Rasmusen Weblog Archives By Date

Find ANY word Find ALL words Find EXACT phrase Help

Ω. AUCTIONING OFF ISRAEL. In an earlier post, I discussed the idea of auctioning off Palestinian immigrants-- paying any of them something on the order of $10,000 if he would be willing to emigrate to the West, and then auctioning off who would take them among the US, France, Canada, and so forth. When Julie Mortimer was visiting from Harvard last week, I brought this up, and it led to another application of the same idea: How about auctioning off all of Israel? < [... permalink 03.09.15a.htm ]

Χ. BELIEF AND EVIDENCE. Last night I gave a half-hour lecture to the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on belief and evidence, taking off from the William James essay I've recommended here before. I've posted my lecture notes in ascii and handout in powerpoint. They don't include the dig at Harvard that I, a Yale and Indiana man, added at the last minute (Harvard's seal says "Veritas"; those of Yale and Indiana University say "Lux et Veritas", Light *and* Truth). [... permalink 03.09.14a.htm ]

Ψ. SCIENCE AND OPINION. I'm slowly working my way through my emails. (Intermittent outages of my home internet connection are no help.) I've gotten several of the following sort: [... permalink 03.09.13b.htm ]

Ω. Homosexuality and Pedophilia Evidence. I thank E.R. (not myself!), E.N., M.M., and J.O, for the following links on child molestation and homosexuality, which take various positions on the issue. (If you don't mind having your full name mentioned, just let me know and I'll update this.) I haven't really looked at them yet, but I will one of these days, and will try to summarize them then. For now, though, readers might like to look at them directly. I also list the old Iain Murray post that responded to my initial exchange with Professor Volokh. [... permalink 03.09.13a.htm ]

Ψ. SMITH, MARSHALL, AND SCHUMPETER. We had a very good class yesterday, turning from mathematical methods to intellectual history and mixing the two nicely. If you like economics, and have Powerpoint, you might like my overheads quoting these three economists. There's lots of research to be done based on single sentences in these writers. I found one quote in Marshall interesting in light of the current Enron conviction, the exception that proves the rule: [... permalink 03.09.12a.htm ]

Ω. ONE-LINERS, INSULTS, AND REAL DISCUSSION. Kirk Nathanson, a freshman here, emailed to say that he thought my September 10 post in which I quoted an unnamed professor attacking me and then called him a "Captain Ahab" style of Quaker was not a good reply to the attack. Kirk's question deserves an answer, and since it has general implications, and is at the crux of the controversy over my web-log, I thought I'd write it here. [... permalink 03.09.12b.htm ]

Ω. JEWS FOR JESUS. One point I hope to make with this web-log is that theology is as interesting and intellectually challenging a subject as politics or economics. I don't know the religious affiliations of any but one of the Volokh Conspiracy folks, and I may not be up to date on the one exception, but that web-log is proving my point. Not only was there the interesting topic of whether Christians should object to Hindus as schoolteachers even more than to homosexuals, but the more recent thread of what status others Jews should give Jews who convert to Christianity while retaining Jewish customs. For a fascinating discussion, see David Bernstein and Eugene Volokh here and here. Professor Volokh says he has gotten more than the usual amount of email on this topic, so my interest apparently is not idiosyncratic.

[... permalink 03.09.11a.htm ]

Ω. MILITANT QUAKERS. Well, on September 9 I said that I hadn't gotten any faculty saying I should take down my website, as opposed to staff, but I actually got my first paper letter today, and it was a doozy. It was from someone in the humanities whose webpage says: [... permalink 03.09.10a.htm ]

Φ. LESSONS OF THE WEB-LOG CONTROVERSY. Here is what happened. (I'll have to add links later, since I'm running short of time.)

For some months, I have kept a web-log, with few readers, as a sort of commonplace book. The Volokh Conspiracy raised the interesting question of why people object to homosexuals as schoolteachers, but not Hindus, since idolatry is a greater sin than sodomy. I replied with some arguments distinguishing Hindus from homosexuals, and The Volokh Conspiracy linked to my reply and answered it. My guess is that someone at IU read the Volokh Conspiracy, followed to my web-log, and complained to friends at IU, who circulated the news of my web-log by email. [... permalink 03.09.09a.htm ]

