Author Archive | David Bernstein

A very interesting piece, and quite different from the articles we were seeing a year ago at this time, with all quoted sources insisting that at worst the market was in for a “soft landing”, but most arguing for continued 8% to 12% annual appreciation. Especially interesting is Bob Toll of homebuilder Toll Brothers stating […]

HRW: “At the sites visited by Human Rights Watch—Qana, Srifa, Tyre, and the southern suburbs of Beirut—on-site investigations did not identify any signs of military activity in the area attacked, such as trenches, destroyed rocket launchers, other military equipment, or dead or wounded fighters.” It apparently raised no eyebrows among HRW staff that of the […]

Ha’aretz: “[In a report accusing Israel of war crimes, Amnesty International] accused Israel of applying an overly broad interpretation of what constituted a military objective when it attacked power plants, bridges, main roads, seaports and Beirut’s international airport, all of which are ‘presumed to be civilian.’” I’m no military expert, but every book, movie, documentary, […]

As Ilya notes below, there is tons of advice floating around the Internet for new law students. I’m wondering, however, if readers have any advice to share specifically for part-time evening students, who are likely to be older, have a full-time job, and perhaps a family. Obviously, much of the advice for full-time students will […]

The Washington Times says that July was the toughest month to sell a home in D.C. since 1997. It’s very hard to get a handle on what’s going on, because statistical comparisons often involve comparing apples and oranges. For example, I’ve noticed that much nicer properties seem to be on the market now than last […]

MLS AR6060519, Arlington County, Va.: “Location, location, location! For sale at recent appraisal price!” Wow, you’ll let me buy the house for what an appraiser you hired says it worth? Gee, thanks. (The county appraisal is over $70K less, and in many cases these appraisals are themselves inflated, because they are based on value as […]

Judith Klinghoffer catches Saint Jimmy Carter in bold-face lie (or at least, gross and intentional exaggeration). Relatedly, we heard (includng from commenters on this blog) at the beginning of the POG/Israel War that Israel “destroyed” the Lebanese airport for no good reason, when in fact, Israel only bombed the easily repaired runways to prevent resupply […]

As regular readers of this blog know, the ABA has just passed a controversial new “diversity” standard, Standard 211, that seems to require law schools to act illegally and immorally by engaging in racial preferences to admit minority students who, in many (statistically predictable) cases, will have a slim chance of making it through law […]

Ha’aretz: “When Defense Minister Amir Peretz took office four months ago, Hezbollah and the missile threat were at the bottom of the priority list senior IDF officers presented him, Peretz says. In private conversations over the past few days, Peretz said officers did not tell him there was a strategic threat to Israel, and did […]

Many commenters have wondered why several of my co-bloggers and I have spent so much energy discussing the MSM’s participation in the staging of photographs by the Party of God in Lebanon, as opposed to other issues regarding the war in Israel and Lebanon. Speaking for myself, the most important reason is comparative advantage. I’m […]

I found the actual interview a snore, as Ahmed speechified, avoiding answering the questions Wallace put to him. It was relatively easy for him to get away with this, given the fact that both men needed interpreters. The result is that the interview was just a little more interesting that watching an Iranian government propaganda […]

Various allegations (and in some cases, proof), of fraud/manipulation/staging/etc. of photos by “journalists” in Hizballahland in South Lebanon have been gradually spreading over the last two weeks. If you have been curious about the allegations, but haven’t had the patience to read the various blog and MSM accounts of them, this brief movie from AISH.com […]

Little Green Footballs reports that photographer Bryan Denton was an eyewitness in Lebanon to, in Denton’s words, “the daily practice of directed shots, one case where a group of wire photogs were choreographing the unearthing of bodies, directing emergency workers here and there, asking them to position bodies just so, even remove bodies that have […]

Word from Israel, from both the English-language media and my relatives there, is that folks are very unhappy with various aspects of the cease-fire deal that the U.N. Security Council has just passed, to wit (I haven’t seen the final version of the resolution, but this is what I picked up from the media): (1) […]

Having suffered grievous losses in recent battles, IDF soldiers wonder why they are being sacrificed in ground combat, when bombings could have cleared the villages of Party of God hideouts, which also happen to be civilian homes: “What really bothered us is that in all of the villages we passed through the houses are standing […]