Archive | April, 2004

In response to David’s question below about whether air quality is worse closer to busy roads, the short answer is: It depends. Certainly for some air pollutants, including ground-level ozone, ambient concentrations near busy roads or intersections can be higher than elsewhere in an urban areas, particularly at certain times of the day. Ozone readings […]

Government Appeals Raich v. Ashcroft: On Tuesday, the Solicitor General petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari in my medical cannabis case of Raich v. Ashcroft. Although I am not surprised, I admit to being disappointed that Ted Olson did not see this case as an opportunity for advancing the limited reading of […]

My now beloved Panasonic W2 ultralight has a built in DVD and lately I have taken to renting movies to view while traveling on airplanes. Yesterday, I decided to try Movielink, a service that lets you download movies for a fee of $3 to $5, which are then stored on your hard drive for up […]

Is air quality, say, a block from a busy road substantially worse than air quality, say, a four blocks from a busy road, or a half mile from a busy road? Inquiring minds want to know!

The Fourth Circuit’s Mossaoui opinion seems like a significant, though far from complete, victory for Moussaoui, relative to what the government would have liked. Moussaoui is getting less by way of evidence from various military detainees than the district court said he should have, but he’s getting a lot more than the government wanted to […]

Here’s today’s Bush quote in Slate‘s Bushism of the Day, selected by Slate‘s editor, Jacob Weisberg: “My job is to, like, think beyond the immediate.” — Washington, D.C., April 21, 2004 Here’s a transcript of MSNBC Hardball, Dec. 30, 2003: WEISBERG: But I think a bigger problem is really where [Dean] is politically. You know, […]

The Confusion (by Neal Stephenson): Just finished, and thought it was excellent. I thought Cryptonomicon was fantastic; Quicksilver was quite good, and worth reading, but not nearly up to the level of Cryptonomicon. The Confusion was a good deal better than Quicksilver (though not quite as good as Cryptonomicon), and definitely worth the time and […]

Jacob Levy won’t be able to count on little Benjamin to suit up for the rugby match even when he’s 16 and big (and chances are that he will be big) — at least not if I have anything to say about it. UPDATE: Rory Miller writes: Prof. Volokh- Many people think of Rugby as […]

I heard on the radio a story about how a good deal of illness — and absenteeism — is caused by “presenteeism”: People coming to work sick. If people stayed home when they were sick, it would often be better for them, for coworkers, and for their employers. At the same time, there are obvious […]

has apparently been withdrawn — there was supposed to be a committee hearing on it tomorrow, but the backers concluded that they didn’t have the votes. I had written an op-ed (at the behest of ACLU people with whom I’ve been working on this) opposing the VRA, and the Orange County Register had agreed to […]

That is the title of a book manuscript by my colleague Richard Ippolito. I’ve yet to read it, but I feel confident recommending its treatment of microeconomics. Thanks to Newmark’s Door for the pointer.

(much less work than actually having to think through and compose a whole bunch of responses), to Matt Rustler’s thoughts on the matter.

I’ve gotten lots of interesting messages about the Guantanamo issue, but I’m afraid I have to regretfully leave them unreplied to — my apologies, but between a trip tomorrow, family stuff today, and real articles (and an exam) to write this week and for the next several, I’m afraid I’m swamped.

A while ago, when our esteemed colleagues over at Crooked Timber added the learned and witty John Holbo and Belle Waring to their ranks, I noted that this gave CT 15 members, as against 14 Conspirators. I now realize that the count of 14 was based on the roll to in the left-hand sidebar– a […]

The Eagle, the American University student newspaper, reports: AU’s Muslim Chaplain Fadel Soliman, who is also the director of World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) International, which has published and distributed a handful of anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and anti-Shi’a Muslim books, said he made at least one of the books available to students curious about other […]