Χ. WEB-LOG SOFTWARE. Someone complained that I didn't have a comment section on this web-log. Sorry, but I'm not using specialized software so I don't know how to do it. My permalinks are inconveniently set up, too for that reason. I like to use a minimal number of software programs. What I do is use the simple shareware text editor Textpad to write HTML code, which I then post on a website. That's why this doesn't look like other web-logs. [ 03.09.09b.htm ]

Ψ. BUSY WEEK. Readers may have wondered what the "site" referred to in the September 6 udpate was. I had a typo in the HTML, so the link didn't work, but I've fixed it now. This is the second week of classes, with teaching and administrative matters keeping me busy (not to mention the research papers I didn't quite finish over the summer, and the referee reports still to be done...), so my web-log may be a bit untidy for a while, especially in terms of cross-linking within the site. I'm trying to keep it going strong, though, lest intolerant people think they've discouraged me, and because my main purpose with this website has been to use it as a commonplace book to jot down thoughts and sources before I forget them. My email responses may be slow, too. A tip: if something obvious seems to be missing: check the SOURCE Html and see if it is hidden there because of a typo. [ 03.09.09c.htm ]

Ω. HELL and REMORSE. It's not that I'm having a bad time (in fact, my class is going very well indeed), but I happened to be listening to Don Giovanni in the car and thought about how many chances Don Giovanni is given to repent before the statue carries him down to Hell at the end of the opera. What other literary and religious stories do we have on sinners facing punishment and their willingness or unwillingness to repent? This will have to be a later day's web-log in detail, but the list would include: [... permalink 03.09.09d.htm ]

3. ANTI-RECORDING LAWS. Before I forget it, let me follow up on an earlier post, which I'll link to later when I have time, on the laws some states have forbidding a person to tape record a conversation he is having. This is the law that they were going to prosecute Linda Tripp on (whatever happened to that?) after she made an enemy of President Clinton. Reader R. Geoffrey Newbury pointed me to an appalling case he had heard about from some other blog he's now forgotten, the Massachusetts COMMONWEALTH vs. MICHAEL J. HYDE (2001). It seems some traffic police were obnoxious to a motorist they stopped, who made a tape of the conversation and used it to make a formal complaint at the police station about their obscenities, etc. The policemen were exonerated by the internal process, but: [... permalink 03.09.08a.htm ]

2. ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS THIS WEB-LOG. I'd hoped to write up some lessons I've learned from this controversy tonight, but it's gotten too late. Teaching this afternoon wiped out my energy, and followed some fancy footwork trying to get diagrams to work right in Scientific Workplace on my office computer, which has been deranged by Indiana University's policy of re-imaging operating systems after the MSBlaster worm hit. And then my Internet provider at home wouldn't let me on till 11 pm. So if you want to see an extended production from me, see the new Sections 3.5 and 3.6 of my game theory book, which I taught from today.

[... permalink 03.09.08b.htm ]

2. VEGGIE TALES BANKRUPTCY. The company that makes the Veggie Tales videos has filed for Chapter 11, Christianity Today says. It's the not uncommon story of a young company with great products overextending and getting into trouble. The company will keep operating and producing new videos-- bankruptcy doesn't necessarily shut down the operations of a firm-- but it will be taken over by a different company, and the owners will not be as rich as they were a couple of years ago. What is nice about the story is that the CEO accepts responsibility, and without feeling sorry for himself: [... permalink 03.09.07a.htm ]

1. ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS THIS WEB-LOG. I'd meant to write up lessons of the controversy over this website this weekend, but got too busy revising Chapter 3 of Games and Information for my class tomorrow, and I really ought to answer the polite emails of the past few days. Tomorrow night I'll do the write-up. In the meantime, here's one thought: Rather than emailing me with counterarguments to my position, various people seem to have tried to get IU to shut me down. The result? My web-log still exists and has over ten times the number of readers it used to have. The lesson: intimidation can backfire.

