Author Archive | David Bernstein

The left blogosphere, and Jewish Democrats, are promoting the idea that Sarah Palin supported Pat Buchanan for President in 2000. Their sole evidence is that Lexis reveals that when Buchanan came to visit her small town in late 1999, she was seen wearing a Buchanan button. When I first read this, it sounded to me […]

“I’d rather go moose hunting than be involved with politics.” I hope someone prints up some “Politics? I’d rather go moose hunting” t-shirts.

but she makes Barack Obama look almost over-qualified to be president. City Councilman and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 5,000), before serving less than two years as governor of Alaska. You gotta be kidding me! I’ve never been a fan of W, but I respected his choice of Cheney for V.P.–Cheney didn’t seem to add […]

Over at Concurring Opinions, Nate Oman has one possible answer: [Cass] Sunstein writes of him: When he offers visionary approaches, he does so as a visionary minimalist–that is, as someone who attempts to accommodate, rather than to repudiate, the defining beliefs of most Americans. His reluctance to challenge people’s deepest commitments might turn out to […]

I usually make a point of not watching convention speeches, State of the Union addresses, and the like, because I can’t stand politicians’ blather. But I couldn’t resist the opportunity to watch such a historic event–the acceptance speech of the first African American major party nominee. So here’s my purely stylistic take. I’ve heard Obama’s […]

So says Abner Mikva, in yet another article on Jewish voters and Obama. This article is not any more enlightening on the issue than most others, but does contain some interesting information about liberal Chicago Jews who helped facilitate Obama’s rise in politics, including Martha Minow’s dad, who heard about Obama from Harvard Law Prof. […]

that 1.85 million Americans go bankrupt every year due to medical bills. In other words, the AARP is claiming that every single bankruptcy in the U.S. is due to medical bills. Even Elizabeth Warren doesn’t go that far. The AARP has launched a mass media campaign, including television ads, based on this blatantly dishonest premise. […]

The Journal has a story on the consideration U.S. News is giving to counting entering part-time students along with full-time students. For what it’s worth, I think the problem is with law schools that have started bogus part-time day programs to admit students who don’t otherwise have the proper credentials. Long established part-time evening programs, […]

It’s of interest to me that Dan Quayle was attacked as a lightweight, based in significant part on his poor academic record in college, and rumors that he (a) had been involved in a plagiarism scandal in college, a rumor spread by Indiana Democrats; and (b) that his record at Indiana-Indianapolis Law School–a middling school, […]

On April 16, 2008, a shell from an Israeli army tank on a counter-terrorism mission in Gaza killed four civilians, including a Reuter’s cameraman, Fadel Shan. On April 18th, well before Israel (or anyone else) could conduct a serious investigation, Amnesty International sent out a press release stating that “Fadel Shan appears to have been […]

Has public discourse really been reduced to this level? “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said. I’m afraid I know the answer to my own question. I don’t have any reason to believe McCain “cheated,” but I hope we don’t get into […]

A very interesting debate in the comments section of the Northern Virginia Housing Bubble Fallout Blog over whether Arlington prices, which have held up reasonably well post-bubble, are likely to fall due to the “substitution effect”. With housing prices having plummeted in the outer suburbs, will home buyers, for example, decide to buy a 200K […]

I actually found this one to be so bad, I was somewhat amused. From an email address in the Netherlands: ONLINE NOTIFICATION OF WINNING [of winning?] The British National Lottery, [no salutation, but in form of one; why is a notification of winning a British lottery coming from a Netherlands address?] Wishes to Congratulate [cap?] […]

(1) The New York Times has a piece discussing the problems with adversarial expert testimony in the U.S., and promoting the Australian system of “hottubbing” as an alternative. I’m skeptical that this less adversarial approach will catch in the U.S.; despite it’s long-term failure so far, I still think that finding a way to use […]

Seven Palestinian students were awarded Fulbright scholarships to study in the U.S. Israel, whose border with Gaza is closed due to its state of war with the Hamas Gazan government, refused to allow the students to enter Israel on the way to the U.S. U.S. officials put heavy pressure on Israel to allow the students […]