Author Archive | David Bernstein

(1) Casualty counts: The international media is reporting that almost all of the casualties of Israel’s bombing of Lebanon are civilian. This can’t be right, because Israel has launched thousands of sorties at Hizbollah missle sites and storage depots. Surely, Israel has killed many more Hizbollah fighters than the four I saw reported this morning. […]

UPDATE: I’m making a positive, not a normative, statement here. Whether or not territorial withdrawal is in Israel’s interest, and to what extent if so, is obviously a complicated matter. But Israelis are not likely to be in the mood for further withdrawals for some time.

Here’s a letter I wrote to the ABA Journal: I am appalled by the credulous and sloppy article in the July 2006 ABA Journal [not online] discussing litigation over the purported link between autism and thimerosal. Reporter Wendy N. Davis is simply incorrect when she writes that “many scientists have come to believe that thimerosal […]

I’ve always been puzzled why Reagan didn’t try to punish Iran for taking American hostages. And then barely reacted when Hezbollah killed over 200 marines, and tortured CIA station chief Buckley to death. And then tried to sell weapons to Iran. Near as I can tell, it’s because the Reagan Administration had one huge priority, […]

To read the average American newspaper, much less lefty blogs or French government pronouncements (link corrected), you would think Israel is indiscriminately attacking Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure. Ze’ev Schiff of Ha’aretz (a well-respected military analyst with excellent sources) has the facts, as of this morning Israel time: “The Israel Air Force focused its attacks in Lebanon […]

I’ve recommended it before, but I continue to be amazed by the consistently high quality and erudition of the essays in the Claremont Review of Books. If I were to cut down my subscriptions to one journal, this would be it. ’nuff said. UPDATE: I should point out that the Review is not a libertarian […]

An intriguing possibility: Israel claims that it has attacked Lebanon’s international highways and airports to keep its two kidnapped soldiers in Lebanon, and to prevent the resupply of Hezbollah. But what if Israel’s actual main goal is to trap the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who have been aiding Hezbollah (and through Hezbollah, Hamas) for years in […]

As the U.S. Civil Rights Commission hearing on the ABA’s “diversity” requirements last month, the ABA’s representative stated that no law schools had ever been denied accreditation for failing to meet “diversity” requirements. Even if that statement was true then, it’s not true now. The ABA has denied Charleston Law School provisional accreditation, in part […]

Last week, I posted a critique of a Federal Circuit decision that ignored the text of amended Rule 702. The court treated issues of wheter a methodology is used in a reliable way in a particular case, which is an issue of admissibility under Rule 702, as an issue of weight. Despite what I think […]

Left-winger Aluf Benn, in Ha’aretz: Katyushas and Qassam rockets, not demographics, now look like Israel’s most pressing threat. Apparently, the international community, on whom Israel relied to deter Syria and Lebanon, and whose support was expected in the struggle against the Palestinians, has trouble coming up with the goods. The world is busy now with […]

National Review Online: The ABA maintains that the latest revision doesn’t require law schools to use race or ethnicity in admissions nor does it require that law schools violate federal or state laws prohibiting the consideration of race or ethnicity. A superficial reading supports such contention. After all, interpretation 211-2 states that law schools may […]

I’ve noted before that many federal courts are ignoring the language of amended Federal Rule of Evidence 702, and relying on selective quotes from earlier precedents to evade their gatekeeping responsibilities. An excellent example just came across my desk, Liquid Dynamics Corp. v. Vaughan Co., Inc., 449 F.3d 1209 (Fed. Cir. 2006). A few interesting, […]

That’s the Google search that, according to Sitemeter, brought a reader to the Volokh Conspiracy. I’m now intensely curious as to what this individual was searching for.

Last year, I held out some hope that the Palestianians would seize the opportunity presented to them by the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and begin building a state that could live in peace with Israel. After all, leftist Ha’aretz columnists assured readers that the main reason Palestinians did not embrace Oslo and the “peace process” […]

On pain of losing its license, a club in Brighton has canceled a performance by Buju Banton, known for violent anti-gay lyrics. Two years ago, the police and city council in Manchester prohibited Buju Banton from performing. Hmm, how do I get the local authorities to close down the Guardian?