Author Archive | David Bernstein

Quite a few libertarians voted for Obama because he campaigned as a liberal on foreign policy and a moderate on economic policy, and they preferred that combination to what they deemed McCain’s conservative foreign and marginally more conservative economic policy. For libertarians who lean “left” on foreign policy, Obama’s rhetoric gave them hope that as […]

Jeffrey Toobin has a lengthy profile of Roberts in The New Yorker. Despite all the verbiage, however, and despite the fact that I’m hardly a Roberts groupie, I don’t think I learned anything new from this piece [Roberts is (gasp!) a conservative! Liberals like Toobin don’t like conservatives, and interpret their views uncharitably!]. Recommended only […]

I don’t have the expertise to discuss the various health care reform proposals that are being bandied about, but I do know that it’s important to ensure that whatever is implemented doesn’t interfere with innovation. Consider my own immediate family. I was born a month premature, a bit over three pounds, in my parents’ bedroom […]

Found in the “talkbacks” to an article on Israel trying to recruit “Anglo” English teachers, from a Brazilian: I’d leaved 10 Years in New York, United States and did many english course, I’m fluent in english speaking and writting. I’m a music teacher, voice, piano, eletronic keyboard and organ, working at a music school for […]

Whe did Justice Holmes consistently defer to legislative initiatives, while his colleagues were more likely to invoke traditional constitutional limitations on government authority? According to Jerome Frank, it was because Holmes was “The Completely Adult Jurist,” who has “put away childish longings for a father-controlled world” and attained “an adult emotional status, a self-reliant, fearless […]

One really can’t publicize this chart enough (H/T Instapundit):

Harvard Law School announced that it will cut its budget 10% next year, and lay off some employees. In a dramatic move, several of the law school’s aging leftists, tired of writing about their commitment to egalitarianism and social justice and their loathing of Harvard’s elitism, and eager to put their words into action and […]

Michale Moynihan has got their number. (H/T Instapundit) How ridiculous are some of the attempts to whitewash Stone’s relationship with Soviet intelligence? This ridiculous: Eric Alterman, whose tag line proudly proclaims that he is a “is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a professor of journalism at CUNY Graduate School of […]

James Earl Carter, wins the Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award 2009.

Taxprof links to a paper that uses Duke University undergraduate admissions statistics and student performance to shed light on the “mismatch thesis.” One interesting thing about the results is that admitted Asian American students scored higher than whites in every category save one (a slightly lower score for “personal qualities”). And they also had lower […]

Resolving a mystery that has troubled me since childhood.

NY Times: The task force, led by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, looked at scientific data on online sexual predators and found that children and teenagers were unlikely to be propositioned by adults online. In the cases that do exist, the report said, teenagers are typically willing participants and are […]

Apparently, many of the same folks who just months ago were telling us that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism” think just dandy for the president to brand bondholders as “speculators” who are “refusing to sacrifice like everyone else” when they refuse to go along with a corrupt giveaway to a core Democratic constituency, […]

While working on something tangentially related, I’ve come across several “conservative” books, blog posts, and articles asserting that H.L. Mencken was a eugenicist. The argument seems to be as follows: evolution is bad, and leads to eugenics; Mencken was a leading secularist and defender of evolution, as with his reporting from the “Scopes trial”; ergo, […]

My home county of Arlington’s Department of Human services has published what it calls “the minimal acceptable standards for the supervision of children developed by professionals in collaboration with the community.” According to these guidelines, eight-year old children “Should not be left alone for any period of time. This includes leaving children unattended in cars, […]