Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Saw this movie last week, and thought it was so-so. I very much liked Being John Malkovich, an earlier Kaufman movie; thought Adaptation was interesting but not as good; and thought Eternal Sunshine was pretty weak. The main plot element is creative on its own, but it can’t carry […]
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Hellboy: Just saw it yesterday, and didn’t much like it. I enjoy action movies, and I rather liked Spiderman and X-Men 2, so I’m not against movies based on comics. But this one was pretty disappointing — formulaic, without much wit or innovative detail to make it fun despite the formula.
Speaking Update:
In my earlier post (now corrected), I neglected to mention that I will be speaking on Saturday at 1:00pm in Washington DC at the 2004 NORML Conference, which will be held at The Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel. I will mainly be discussing the case of Raich v. Ashcroft that I argued in the Ninth Circuit. […]
Time for Gorelick to Go:
Last week, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy made a strong case that Jamie Gorelick had no place on the 9/11 Commission. Having been appointed and having already participated in the proceedings thus far, whether Gorelick should resign from the Commission altogether, or recuse herself from any consideration of the Justice Department’s role (or lack thereof) […]
Credit to Ashcroft Where It’s Due:
According to this Newsweek story, high-ranking Bush Administration officials, most prominently Cheney and Rumsfeld, have argued for stripping Americans suspected of aiding Al Qaeda of their rights and holding them indefinitely as “enemy combatants.” They have met with strong resistance from SURPRISE! John Ashcroft and others in the Justice Department, who both remember that the […]
How’s that again?
An obvious point, I guess. But if you’re going to write an article claiming that “a growing faction of conservatives is voicing doubts about a prolonged United States military involvement in Iraq, putting hawkish neoconservatives on the defensive and posing questions for President Bush about the degree of support he can expect from his political […]
Not tooting my own horn,
but my wife’s. Sebastian Mallaby has an interesting article in today’s Washington Post entitled “Visions of US Aid,” in which he looks at the index created by the Center for Global Development for measuring the contributions that the world’s richest countries are making to the well-being of the world’s poorest. Interesting — and, as my […]
Rockin’ Book Tour Goes North by Northwest:
I enjoyed the hospitality of Notre Dame law school last week, as well as the comments by Professor Patricia Bellia. Here is a very gracious account of my talk by Rick Garnett. The Rockin’ Book Tour for Restoring the Lost Constitution continues this week in the Pacific Northwest. TODAY: Monday, 4/19:Eugene, OregonUniversity of Oregon law […]
Canada, Free Speech, and Brian Leiter:
Leiter writes, in support of Canadian restrictions on religiously motivated speech condemning homosexual acts, and on “hate speech” in general:Now don’t misunderstand me. Canada is a civilized country, and so the fact that Canada takes seriously the post-WWII European consensus–namely, that naked bigotry, religiously motivated or otherwise, is a danger to humanity–makes perfect sense. But […]
Sunday Song Lyric:
As the long-delayed spring arrives, and the close of the semester approaches, it’s time to feel a bit care free (at least until it’s time to grade exams). So what could be a better Sunday song lyric than “Devil May Care” by Bob Dorough? This song, most recently recorded by Diana Krall, seems appropriate for […]
Fallacies and vices:
A bunch of us were sitting around, trying to figure out what is The Economist’s Vice. Here was one good candidate: The Economist’s Vice: “To think that Wealth Maximization is a good proxy for Utility Maximization” I nominated the following: The Economist’s Vice: “To think that it is scientific to talk of “satisfying preferences,” and […]
Another Win-Win:
Rantisi is brought to justice: “We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache,” he said. It’s nice when cosmic justice and individual preferences can both be satisfied. UPDATE: Mark Kleiman objects:The point seems to me an elementary one. Since “To bring X to justice” […]
Why Not Let the Top Seeds Pick Their Opponents?:
The NBA playoffs start tomorrow. The Minnesota Timberwolves are the 1st seed in the Western Conference – meaning that they play the 8th seeded Denver Nuggets. If the Timberwolves had the choice, they might well prefer to play the 7th seeded Houston Rockets, who slumped badly at the end of the season and are playing […]
Jacob Levy on Ethics:
I just ran across Jacob Levy’s article on New York Times ethicist Randy Cohen — it’s really an excellent and thoughtful piece about the complex relationship between ethics and morality; I highly recommend it. It was published in late 1999, and maybe Cohen has improved since then. But to me the important thing wasn’t the […]
NRA TV:
Stop the Bleating reports: Instead of buying a TV station, as it was previously rumored to be considering, the NRA has decided to take its message to the Internet via NRANews.com, “Freedom’s Last Channel of Communication.” They’ll have daily webcasts, including a three-hour live segment. Advantages? -Lower overhead.-Not having to deal with the FCC. -Less […]