Author Archive | David Bernstein

Dressing up like an Orthodox Jew and giving a Nazi salute while shouting “Heil Israel” is contemptible; but prosecuting that individual for violating “hate crimes” laws [link found on Little Green Footballs] is authoritarian and unworthy of the free society France purports to be. France’s record in combatting anti-Semitic violence was weak until recently, but […]

Randy and Sasha’s posts on the alleged soft-spot some liberals had for the Soviet Union during the Cold War brings to mind the closing line of Irving Kristol’s 1952 Commentary essay on civil liberties and Communism. While noting Joseph McCarthy was a “vulgar demagogue,” Kristol argued that there was reason to suspect more than a […]

This new initiative seems worth taking seriously, especially because it undercuts the deal-breaking Palestinian demand for a “right of return” to Israel. As an opening offer, it’s a good one; I can’t imagine that if the Arab states are serious about this, they would ultimately object to minor border modifications to allow Israel to absorb […]

Continuing today’s consumerist theme, I had a great experience last weekend at the Holiday Inn Express in Mountain View, Ca. Having stayed on Holiday Inn Expresses before, I wasn’t expecting much, and only stayed there because the rest of my extended family was staying there for a bat mitzvah celebration. It turned out to be […]

You Can Say That! Overlawyered reports that two Southwest Airlines customers lost their “hostile racial environment” lawsuit based on offense taken when they heard a flight attendant say “einee meinee mienee moe,” a portion of a rhyme that has long since lost any trace of its racist origins (“catch a tiger by the toe,” the […]

Orthodox Jewish readers have written in to defend the proposition that since Sinai, descent in Judaism has always been matrilineal. For the Orthodox take on the issue, as well as a good example of how traditional rabbinic scholars analyze an issue (essentially reasoning backwards to find plausible language in the Torah supporting the idea that […]

In reference to Wednesday’s post, “We’re All Big Spenders Now,” some readers believe the comparison between Bush’s spending increases and Democratic proposals are unfair, because neither is necessarily a reliable indicator of future spending patterns. Under one theory, a Democratic president facing a Republican Congress will be forced to exercise spending restraint, resulting in lower […]

Andrew Jackson and John Kerry.

Justice Thurgood Marshall, dissenting in United States v. Roth (1972): “In my view, every citizen who applied for a government job is entitled to it unless the government can establish some reason for deny in the employment.” It’s hard to imagine a Justice writing this today. Reading USSC opinions from the early 1970s (the Court’s […]

I wish I had gotten around to placing a bet against Howard Dean (and Clark) last week, when I was convinced that the likelihood of his winning the Democratic nomination was way overblown. I noticed that Iowa was still competitive, and considered that Iowa often offers a surprise, that Dean seemed to be faltering in […]

Easily missed in this story about emigration from Israel is that most of the 68,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have since left Israel were individuals not registered as Jews. This means that they were not Jewish according to Jewish law, which requires Jewish matrilineal descent. Israeli authorities will not register an individual […]

President Bush has renominated Claude Allen, an African American deputy secretary of HHS who used to work for Jesse Helms, to the Fourth Circuit. An academic expert on Helms once told me that unlike every other southern Senator, Helms never actually renounced his segregationist past, and indeed never publicly supported any civil rights legislation, regardless […]

is the title of a thoughtful review essay in The Nation. I ultimately disagree with what I think is the author’s crucial assertion, that Islamic anti-Semitism is the product of a political conflict, and will dissipate when that conflict is resolved. Rather, I think anti-Semitism in the Moslem and Arab world has taken on a […]

Matthew Yglesias complains in TAP about “a new standard for honesty whereby a Democrat is lying every time his or her comments neglect to include literally the whole truth, whether or not the overlooked fact actually contradicts the claim in question.” That’s funny. Isn’t this the same standard often used by the President’s critics (including […]

Last night’s State of the Union included the usual laundry list of costly new proposals, further cementing President Bush’s record as a profligate spender. Even with increased economic growth, pursuing these initiatives will further delay deficit reduction. Alas, fiscal conservatives don’t have anywhere else to turn, according to this study by the National Taxpayers Union […]