Randy’s post reminds me of a riddle I came up with several years ago — what do Jews, homosexuals, Canadians, left-handers, and libertarians have in common? Answer: They spend a lot of time talking about who is Jewish, homosexual, Canadian, left-handed, or libertarian, but is not widely known to be so. Gwyneth Paltrow is half-Jewish. […]
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Clint Eastwood Outed in USA Today:
From this interview: So, socially, you’re live-and-let-live. How about politically? I suppose. I don’t see myself as conservative, but I’m not ultra-leftist. You build a philosophy of your own. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how […]
Likely Establishment Clause violation:
The UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Resource Center — which is apparently part of the UCLA administration, and not just a student group — provides the material quoted below on its Web site. Readers of this blog are likely aware that I have no moral objections to homosexuality; and I sympathize with the desire […]
Freedom from aggravation:
The Macalester College speech code provides “The College recognizes the complexity of defining language and actions that are not acceptable in a community which values freedom of expression. Freedom of expression does not include the right to intentionally and maliciously aggravate, intimidate, ridicule or humiliate another person.” There’s more, but nothing quite as good as […]
Real-estate ad, again:
I had excellent reasons for posting this ad on Saturday, but of course blogs have fewer readers on Saturday, so here goes again, if you’re looking to buy my charming condo in Cambridge, Mass.: Are you moving to Cambridge? I’m looking to sell my apartment and move out by June. Two bedrooms (one of them […]
Kerry:
Michael Crowley’s (subscription-only) TNR article about Massachusetts Democrats having no real enthusiasm for Kerry is, as far as I can tell, spot-on. The same goes for a lot of New Hampshire Democrats I know. Having grown up in the part of New Hampshire that’s part of the Boston media market, I can report: Kerry does […]
Book Tour Continues in Virginia:
The book tour for Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty continues this week in Virginia: Tuesday January 27thUniversity of Virginia School of Law (Charlottesville), 4:20pm Wednesday, January 28thWashington & Lee School of Law(Lexington), noon Thursday, January 29thWilliam & Mary School of Law(Williamsburg), noon All talks are open to the public and lunch talks […]
One reason why your cell phone sometimes fails you:
I just attended a three-day arts policy conference in the Berkshires. Not only was Internet access scarce but my cell phone often didn’t work either. Fortunately I am sufficiently balanced not to have felt frighteningly alone. The telecommunications reforms of 1996 were supposed to prevent local governments from banning cell phone towers. Yet in just […]
Hopeful signs:
Inklings of good news on both the election front and the Oscar front. Lieberman passes Clark and Edwards in NH poll. Return of the King picks up every Golden Globe it was nominated for, including best picture (drama) and best director (drama). UPDATE: Yes, I do realize that the stupid “Joe” puns, one of which […]
Reynolds on Bush’s Vulnerability:
Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit has this to say about President Bush’s prospects for reelection: I’VE BEEN SAYING FOR A LONG TIME that Bush is vulnerable in 2004, regardless of how confident the GOP seems to feel. (Here’s an old post on that, but just enter the words bush and vulnerable in the search window to […]
Liberals, Anti-Communism & Learning to Read:
In an exchange about my post quoting a 1952 Irving Kristol essay, Brad DeLong redefines priase to encompass calling someone a “vulgar demagogue” but “unequivocally anticommunist.” Funny. I always thought to praise someone you had to say nice things about them. I suspect DeLong’s commentary is due, at least in part, to his contemporary opinion […]
A neat little application
that gives you a map of the U.S. where you can paint the states you’ve visited in red. (Of course, you can use red to highlight states that fulfill any criterion you like, not just whether you’ve visited them.) create your own visited states map or write about it on the open travel guide UPDATE: […]
Kudos to Delta:
I was scheduled to leave tonight on an 8:05 pm flight to Atlanta (I’m speaking at Emory Law tomorrow at noon, and at Georgia State at 5:00), but the weather forecast predicts heavy snow by that time. I called Delta, and they rescheduled me without demanding a change fee of any sort. Such flexibility with […]
NH primary continued:
Throwing out all norms of either scholarly reliance on data or journalistic ethics, I’m going to confirm Ryan Lizza’s impression of Edwards’ NH strength by relying on my mother, a NH Democrat and Edwards volunteer. She was a pretty diehard Clintonophile (always talking about how charismatic and electrifying he is in person; NH voters have […]
Academic conventions:
My favorite sentence from this utterly delightful John Holbo essay on literary studies, good and bad writing, theory, and the MLA: Doubts about the correctness of the paper’s conclusions do not fall within the scope of the paper, as it were. Damn. I wish I’d written that. UPDATE: I got to the end, noticed the […]