Co-Conspirator DB notes the continuing controversy over Amnesty International, with Salman Rushdie now weighing in. Side note: Although until I come out with my own longer account of my views of the NGO movement, including the human rights monitors, I tend to avoid saying much about human rights groups, I have written a bit about […]
Archive | 2010
Rational Ignorance Alert! Rational Ignorance Alert!
I hereby respectfully draw Co-Conspirator Ilya’s attention to Alan Wolfe’s witty and insightful book review in today’s New York Times of Derek Bok’s The Politics of Happiness. In particular to the following two sentences; should we call this rational political ignorance or not? Americans are most certainly misinformed. Dumb they are not.
Justice Obama?
GWU law professor Jeffrey Rosen suggests Barack Obama may have the wrong job. He’s too detached and cerebral . Too deferential to Congress. Too willing to compromise . And he’s too much of a law professor and not enough of a commander in chief, as Sarah Palin recently admonished. These are some of the qualities […]
Sunday Song Lyric
There have been quite a few songs on “torture” — but most are about the loves lost or relationships gone wrong, something quite different from the subject of the infamous OLC memos. Consider the “Torture” lyrics by The Psychedelic Furs (song), The Replacements (s0ng), Berlin (song), and (who can forget) the Jacksons (video). Leave it […]
Yoo-Bybee OPR Report Commentary
At the Legal Ethics Forum, John Steele has an incredibly useful post rounding up links to documents and commentary related to the Justice Department’s OPR report on the “torture memos” and AAG David Margolis’ memo, including drafts of the OPR report, responses from John Yoo and Jay Bybee’s lawyers and then-AG Michael Mukasey, and loads […]
Tamanaha on Yoo
Over at Balkinization, Brian Tamanaha has this thoughtful post on the reasoning of the Margolis memo as it relates to John Yoo’s OLC memos.
Rushdie on Amnesty International
Salman Rushdie: Amnesty International has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty’s leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. (H/T […]
Spanish Intelligence Agency Ordered to Investigate Possible “Anglo-Saxon Media” Conspiracy
From Soeren Kern (Pajamas Media), reporting on an article in El Pais: Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has ordered Spain’s official intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Center (CNI), to investigate whether the “Anglo-Saxon media” (aka English-language press) is conspiring to undermine the Spanish economy. According to the center-left newspaper El País, which is […]
What Books Should Be Reviewed in the Michigan Law Review Book Issue?
Eugene notes below that the Michigan Law Review is seeking submissions for book reviews for its widely-noted book review issue. That raises a question: What books are the most important books published in law in the last year or so that really should be reviewed? I can think of a few off the top of […]
Michigan Law Review Seeks Book Reviews for Their 2011 Survey of Books Related to the Law
The Michigan Law Review publishes an Annual Survey of Books dedicated to book reviews. Book reviews are not included in any other issue of the Michigan Law Review. The Survey includes reviews of books published in the current year and the past two years. So, for example, the 2011 Survey, which will be published in […]
DOJ Releases Reports on Bybee, Yoo, and the Torture Memos
The Report of the Office of Professional Responsibility dated July 2009 is here, and the memo of Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis rejecting key findings of the OPR Report, dated January 2010, is here. UPDATE: I have closed comments, as they only proved, once again, that the words “yoo” and “torture” in the same […]
Diagnosing Gollum
This article has an interesting psychiatric diagnosis of Gollum’s possible mental illness [HT: Eric Crampton]: Sméagol (Gollum) is a single, 587 year old, hobbit-like male of no fixed abode. He has presented with antisocial behaviour, increasing aggression, and preoccupation with the “one ring.”… …His forensic history consists of Deagol’s murder and the attempted murder of […]
I Am Not “Oren”
In the last week, I’ve had two colleagues in academic and professional circles object to blog comments they think I have written about the Fourth Amendment based on comments left here by commenter “Oren.” Just to clarify, I am not “Oren.” My name is spelled with an “i,” not an “e,” and I sign my […]
Nada. Gar nichts. Rien du tout. Bupkes.
In his vigorous dissent from denial of rehearing en banc in United States v. Lemus, linked to by Eugene below, Judge Kozinski writes: Government encroachment into the home, which I lamented three years ago in United States v. Black, 482 F.3d 1044, 1045-46 (9th Cir. 2007) (Kozinski, J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en […]
What Else is New?
Eric Fingerhut examines a “bizarre, almost unhinged” rant by Joe Klein in response to rather bland criticism from Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin. This has become something of a Klein specialty, at least when it comes to discussion of Israel’s American supporters.