Author Archive | David Bernstein

Hyde Park Citizen, Dec. 28, 1995: Obama made mention that since America has fallen off as a dominant economic power in the world, race relations have worsened in America. “In an environment of scarcity, where the cost of living is rising, folks begin to get angry and bitter and look for scapegoats. Historically, instead of […]

His record isn’t likely to win back the rural “pro-gun” voters who’ve fled to the Republicans in recent years, likely costing Gore the election in 2000. From the Chicago Defender, Dec. 13, 1999: Sweeping federal gun control legislation proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (D-13th) would increase the penalties on gun runners who are flooding Chicago’s […]

I recently had the misfortune of dining at Cici’s Pizza Buffet. My wife and I agreed that it was easily the worst restaurant pizza we’ve ever had. Not just “bad-pizza bad”, but just bad as in “yuck”. Nevertheless, the place was packed, presumably because you get all the pizza, salad, and dessert you can eat […]

Radley Balko has been all over this issue, and continues his excellent work here. This is an issue libertarians have largely ignored, but shouldn’t. I’ve been doing some work on related issues (some of which you can read in this paper), and over time I’ve become extremely suspicious of prosecutors. Far too many of them […]

When I was in Israel in December, my daughter had a horrible stomach flu for several days, which we spent in front of the t.v. watching translated versions of Dora the Explorer and other cartoons. So you might not find the video below as funny as I did. Speaking of Dora, while in the U.S. […]

Last week’s song lyric (Amy Winehouse, “You Know I’m No Good”) prompted a discussion of Nirvana and its troubled frontman, Kurt Cobain. As it happens, Cobain’s bandmate, Dave Grohl, went on to form the Foo Fighters, another great band. Like Winehouse, the Foo Fighters had several Grammy nominations, performed at the awards (with John Paul […]

Or maybe that should be life imitates Borat imitating life: During Carnival -or Uzgavenes, as it is known in Lithuania – Catholics from around the world congregate for a feast of foods prohibited during Lent. The festival usually involves a parade or circus, with attendees in masks and costumes. But in Vilnius – commonly known […]

I’ve been remiss in not linking to this review by Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs of The Israel Lobby: Rarely in professional literature does one encounter such a gap between aspiration and performance as there is in The Israel Lobby. Mearsheimer and Walt fail to define “the lobby” in a clear way. Their accounts […]

This interesting analysis raises three possibilities regarding Syrian involvement in the assassination of Hezbollah terrorist chief Mughniyah in Damascus: (1) Syria was the perpetrator, as part of a deal with the U.S., or at least an attempt to get in the U.S.’s good graces; (2) Someone else, most likely Israel, did it, and Syria was […]

I just came across a detailed demographic survey of the D.C.-area Jewish community, which has a wealth of very interesting data. The most interesting statistic I came across relates to Reform Judaism and public schools. Traditionally, organized Reform Judaism was vigorously opposed to Jewish day schools because of an ideological belief in both assimiliation and […]

I can’t find a proper link right now, but former New Republic owner Martin Peretz is supporting Obama for president. Left-wing bloggers rather frequently accuse Peretz of being a “right-winger,” and a “neocon” because he has rather hawkish pro-Israel views. I’m not sure why having such views makes one a “right-winger”, but if it does, […]

Unless something very unexpected happens, the presidential race this year will be between Senator John McCain and either Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama. Has there ever been an election in which both major party candidates were sitting Senators? I can’t think of one, but I defer to those with more voluminous knowledge of […]

Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. The NY Times carried a story about this in Februrary 1990, which included a few quotes from Obama: “The fact that I’ve been elected shows a lot of progress,” Mr. Obama said today in an interview. “It’s encouraging.” “But it’s important that stories […]

I am on the road this week speaking about “Constitutional Cliches: Does Trite Make Right?” at Federalist Society sponsored talks. On Monday at noon, I will be at the University of Kentucky, and in the afternoon am speaking at the University of Cincinnati at 4:30pm. (I think the talk is at 4:30pm 3:00pm but am […]

National Law Journal In general, the change would create a quantitative rule requiring law schools to demonstrate that 75% of their graduates passed the bar exam or to show that their pass rates were within a certain range compared with other law schools in the same jurisdiction. The change is technically a new interpretation of […]