Author Archive | Dale Carpenter

I have now read three pieces to come out of the Block & Block Berkeley longitudinal study besides the one on political orientation, and I am generally very impressed both with the thoroughness and the quality of the work. They did a staggering amount of work and collected a wealth of data. A. Is the […]

[See the two UPDATES below and a newer post for information on which nursery schools were studied. These resolve some of the ambiguities discussed in this post, which I have left unedited except for the UPDATES below.] In a long earlier post, I pointed out some problems with the Berkeley nursery school study. The more […]

I have written a draft op-ed analyzing Jack and Jeanne Block’s study of the correlation between the political orientation of young adults and evaluations of them made by their nursery school teachers about 20 years earlier. I have two copies of the study itself, one downloaded from the journal’s website and an earlier draft kindly […]

Ann Althouse has brief comments on the South Park episode: The Return of Chef. I missed the first showing, but I’m hoping to catch the repeat a few hours later at Wednesday midnight ET, 11pm CT. UPDATE: “J. Dismas Locke” emails: To paraphrase Mark Twain: “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by […]

The Pew Reasearch Center says that opposition to gay marriage among Americans is now down to 51% from 63% in February 2004, during the backlash over the Massachusetts marriage decision. More importantly, strong opposition to gay marriage is down from 42% in 2004 to 28% now. I don’t put a lot of stock in these […]

In the last two days, former Prime Minister Allawi’s claim that Iraq was experiencing a Civil War was reported relatively uncritically by the local and national TV news reporters that I happened to see. Wretchard at the Belmont Club has an analysis: So what’s the truth? The principle in determining truth should be to apply […]

In reading Erin Aubry Kaplan’s op-ed on black conservatives, which Eugene Volokh dissected, I was struck not only by the argumentation that so disgusted Eugene, but also by the level of ignorance about just how common African American conservatives are. Last year I was working on an article or chapter on the subject. While in […]

From yesterday’s Boston Globe, a story with interesting implications for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: The US military allowed at least 36 gay soldiers last year to stay in uniform, despite efforts by their commanders or fellow soldiers to have them discharged under the ”don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, according to a review of hundreds of […]

Prominent Scientologist, Tom Cruise, stands accused in the press of inducing Comedy Central to suppress the reshowing of an episode mocking both him and Scientology. For those who want to see the offensive episode and make up their own minds, fortunately South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been quite open toward private […]

South Park, fresh from surviving a Catholic-inspired boycott of an episode showing a bleeding Virgin Mary, is now in trouble with Scientology. First, Isaac Hayes, Scientologist and longtime voice of the character Chef, quit the show: Hayes said the show’s parody of religion in general was part of what he saw as a “growing insensitivity […]

A few days ago, John Hinderaker had a long post criticizing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s defense of the Supreme Court’s use of foreign law. Paul Mirengoff adds to John’s post the statement: It won’t happen, of course, but I think there’s a case to be made for impeaching Justice Ginsburg. Paul then repeats his claim […]

As the War in Iraq approaches its third anniversary on March 20, 2006, U.S. military deaths in Iraq have just passed another grim milestone. The worst month of U.S. military deaths in Vietnam was May 1968: 2,316 lives. The second worst month in Vietnam was February 1968: 2,293 lives. According to the website ICasualties.org, which […]

Gail Heriot at the RightCoast posts on the appearance that Ropes and Gray may have ceased to represent an unpopular client because of opposition from Harvard law students. The unpopular client was Catholic Charities of Boston: If yesterday’s Boston Globe story is to be believed, the estimable Ropes & Gray attorneys may have been intimidated […]

In Illinois, next Tuesday is primary election day. As someone who usually votes in the Democratic primary, I have been getting automated political phone calls from Democratic candidates. I just got an odd call from Planned Parenthood on behalf of Governor Rod Blagojevich (bla-GOY-a-vich). What was odd was not the boilerplate about a “woman’s right […]

Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian extremist who murdered Robert Kennedy, was again denied parole in California: A CALIFORNIA parole board has refused to release Sirhan Sirhan, who killed US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy in 1968, saying the assassin remained a danger to society. Sirhan opted not to attend today’s parole board hearing and did not […]