Last week, I posted an informal poll for VC readers. Here are the results: My Political Views are Closest to Liberal/Progressive: 552 votes Moderate: 280 votes Conservative: 607 votes Libertarian/Classical Liberal: 1316 votes Make of it what you will.
Author Archive | David Bernstein
What’s Going on With Turkey
An interesting column from Barry Rubin. If this topic interests you at all, it’s worth reading the whole thing.
More on Israeli Incompetence
As readers know, I am sympathetic to Israel, especially when compared with its vile enemies like Hamas and Hezbollah, and that’s reflected in my blog posts. But it’s frustrating, because the Israeli government has proven to be so incompetent [beyond the general standard of incompetence one can expect from any government]. This is to a […]
“Free Gaza” Activists’ Version of the Ship Incident
A bunch of eyewitness accounts are collected here. Various left-wing blogs are trumpeting these accounts as contradicting the Israeli account, but there are actually more commonalities, or at least more important commonalities, than differences. The commonalities: (1) Ship passengers armed themselves with makeshift weapons to prevent the Israeli navy from boarding. Israel claims that these […]
Poll of VC Readers
Just out of curiosity
Israeli Version of Ship Incident
I obviously can’t vouch for this, and governments and militaries have been known to engage in CYA after botched operations. And Israel lost its chance to thoroughly investigate the ship rioters when it decided to release everyone immediately to placate Turkey. With all that said, the highlights: (1) Some passengers tried to take captive three […]
Searle Center Director and Programs Move from Northwestern to George Mason
Great new for George Mason Law School (but unrelated to Eugene’s Searle post below)! From Dean Dan Polsby: It is my sincere pleasure to share with you some exciting news. We’re welcoming Henry Butler home. Henry will join us, beginning in the fall, as Foundation Professor of Law and leader of the law school’s program […]
Telling Interview with the Director of Amnesty Israel
Via Avi Bell, here’s a fascinating interview with Itai Epstein, Director of Amnesty International in Israel. The interviewer asks some fairly sharp questions, and he gets answers filled with addled logic that amount to, “Whatever Israel does, Amnesty is still going to say it was acting illegally/violating human rights.” Here’s an excerpt (but read the […]
Let Turkey Have Gaza
Turkey’s Islamist government, not known for its compassion to, say, Kurds in Turkey, has been shedding crocodile tears over Gaza for several years now, and helped instigate the flotilla fiasco. So I have a modest proposal: if Turkey is so concerned with the welfare of Gazans, why not let Turkey run the place. Israel doesn’t […]
Greenwald and Gaza
Since Glenn Greenwald is showing up on MSNBC and elsewhere, as an “expert” on Israel and Gaza, this is as good a time as any to recall his record with regard to the last major Hamas-Israel blowup, the Gaza incursion in 2008-09. Greenwald consistently accused Israel of a “disproportionate” (and therefore illegal under international law) […]
Herd of Individualists, Wolfman Edition
The Sun: Deikitsen “Lupus” Manley, 15, who claims to be pack leader at Brandeis High School in San Antonio, said: “Human wolves have been around a lot longer than characters in Twilight. It gives us a sense of belonging. You gain friends and you belong and indulge your wild side.” Another “wolf” named Argus said: […]
Pollak on Uniquely Israeli Stupidity
Noah Pollak: Those who sent an elite unit into a hostile confrontation armed with toy weapons made an incredibly stupid decision. And a uniquely Israeli one. In recent memory, Israeli military action has been violent but not decisive, bloody enough to provoke the outrage and condemnation of the world (at this point, a stubbed toe […]
Pro-Palestinian “Peace Activists”
Incredibly (and stupidly), Israeli officials believed the protesters’ claims that they were mere humanitarian peace activists with no violent intent (in fairness to both Israel and the protesters, it appears that the violent passengers were on only one of six boats). An embedded reporter with YNet News sets the scene: Officials estimated that passengers will […]
Gaza Blockade Violence News You May Have Missed
Reading the news this morning, I got a big dose of he said/she said, with Israeli spokesmen claiming that its naval personnel were attacked with clubs and knives, perhaps even live fire, from one of the “peace activist” boats, and spokesmen for the blockade runners claiming, for example to the New York Times, that they […]
More Interesting DNA Information
from my 23andMe genetic profile. The three populations I most resemble from a genetic perspective (besides other Ashkenazic Jews, and, I assume, likely Sephardic Jews as well) are Druze, Bedouin, and Palestinian.