Publishers Weekly reports on the publication of a new, sanitized version of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic by most any measure—T.S. Eliot called it a masterpiece, and Ernest Hemingway pronounced it the source of “all modern American literature.” Yet, for decades, it has been disappearing from […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Gene Sperling’s $11,000 Column
Some might raise an eyebrow at reports NYU law professor Stephen Gillers was paid $950/hour by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (the entity administering the fund for the BP oil spill’s victims) to determine whether the fund’s administrator was sufficiently independent from BP, but that’s nothing. Gene Sperling, who is rumored to be on President […]
No Win for Walpin
Gerald Walpin, the former Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community and Services (which runs “AmeriCorps”), has lost his appeal challenging his removal by President Obama. Walpin claimed he was removed because of his aggressive investigation of alleged wrongdoing by Sacramento mayor (and former NBA star) Kevin Johnson. Walpin claims his removal was […]
New Year, No New Wells in Gulf
The Obama Administration may have lifted the moratorium on deep water oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico, but the federal government has yet to authorize any new drilling activity. As a consequence, according to the WSJ, industry experts do not expect to see any new wells in the Gulf before late 2011 […]
Wind Power’s Not for the Birds
The American Bird Conservancy has renewed concerns that wind power development could threaten several bird species, according to this report. (HT: NYT Green Blog) Officials with American Bird Conservancy . . . cited data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that estimates 400,000 birds of various species are killed by turbine blades annually. The […]
My Holiday TSA Experience
This year’s holiday travel was relatively uneventful. We avoided the blizzard-induced air traffic snarl, and didn’t even see (let alone have to use) a body-image scanner. The only real problem was the TSA inspection of one checked bag. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as what some have endured, but it was annoying nonetheless. I’ve […]
New Year, New Books to Read
It’s a new year, and a new pile of books has found its way to my nightstand. There are still books left over from last year (as there always are), and I’m sure many new books will catch my eye. Here are the books that I’m currently reading (or about to start): Bryan Caplan, The […]
Opting for TSA Alternatives
The Washington Post reports that more airports are considering whether to hire private contractors to replace TSA personnel for airport security. Such a shift would not alter the screening protocols — these requriements are imposed by federal regulations independent of whether TSA personnel man the security checkpoints — but could alter the efficiency and attitude […]
The Kidney Condition
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is granting early release to two sisters serving life sentences for armed robbery under an unusual condition: One sister must donate her kidney to help the other. From the Washington Post account: Barbour agreed this week to suspend their sentences in light of the poor health of Jamie Scott, 38, who […]
Solar Power After Sunset
Intermittency is one of the biggest problems with solar and wind power. When the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, there’s no power. For this reason power storage technologies are essential if wind and solar power are to replace base load capacity and become more than bit players in energy markets. The WSJ […]
Death of a Deregulatory Democrat
Economist Alfred Kahn died this week at 93. Kahn had a remakrable career as an academic, administrator, and government official. A noted regulatory scholar, he served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell and Chairman of the New York Public Service Commission. In 1977, President Carter tapped Kahn to chair the […]
Obama Administration Defends Bush Polar Bear Position
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 24, 2010 4:48 pm in Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment
Politico reports that the Obama Administration is defending the Bush Administration’s decision to list the polar bear as a “threatened” species, rather than “endangered” species, under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As I discussed in this series of posts, environmentalist groups petitioned to have the polar bear listed as an endangered species due to the […]
The EPA’s Christmas Present
Yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was entering into two proposed settlement agreements to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants and oil refineries under the Clean Air Act. The two agreements resolve lawsuits filed against the EPA by several states and environmental groups seeking the imposition of new source performance […]
Lame Duck Hunting Revisited
In November I wrote a blog post critical of non-emergency lame duck Congressional sessions. Since then, the lame duck Congressional session has been surprisingly productive. Not only did Congress pass a tax deal, it repealed DADT, confirmed some judges and (perhaps most importantly) rejected a pork-laden spending omnibus. That’s far better than I would have expected. But […]
Faux Concern for Judicial Ethics
For many years Community Rights Council (CRC), a small, progressive non-profit organization, waged war on privately funded judicial education. According to CRC, allowing judges to attend expense-paid educational seminars sponsored by organizations such as the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) and George Mason University’s Law and Economics Center threatened the independence, […]