Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

I wish we had nine Justice Scalias.

To the Editor:

Your Dec. 27 editorial “Congress and the War Against ISIS” presents the burdens backward. The War Powers Resolution tells the president not to make war without specific congressional authority. The burden is not on Congress to give him authority; rather, the restriction is on the president not to make war without getting such authority.

The law was enacted with full recognition that such authority is hard to get—that Congress is exquisitely skilled in doing nothing. (Remember all the failed attempts to legislate an end to the Vietnam War—a trail of failure that was on everyone’s mind when the War Powers Act was designed and enacted.)

But Congress’s failure to act is not authority for the president to send the armed forces into combat without authorization. That is exactly the point and purpose of the War Powers Resolution.

FRANK CUMMINGS

Washington

The writer was Senator Jacob Javits’s chief of staff when Mr. Javits first introduced the War Powers Resolution.

Note from KBJ: Frank Cummings must not have gotten the memo to the effect that Barack Obama, being (half) black, gets to do whatever he wants without opposition or criticism. Not allowing him to do what he wants is racism, pure and simple.

Katherine and I ate at Zeke's Fish and Chips this afternoon. I had Icelandic cod, which was very good; but then, I'm a simple man, with simple tastes.

I just wrote this handout for my Logic students. Let me know if anything is unclear. I teach the course again (for the 26th time) in the fall.

If you reward this behavior, or even acknowledge it, you get more of it. So far, university administrators have been rewarding it.

This blog had 5,108 visits during December, which is an average of 164.7 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 180.1.

We spent two full days on Mackinac Island this past summer. We took a ferry from Mackinaw City the first day and a ferry from St Ignace the second day. Here is a view of the Grand Hotel from the ferry as we returned to Mackinaw City. Click to enlarge.

Here.

Here.