From the AP: An openly gay teenager received a $30,000 settlement from the city over her suspension for wearing a “Barbie is a Lesbian” T-shirt to school, her attorney announced Thursday. . . . [The girl’s] lawyer, Ron Kuby, filed the federal suit last June, alleging the incident was part of a series of discriminatory […]
Archive | April, 2004
The limited benefits of legitimacy:
Fred Kaplan (Slate) writes, about the Fallujah killings: If there is a way to deal with the insurgents, it will be fundamentally political — and it will have to take shape in the next few months. Two things are necessary. First, the occupying “coalition” must be broadened, and the occupation authority must be turned over […]
Feinberg:
The University of Arizona has posted an obituary of Joel Feinberg, as has the AP.
Chicken law:
From the Smithfield Times (in Virginia): The Grace Street chickens remain under threat after Smithfield town attorney Bill Riddick issued one chicken owner a March deadline to get rid of her chickens or face potential legal action. When the letter was sent, Grace Street resident Sarah Gilliam still had two chickens left after sending the […]
Ranking the Law Schools by Median LSAT
on US News’s website (premium access required), Georgetown moves up to seventh, Fordham to sixteenth, BYU to 21st, U. Washington to 25th, GMU to 31st, Cardozo to 35th, Baylor to 36th, San Diego to 44th, Brooklyn to 46th, and Lewis and Clark to 47th. As I mentioned previously geographic desireability seems a significant factor in […]
Polls:
I’d be happy to see Tom Daschle be defeated in his Senate race, but this item doesn’t much excite me: Daschle Slipping in SD Polls In February, an Argus Leader/KELO-TV poll showed Daschle defeating Thune 50%-43%. A new poll just taken by the Rapid City Journal/KOTA/KSFY shows that Daschle is backsliding to 48%-43%. Note, Thune […]
Sons of Martha:
Something reminded me this morning of this poem, which is one of my favorites; so I thought I’d blog a link to my earlier post about it, nearly two years ago now. One might not think a poem about engineers (more or less) could be great, but this one is.
The Israel-Egypt Peace After 25 Years:
Interesting analysis here (link requires free registration with Jerusalem Post). The author notes that Begin made a huge strategic blunder in retaining control of Gaza, thereby linking it with the West Bank and strengthening Palestinian identity and the case for a unitary Palestinian state (before 1967, Egypt controlled Gaza, Jordan controlled the West Bank, and […]
Duke University buys up public domain!
IBiblio reports: In a move shocking to all, Duke University, of Durham, North Carolina, purchased the entirety of the public domain late last evening for a fee of 2.2 trillion dollars. . . . As a result of the purchase, Duke University is the sole rights-holder to a huge collection of materials, including the Bible, […]
My Name:
One of the greatest things about blogging is hearing from readers. I try to answer or at least acknowledge messages, but all too often they slip past me, especially when I am traveling. A couple weeks ago, I blogged about anti-Semitism and one reader whose last name is “Barnett” wondered how someone Jewish like me […]
Crypto-Jews in Spain and Portugal:
Hard to believe, but more than five hundred years after the forced conversion/expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal, there are still individuals in those countries that retain vague ties to their Jewish pasts (one entire community in the town of Belmonte, Portugal managed to maintain a secret quasi-Jewish life into the 1970s, when the […]