Top all-time · #1421
Kevin Underhill
Personal blog · loweringthebar.netculturepolitics
Kevin Underhill writes Lowering the Bar, a personal blog at loweringthebar.net about culture and politics. Since 2010, 50 different Hacker News readers have linked it 98 times, most often “Court Says Bees Are Fish”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 4 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN commenters cite this legal humour blog for odd court rulings and bureaucratic absurdities, such as TSA security lapses, legally dead people, and lawsuits over food labels. A few praise individual posts.
- Recommended for · 4 comments
- One commenter loves an article on the octopoid embrace; another says a frozen-guru story is worth a look; another calls the blog a treasure trove of gems; anoth
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Legal Humor. Seriously. By Kevin Underhill.
Most-linked posts?
- Court Says Bees Are Fish2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-06-04
- Guy Who Got a C on Constitutional-Amendment Paper Gets Constitution Amended2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-03-22
- Californians Can No Longer Be Forced to Join a Posse2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-09-17
- The Guy Continues to Mess With The Oatmeal2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-06-18
- Carreon v. The Oatmeal [Updated]2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-06-18
- /2006/11/judge_rules_bur.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-11-10
What Hacker News says?
We're getting pretty far off topic, but I love this article: https://loweringthebar.net/2017/02/octopoid-embrace.html
Comment linking /2017/02/octopoid-embrace.html
on “Google’s copying of the Java SE API was fair use [pdf]”Submitted Guess whose emails the NSA can't read as a story · 69 points
HN discussionOn a related note, you might find this story about a frozen guru who is still "meditating" after several years of attempting to withstand the cold... http://loweringthebar.net/2016/09/frozen-guru-update-iii.htm...
Comment linking /2016/09/frozen-guru-update-iii.html
on “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]”Submitted TSA Confiscates Toy Monkey's Toy Gun as a story · 68 points
HN discussionOh, it happens even within the states, to legal citizens. http://www.loweringthebar.net/2013/11/do-not-clench-your-but... Fuck the police.
Comment linking /2013/11/do-not-clench-your-buttocks-in-deming-new-mexico.html
on “US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program”Submitted Guy Who Got a C on Constitutional-Amendment Paper Gets Constitution Amended as a story · 44 points
HN discussionThe people operating the naked scanners are literally ex-pizza-delivery-dudes: http://www.loweringthebar.net/2010/07/tsa-advertising-job-op... Highly trained professionals, these are not. They're just people working their nine-to-five to get a paycheck. We pass dumb customer support tickets around the office all the time; why shouldn't they pass around hot chick photos, etc?
Comment linking /2010/07/tsa-advertising-job-openings-on-top-of-pizza-boxes.html
on “Defeated”Submitted Court Says Bees Are Fish as a story · 26 points
HN discussion> There are good ROI, efficiency, and philosophical reasons to want to abolish TSA, but it seems naive to say there is zero value and their mere existence has not deterred anyone. Are you familiar with the TSA's measured efficiency? It's not naive at all to say that, below a certain detection threshold, the deterrence value is zero. Compare https://www.loweringthebar.net/2015/06/tsa-successfully-pass... . You'll not…
Comment linking /2015/06/tsa-successfully-passes-three-security-tests.html
on “Lawmakers want to ban VPNs”Submitted Californians Can No Longer Be Forced to Join a Posse as a story · 18 points
HN discussionI don't think the problem is whether these limits apply to normal tools or not, the same way it doesn't really matter that speed limits technically apply to horses too [1]. I imagine a solution would be a knowledge worker's bill of rights that declares the amount of output that one can reasonably expect from a human. You could add some measurements like "a knowledge worker cannot be expected to understand and take r…
Comment linking /2026/04/still-illegal-to-drive-a-horse-under-the-influence-in-kentucky.html
on “Kentucky man becomes the first humanist granted religious exemption from AI”Submitted Gerrymanderers Miss One Person as a story · 13 points
HN discussionYou have to keep a close leash on your contractors: https://www.loweringthebar.net/2019/10/fourth-level-subcontr... EDIT: I am _very_ sad that link rendering truncated "murder plot" from that
Comment linking /2019/10/fourth-level-subcontractor-ruins-murder-plot.html
on “Deloitte to refund the Australian government after using AI in $440k report”Submitted Mentally Ill Man with AI Girlfriend Tried to Kill Queen as a story · 12 points
HN discussion> that "law" is some kind of magic... Law is some kind of magic, though. Consider the case where I want to cast the "Lawyer" protection spell. If I chant "I am invoking my right to remain silent. I want to contact my attorney" then the police must stop questioning me and provide me one [1]. The spell worked. If I chant "This is how I feel, if y’all think I did it, I know that I didn’t do it so why don’t you just giv…
Comment linking /2017/03/the-oxford-comma-use-it.html
on “DoNotPay has to pay $193K for falsely touting untested AI lawyer, FTC says”Submitted The Guy Continues to Mess With The Oatmeal as a story · 9 points
HN discussionI think he was referring to the legal clusterfuck that happens when someone who is legally dead isn't actually dead. http://www.loweringthebar.net/2013/10/no-youre-still-decease... http://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/08/feds-say-legally-dead-...
