Instapundit points us in the direction of Joseph Bottum’s First Things blog post yesterday; also Althouse’s comment: [W]hile I was [at NYU Law School] I saw posters for a lecture this afternoon by Eugene Volokh on the structure of slippery-slope arguments. … the posters for Volokh’s talk read, as I remember: “Founder of The Volokh Conspiracy blog and […]
Author Archive | Kenneth Anderson
LA Times Op-Ed Contributors on Targeted Killing and the Presumed Mossad Hit
Over at the Los Angeles Times opinion page today, Sunday, February 21, 2010, Marjorie Miller has lined up various folks to opine on targeted killing and the presumed Mossad hit in Dubai against the founder of Hamas’ military wing. The offerings are very short – a hundred or so words each – but I had […]
Amnesty International and the World of International NGOs
Co-Conspirator DB notes the continuing controversy over Amnesty International, with Salman Rushdie now weighing in. Side note: Although until I come out with my own longer account of my views of the NGO movement, including the human rights monitors, I tend to avoid saying much about human rights groups, I have written a bit about […]
Rational Ignorance Alert! Rational Ignorance Alert!
I hereby respectfully draw Co-Conspirator Ilya’s attention to Alan Wolfe’s witty and insightful book review in today’s New York Times of Derek Bok’s The Politics of Happiness. In particular to the following two sentences; should we call this rational political ignorance or not? Americans are most certainly misinformed. Dumb they are not.
Harold Koh Discussion with John Bellinger on International Law and the Obama Administration
By Kenneth Anderson on February 19, 2010 10:12 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War on Terror
Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the State Department, held an informal public discussion a couple of days ago with his predecessor from the Bush administration, John Bellinger. This was an American Society of International Law event, held at John’s law firm, Arnold & Porter, and moderated by my old friend and ASIL’s Treasurer, Nancy Perkins. […]
Secession or Divestment? Or Both?
Further to Orin’s secession post below. For reasons I won’t try to go into now, I don’t think there is a right to secede as a matter of US Constitutional law; I think Lincoln’s arguments in the First Inaugural are persuasive and, moreover, endorsed in blood by the Civil War, and even if one can […]
John Bellinger on International Law in Bush Second Term and Obama Administration
John Bellinger, former Legal Adviser to the State Department, has an interesting op ed in the New York Times (February 14, 2010), comparing ways in which the Obama administration’s international law positions largely continue the second Bush term positions. As my Opinio Juris colleague Julian Ku observes, “The shape of U.S. foreign policy, and its policy […]
Euro-Sense and Sensibility in the Greek Debt Crisis
Not everyone is quite so fascinated as I with CDS spreads on Greek sovereign debt. However, the issues raised by the Greek debt difficulties and the urgent discussions in the Eurozone over a possible bailout, attendant moral hazard, and the like are far more than merely fiscal or monetary questions. Rather, this crisis is one […]
Information Asymmetries and the Agent Principal Problem, As Found in … The Coca Cola Kid
Is this the ‘Australian Sound’? My class is covering information asymmetries as transaction costs affecting pure Coase Theorem analysis, and we will soon come to classic information asymmetries found in agent – principal relationships. I am thinking of using this as a pedagogical tool. Consider Eric Roberts’ soliloquy on agent-principal relations, and the many ironies […]
CDSs, Greek Bonds, and Insurable Interests?
The former General Counsel of Long Term Capital Management – it of the late 1990s near global financial meltdown – James Rickards, had a comment in the Financial Times a few days ago (Feb 11, 2010) on the credit default swap market and Greek sovereign debt. Key section: Greece’s travails are often measured by reference […]
Amy Bishop in the NYT … Does the Times Bury the Lede?
The shootings on the university campus opened a window into the pressure-cooker world of biotechnology start-ups, where scientists often depend on their association with academia for a leg up. Ms. Bishop was part of a start-up that had won an early round of financing in a highly competitive environment, but people who knew her said […]
Saturdays with Stendhal 6
‘One never knows what to say in speaking to our great diplomats,’ said Julien. ‘They have a mania for starting serious discussions. If one confines oneself to the commonplaces of the newspapers, one is reckoned a fool. If one allows oneself to say something true and novel, they are astonished, they do not know how […]
On the Ethics of Charging to Shovel Snow
This is the update from my post below, in which I asked how much my teen daughter should charge to shovel out snow. I’m putting it up as a separate post mostly on account of the discussion of pro bono service regimes among the children of the upper middle class: So: The daughter, who is […]
What Should My Teen Daughter Charge for Snow Shoveling?
Super important practical follow up to Ilya’s post. My teen daughter and perhaps a friend are thinking of doing exactly what Ilya mentions – going door to door in our neighborhood in Spring Valley Washington DC neighborhood and offering to shovel out walks. This is near American University campus. How much should they charge and […]
White Out, a Novel
From the online diary of Mr K, inhabitant of the snowbound city of W. Day 1.15. As the snowdrifts begin to build, making it impossible to go about to Superfresh or Starbuck’s or Pain Quotidien or any other of the city W’s cherished Spring Valley locations, as it mounts just beyond the door, making it […]