Once virtually eliminated in the United States, bedbugs are back with a vengeance. Earlier this summer Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the little pests had made an “alarming resurgence,” possibly due to increased resistance to available pesticides and a decline in local pest control programs. Some pesticides once used for […]
Archive | 2010
Debating the Signaling Model of Education
At Econlog, GMU economist Bryan Caplan and Princeton economist Bill Dickens have been debating the signaling model of education. See this post for Bryan’s most recent contribution and links to earlier parts of the debate. Bryan argues that a large part of our education spending (perhaps as much as 80%) is socially wasteful “signaling.” It […]
Sunday Song Lyric
It’s Labor Day weekend. I’m not ready for summer to be over, but it’s not like I have much choice in the matter. Death Cab for Cutie‘s “Summer Skin” seems appropriate. Here’s the second verse: I don’t recall a single care Just greenery and humid air Then Labor Day came and went And we shed […]
Interesting Freedom of Religion Case from Israel
Jerusalem Post: The Jerusalem District Labor Court last week rejected a temporary appeal by a Muslim teacher at a private Christian school to allow her to continue working after she decided to wear a hijab in class after teaching without one for 27 years. Essentially, the court rule that as a private Christian school that […]
Shanah Tovah!
The category of “Best Rosh Hashanah Video on YouTube” is probably not that competitive, but here’s a favorite of mine. The Hebrew is actually PG-13 or so, and not especially profound. But I love how the “author” worked with a popular and very catchy Muppets song. Shanah Tovah, for the uninitiated, means “Happy New Year.” […]
Benjamin Leff and Brian Galle Respond on the VAT Tax Arguments
A few days ago I linked to a couple of articles on VAT tax proposals that have been circulating, including an attack by Daniel Mitchell at the Cato site, and a short blog post from Greg Mankiw explaining why, as a replacement for the rest of the tax system, he thought it was a better […]
The Ethics of Not Finishing, But Still Criticizing, Books
Althouse notes the following, in a discussion of Megan McArdle criticizing a book while only half-way through it: A rule against criticizing books you haven’t finished would overprotect authors, since you shouldn’t finish a bad book, and it would also underprotect authors, since the critics wouldn’t disclose that they hadn’t read the whole thing. I think Althouse […]
Justice Kennedy on Blogs
On August 19th, Justice Kennedy gave an address that included an interesting passing remark about the role of blogs. Justice Kennedy was talking about how law review case comments generally come out too late to be of use to the Court (especially in the context of deciding whether to grant certiorari in a case). As […]
New “Lawfare” Blog
Three important voices in national security law — Jack Goldsmith, Bobby Chesney, and Benjamin Wittes — have launched a new blog: LAWFARE: Hard National Security Choices. There’s a bunch of interesting content up already. Here’s the intro to the blog from Ben’s first post on Wednesday: Welcome to Lawfare, a new blog by Robert Chesney, […]
African-Americans and the War on Drugs
John McWhorter has a good column at Root urging African-Americans to make a priority of opposing the War on Drugs {[HT: here]: The Reclaim the Dream March “recaptured the flavor” of the March on Washington. But it isn’t an accident that this brings to mind popping an old piece of gum from the underside of […]
“Three Influential Seventh Circuit Judges Debate the Usefulness of Expert Testimony to Prove Foreign Law”
How Appealing links to this Seventh Circuit decision, which includes very interesting opinions by Judges Easterbrook, Posner, and Wood (all among the most respected federal appellate judges in the nation, and all former University of Chicago law professors). Here’s the issue: American courts sometimes have to decide questions of foreign law. In the overwhelming majority […]
Errors In Jane Mayer’s New Yorker Article Attacking the Kochs
Others have pointed out various flaws in Jane Mayer’s New Yorker article attacking Charles and David Koch for their donations to various libertarian causes. But I think it would be helpful to outline her three biggest errors in one place: the false claim that the Kochs’ funding of libertarian organizations is somehow secret; the assertion […]
The Lesson of 585 Comments
The comment thread to Monday’s post, The Ultimate Legal Blog Comment, is now at 585 comments. Many are by “Mick” himself, who left the original comment on Jonathan Turley’s blog. And it’s still going: It was at 583 comments when I started writing this post, and I had to update the number when I was […]
Using Google Books, HeinOnline, and Gale’s Making of Modern Law Database for Cite-Checking
I assume most law review staffers are already doing this, but in case you aren’t, let me suggest it: Many old legal books are available in full text on Google Books, and many more available in HeinOnline’s Legal Classics database and Gale’s Making of Modern Law database. (My sense is that most law schools have […]
Conservative Christian Religious Beliefs, Use of Moderate Corporal Punishment, High Sex Drive, and Interest in Wife’s Private Areas Do Not Show Family Violence
From In re Wean (Tex. Ct. App. Aug. 31), which reversed a trial court finding that a father engaged in family violence against his children, and a protective order based on that finding. The opinion discussed many matters, and I can’t do full justice to it here. But I thought I’d quote a few passages: […]