[... permalink 03.09.07b.htm ]

2. ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS THIS WEB-LOG. I briefly moved this web-log to Geocities because some people at Indiana University disapprove of the views expressed in it. Officially, at least, that has now been worked out. I'll comment at length in a day or two, after I finish some work on the game theory book I'm teaching from. For now, the Indiana Daily Student and Bloomington Herald-Times and, not as fully, the Indianapolis Star stories have some straight reporting on the controversy. Commentary is available at the Volokh Conspiracy and Crooked Timber. [... permalink 03.09.06a.htm ]

1. HOMOSEXUALITY AND PUBLIC OPINION. Pollingreport.com reports on three Gallup polls, all in 2003: [... permalink 03.09.06b.htm ]

1. THE MARSHALL PLAN AND IRAQ. National Review has a nice Clifford May article on the politics of rebuilding Iraq. He first points out that Germany and France wouldn't want to contribute troops or other personnel to the task. [... permalink 03.09.05a.htm ]

1. STATUS OF CONVICTIONS WHEN AN APPELLANT DIES. The Boston Globe reports: [... permalink 03.09.04a.htm ]

2. JUDGES AND THE DEATH PENALTY. James Taranto's WSJ Best of the Web makes a nice point:

"A federal appeals court overturned more than 100 death sentences in Arizona, Idaho and Montana Tuesday, ruling that condemned inmates in the three states were wrongly sent to death row by judges instead of juries, " the Associated Press reports. But if judges are incompetent to render death sentences, what makes them think they're competent to overturn them?

1. BUSTAMENTE AND MECHA. I guess I should repeat part of my post from August 30. I see plenty of people criticizing Lt.Gov. Bustamante for not renouncing his membership in Mecha. But it's much worse than that: he publicly voices *support* for the group, as Fox News tells us: [... permalink 03.09.03b.htm ]

3. HOMOSEXUAL TEACHERS. Eugene Volokh has a new post on the homosexuals-and-Hindus as schoolteachers issue. This is focussed just on the argument that homosexuals are risky as teachers because they are more likely to molest their students (as opposed to the moral examplar argument, or the parental preference argument). Professor Volokh says, [... permalink 03.09.02a.htm ]

2. BORING BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. Which is the most boring book of the Bible? After some thought, I've decided on Jeremiah, largely on account of its length. How about the most interesting? The Gospels, with Matthew on top in a compromise between length and interest. Then Jonah-- a lot of interest packed into a small space. Then Ecclesiastes, Genesis, and Acts, perhaps. Note that by "interesting" I don't mean "important". [ 03.09.02b.htm ]

1. OFFENSIVE CHRISTIANITY. Somehow I just remembered something Chris Atwood told me, to the following effect, about how not to offend. If you have to mention the spiritual, at least don't mention God. If you have to mention God, at least don't mention Jesus. If you have to mention Jesus, at least don't mention the Crucifixion. And if you have to mention the Crucifixion, at least don't mention blood. Needless to say, the Christian ought to sometimes offend. [ 03.09.02c.htm ]

1. LAND OWNERSHIP IN PALESTINE. One thing I've always wondered about is who owned the land in Palestine before 1948 and who owns it now. I'd be much more concerned over expropriation of private property than over transfer of tax rights from the Ottomans to Britain and then to Israel or Jordan. [... permalink 03.09.01a.htm ]

1. ALLENDE AND CHILE. The web-log Valediction had a good post on Allende and Chile a while back that summarizes his downfall nicely, quoting from left-wing historians. Some excerpts on the question of legitimacy (much of the post is on how Allende wrecked the economy, which is a bit different issue): [... permalink 03.08.31a.htm ]

3. HOMOSEXUALITY AND CHRISTIANITY. The idea that Christianity teaches the homosexuality should be illegal simply because God commanded thus in the Bible needs to be clarified, I see from the postings of Eugene Volokh and Lawrence Solum. They assume that sodomy laws are religiously based, but I don't think that's the case. [... permalink 03.08.30a.htm ]

1. CONSERVATIVE FACTIONS AND BUSH. Gideon's Blog has a good comment on which kinds of conservatives should be happy with President Bush, and which kinds unhappy. He divides them into Catos (whose focus is on limited government), paleos, Christian Right, business, and neo-cons. [more, permalink, 03.08.30b.htm ]

1. PLAME/CIA UPDATE/CORRECTION. UPDATE, AUGUST 29. I regret having gotten caught up in this, given the time it takes, but Mark Kleiman wrote me a good, conscientious email catching me in a mistake and bringing up points I hadn't addressed, so I'll correct and elaborate. Many of the ideas below (though certainly not the conclusions from them, which are usually opposite) are his.

