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Richard Florida, a Carnegie Mellon professor, has been arguing that cities must become trendy places to compete in the new economy. His book The Rise of the Creative Class has been a big hit. In his view a city should try to attract gays, bohemians, and ethnic minorities, all to lure creative workers. Those workers […]

Several readers questioned whether Jews really give half of all money raised by the Democratic Party. I’ve seen this figure quoted for years, and it seems well-accepted. Here, for example, is the Washington Post in December: “Jews provided at least half the money donated to the DNC in the 1998 and 2000 election cycles”. Another […]

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way President George W. Bush is handling the U.S. campaign against terrorism? Approve 41 Disapprove 54 Not sure 5 Comment: This is ambiguous, as I suspect a fair percentage of Jews think the president has not been vigorous enough in opposing terrorism, especially Palestinian terrorism. 19. I […]

with Howard Bashman, who came up to Harvard Law School to speak on blogs and appellate litigation for the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Check out the video of his talk here.

Volkswagen Phaeton drivers beware: Here is the scoop on the original Phaeton: The son of the sun-god Helios. When Phaeton (“the shining one”) finally learned who his father was, he went east to meet him. He induced his father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens for one day. […]

Reader David M. Rosenberg reports: A judge in Rio de Janeiro has accepted the petition of the city to suspend the registration of photos and fingerprints of US tourists. For the time being, the decision only has effect in Rio (I’m not sure if it refers to the entire state of Rio de Janeiro, or […]

Hasn’t all this talk about the Atkins diet made you suspicious? For years it was neglected and now many scientists are saying it works. Have there been so many big changes in our understanding in such a short time? The Atkins idea, after all, dates from the nineteenth century if not earlier. And surely it […]

From the Toronto Star: Copies of a B.C. Muslim newspaper have been turned over to the province’s hate crimes unit after it published an article accusing “the Jews” of everything from starting both world wars to staging the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Canadian Jewish Congress made a complaint seeking a criminal investigation into what […]

Other than the Iowa Electronic Market, is there a way to legally bet from outside Vegas on who will win the Democratic nomination? My own suspicion is that contrary to the odds I’ve seen, there is a more than 15% chance that one of the “major” Democratic contenders other than Clark and Dean will get […]

Can there be a dumber reason to rush a wedding than wanting to be able to cast an inconsequential vote (as all individual votes are) in the Iowa caucuses (via Opinionjournal)? And will the couple divorce so the new bride can go back home and vote in the Illinois primary, too?

The Second Circuit has reinstated a lawsuit arguing that the multistate tobacco settlement violates federal antitrust law. When the settlement was announced, my entrepreneurial side thought about starting a new cigarette brand called “Death Sticks,” and, when states tried to force my company to pay into a fund for the health problems caused by my […]

From the AP:U.S. Jews would overwhelmingly support any major Democratic candidate over President Bush if the election were held today, according to the 2004 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion. Joe Lieberman, the only Jewish candidate, would defeat Republican Bush by the largest margin, 71 percent to 24 percent, the poll found. In one-on-one matchups […]

Well, the Supreme Court refused to hear the McFarlane v. Twist case (in which I wrote the amicus brief). Too bad, but not unexpected: The Supreme Court agrees to hear only about 1% of the cases that it’s asked to hear each year; the odds were always against us, even though I do think the […]

It looks like Amazon is now (free) shipping my new book, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (Princeton), though the formal publication date is February 1st. My book tour starts next week in DC (Georgetown, Caltholic, George Mason & George Washington), and next Monday I will start posting weekly updates of the time […]

Best of the Web writes, linking to this article: “Israeli officials have drafted a copyright bill that would halt compensation to American artists and their record companies when their songs are played on Israeli radio stations and in Israeli clubs,” the Jerusalem Post reports: Other artists, Israeli and foreign, would continue to receive payment under […]