Might sound alarmist, until you realize that the author is Stewart Baker, a former General Counsel of the National Security Agency, the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the United States Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009 (where thinking about possible attacks, including biological attacks, was a big part of his job), and on […]
Archive | 2010
Saturdays with Stendhal 1
In the past, on other blogs, I have run a series called Sundays with Stendhal – quotes from the Master’s various writings. You either love it or you hate it. With the new year, I have decided to resurrect it – sometimes just quotes, sometimes with commentary. But I’ve decided to make it Saturdays with […]
Confusing Overrepresentation with Domination
An especially pernicious common fallacy is the assumption that if a given group is overrepresented in some field, that must mean that they dominate it, and are using their supposed “domination” to promote the group’s interests. My better half quotes this example described by historian Paul Johnson in his book Modern Times: Of course underlying […]
A 1788 Dublin Edition of Pleas of the Crown — And A Possible Supreme Court Connection
I recently purchased a copy of Volume I of the early criminal law treatise, William Hawkins, A Treatise of Pleas of the Crown; or, a system of the principal matters relating to that subject, digested under proper heads. At common law, non-misdemeanor English crimes were the causes of action brought in the King’s court — […]
More Airport Security Tradeoffs
Last week, I wrote about several underappreciated tradeoffs in airport security policy. Here’s another one: TSA screeners, like the rest of us, have only limited time and attention span. The more these finite resources are devoted to “security theater” procedures that have little or no value, the less of it there is available to focus […]
Security or Silliness
Screenwriter (and recovering attorney) David H. Steinberg writes about his recent TSA experience flying home to the U.S. from Aruba. Among other things, his family was frisked by a baggage handler and a flight attendant snatched the pillow from under his 2-year-old daughter one hour before descent. A lunatic tries to blow up an airplane, […]
Why is it More Wrong to Attack a Person’s Religion than their Secular Moral or Political Views?
By Ilya Somin on January 2, 2010 4:28 pm in Atheism, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Ireland has recently enacted a law banning “blasphemy,” which has in turn attracted plenty of justified criticism: Secular campaigners in the Irish Republic defied a strict new blasphemy law which came into force today by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations online and promising to fight the legislation in court. The new law, which was […]
Three Approaches to Defending Liberty
A standard argument for government regulation or prohibition of private sector activities runs as follows: Individuals or businesses are doing something harmful and/or immoral. Therefore, the government must step in and ban it, or at least regulate to restrict it. A standard libertarian response (also sometimes used by liberals) is that, in a free society, […]
Economists as Cheapskates? Law Professors as Conference Seekers of Golf and Surfing?
The Wall Street Journal has an entertaining article on the front page (Justin Lahart, Jan. 2, 2010), recounting tales of economists as hard bargainers and, well, cheapskates. The article opens noting that the annual professional meetings occur the week after New Year, when hotel costs are generally low, and this year are taking place in […]
Less Electricity, More Accidents
Many jurisdictions have begun installing LED traffic lights. LEDs use less electricity, require less maintenance, and last longer than conventional bulbs. But as the NYT reports, there’s also a catch for colder parts of the country. LEDs generate less heat, and are more prone to collecting ice and snow, which can block the signal. According […]
Welcome (Back) Jan Crawford
Jan Crawford (fka Jan Crawford Greenburg), author of Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court, has returned to the legal blogosphere with “Crossroads,” a new legal blog at CBSNews.com. Crawford left ABC News several months ago to join CBS News as their new Chief Legal Correspondent, […]
From Date to Mate
That’s the name of a mock reality show available online on Shalom TV. It’s about four single Jewish twenty-somethings in Manhattan who have agreed to have their online dating life followed by t.v. cameras for eight months. I’ve watched the first two episodes, and two things strike me. First, because Shalom TV is aimed at […]
Jim Manzi, ‘Keeping America’s Edge’
I am going into isolation for a bit to rewrite the last chapter in my UN book, “Returning to Earth: When and How the United States Should Engage, and Not Engage, with the United Nations” – a chapter on the end of the human rights era at the UN. But I wanted to wish everyone […]
The Year in Robotics 2009
Happy new year to everyone! H/T Instapundit, to this excellent story with many useful links by Kristina Grifantini, Tuesday, December 29, 2009, on various advances in robotics during 2009, from MIT’s Technology Review: In the past year, researchers have developed new robots to tackle a variety of tasks: helping with medical rehabilitation, aiding military maneuvers, mimicking […]
Zywicki on the “Only Good Movies Blog”:
The folks at the “Only Good Movies Blog” have invited me to participate in their “Movies and the Masses” feature, where they ask “random” people to answer some movie questions. My answers are here. Reviewing my answers, one thing is clear: I don’t think that anyone will ever accuse me of being a film snob.