Via the Atlas Foundation blog, a rather idiosyncratic list. The top 3 are Bryan Caplan’s Myth of the Rational Voter, Brian Doherty’s Radicals for Capitalism, and Hernando De Soto’s The Mystery of Capital. Atlas also solicits suggestions for books not on the list. Much to my delight, Damon Root of Reason responds: Obviously any such […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
Getting Serious About Terrorism
Ever since 9/11, I’ve had the feeling that the U.S.’s domestic counter-terrorism efforts, including the Patriot Act, various airport security measures, and the like, have not been especially serious. They are a combination of giving law enforcement a wish list much of which is only tangentially related to terrorism (the Patriot Act), half-measures that give […]
“Human Rights,” According to the Obama Administration
Washington Post editorial: [Secretary of State Clinton] offered an innovation: The Obama administration, she said, would “see human rights in a broad context,” in which “oppression of want — want of food, want of health, want of education, and want of equality in law and in fact” — would be addressed alongside the oppression of […]
Torture/Physical Punishment Versus Life Imprisonment
Below, Orin asks a great question: why targeted assassinations are so much less controversial than is detention + waterboarding. I’ve wondered about that myself. I’ve also wondered why the infliction of physical pain on someone, assuming he’s not just a suspect but been convicted of a crime, is considered beyond the bounds of human decency […]
Joe Lieberman, Bad Jew?
I’ve been away visiting my wife’s family in Israel, and didn’t get to blog about accusations emanating from some liberal circles that Sen. Joe Lieberman is somehow a “bad Jew” for opposing the “public option.” Needless to say, it’s completely absurd to suggest that Judaism, of any denomination, takes any position on how to reform […]
More on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez
In 2008, Eugene, Andy Koppelman, and I appeared on a Federalist Society panel on “Freedom of Speech v. Antidiscrimination Law.” It so happens that I was asked to address the question raised in Martinez, whether a public university may ban a student group from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. My analysis is a […]
VC Happy Hour in Tel Aviv?
I’m going to be in the Tel Aviv area for part of December, and thought it would be fun to have a gathering of our Israeli readers there. I don’t know if there are enough of you and enough interest to do this, but if you’re interested you can contact me via Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/davidebernstein. I’m […]
Baucus Scandal
By David Bernstein on December 5, 2009 9:02 am in Government Transparency, Legal Profession, Politics
N.Y. Times: A spokesman for Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, said early Saturday that the senator nominated his girlfriend, a lawyer who worked for him at the time, for a United States attorney position last March. The girlfriend, Melodee Hanes, worked for Mr. Baucus as his state office director and as a field director […]
Cornel West, Celebrity Narcissist
Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed: If sketchy in other regards, Brother West is never anything but expansive on how Cornel West feels about Cornel West. He is deeply committed to his committed-ness, and passionately passionate about being full of passion. Various works of art, literature, music, and philosophy remind West of himself. He finds Augustinian […]
Conservatives, Political Correctness and the Academy
Stanley Fish has a thoughtful post on these and related issues. I agree with Fish that “affirmative action” for conservatives or some such would be an inappropriate response to the gross ideological imbalance in American academia. (On the other had, a little, okay, a lot, more self-consciousness by left academics regarding whether they are improperly […]
Prof. Howe Responds
Last week, I criticized a review by Prof. Stephen Howe of Shlomo Sand’s book, The Invention of the Jewish People. Given the somewhat personal nature of the criticism, I invited Prof. Howe to respond, which he does below: Thanks for your courtesy in letting me know about your posting on Volokh, which I read with […]
More One-Sided “Reporting” from the NYT
Here’s the way the New York Times describes an ongoing controversy over whether the Berkeley Daily Planet is obsessively anti-Israel and perhaps anti-Semitic: For the last six years, The Berkeley Daily Planet has published a freewheeling assortment of submissions from readers, who offer sharp-elbowed views on everything from raucous college parties (generally bad) to the […]
Unintentionally Ironic Book Review of the Week
Professor Stephen Howe of Bristol University reviewed Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People in the Independent. The review itself says nothing of particular interest, and any discussion of the origins of the demographic origins of modern Jews people that doesn’t reference the genetic evidence is doomed to be worthless. But here’s the unintentionally […]
No Fowl Committed
John Podhoretz via Facebook: “Obama pardoned the presidential turkey today. That was appropriate. I don’t think, however, that he should have bowed to the turkey.”
N.Y. Times on “The Invention of the Jewish People”
On Monday, Patricia Cohen of the Times discussed Shlomo Sand’s claptrap, The Invention of the Jewish People. Cohen, who based on prior writings and my prior correspondence with her, is a left-winger who likely has a fair amount of sympathy for Sand’s political views, bends over backwards to be “even-handed.” Nevertheless, if you read Cohen’s […]