but it’s really something to see various anti-Semitic blogs (I’m not going to link to them) trumpeting the fact that a Jewish alleged serial killer from Israel was caught today–even after the accused was revealed to have the obviously Arabic name Abu Elazam (sometimes rendered Abuelazam). I guess we can take comfort in the fact […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
More on Vermuele on Living Constitutionalism
Like Orin, I recommend Vermuele’s interesting and thoughtful review essay in the New Republic. However, I want to take issue with a couple of Vermuele’s historical claims. (1) The troika do not seriously address this possibility, except to remark that the possibility of “majoritarian abuse” may sometimes require a “robust judicial role.” But we lack […]
Oliver Stone Apologizes
A message from Stone, via his p.r. agency: In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret. Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry. The fact […]
Speeding Ticket Bleg
I received a speeding ticket today (corner of Route 50 and N. Edison, eastbound on 50, laser sped trap, for our Northern Va. readers). I happened to have glanced at my speedometer at the bottom of the relevant hill, and the officer claimed that he clocked me way above that speed at the top of […]
Mel Gibson and Oliver Stone
Even before Mel Gibson made his infamous anti-Semitic remarks, Gibson became a very unpopular and disliked figure in Hollywood due to the controversy over The Passion of the Christ and his remarks that skirted close to Holocaust denial. After a drunk Gibson said, “Fucking Jews… The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the […]
Libertarian Resources On-Line
The Ludwig Von Mises Institute has put a staggering array of libertarian literature on-line, including back issues of Liberty magazines, issues of defunct libertarian magazine from the 1960s and 70s, books and articles related to the Austrian School of Economics and to libertarianism, and much more. It’s a great resource for both the libertarian-curious, and […]
Kerstein on Greenwald
A few days back, Instapundit linked to this scathing and reasonably entertaining attack on Glenn Greenwald by Benjamin Kerstein. At the time, I thought about linking to it, with a post along the lines of: “here’s a link to an entertaining attack on Glenn Greenwald. It’s well-written, unfair, a bit hysterical, with some grains of […]
Final Thoughts on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Laws
Here is my final contribution to the Cato Unbound mini-colloquium on libertarianism and antidiscrimination laws. Meanwhile, my friend Bryan Caplan criticizes my argument (read the original essay here) that Title II was justified on libertarian grounds to break up the Jim Crow cartel. He argues that the logical implications of my argument that Title II […]
Alan Meese and Nate Oman Take on Noah Feldman
and his call for a new progressive constitutionalism, modeled on the old, New Deal-style progressive constitutionalism. I agree wholeheartedly with Meese and Oman. One additional point: Feldman, like other modern liberal writers who yearn for the Progressive days of yore, whitewashes Progressivism, so that it consisted solely of public-spirited regulation of corporations and the labor […]
Conservatives, Libertarians, and Civil Rights History
To follow up on Ilya’s post below, it’sworth noting that the post-World War II politician of national significance probably most beloved by libertarianish types (libertarianism was not a self-conscious movement until recently) was Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio. Taft, of course, lost the Republican presidential nomination to Eisenhower in 1952. The conservatives who eventually founded […]
New ABA Accreditation Standards
Via TaxProf, I learn that the ABA Section of Legal Education & Admission to the Bar seeks comments on proposed changes to the law school accreditation standards. I blogged about one of these proposed standards in December, the one that requires law school graduates to have a “knowledge and understanding of … the legal profession’s […]
Chinese Food On Christmas
From today’s hearing: “Where were you on Christmas Day?” Graham asked. “Like all Jews,” Kagan responded, “I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.” “I could almost see this one coming,” Leahy quipped. Then Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) jumped in: “Those are the only restaurants that are open!” I, too, was at a Chinese restaurant last […]
Discussion of Shelley v. Kraemer
Over at Cato Unbound, Jason Kuznicki, prompted by V.C. commenters, takes up Shelley v. Kraemer, the 1948 decision in which the Supreme Court held that it was unconstitutional for state courts to enforce racially restrictive covenants. I respond, concluding that Shelley was probably correct, but that the Court could have articulated a much clearer and […]
Bad Timing
I was just talking to the V.C.’s D.C. lobbyist about our plan to place an earmark in the next appropriations bill to move the blog to West Virginia. The only downside was that we’d have had to rename it the “Robert C. Byrd Conspiracy.”
Some Troubling Housing Market News from Abroad
While the U.S. and several other countries are in the throes of a housing recession/depression following the great bubble, housing markets in countries where the economy is still relatively sound–Australia, China, Canada–seem to still be in bubble mode. Indeed, word from my in-laws in Israel is that the housing market there, which wasn’t bubbly earlier […]