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Nicholas Eberstadt of AEI offers a fascinating article on world population. Here is one interesting paragraph of many: “Between 2000 and 2025 China’s median age is set to rise very substantially: from about 30 to around 39. According to unpd projections for 2025, in fact, China’s median age will be higher than America’s. The impending […]

At the risk of making the VC read like The Corner, I just wanted to note that I agree with Sasha that government ownership and control of universities inherently raises troubling issues of freedom of expression. Indeed, in You Can’t Say That, I wrote, “The inevitability of content-based regulation of academic expression on public university […]

I actually don’t find the case below discussed by David Bernstein all that ridiculous. Well, it may be completely wrong as a matter of First Amendment compelled speech doctrine. But as a matter of general free-speech and role-of-government principles, I do find this sort of behavior somewhat problematic. A useful role these sorts of “ridiculous” […]

Daniel Klein, a good friend of mine, has written a very interesting essay on The People’s Romance: Why People Love Government (as much as they do). Klein writes from a libertarian point of view, asking why people are so attached to government, even when the record of government in an area is a poor one. […]

Via Hanah, pictures from the San Francisco gay weddings.

A bizarre, unanimous opinion from the Tenth Circuit in Axson-Flynn v. Johnson, 2004 WL 198304 (found via Overlaywered). Ms. Axson-Flynn was accepted into an acting program at the University of Utah. When she auditioned, she told the program directors she would not use the “F” word, take the Lord’s name in vain, or take her […]

After 10 days on the road discussing Restoring the Lost Constitution, this week’s tour is light. A talk at Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville at noon on Tuesday (2/17) and another at Boston University School of Law at 1:00pm on Wednesday (2/18). The full schedule can be found here. (Some room/time details for the […]

Because of a family conflict of interest (which I’m not going to discuss further, but I’ll note that there is one) I haven’t blogged much about what’s sometimes called the “War on Science.” ( I have written here, at TNR, registration required, on the general category of ‘gag rules’ of which several of the ‘war […]

Read David and Juan immediately below. Apropos their topic, I have a few nominations for best all-time songs about obsession, particularly love obsession: “Aneurysm,” by Nirvana. “I Want You (She’s so Heavy),” by The Beatles. “Mother,” by John Lennon, plus much of Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album. And if you want to get sweet, there […]

Apropos of Juan’s link just below, the original version of the ’80s song Obsession, recorded by Michael DeBarr [update: Des Barres] and Holly Knight (or so I recall from WLIR, 92.7 in Long Island), had the same lyrics, but did have emotional depth in the way it was performed, unlike the Animotion version that became […]

Last week, Instapundit and Lileks reminisced about Animotion’s cheesy `80s single, “Obsession.” I am all for `80s music, and the concept of obsession is a rich vein to mine for song lyrics. But Animotion’s song is a bubble gum dance song. There’s no pathos or emotional depth. For my money, the’80s song that captures the […]

Deltoid discusses the latest scandal of Amazon reviewing. A mistake led the identities of Amazon reviewers to be revealed on the Canadian web site, it turned out that many of the reviews were puff pieces by authors and their friends. Negative reviews often had a conflict of interest motive, and were written by the author’s […]

Yesterday I was browsing through Culture and Resistance, the collection of interviews with the late Edward Said. Said, of course, is well known for his advocacy of the Palestinian cause. I came across the following: “Interviewer: Your books were banned in Arafat’s realm. Is that still the case? ES: It’s difficult to know actually. You […]

Interesting piece (and one quoting me) from the Catholic news service Zenit on the growing trend toward labeling the expression of the traditional (negative) Christian view of homosexual conduct “hate speech.” This is a particularly serious issue outside the United States where, in the absence of the First Amendment and the protections it currently provides […]

One of the most frequent questions about culture I receive is the following: “do you know any jazz that I will like as much as pre-1960 (or fill in your own date) jazz?” I, too, for the most part prefer what came before and led up to Sun Ra. But I do have a particular […]