I heard on the radio this morning that Tower Records has declared bankruptcy. This is not a mere reorganization, most of the stores are losing money. The company could not find a buyer, in part because this is a bad time for selling CDs through a storefront. I grew up with Tower Records and built […]
Archive | Uncategorized
Welcome back, Michelle:
And while I can’t speak to the merits of Gregg Easterbrook’s latest book, I have seen some critiques of it that sound vaguely similar to my critique of his environment book (right premise, wrong recommendations), A Moment on the Earth, which I reviewed in Reason in July 1995. Therefore, I offer you my previous book […]
How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse:
I am occasionally so cavalier as to recommend a book before reaching the last page, but to recommend a book to thousands before a full reading seems downright reckless. I will say, therefore, that I recommend Gregg Easterbrook’s “The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse” to page 155 (of 317, excluding […]
Immigration, continued:
Last week I considered how we might improve the quality of immigration, among other topics. What about the Bush immigration plan? The ever-inventive Randall Parker has produced an excellent analysis at www.Parapundit.com. Here is his summary: “*The factors that separate out current illegals from those who are unwilling or unable to come to the US […]
No Jewish Stars:
A Norwegian school is preventing a (non-Jewish) teacher from wearing a small Jewish star to class. The school argues that the star can be interpreted as a symbol of the State of Israel (the star is on the Israeli flag) and thus inflame the sensitivies of Muslim students. Via Joanne Jacobs.UPDATE: Reader Mark Moss notes […]
Judges and Congress:
I have a piece in today’s L.A. Times on the latest controversy; here’s a slightly changed version of that piece: Congress wants to know how federal judges are applying the law. It tells the Justice Department to provide certain reports. Unconstitutional!, federal district judge Dickran Tevrizian held earlier this month. The attempt by Congress to […]
Medicare Ads:
The federal government is sponsoring a series of new ads explaining the Medicare reforms signed into law by President Bush. The ads also seem designed to defuse fears some of those on Medicare might have about the reforms. On the one hand, this sort of public service announcement probably does serve the useful purpose of […]
Sunday Song Lyric:
All to often, when songwriters bury political messages in their songs, the results are doubly bad – bad music and bad politics. There are exceptions, however. Some songwriters are willing to cut against the grain and skewer the pop-leftist sensibilities prevalent in the entertainment industry. For example, Joe Jackson, not exactly known as the most […]
Sensitivity and “Offensive” Language:
Below is a part of comment from the Comments section of Calpundit, arising from Kevin’s link to my posting of the email by the woman who lost her job over the eenie, meenie, minie, moe, caption:First is the reaction to Steve Kerr’s recent comment on national television. During a broadcast on TNT, commenting on Yao […]
Going to the Federalist Society Student Conference in Nashville?
Word is that Priceline is accepting bids for rooms at the Nashville Sheraton Downtown for $39 per night, 2/20/-22. It’s a mile and half away, so you’ll need sturdy legs, a rental car, or money for a cab, but it’s a AAA diamond hotel, and substantially cheaper than the hotel deals lined up by the […]
Evolution of alphabets: Pretty cool. Thanks to GeekPress.
How Will History Judge the Iraq War?
Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent column in NRO, Weapons of Mass Hysteria. In it he offers a multi-part defense of the prudence and morality of the Iraq war. It won’t convince the critics, of course, since no argument will at this point convince them. NB: Even had WMD been found, many would still have […]
Speaking of Yiddish:
That reminds me, here’s a Yiddish song which I think is both one of the best Yiddish songs generally and one of the best songs to come out of the Holocaust. It’s called Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern (Under Your White Stars). The version I link to has mistakes in the Yiddish, but it’s good enough, […]
Thought for a cool song:
To the tune of “Desperado”: “Desperanto.” The general title idea has already been done. Also, famously, Isaac Bashevis Singer favored Yiddish over Hebrew for the official language of Israel, because Yiddish had a culture and literature and humor, while Hebrew was a “soulless Desperanto.” Maybe not that famously: I can’t find it on the Internet. […]
Mirror of Justices:
Alas, Eugene narrowly beat me to the Mirror of Justices post. I mention the Mirror in my article n guilty men, 146 U. Pa. L. Rev. 173 (1997), at footnote 51. In Anglo-Norman, the part I quote goes: [Alfred] pendi Freberne pur ceo qil jugea Harpin a la mort ou les jurours furent en dote […]