Author Archive | David Bernstein

featuring Keith Sharfman and my colleague Josh Wright over at Truth on the Market.

Courtesy of FIRE: In the latest of several examples of intolerance by DePaul University’s administration to non-left-wing ideas, the powers-that-be shut down an “affirmative action bake sale” and are now “investigating” the organizer for “discriminatory harassment.” DePaul, of course, is a private Catholic university, and has the general right to suppress speech, even for extremely […]

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but several reviews I’ve seen have accused Spielberg of using the movie to score political points against the Bush Administration make an ideological point about his distaste for the current American government strategy in the War on Terror. This interview should remove any doubt that these reviewers are right. […]

From Bankrate.com: I have a contract to buy a new town home for $800,000, but recently I learned that since I signed, the builder has reduced the price of the same type of town home by $100,000. I have a closing coming up and will be sitting there with a house which has already depreciated […]

Several commentators on my previous post on the Hamas victory either praised or condemned my “optimism.” But note my last paragraph: “If Hamas turns out to be unwilling to turn itself into a non-terrorist movement that Israel can reasonably deal with, Israel will have no choice but to absolutely destroy the Palestinian government.” I’m not […]

(1) This is a victory for terrorists, but not necessarily for terrorism. Or to put it another way, whichever side won, it would have been at least a partial victory for terrorism. First of all, Hamas has more or less observed to a cease-fire with Israel for the last six months. It’s resounding victory can […]

Not necessarily a bad thing, for reasons I’ll try to elaborate on later. (Hint: According to media reports, the most popular Fatah figure was Marwan Barghouti, currently residing in an Israeli jail for directing the murder of Israeli civilians a few years back.) Meanwhile, in my view, the gloves are off. If Hamas doesn’t recognize […]

Vanderbilt has hired Kip Viscusi and Joni Hersch to found and run a Ph.D. program in law and economics.

[Editor’s note: This post was originally prepared several months ago, just when the Miers confirmation controversy was about to erupt, and eluded my attention since then.] I visit Juan Cole’s blog only once in a while, and I rarely find much to agree with. And I’ve certainly been critical of Cole before. But I was […]

Richard Epstein has an excellent post over at the Chicago Law Faculty Blog on the state supreme court decision invalidating Florida’s voucher law.

Ha’aretz: “In a new attack on the existence of Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has challenged Europe to take back the Jews who emigrated to Israel, adding that no Jews would remain in Israel if Europe were to open its doors.” I have a better idea. How about Europe, and the U.S., open their doors […]

With thanks to reader David Torrente, who pointed out some that are new to me, here are some blogs following the housing bubble and its deflation: http://bubblemeter.blogspot.com/ http://housingpanic.blogspot.com/ http://thehousingbubble2.blogspot.com/ And from the MSM: http://walkthrough.nytimes.com/ http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/ I’ve been looking at a few of these blogs occasionally, and they are doing a much better job at covering […]

Resolved: The federal holiday known as “Martin Luther King, Jr., Day,” should be replaced with a holiday should have been called “Civil Rights Day”. Discuss. UPDATE: Commenters don’t seem to want to make the “Pro” argument, so here are some potential arguments (note: I am not endorsing any of these views, but I’ve heard them […]

Praise where it’s due: I signed up several months ago for Broadphone’s (msmnetphone’s) unlimited service plan for the U.S., Canada, UK, and Israel. It was easy to set up, costs $29.99 a month ($5 less, I think, without Israel), and has been a complete pleasure–no problems, and excellent clarity.

This George Will column (hat tip: Instapundit) makes a brief case for bringing back congressional term limits. In 1995, the Supreme Court determined in a 5-4 vote that term limits imposed by state legislatures were unconstitutional. As someone who believes that Supreme Court jurisprudence is affected by external events, I think one or more states […]