Let’s say McDonald’s decided to double all its salaries, so that the entry-level wage became $16 an hour instead of $8 an hour. Why would McDonald’s continue to employ their $8 an hour workers when instead they could hire “better” workers who are worth more? (And those of you who think that the skills, linguistic […]
Archive | Uncategorized
About that McDonald’s “Study”
HuffPo: McDonald’s could double all salaries and would only have to raise prices by 17 percent. Not quite. Tom Maguire takes the story apart. He also asks the obvious question: If McDonald’s could raise prices without lowering sales, why haven’t they done it already? UPDATE: The Huffington Post has now replaced the original story with […]
Hoosiers
When writing the Brewington amicus brief, which we filed before the Indiana Supreme Court, I used the term “Indianan” in my first draft. Yes, I’d heard of “Hoosier,” but I thought it was a jocular colloquialism, and “Indianan” was the Proper Dignified Lawyerly Way to say it. Boy, was I wrong, as Michael Sutherlin, Dan […]
Forever Stamps
Will posts below about lifetime warranties, which reminds me about the postal service’s “forever stamps.” Forever? Really? That’s a long time. I don’t mean to cast any aspersions on the U.S. Postal Service when I express doubt that the stamps will really be usable forever. But maybe that’s just an occasion to mention one of […]
Andrew McCarthy’s Fundamental Error
McCarthy: It is entirely understandable that libertarian-minded conservatives should distrust the Obama administration and resist endowing it with unnecessary additional powers. But the NSA programs are not new – they long predate Obama. And they are – the NSA, the administration, and informed members of Congress attest – highly effective efforts to map terror networks […]
Dorf on “Lifetime” Warranties
When a product has a “lifetime” warranty, what does that actually mean, and whose lifetime is it referring to? Mike Dorf has some interesting reflections. (I confess I’d always assumed, without really thinking about it, that it meant the lifetime of the purchaser, which Dorf dismisses as “absurd” and “preposterous.”)
Discussing Peace Process on TV
Tonight, Shalom TV will be airing an encore of an interview with me about settlements, international law, and the peace process, 9 pm and 12 am ET. You can stream it live or watch on the following television providers: Optimum CH 138; RCN CH 269 (CH 335 in Lehigh Valley); Hotwire CH 269; MetroCast (Maine […]
MIT Releases Hal Abelson Report on the Aaron Swartz Case
MIT has just released the long-awaited report by Hal Albelson about MIT’s involvement in the Aaron Swartz case: The 183-page report is here. I’m going to be reading it today and plan to blog on it more later, but for now here’s the conclusion: As the length of this report demonstrates, the narrative of MIT’s […]
Major Shift Coming in Pennsylvania Self-Defense Law?
Right now, all but either one or two states provide that, once the defense in a criminal case introduces any evidence of possible self-defense, the prosecution must disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. In this respect the absence of self-defense is treated similarly to any element of the crime. Just as the prosecution must prove […]
Don’t Throw a Fit Over Your Opponent’s Arguing that Your Tactics Are a “Bastardiz[ation] of the Litigation Process,”
especially when your client is a pornographer accused of litigation extortion. From Barker v. Patrick Collins, Inc. (W.D. Ky. July 19, 2013): Barker and Hutchinson have brought suit against five companies, Patrick Collins, Inc., Malibu Media, LLC, Raw Films, Ltd., K–Beech, Inc., and Third Degree Films, who allegedly are pornography distributors. … The plaintiffs claim […]
Potter Stewart and “I Know It When I See It”
A comment on the duty to comply with negative demands thread — “Fortunately the collective experiences and common senses of juries nearly in every instance trump the purely-academic exercise of dancing on the heads of semantic and theoretical pins. In Realityville jurors know self-defense the way Potter Stewart knew about pornography” — reminded me of […]
San Antonio Exclusion from Government Commissions of People Who Have Ever “Demonstrated” “Bias” “by Word or Deed”
According to San Antonio Municipal Code § 2-9 (enacted 1994), No person shall be appointed to a position if the [city] council finds that such person has, prior to such proposed appointment, engaged in discrimination or demonstrated a bias, by word or deed, against any person, group or organization on the basis of race, religion, […]
New Republic: “Libertarianism has won over the Supreme Court conservatives”
Simon Lazarus of the Constitution Accountability Center has a provocative essay that the New Republic has entitled “Alito Shrugged: Libertarianism has won over the Supreme Court conservatives.” (Whoever writes their urls gave it the more tendentious title, “supreme-court-libertarianism-ron-pauls-bench”) Here’s a taste: On high profile issues, the conservative bloc’s five members—Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin […]
The Demographics of the Military
A very interesting 2008 Heritage Foundation report, based on 2006-07 data. Here’s one finding: Enlisted recruits are somewhat more likely to come from middle-class and wealthier neighborhoods than from poorer ones: Individual or family income data on enlistees do not exist. The Defense Department does not maintain records on the household income of recruits or […]
Review: Attman’s Deli, Potomac, Maryland
There hasn’t been a good Jewish deli in the D.C. area in … well, forever, as far as I know. Many years ago, someone wrote to Phyllis Richman, food critic for the Washington Post, asking where he could get good Jewish deli in the D.C. area. Richman responded to the effect of, “if you live […]