Further details on evidence as to whether Mrs. Wilson is a covert operative for the CIA. Mr. Corn's July 16 article reports that she is "a woman known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm". The July 22 Newsday article says [more]

[... permalink 03.08.29a.htm ]

2. OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING. The State of Indiana has a website on occupations that need licenses. The health ones are: [... permalink 03.08.29b.htm ]

1. More news is available on the Valerie Plame affair, in which Novak revealed that the wife of former ambassador Wilson (who is outraged that the Bush administration didn't believe him when he said that his visit to Niger proved that Iraq didn't try to buy uranium there) works for the CIA. The affair looks more and more like silly Democratic partisanship, though (Wilson is a Democrat.) There seems to be no evidence that Wilson'a wife is a covert operative, as opposed to the far greater number of people who do occasional work or are regular employees of the CIA. No wonder nobody much has picked up on the news. [more]

[... permalink 03.08.28a.htm ]

2. I just thought to check the career of Charles Wilson, the former State Dept. employee who went to Niger, couldn't find anything new, and publicly attacked the Bush Administration for not believing that he'd proved there were no Iraq-Niger contacts about uranium. [... permalink 03.08.28b.htm ]

1. Tyler Cowen notes in the Volokh Conspiracy that

George Liebmann has a provocative idea for making the Middle East a more peaceful place: Offer Palestinians the chance to emigrate to the United States and other Western countries. [... permalink 03.08.27a.htm ]

HOMOSEXUALS AND HINDUS AS TEACHERS. Professor Volokh posts the good question of why Christians object to homosexuals as schoolteachers when they do not object to Hindus, even though idolatry is the greater sin. This isn't too hard to answer, though. [... permalink 03.08.26a.htm ]

AQUINAS ON TOLERATION. Why has the United States had laws against homosexuality, but not against idolatry, a greater sin? ---Because the laws against homosexuality are not motivated by religion. Christians, Jews, atheists, and don't-cares have all generally thought that sodomy was wrong.

It was interesting to me to find out what Thomas Aquinas has to say about laws against non-Christians. [... permalink 03.08.26b.htm ]

THE SEVEN NOACHIDE LAWS. Professor Volokh mentions that some people responded to his post by citing the Noachide Laws. These are commandments which in Judaism apply to non-Jews as well as to Jews. I found a list on the web, which says that these "mitzvot" some from the Talmud--Sanhedrin 58b. [... permalink 03.08.26c.htm ]

WHY DO WE BELIEVE? William James has a good essay, The Will to Believe, which I mentioned in my August 18 post on Al Qaeda. [... permalink 03.08.25a.htm ]

THE ESSENCE OF EPISCOPAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION is the power of bishops over people and property, and there is a close link to episcopal wealth too, which is one reason the Puritans objected to it. The modern American Episcopalians are a good example, not dissimilar to the 18th-century Anglicans whose secular comfort and religious sloppiness lead to the Methodist exodus. Diane Knippers has a good article, "The Anglican Mainstream: It's not where Americans might think," (Weekly Standard, 8/25/2003, 8,47). [... permalink 03.08.24a.htm ]

THE ALABAMA CONSTITUTION is strange. It is too long, like most state constitutions, but what is unusual is that since 1901 it has accumulated 742 amendments. That's right--742. They include "Amendment 739: Promotion of Economic and Industrial Development in Tallapoosa County" and "Amendment 740: Polling Places in Tuscaloosa County". The state has a problem. Folding all the amendments into the main body has been considered as a solution, but there must be something fundamentally wrong. [... permalink 03.08.23a.htm ]

THE RULE OF LAW can vanish without anybody noticing. In America, when law professors say, "rule of law", they ordinarily mean "rule of judges". What this means is that they refuse to acknowledge that what judges say the law is and what the law really is can be different, and that judicial behavior can violate the rule of law.

A case in point is the Judge Moore controversy over the 10 Commandments in Alabama. Judge Moore, of the Alabama Supreme Court, put up the 10 Commandments in his courthouse. Some lawyers objected, and got a federal judge to issue a court order telling Judge Moore to take down the 10 Commandments. He refused. Is he violating the Rule of Law? [... permalink 03.08.22a.htm ]

Is strikes me that LIBERTARIANS HAVE THE BEST WEB-LOGS. This is a refinement of what happens in the journals of opinion, where right-wingers have the best commentators, but where there are witty and bright conservatives as well as libertarians. (Though, there, too, conservatism is in retreat-- cf. National Review's increasing acceptance of modern mores, and the reluctance of commentators to forthrightly defend conservative social positions without retreating to feeble excuses like "It's just my religion.") But I haven't seen many conservative web-logs, and while the ones I have seen are not necessarily less intelligent or interesting than the libertarian ones, they are not maintained as regularly and are not as cheerfully opinionated. I suppose it is the nature of the people most attracted to the Web. Probably there are some good evangelical web-logs I don't know about, though--- evangelicals certainly have taken to the Web for posting religion texts and tracts. [ 03.08.22b.htm ]

