Anyone who has followed Debka.com, an Israeli website run by former Time Magazine journalists, knows that they have come up with more than their share of farfetched stories. But (with their apparent ties to Israeli intelligence) Debka has also been the most accurate reporter of the infighting among Palestinian factions and within the Israeli government […]
Author Archive | Jim Lindgren
Another Possible Hoax of a Cartoon; Call for Graphology Expertise.—
1. Background. The Danish clerics who spread the 15 Muhammad cartoons have been evasive about where they got the three most offensive ones, ones that had never been published by Jyllands-Posten or media in any country, at least before the dispute arose. As NeanderNews revealed, the second extra “cartoon,” supposedly showing Muhammad with a pig […]
More Stifling of Dissent (in Canada).–
At Judeoscope, a Canadian website, there is a story about a Canadian professor who has been ordered to remove the 12 cartoons from his office door: Philosophy professor Peter March was ordered by the administration of St. Mary’s University in Halifax, to take down cartoons from his office door. The cartoons in question are copies […]
The Three Extra Cartoons May Be Forgeries.–
In an earlier post Eugene Volokh demands a fatwa against anyone bearing false witness in the Danish cartoon flap. As detailed below and elsewhere, at least one of the supposed “cartoons” is a hoax. Gateway Pundit points out that the Danish clerics who spread the 15 Muhammed cartoons have been awfully evasive about where they […]
Muhammad Depicted in the Supreme Court Courtroom.–
Duncan Frissell has a nice post on the depiction of Muhammad in a frieze on the wall of the Supreme Court’s courtroom. In response to complaints, C.J. Rehnquist refused to remove the work, but he altered its description in Supreme Court literature. In response to complaints: Rehnquist replied that the depiction of Muhammad “was intended […]
Deliberation Day Experiment in Colorado.–
Over at the University of Chicago faculty blog, Cass Sunstein reports on an experiment on the effects of deliberation on views: Deliberation Day and Political Extremism A few months ago, David Schkade, Reid Hastie, and I helped to organize a kind of Deliberation Day in Colorado. (The events were sponsored and funded by ABC News, […]
Marcus Cole on a New Law Harming African-American Borrowers in Chicago.–
Marcus Cole of Stanford is guest-blogging at BlackProf.com. Coincidentally, earlier today I was quoting Marcus to my colleagues. Cole takes aim at a new Illinois law mandating government review with the power to order credit-counseling for prospective home-buyers in several poor neighborhoods in Chicago: On Tuesday, in addition to Mrs. King’s passing and Justice Alito’s […]
A New Tab, with More Caffeine.–
The New Yorker has a brief article on both the new and old versions of Tab, a soft drink made by Coke that is often hard to find in American supermarkets: TAB SCARE The Talk of the Town As if the mainstream media were not beleaguered enough, now comes word that the Coca-Cola Company is […]
New York Times Article on the Reagan/Meese Revolution in the Courts.–
Adam Liptak has an article in today’s New York Times on the consolidation of conservative gains on the Supreme Court. Conservative lawyers in the administration of President Ronald Reagan had an ambitious agenda. They wanted the courts to pay closer attention to the Constitution’s text, to fashion a more limited role for the federal government, […]
What Cindy Sheehan’s T-Shirt Said: “2,245 – How many more?”–
On my local Chicago TV news last night, the anchors reported that Cindy Sheehan was ejected from the State of the Union Address for wearing an anti-war T-shirt. They didn’t say what the words on the T-shirt actually were, but I assumed from their failure to mention them that they must be crude or unsuitable […]
Real Censorship of Reading, Research, and Writing in Libraries and Universities.–
The Standard-Times (apparently from the New Bedford, MA area) reported that a UMASS student was questioned by the government for having checked out Mao’s Little Red Book. The Standard-Times then reported that it had been duped: the story was a hoax (tip to Tim Blair). Many people were outraged by the idea that the government […]
Hostility to Atheists in the 1991 GSS.–
Eugene is correct about public hostility to atheists and the willingness to admit discriminatory feelings against them. In 1991, the General Social Survey asked 1244 respondents this question (variable POLSGOD): How much do you agree or disagree with each of the following?: Politicians who do not believe in God are unfit for public office. RESULTS: […]
The First Thanksgiving (the original account).–
With Americans celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, I thought that I’d rerun (and slightly update) my post from last year. It is worth remembering the only specific contemporary account of the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, that of Edward Winslow. His letter was dated December 13, 1621. I include most of a paragraph about farming methods because it […]
Recent University of Chicago Chemistry Graduate Confesses She Turned to Arson.–
There has been an arrest of a suspect, Julita Groszko, in a recent string of fires in my neighborhood. Groszko is a recent University of Chicago college graduate, who repotedly confessed to setting fires mostly to math and science buildings at the University. The possible motives could have been her difficulties in completing her studies […]
A Majority of Americans (and of Liberals and of Democrats) Favors Spousal Notification.–
Is opposing spousal notification “out of the mainstream” in America? Those of us who oppose a law requiring spousal notification of a woman’s intention to have an abortion must recognize that ours is the minority view — and has been for nearly two decades. I don’t think that this would put us “out of the […]