Archive | April, 2004

I enjoyed the hospitality of Notre Dame law school last week, as well as the comments by Professor Patricia Bellia. Here is a very gracious account of my talk by Rick Garnett. The Rockin’ Book Tour for Restoring the Lost Constitution continues this week in the Pacific Northwest. TODAY: Monday, 4/19:Eugene, OregonUniversity of Oregon law […]

Leiter writes, in support of Canadian restrictions on religiously motivated speech condemning homosexual acts, and on “hate speech” in general:Now don’t misunderstand me. Canada is a civilized country, and so the fact that Canada takes seriously the post-WWII European consensus–namely, that naked bigotry, religiously motivated or otherwise, is a danger to humanity–makes perfect sense. But […]

As the long-delayed spring arrives, and the close of the semester approaches, it’s time to feel a bit care free (at least until it’s time to grade exams). So what could be a better Sunday song lyric than “Devil May Care” by Bob Dorough? This song, most recently recorded by Diana Krall, seems appropriate for […]

A bunch of us were sitting around, trying to figure out what is The Economist’s Vice. Here was one good candidate: The Economist’s Vice: “To think that Wealth Maximization is a good proxy for Utility Maximization” I nominated the following: The Economist’s Vice: “To think that it is scientific to talk of “satisfying preferences,” and […]

Rantisi is brought to justice: “We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache,” he said. It’s nice when cosmic justice and individual preferences can both be satisfied. UPDATE: Mark Kleiman objects:The point seems to me an elementary one. Since “To bring X to justice” […]

The NBA playoffs start tomorrow. The Minnesota Timberwolves are the 1st seed in the Western Conference – meaning that they play the 8th seeded Denver Nuggets. If the Timberwolves had the choice, they might well prefer to play the 7th seeded Houston Rockets, who slumped badly at the end of the season and are playing […]

I just ran across Jacob Levy’s article on New York Times ethicist Randy Cohen — it’s really an excellent and thoughtful piece about the complex relationship between ethics and morality; I highly recommend it. It was published in late 1999, and maybe Cohen has improved since then. But to me the important thing wasn’t the […]

Stop the Bleating reports: Instead of buying a TV station, as it was previously rumored to be considering, the NRA has decided to take its message to the Internet via NRANews.com, “Freedom’s Last Channel of Communication.” They’ll have daily webcasts, including a three-hour live segment. Advantages? -Lower overhead.-Not having to deal with the FCC. -Less […]

That’s what the 9/11 Commission chair Thomas Kean seems to be saying in response to calls for Jamie Gorelick to resign. (I say “seems” because there’s always the possibility that he was quoted out of context.) From the Washington Post: Gorelick told CNN yesterday that she will not resign. “The wall was a creature of […]

Jonathan Rauch on the 9/11 commission: I haven’t been following the commission’s work, and have no informed opinion — but I much respect Rauch’s views, and he’s written extensively on the pathologies of American government procedures. Some key paragraphs (emphasis added): The time and attention of Washington’s top policy makers is Washington’s most precious commodity. […]

any more; my correspondent tells me that we’re accessible again.

I find it somewhat amusing that many environmental groups spent Tax Day calling for a tax increase. Specifically, U.S. PIRG, the Sierra Club, and other groups called upon Congress and the Bush Administration to increase taxes. Specifically, they called for the re-enactment of taxes on corporations and certain chemical feedstocks to pay for hazardous waste […]

“A top Russian ballerina, who was sacked for being too heavy, lost a damages claim for £575,000 against the chief of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre yesterday. The prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, who was fired in September for being too bulky to be lifted by her dancing partners, sought the damages from the Bolshoi’s general director, Anatoly […]

Randall Parker offers some interesting facts about the finances of Iraqi reconstruction. Here is one good bit: “Even though involvement in Iraq is costing US taxpayers a lot of money at this point very little of the reconstruction money from the US government has been spent. Efforts to repair war damage and kick-start the economy, […]

TaxProf: An interesting new academic blog from taxprof Paul Caron, aimed at tax professors but also useful to lawyers and students working in the field.