Ian Ayres has a neat idea about RECORDING PHONE CONVERSATIONS which he published in a "Why Prosecute Linda Tripp?" New York Times P. A17, col. 1 (August 10, 1999). [... permalink 03.08.21a.htm ]

David Bernstein writes on THE GREAT DEPRESSION in the Volokh Conspiracy: [... permalink 03.08.20a.htm ]

The FOOD CHANNEL is the best thing about having cable TV. Mr. Roker (who I realize now has both the joviality and looks of a black Frank Buckley--- and I might say, the wit and brains, except that I know about scriptwriters-- has one of the best shows. Last night he featured Saxton Freymann, a vegetable artist you can read about in Smithsonian magazine and co-author of How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods and Play With Your Food. That guy has talent! Art is not in decadence; it just isn't featured in museums of modern art. [ 03.08.20b.htm ]

An example of how a third-world country is ahead of the United States in efficient allocation of resources, from World magazine.

Thailand's Communications Minister Suriya Jungrungraungkit is calling the fee for his automobile license plate an investment. Last week he bid $95,200 at the country's first- ever auction of "lucky" license plates, winning the number 9999. (Plate number 5555 drew the second-highest winning bid--$47,619.) The Thai official said the plate will either pay dividends in good luck or in a profitable resale: "This is better than investing in the stock market."

WHY DID AL QAEDA BLOW UP THE WORLD TRADE CENTER? Jack Hirshleifer pointed me to a good article on that question which also says important things about belief and behavior generally: Lee Harris's "Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology" in Hoover's Policy Review. The central point is that Al Qaeda was not engaged in purposeful terror, but in dramatic theatre, and they cared not about the effect on us, but about the effect on themselves. Mr. Harris starts by pointing out a flawed assumption in our thinking: [... permalink 03.08.18a.htm ]

RACIAL INTEGRATION has not had much in the way of policy-driven financial incentives, though the free market provides very strong incentives. Here's an example I like, though, from World magazine:

Black, white, and green
Shreveport, La., pastor Fred Caldwell wants to integrate his predominantly black Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church. So much so that he's offering white persons $5 an hour to attend Sunday services and $10 an hour for Thursday night services. "God wants a rainbow in His church," said the pastor. On Aug. 3, between 30 and 50 whites showed up for Sunday services. Only five asked for the money.

THE EPISCOPALIAN HOMOSEXUAL BISHOP has raised quite a fuss. I like that, but I'm a bit surprised that it is news that the Episcopalians would do such a thing. The denomination has been a liberal front for years. I think the fuss arises because, as I discuss in my July 19 post in connection with divorce, homosexuality violates natural law, not just divine law, and so arouses even people who don't know divine law or don't care about it. (Also, the international Anglican Church has mobilized only in the past few years.) But Mr. Robinson has a disqualification even greater than that of his homosexuality which is hardly ever mentioned: he believes the Bible should be ignored and is willing to say so. [ 03.08.16a.htm ]

Some details on CANADIAN LEGAL PROCEDURE are posted by David Bernstein on the Volokh conspiracy. What struck me is that the "loser pays" rule applies not just to the outcome of the main case, but to all motions that are made. This means that litigants do not try to smother the other side with trivial paperwork. Also, there is a rule that if one side offers a $50,000 settlement and the other side wins, but only wins $30,000, then the *loser* gets his costs paid, at a special high rate, for any costs from the date of the settlement offer. Good ideas! [ 03.08.15a.htm ]

PILGRIMS BEING BLOCKED from holy sites was the cause of the Crusades, and we rightly think that whoever ends up owning the Holy Land ought to allow pilgrims in. But the Israelis are not. They are blocking *Jews and Christians* from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, because the Moslems object. See CNSNews.com on August 7. Maybe we should launch a crusade against Israel.

