Ryan J. Foley, AP, begins a “news” article as follows: “To end a high-stakes stalemate over union rights that has captured the nation’s attention, a handful of Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin might have to stand up to their new governor.” There is no indication in the article that such defections are in any way likely. […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
HRW Defends Shawan Jabarin
By David Bernstein on February 21, 2011 8:01 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law, Israel
Last week, I noted that Human Rights Watch had appointed Shawan Jabarin to its Middle East Advisory Board. Jabarin runs a Palestinian human rights NGO based in the West Bank. He also has been found in a series of Israeli Supreme Court opinions to secretly lead a double life as a top official of the […]
Upcoming Rehabilitating Lochner Talks
I’ll be at IU Indianapolis on Tuesday to give a lunchtime talk for the Federalist Society, with comments by Professor Gerard Magliocca, who has an interesting book of his own coming out on the consequences of the 1896 presidential election. On Thursday, I will be in Madison to speak to Professor Victoria Nourse’s legal history […]
Human Rights Watch Appoints Terrorist (and “Human Rights Activist”) to Middle East Advisory Board
By David Bernstein on February 16, 2011 8:43 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law
You can’t make this stuff up. Daily Beast: The man at the center of the dispute, Shawan Jabarin, runs the human rights organization Al Haq in Ramallah on the occupied West Bank. In 1985 he belonged to a Birzeit University student group associated with the PFLP, indicted as a terror group, by 30 countries including […]
Dog Power in Kyrgyzstan
Headline: About 10,000 stray dogs are planning to destroy the government in Bishkek I, for one, welcome my new canine overlords. H/T: Ron Kampeas
Was the Fall of the USSR a Good Thing?
University of Chicago Professor Brian Leiter isn’t so sure, and gives his reasons: I should add, of course, that whether the collapse of the Soviet Union should be considered a good thing is a separate question. Certainly everyone (except the despots) welcomes the end of totalitarian regimes, though some of the former Soviet republics have […]
UPDATE on My Chicago Speeches
My talk at Northwestern Law School today, originally scheduled for 4:00 pm, has been moved to 6:00 pm, in MC 195. VC readers working or living in downtown Chicago or welcome to come by. The always-interesting Andrew Koppelman of the NW faculty and the Balkinization blog will provide comments. My talk at U. Chicago is […]
Waldman versus Waldman
By David Bernstein on February 7, 2011 10:38 pm in Constitutional Law, Health Care, Individual Mandate
Here are opposing views on the whether the Supreme Court should interpret the Constitution to limit government, or should defer to the elected branches. Both are from Michael Waldman of NYU’s Brennan Center. Waldman 1: Ultimately, America has grown stronger when active citizens, organized pressure groups, and accountable politicians wrestle with large policy challenges. The […]
Sandefur v. Amar
By David Bernstein on February 6, 2011 11:45 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Health Care
I like and respect Yale Law professor Akhil Amar, but his op-ed on the decision invalidating the Obamacare individual mandate is not exactly his best work. Tim Sandefur has a full critique here, which I generally agree with. But what’s most disappointing about Amar’s piece is its rhetoric, which makes it hard to take his […]
New York Times (?) on “Jewish Voice for Peace”
As regular readers know, I’m often critical of the New York Times’ reporting on various matters. But this morning, the ninth most popular article on the New York Times website, about the hard-leftist “Jewish Voice for Peace,” is not even a Times piece, but reprinted from a local San Francisco online startup called the Bay […]
Dogs and Cats Living Together in Peace and Harmony
A while back, I linked to an interview with Noam Chomsky. I never got around to noting that quite unusually, Chomsky and I appear to be in general agreement on at least one thing: Mearsheimer and Walt and their “Israel Lobby” work. Here’s Chomsky: Walt and Mearsheimer are realists—what are called realists. Realists have a […]
Speech at Fordham Tomorrow, Chicago Next Week
I’ll be speaking at Fordham Law School tomorrow at 12:30 about my forthcoming Rehabilitating Lochner book (which, by the way, is available at a substantial pre-order discount from Amazon). My host is the Law School Federalist society, and the public is welcome. Next week, I’ll be speaking on the same topic at Northwestern Law School […]
The Socialism of Fools
Telegraph: The head of the National Union of Students [Aaron Porter] had to be led to safety from a tuition fees rally he had been due to address after being surrounded by protesters chanting anti-semitic insults at him…. Mr Porter has faced growing opposition from more militant sections of the student protest movement, which have […]
An Economist Critiques the Tiger Mother
An excellent post by my friend and GMU economist Bryan Caplan. It starts: Before you do something for your child, try asking yourself three questions. 1. Do I enjoy it? 2. Does my child enjoy it? 3. Are there any long-run benefits? And concludes: I strongly suspect that Chua’s daughters will turn out just fine. […]
More Interesting Results from 23 and Me
I ran my DNA through the “EuroDNACalc” program and got the following results: NORTHWEST EURO: Maximum Likelihood Estimate=20% Interval=[0, 53] SOUTHEAST EURO: Maximum Likelihood Estimate=44% Interval=[4, 81] ASHKENAZI JEWISH: Maximum Likelihood Estimate=36% Interval=[14, 60] From a different source on 23 and Me, it appears that approximately 60% of people who have sent their DNA sample […]