Ebola patients in Liberia are empty. One is that there are fewer patients than there were. The other is that people who think they might have Ebola are hiding because they think that the new clinics are places of death.

Just because it’s not in the news doesn’t mean we should lose sight of it.