Archive | July, 2004

One of my pet peeves is the trope, “In these troubled times….” A few weeks ago, I was at a conference also attended by a much younger and quite pessimistic professor of English. I tried to buck him up by telling him that things were not going to hell in a hand basket. Indeed, politically […]

My New Republic column is online (link should work for non-subscribers as well as subscribers).

The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Law, published by AEI, June 2004, the download is here, 42 pp.. Here is the summary: This monograph seeks to explain the expansion of intellectual property law over the last half century, focusing in particular on the rapid growth that began with the 1976 Copyright Act. In so doing, […]

reminded me of this old chestnut: A man goes to his minister. “Reverend, help me — everything is going badly for me, I’ve almost given up hope, nothing is going right, what should I do?” “Well, my son, do what I always do: Just open up a Bible to a random page, put your finger […]

Steve Bainbridge takes issue with Richard Epstein’s op-ed piece, Live and Let Live, in today’s Wall Street Journal (available only to paid subscribers). Generally–and here the illiberal FMA is a jarring exception–conservatives insist that most important structural questions in the U.S. should be decided through the democratic political processes. The libertarian wing regards democratic government […]

with a special emphasis on infant CPR, for Benjamin’s benefit. Glad to know how to do it, though I hope I’ll never have to.

Today the Justice Department released a 30-page report in support of the Patriot Act. The AP story is here; the DOJ report itself is here in .pdf format. I read the report, and there’s nothing particularly unexpected in it. Still, worth noting.

Ice cream production is closely correllated with the rate of forcible rape. Yes, that’s right — Professor Eugene Volokh, of the prestigious UCLA School of Law and the even more prestigious Volokh Conspiracy Web log, has uncovered scientific evidence that ice cream production is closely correlated with the forcible rape rate. Professor Volokh used 2000 […]

Over the course of the last year, it has become increasingly apparent that the United States invaded a country the size of California based in part on a misunderstanding. Popular support for the war in Iraq was based in large part on the belief that Iraq was gathering weapons of mass destruction, which itself was […]

Will Baude and Phoebe Maltz (multiple posts each; follow the links) have an exchange going on a topic Dan Drezner also recently mentioned: the stunning lack of commerce in Hyde Park, Chicago. The neighborhood has neither the amenities of a real college town nor those of a collegiate neighborhood in a big city (Phoebe compares […]

I am told that when the New York election scheduled for 9/11 was postponed, the votes cast on the original day were discarded, and people were expected to revote on 9/25. Joel Graber, of the New York State AG’s office, posted something more about this to an election law list I’m on, and I pass […]

David Frum calls Spiderman 2 “the great pro-Bush movie of the summer.” I’ll at least agree with Frum that it was a great summer movie. Update: A reader e-mails this comment: Frum does seem to be stretching here. Last I checked Peter Parker was an orphan who is struggling to pay for college by delivering […]

Yesterday’s print WSJ contained a front page (middle column) story on a bizarre statutory rape case. Dr. Boadyr Veloso, a “politically prominent” physician, was convicted in 2000 for staturoy rape of seven girls, and sentenced to ten years and eight months in prison. In February 2004, however, Dr. Veloso was released and his sentence nullified. […]

Reader David Smith reports that many people did leave work on September 11, because they wanted to be home, though that didn’t seem to keep them away from the polls: I live in Cambridge, work in Boston, run a small company, and was at my desk on 9/11. I remember the attacks clearly — we […]

A reader passes along this letter from the General Counsel to North Carolina’s State Board of Elections summarizing the emergency powers given to the Executive Director of the State Board: Dear Mr. Stephens: Pardon for the delay getting back to you. Our office has just concluded a major statewide educational conference. Mr. Bartlett asked that […]