Author Archive | David Bernstein

Wally Olson reviews Kennedy’s Crimes Against Nature. Money quote:”In his media-criticism chapter, he has the nerve to blast the press for its absorption with celebrity culture. Yet this book, like Kennedy’s entire career, is nothing if not an artifact of that culture. It would never have been acquired by a major publisher, or sent out […]

How deep and irrational is the Arab world’s hatred and suspicion of Israel? Consider this. The Jerusalem Post reports that Hafez Hafi, an Israeli Arab man from Lod, a mixed Arab-Jewish neigbhorhood, was killed in the Sinai bombings. The victim’s family is well-integrated into Israeli society, owning successful businesses and having many Jewish friends. Who […]

Hundreds of thousands of African American farm laborers were forced off their land by the New Deal’s two Agricultural Adjustment Acts. As economic historian Gavin Wright points out in his book Old South, New South, the New Dealers wanted to force the South to shift from an agricultural and low-wage economy to a modern, industrial, […]

Quebec’s Human Rights Commission has ordered a man to pay a $1,000 fine because he referred to another man as a “fifi,” the French equivalent of “fag.” Worse yet, the comment wasn’t made to the complainant (which would at least raise red flags about an implicit threat or true harassment of the individual), but to […]

My friend and William and Mary law professor Alan Meese is now blogging about the “Kerry Doctrine” and related matters. Check it out.

Franklin is the fellow under investigation for allegedly passing U.S. state secrets to Israel via the pro-Israel lobbying group, AIPAC, a charge that I, along with everyone else familiar with AIPAC, find highly implausible, at least to the extent intentional violations of the law are said to be involved. Here’s a bombshell about the story […]

In this March post, I discussed the case of Elyse Crystall, a left-wing feminist English professor at the University of North Carolina under investigation by the federal Department of Education for alleging subjecting one of her students to an illegal “hostile educational environment” for singling him out for criticism as a conservative “white” “male” “Christian” […]

Brian Doss has some clever suggestions. And a reader suggests “The Washington Disenfranschised.”

[Text: “Dear, the old factory is now a member of the “NRA” which means I’ll get better wages and better hours. Later: Under the “NRA” this factory shall advance hours and minimize wages of all employees. Henceforth we shall employ white help only.”] The Defender was the largest and most influential black newspaper of its […]

I firmly believe that professional sports team names should reflect something important about the city. For example, the “New Orleans Jazz” was a great name, the “Utah Jazz” an abomination. I’ve been thinking about names for the new D.C. baseball team. As a resident of the region, I’m partial to the “Washington Stuck in Traffics,” […]

Ever wonder what percentage of people who look at a book’s listing on Amazon actually purchase it? Here’s one datum: I have a click through link to Amazon’s listing of You Can’t Say That! book on my academic home page, on the book’s home page, and I also occasionally use this link on Volokh. Because […]

I’ve linked to several new (or at least, new to me) reviews of my book, You Can’t Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws, on the book’s homepage.

It’s well-known in the blogosphere that Reuters refuses to call terrorists “terrorists,” preferring various euphemisms and evasions.Via Honest Reporting, we get a revealing perspective on Reuters’ integrity. The New York Times reports that Reuters is upset that the CanWest newspaper chain changed a Reuters story to describe the Al Asqa Martyrs’ brigade, a Palestinian terrorist […]

Interesting piece in Ma’ariv about Iran’s attempt to take control of the Palestinian movement away from Arafat, and to cooperate with Al Qaeda. Debka has lately carried similar reports. Arafat invited Iran and Hizbullah into the Palestinian movement to provide it with resources and manpower, but now risks being usurped by his “allies.” If massive […]

Yoel Marcus in Ha’aretz: Unlike September 1939, when Europe quickly realized that it was looking at a world war, it’s not clear whether Europe today realizes what America grasped long ago – that World War III is in full swing. This war is different from all the wars in history. It’s not countries fighting countries. […]