Isn't it interesting that Israel doesn't simply raze the Dome of the Rock and restore the Temple Mount as a Jewish site? There are religious reasons for not doing that--it would embarass rabbinical Judaism considerably to have to deal with the possibility of a new Temple, animal sacrifices, and so forth, just as it would embarass many Christian churches to have to deal with the Return of Christ-- but that kind of thing happens in India every now and then, it seems. [ 03.08.15b.htm ]

The SHERMAN AUSTIN anarchist website case is interesting as an example of (a) a plea bargain, (b) a judge refusing to go along with a plea bargain, (c) a light sentence for terrorist activity, and (d) the crime of promoting terrorism but not actually acting it out. Sherman Austin posted instructions on how to make bombs on his website and the website said to use them at the IMF and World Bank soon. Judge Charles Wilson thought that the 1 month of prison and 5 months of "community confinement" in the plea bargain were not enough. [more at 03.08.14a.htm ]

I saw a wonderful quip on GERRYMANDERING at the American Prowler website:

Gerry-Rigged Democracy
Political Hay
We have gone from voters choosing their representatives to
representatives choosing their voters.
John H. Fund, 8/13/2003 12:02:00 AM

JOHN DONOHUE'S NEW PAPER, "The Final Bullet in the Body of the More Guns, Less Crime Hypothesis," is worth reading, but disappointing. It starts with this purpose: [... permalink 03.08.12a.htm ]

THE TALMUD is hard to find on the web, but I finally found it at the very useful site www.sacred-texts.com. Why is it so hard to find when Judaism is such a bookish religion, and one that esteems commentary so highly, compared to Christianity, which urges people to study the Bible but puts almost no emphasis on studying commentary? There is a huge number of Christian texts on the web. Is it that Christians mind translation less? But the Talmud is not even in the holy language of Hebrew; it is in Aramaic. Perhaps it is simply that there are so many more English-speaking serious Christians than English-speaking serious Jews, or that Christians care more about spreading their religion. [... permalink 03.08.11a.htm ]

BANS ON LIE DETECTOR TESTS are a great example of not just foolish but wasteful and dangerous government regulation. But to see how useful lie detector tests are, one must not ask scientists or lawyers; one must think about the data like an economist or businessman. (I don't mean to insult scientists and lawyers--but just because all the smart scientists and lawyers agree on something is not a reliable guide to whether it is good policy.) Law professor Instapundit's August 5 posting and the recent National Academy of Sciences report attacking lie detectors are prime examples of this. Using just these two sources and the anti-lie-detector August 3, 2003 Boston Globe story that Instapundit cites (now gone from the free site), we see that lie detectors actually are useful and effective, even without going to pro-lie-detector sources. [... permalink 03.08.10a.htm ]

WHAT IS HELL? It may be relative. However happy you may be now, maybe it is Hell if being with God is good enough. That's the idea of Dante's First Circle (for the virtuous pagans), I think. I saw this expressed well in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, I-iii: [... permalink 03.08.09a.htm ]

A MAJOR FIGURE IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT HAS PLED GUILTY TO A MAJOR FIGURE IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT HAS PLED GUILTY TO AL-QUAEDA. Instapundit pointed me to Geek.com:

An ex-Intel employee who was recently arrested now admits to attempting to aid the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Apparently, Maher "Mike" Hawash, who was instrumental in designing the Multi Media Extension (MMX) technology, admits that he traveled to China in 2001 in an attempt to cross over into Afghanistan, but failed to get to Pakistan. [... permalink 03.08.08a.htm ]

Is there a RIGHT TO DISCRIMINATE on grounds of race? This came up on the Volokh Conspiracy recently. [... permalink 03.08.06b.htm ]

Do we have a RACE PROBLEM IN BLOOMINGTON, or is it everybody who is unsafe, not just blacks? Here's my letter to the local newspaper on something that looked awfully like the build-up to a lynching in downtown Bloomington: [... permalink 03.08.06c.htm ]

ARE THE DOCTRINES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH grounds for disqualification to be a judge, according to the Democrats in the U.S. Senate? Of course. This is a simple question of fact. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that abortion is a sin. The Democratic Party teaches that no one can be a judge who does not believe that the U.S. Constitution grants a right to abortion, and has made the reasonable extension, given the premise, that no one who believes abortion is a sin can be trusted to be a judge. [... permalink 03.08.05a.htm ]

DOES THE CATHOLIC CHURCH think the U.S. Constitution is OK now? Historically, it taught that a good Catholic could not believe that a government was ideal if it tolerated non- Catholic religions or if it ever disobeyed the desires of the Pope. To believe otherwise even had a special name: it was the heresy of "Americanism", so-called because American Catholics found it awkward to take the same anti-democratic position as the Popes. Some excerpts from official papal pronouncements: [... permalink 03.08.05b.htm ]

