I just wanted to highlight Jim’s post below about the latest Michael Bellesiles controversy, and Bellesiles’ response, which forms the basis of the post’s title. I sympathize with people who unknowingly pass on stories that are not accurate (see here for one example from my own work). Still, doesn’t a big part of a historian’s […]
Archive | 2010
Chronicle Review Admits Bellesiles’s Story is False — Blames Student, not Bellesiles
The Chronicle of Higher Education confirms my research and Big Journalism’s initial doubts that Michael Bellesiles’s story published in the Chronicle Review is false. There was indeed no soldier injured in Iraq or Afghanistan who fit Bellesiles’s story. As the Chronicle reports the facts (which are a bit sketchy), the student lied to Bellesiles, whom […]
Tenth Circuit Reaffirms That Obvious Parodies — Which No Reasonable Reader Would Interpret as Factual Allegations — Can’t Be Libelous
This is the Mink v. Knox (10th Cir. July 19), the latest in the Howling Pig saga. The parody led to an investigation and a search based on the premise that the parody constituted criminal libel; the author is now suing the prosecutor who appears to have authorized the search warrant, and the Tenth Circuit […]
Was Senator Franken’s Election Due to Illegal Votes from Felons?
I just ran across this interesting post from John Lott, who discusses whether the election of Senator Al Franken was due to votes from felons ineligible to vote. Here’s a snippet of the argument: Senator Al Franken likely owes his Senate victory to felons. With a razor thin victory over Senator Norm Coleman in 2008 […]
No Guns for You — You’ve Slammed Doors Very Hard
In a few states — including New Jersey — people need a license to even get a firearm to keep at home, and the police may deny such a license if they think the person poses a danger to others. This isn’t limited to getting concealed carry licenses; it applies to having a gun in […]
The Ninth Circuit Panel in Nordyke v. King Seems Open to Reconsidering Its Earlier Decision About the Second Amendment and Gun Shows
In 2009, a Ninth Circuit panel held (in Nordyke v. King) that the Second Amendment was incorporated against the states, but concluded that a ban on gun possession on county property was nonetheless constitutional. The Ninth Circuit then agreed to rehear the matter en banc, but then suspended its consideration of the case while it […]
Viacom v Youtube, and Why it Matters:
A while back, I posted my early reaction to the SDNY’s decision in the long-running Viacom lawsuit asserting secondary copyright infringement on the part of Youtube. Here’s what I said then: The case was/is enormously important — Youtube was asserting that it was immune under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (specifically, Sec. 512(c)) from copyright […]
Glenn Reynolds Reviews “Voyager” (a new book about the space probe, not the TV series)
For my money, Glenn Reynolds is one of the most interesting thinkers of my generation and today’s Internet age. In Germany last week, Instapundit was #1 on my relatively short list of websites that European students should check regularly to escape the cocoon of their media–which uniformly echoes the conventional wisdom of the New York […]
Wa Po’s Silence on New Black Panthers Story:
The Washington Post’s Ombudsman Andrew Alexander dedicated his column this week to the Post’s puzzling silence on the DOJ’s dismissal of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case over the past several months. Alexander rebukes the Post for its failure to cover the story, but seemingly accepts the explanation of the paper’s reporters and editors […]
Polling Justice Kagan
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court this week. Barring a truly shocking development, the Senate will vote to confirm her later this summer. Gallup reports that Americans support her confirmation 44 percent to 34 percent. That a plurality of Americans supports her confirmation should not […]
Mormons in the Financial Times
James Crabtree has an interesting profile in the Financial Times on the “new generation of Mormons” as a global religion and one whose members are increasingly part of global elites in business, finance, government, in many places around the world. It is a religion that in many ways has long since transcended its Utah foundations […]
Proof that other countries are planning cyberattacks on the power grid?
One of my cybersecurity nightmares is that foreign nations will use a network attack to bring down our power grid in a time of crisis. I’m not alone. Richard Clarke and Rob Knake spend a lot of time on the risk in their book on Cyberwar. So naturally the privacy lobby, determined to downplay the […]
Trading Carbon for Mercury
Politico is reporting on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s efforts to corral enough votes for a Senate climate bill. Reid says that “cap-and-trade” is not in his vocabulary, but the whole plan is to enact something that can be conferenced with the House bill (“Waxman-Markey”) and enacted in a post-election lame duck session. The problem is […]
So Much For the Commerce Clause Challenge to Individual Mandate Being “Frivolous”
Remember when the Commerce Clause challenge to the individual insurance mandate was dismissed by all serious and knowledgeable constitutional law professors and Nancy Pelosi as “frivolous”? Well, as Jonathan notes below, the administration is now apparently telling the New York Times that the individual insurance “requirement” and “penalty” is really an exercise of the Tax […]
Sunday Song Lyric
What rock bands have the most consecutive gold or platinum albums? The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are obviously one and two, but would you believe number three is Rush?!? I was surprised (and maybe a bit gratified), but after watching the Beyond the Lighted Stage, an excellent new documentary about the 40-plus-year-old band, it […]