Charles Murray has an extremely insightful review of the two new biographies of Ayn Rand in The Claremont Review of Books. Murray captures, I think, many of my own ambivalent feelings about Rand’s work, both pro and con.
Archive | 2010
Searle Center Director and Programs Move from Northwestern to George Mason
Great new for George Mason Law School (but unrelated to Eugene’s Searle post below)! From Dean Dan Polsby: It is my sincere pleasure to share with you some exciting news. We’re welcoming Henry Butler home. Henry will join us, beginning in the fall, as Foundation Professor of Law and leader of the law school’s program […]
Federalist Society’s Searle Young Legal Scholars Research Fellowships
If you’re a young law professor with Federalist Society sympathies, you should definitely apply; the fellowship will fund a semester-long research leave, though you won’t be expected to move anywhere physically during the leave. “Applicants should be tenure-track faculty members at a law school in the second to fifth years of their tenure-track teaching careers.” […]
The Deep Roots of Constitutional Constraints on Speech-Based Civil Liability
I just circulated to the journals this 4-page law review article, and I thought I’d also quote it in this post; to see the footnotes, please see the PDF. Does the First Amendment limit common-law tort liability? New York Times Co. v. Sullivan said yes, but some argue this is a modern innovation. The Court’s […]
Maine and Virginia AGs’ Statements on Not Supporting the 48 State AGs’ Brief in Snyder v. Phelps
[UPDATE: I had originally just posted about the Virginia statement, because I had seen a news report that said that the Maine AG simply had a policy of not taking sides in civil cases, presumably meaning out-of-state cases; but commenter Postscript pointed out that the Maine AG also relied on free speech concerns, so I […]
“[I]n These Days, … The Intemperance and Malice of Men Increase”
That’s from a case decided in 1585, Stanhope v. Blith, 76 Eng. Rep. 891. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
My House Testimony in “Drones II”
By Kenneth Anderson on June 3, 2010 12:37 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
As Professor Philip Alston’s report as special rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on targeted killings, drones, CIA and military, and related issues is released today, I’ve been asked by numerous people to comment on it. I’ve read it once, but need to finish re-reading it before I’m ready to say anything that goes […]
How Jonathan Adler Gets It Wrong, and Soccer Gets It Right:
[As VC’s resident soccerphile, I am of course busily preparing myself for the World’s Greatest (By Far) Sporting Event beginning next week in South Africa. I’ll be posting regular reports on the games, all of which (along with this post) come with the following request: Those of you who seem unable to elevate your discourse […]
Libertarianism:
Our friends over at Reason.com have published a nice piece by Terry Michael entitled “In Defense of Libertarianisms — An open letter to left-liberals.” I suspect that most readers here don’t exactly fall into the left-liberal camp, but probably have many friends who do; this might be a nice link to forward on to them. […]
How Baseball Gets It Wrong, and Hockey Gets It Right
The sports world is atwitter over Major League umpire Jim Joyce’s blown call in the ninth inning that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a well-deserved perfect game. The play at first base was made to end the game. It would have been the 27th out on the 27th batter, but Joyce called the runner […]
News Flash–Price Controls Don’t Work:
I argue in today’s Washington Times that the Durbin amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that imposes price controls on debit and prepaid card interchange fees will be bad for consumers, has nothing to do with the purported purpose of the bill, and seems to be nothing more than a payoff to a politically […]
Telling Interview with the Director of Amnesty Israel
Via Avi Bell, here’s a fascinating interview with Itai Epstein, Director of Amnesty International in Israel. The interviewer asks some fairly sharp questions, and he gets answers filled with addled logic that amount to, “Whatever Israel does, Amnesty is still going to say it was acting illegally/violating human rights.” Here’s an excerpt (but read the […]
A Cyrano de Bergerac for the 21st Century
I’m surprised it took so long to happen. But as the Washington Post reports, there are now businesses specializing in composing e-mails for men who use online dating websites: Max Hartshorn has pretty much mastered online dating. It took awhile, but the 24-year-old now knows exactly what kind of message to send to pique a […]
Two Thirds of Americans Cannot Name Even One Supreme Court Justice
A recent poll conducted by Findlaw shows that two thirds of Americans cannot name even one Supreme Court justice. Here are the percentages who can name each of the nine current justices [HT: Josh Blackman]: * Clarence Thomas – 19% * John Roberts – 16% * Sonia Sotomayor – 15% * Ruth Bader Ginsburg – […]
“Temporary” Tax to Pay for DC Baseball Stadium Becomes a Permanent Cash Cow for City Government
I have often criticized government subsidization of sports stadium construction, including the biggest such boondoggle: the record expenditure of over a billion dollars in government money on the new Yankee Stadium (see here for my most recent post on the subject and links to earlier ones). As I pointed out in my very first post […]