From Don Boudreaux (via Alex Tabarrok): The federal government already subsidizes bread (through various farm programs), and now Los Angeles will use federal loan money to subsidize a circus.
Archive | August, 2009
Politicizing Justice:
On Friday, the Washington Post reported on new evidence documenting Karl Rove’s influence on the decision to remove several U.S. Attorneys. Rove now acknowledges being a “conduit” for complaints from home-state politicians about some of the fired prosecutors and copies of e-mails obtained by the Post suggest he and White House counsel Harriett Miers were […]
More from the Copyright Wars:
Two interesting developments this past week in the ongoing transformation of copyright law and copyright principles on the Net. In Boston, BU grad student Joel Tenenbaum was found liable for willfully infringing copyright* by (admittedly) downloading copyrighted music (using KaZaa and other p2p file-sharing services) and reproducing and re-distributing the downloaded files. It’s only the […]
Another Swim Meet, Another Econo-Culture Tome Reread, and a Reflection on the Theory of Moral Sentiments:
Last weekend, at the Divisionals for my kid’s swim team, it was Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker. This week, at the All-Stars, where the Kid swam fly and medley, I re-read (finally finished this morning), Tyler Cowen’s In Praise of Commercial Culture (2000). It traces the relationship between art and commerce, and here is a sample […]
Men & Women in Film:
Men in Film Video by Philip Scott Johnson Women in Film:
Idealism and Realism in International Law and Relations:
A brief note responding to a couple of comments on my post on Brad Roth’s paper. We have to distinguish here between “liberal” or, if one prefers, “progressive,” on the one hand, and the “international law academy” in the US context, on the other. It is not that the international law academy is not “liberal” […]
Hoover Senior Fellow Scott Atlas on Why American Health Care
is not as bad as you might have thought and, as it happens, has important advantages. (I ran across this in the latest Hoover Digest, and then found it had been making the rounds.) Dr. Atlas is also head of the neuroradiology department at Stanford Medical School. (Full disclosure: I’m also affiliated with Hoover). Dr. […]
Brad Roth on Ruthlessness in International Law and Politics:
Brad Roth, an old friend and law and political science professor at Wayne State University, delivers a heck of a punch with his new paper, set to appear in Santa Clara Journal of International Law (2009), but up in draft at SSRN, “Coming to Terms with Ruthlessness: Sovereign Equality, Global Pluralism, and the Limits of […]
Allison Hayward on Citizens United:
I can vouch that Allison is a far better law professor than violin player. The amicus brief filed by Allison and several other professors (both law and political science) is here.
Puffins:
Who wouldn’t like a blog post about puffins?
Organic Food Still Ain’t All That:
A review of existing research on the purported health benefits of organic foods confirms that organic food is no better for you than “conventional” food. From Reuters: Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global […]
Blogging Hiatus:
I have not blogged recently, and will not for some time because a close relative (my grandmother) is terminally ill, and I must go to Boston to be with her and my family. I will return to VC posting when it is appropriate to do so. Until then, I appreciate the readers’ understanding, and I […]