Archive | April, 2004

yanked from Yangon: A reader reports (I don’t yet know how he figured it out): You should know that as of today the Conspiracy is banned in Burma (Myanmar). The yellow flag says “banned phrase found.”

Handy Aramaic phrases to use while watching The Passion of the Christ, from The Guardian (U.K.) (thanks to Michael Klein for the pointer): Its alleged anti-semitism isn’t the only problem with Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. There’s also the small matter of it being in Aramaic. To help enrich your enjoyment, here is […]

Reader Mike Aracic writes: Lawyers can sure make it tough to have a good time! I am eagerly awaiting the time the first of my friends got a Gmail address[.] The victim (friend) was going to immediately get a short paragraph from me about refinancing and “male enhancement.”

to try to discourage the ridiculously excessive bar and bat mitvzah parties that have become the norm in many large cities, this story in the April 26 People Magazine (not online) should be it:She’s got the deejay blasting Beyonce and a computerized light show. She has nearly 100 friends crammed into Manhattan’s ritzy Bryant Park […]

In my law and film class this year we watched four movies: High Noon, Kubrick’s early Paths of Glory, Kurosawa’s Rashomon, and Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter, a Canadian movie from 1997. A schoolbus crashes through the ice and many schoolchildren drown, leading to a liability suit in a small town. To my surprise, this […]

David Link, who works for Senator Figueroa — the California legislator who’s talking about outlawing google’s new free e-mail with customized advertising service — writes: The Senator has represented a good portion of the Silicon Valley for the twelve years she has been in the legislature, and has earned the respect of much of the […]

For all the handwringing of the American (not to mention world) media, the dynamic is very simple: Bush has made it abundantly clear that he wants the Palestinians to have a responsible government that fights terrorism, and wants the Israelis to move toward a settlement that turns over sovereignty of Gaza and most of the […]

This Eric Muller (IsThatLegal?) post is so useful that I thought I’d link to it and excerpt it even though InstaPundit has also already done it. The bottom line: Under these guidelines, it certainly seems to me that Ms. Gorelick should not be participating in the portion of the Commission’s investigation that focuses on law […]

I’m hardly one to espouse a naive (or sophisticated) self-interested view of political action. That being said, I chuckled when I read the following: ” Last year’s tax cut proved to be a significant windfall for its main architect and political instigator, saving President Bush tens of thousands of dollars on his 2003 return.” Bush’s […]

You might find this excerpt from Attorney General John Ashcroft’s testimony before the 9/11 Commission to be of interest: The single greatest structural cause for September 11 was the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents. Government erected this wall. Government buttressed this wall. And before September 11, government was blinded by this wall. […]

Ramesh Ponnuru writes: While I’m on the subject of this blog, I may as well mention a post there that had caused me some puzzlement. Jacob Levy, in the course of making a point about originalism that I think is wholly sound, remarked that he thought that the “fast track” procedures for approving trade agreements […]

Maybe not, read this article. Here is one provocative bit of several: “Figures of eight million French Muslims are regularly tossed around, based, it seems, on panicked fears of high Muslim immigration and a high Muslim birth rate. These figures are vastly overestimated, though. Figures on religious affiliation and ethnic background aren’t kept by the […]

“Intoxicated Man Seeks Job With Police”: Thanks to the CrimLaw blog: Robert Gulley, an unemployed radio technician, was ticketed for alleged drunken driving as he drove away from the patrol office in this city near Vancouver. He had asked for a job application. . . . When Gulley walked into patrol headquarters Wednesday afternoon, he […]

I agree with those who fault Justice Scalia for asking that “the electronic media . . . respect[] my First Amendment right not to speak on radio or television when I do not wish to do so.”      Scalia probably has a constitutional right not to speak on radio or television when he does not wish […]

Will Saletan of Slate points out that Justice Scalia’s policy — to “permit recording for use of the print media,” but to ask the “electronic media” to “respect[ his] First Amendment right not to speak on radio or television when [he does] not wish to do so” — seems to prohibit recording for transcription onto […]