Author Archive | David Bernstein

My now beloved Panasonic W2 ultralight has a built in DVD and lately I have taken to renting movies to view while traveling on airplanes. Yesterday, I decided to try Movielink, a service that lets you download movies for a fee of $3 to $5, which are then stored on your hard drive for up […]

Is air quality, say, a block from a busy road substantially worse than air quality, say, a four blocks from a busy road, or a half mile from a busy road? Inquiring minds want to know!

The Washington Post tried to defend Jamie Gorelick against “Mr. Ashcroft’s Smear,” but fails. While the Post pretends that Ms. Gorelick’s 1995 memo, and the subsequent guidelines, did not erect a “wall” between intelligence and law enforcement, it misses the larger point. At issue is not whether Ms. Gorelick played a postive or negative role […]

Against my better judgment (given what I think is an overheated real estate market), I am househunting in Arlington, Virginia. Houses that are walking distance to the Metro are attracting the most speculative fervor, with traffic jams forming at open houses. So, I started researching which neighborhoods were in what I assumed were on less […]

Last week, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy made a strong case that Jamie Gorelick had no place on the 9/11 Commission. Having been appointed and having already participated in the proceedings thus far, whether Gorelick should resign from the Commission altogether, or recuse herself from any consideration of the Justice Department’s role (or lack thereof) […]

I enjoyed the hospitality of Notre Dame law school last week, as well as the comments by Professor Patricia Bellia. Here is a very gracious account of my talk by Rick Garnett. The Rockin’ Book Tour for Restoring the Lost Constitution continues this week in the Pacific Northwest. TODAY: Monday, 4/19:Eugene, OregonUniversity of Oregon law […]

Leiter writes, in support of Canadian restrictions on religiously motivated speech condemning homosexual acts, and on “hate speech” in general:Now don’t misunderstand me. Canada is a civilized country, and so the fact that Canada takes seriously the post-WWII European consensus–namely, that naked bigotry, religiously motivated or otherwise, is a danger to humanity–makes perfect sense. But […]

As the long-delayed spring arrives, and the close of the semester approaches, it’s time to feel a bit care free (at least until it’s time to grade exams). So what could be a better Sunday song lyric than “Devil May Care” by Bob Dorough? This song, most recently recorded by Diana Krall, seems appropriate for […]

Rantisi is brought to justice: “We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache,” he said. It’s nice when cosmic justice and individual preferences can both be satisfied. UPDATE: Mark Kleiman objects:The point seems to me an elementary one. Since “To bring X to justice” […]

I find it somewhat amusing that many environmental groups spent Tax Day calling for a tax increase. Specifically, U.S. PIRG, the Sierra Club, and other groups called upon Congress and the Bush Administration to increase taxes. Specifically, they called for the re-enactment of taxes on corporations and certain chemical feedstocks to pay for hazardous waste […]

For all the handwringing of the American (not to mention world) media, the dynamic is very simple: Bush has made it abundantly clear that he wants the Palestinians to have a responsible government that fights terrorism, and wants the Israelis to move toward a settlement that turns over sovereignty of Gaza and most of the […]

While Canadian authorities are busily penalizing speech critical of homosexuality, Daniel Pipes reports that Mohamed al-Asi recently presented a speech at York University in Toronto (sponsored by Muslim, Middle Eastern and Pakistani student groups) accusing the “Jewish Lobby” of responsibility for the 9-11 attacks. As blatantly false speech intended to promote hatred against a specific […]

NYT on DDT – Better Late than Never: This Sunday New York Times magazine story, “What the World Needs Now Is DDT” has sparked lots of comment. The story points out that DDT is arguably the most important tool for fighting malaria in the developing world. A recent Cato Institute paper makes the same point […]

The Times closes an editorial today on Justice Scalia’s apology as follows:Justice Scalia’s apology is welcome. Most unwelcome, though, and offensive to the First Amendment, was his suggestion that he retains a “First Amendment right” to bar audio and visual coverage of his public speeches by the electronic media. There is no such right, as […]

Justice Scalia really ought to apologize to the reporters whose recordings of his speech were illegally seized and erased by federal marshals. I know that Scalia did not ask or authorize the marshals to do this, but they were acting on his behalf, in an attempt to enforce with his anti-recording policy. It would be […]