Comment linking /2014/08/feds-say-legally-dead-is-slightly-alive.html
on “Hal Finney being cryopreserved now”Submitted Roadkill to Become Fair Game in Virginia as a story · 7 points
HN discussionIf you're referring to the ongoing NSA scandals, I actually think that the government claiming the power to kill citizens without trial, accusation, or evidence is much worse. It doesn't bother you that the random assassination power is only called into question because of the surveillance power? Here's loweringthebar.net mocking the story in 2011 (this story would appear to be almost exactly two years old; the comm…
Comment linking /2011/12/for-christmas-your-government-will-explain.html
on “Chilling legal memo from Obama DOJ justifies assassination of US citizens”Submitted Has Your Boss Ever Pooped in Your Lunchbox? (2016) as a story · 7 points
HN discussion> Everything about a "lawyer dog" is just bad journalism. No. Not at all. From [0]: > On Friday, the Louisiana Supreme Court declined to review the trial court’s ruling in State v. Demesme refusing to exclude incriminating statements that Desmesme allegedly made to a detective. The vote was 6-1 but there was no majority opinion—the court just denied review and noted one justice had voted to grant it. But Justice Cri…
Comment linking /2017/11/lawyer-dog.html
on “It's legal for police to use deception in interrogations. Some want that to end”Submitted TSA is keeping your loose change as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThey’re not even a law enforcement agency despite the very cop-like uniforms. They’re not legally “peace officers”, can’t make arrests, execute warrants, handle firearms, etc. I’ve seen discussions where actual police officers are a bit upset the TSA is watering down their uniform style, down to including police-like badges. Here’s the evolution of TSA uniforms over time. You the transition to being faux-cops: https…
Comment linking /2012/01/junior-tsa-officer-badge-is-creepy-fraudulent.html
on “The TSA has a watch list of people who present “challenges” to screening”Submitted Bill to Authorize Letter of Marque and Reprisal to Whoever Steals Putin’s Yacht as a story · 5 points
HN discussion> Waiving your rights is about removing future options. Since you're agreeing not to do something. Every contract entails waiving your rights and removing future options. And tons of contracts include, as consideration, the agreement not to do something. Leases, for example. If you lease an apartment, you usually have an implied legal right to sublet; correspondingly, most landlords have a clause in the lease requir…
Comment linking /2006/11/judge_rules_bur.html
on “What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss”Submitted Judge deploys Rumpelstiltskin metaphor for sixth time as a story · 5 points
HN discussionIt's only a superpower in theory. In practice, the IRS has sued people for benefits collected from a not-really-dead person [1] without restoring that person to the land of the living. And then there's a case where a supposedly-dead person was given the death penalty [2]. If the state has an incentive to punish you, it will find a way. [1] https://loweringthebar.net/2014/08/feds-say-legally-dead-is-... [2] https://l…
Comment linking /2014/09/legally-dead-man-sentenced-to-be-actually-dead.html
on “India's living dead”Submitted Californians Can No Longer Be Forced to Join a Posse as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIn the UK, during the purchase of our house we had to take a "chancel liability insurance", because our freehold once belonced to a rectory, so to protect ourselves from repair liability towards a chapel that has been here for centuries, we had to pay a one-off insurance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancel_repair_liability Leftover laws are weird things. EDIT: PS: sadly, the legendary, obligatory archery practice…
Comment linking /2010/06/do-englishmen-still-have-to-show-up-for-longbow-practice.html
on “Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax”Submitted Auction Winner Learns Why Property Was Such a Great Deal: It’s Only 12“ Wide as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