I'VE BEEN USING MOZILLA instead of Internet Explorer for a few weeks now, and prefer it for various little reasons. The Mozilla people ask for suggestions, and here are mine, which also apply to other browsers:

1. In the main browser window, all the controls the user wants to have handy should be put on one line (one toolbar), not four (including below the displayed webpage), to save more space for the webpage being viewed. The font for the controls should be adjustable so the user can make it very small, to save space. [... permalink 03.08.04a.htm ]

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, the prime minister of Italy, has gotten The Economist magazine very excited--hysterical, even. In its July 31 issue, the editors condemn the new Italian law which exempts prime ministers from prosecution while they are in office. Since he can't be prosecuted now in the courts, they say, they will bring public opinion to bear against him. But looking at just what The Economist itself presents us, it looks to me like The Economist has gone bonkers. [... permalink 03.08.03a.htm ]

POLICE MISCONDUCT would seem to have a fairly simple remedy: punish the policeman who did it. Instead, we seem to have two standard remedies: 1. Let the victim sue the government and get money compensation, and 2. Let the victim go free if he committed a crime. I'll come back to those in a minute, since even if you like those remedies, surely you would add remedy 3: fire the policeman, and remedy 4: put the policeman in jail. (Of course, 3 and 4 would, like 1 and 2, have degrees of severity-- sometimes the policeman would just be suspended for a week and sometimes he would just be fined or put on probation instead of jailed.) [... permalink 03.08.03b.htm ]

HOW DID THE EARLY CHURCH MANAGE to come out with a reasonably strong consensus on orthodox belief? The Gnostics and Judaizers lost out, after all, and notwithstanding the Arian controversy and suchlike subtle issues, the Christianity of the Apostle's Creed seems to have been universal by 300. In Professor Gary Anderson's review of Elaine Pagels' silly new book on gnosticism (in the Weekly Standard), he raises this good question, as well as politely knocking her out of the ring: [... permalink 03.08.01a.htm ]

THE MENTAL DERANGEMENT OF CONSERVATIVES was the subject of a notorious recent article by four professors at top universities. Reading the article is a good start to seeing how worthless it is. James Lindgren, in a letter posted on the Dissecting Leftism web-log points to something that kills the study's credibility for me immediately: [... permalink 03.08.01b.htm ]

THE DINGELL NON-RESIDENT TROUBLEMAKER LETTER really needs to be read in full. The Weekly Standard quotes it ("Boss Dingell, Iraq, Penthouse, and more," 08/04/2003, Volume 008, Issue 45, closed site):

Mr. Connerly:

The people of Michigan have a simple message to you: go home and stay there. We do not need you stirring up trouble where none exists. [... permalink 03.07.31a.htm ]

NORWAY HAS JUDGES just as unjust as American ones, I hear via James Taranto's WSJ Best of the Web. As a Norwegian newspaper tells it:

An Oslo man has had his drunken driving case thrown out of court because overeager police didn't wait until he sobered up to question him. The court rejected the inebriated confession and let the 36-year-old go, newspaper VG reports.

...

Police questioned the Oslo man six hours after the test was taken, when he would still have had a blood alcohol level of about 1.7-1.8 per thousand, which is above the point where people begin to slur their speech.

[ 03.07.30a.htm ]

MARK STEYN's obituary for Idi Amin, He will not be Missed" is not be to be missed. The best part: [... permalink 03.07.29a.htm ]

VALERIE PLAME is the maiden name of the wife of Joseph Wilson, the retired diplomat who attacked the Bush Administration for mentioning Niger uranium. Some web-logs are in a lather because Robert Novak wrote: [... permalink 03.07.28a.htm ]

CHURCH SERVICES can be reviewed, like any activity. The Christianity Today web-log points to two of them, from the London Times and Ship of Fools. The reviews are astonishingly superficial, and give a good picture of how most people feel about church and why atheist pastors thrive. [... permalink 03.07.28b.htm ]

MORE HILARITY FROM MARK STEYN, in "Bush playing his cards right in Iraq": [... permalink 03.07.27a.htm ]

PASCAL'S COMBINATION OF MATHEMATICS, PSYCHOLOGY, AND THEOLOGY should be coming into vogue now that we have things like Indiana University's "School of Infomatics". I came across a very stimulating passage in the Pensees on habit versus deliberation. The theological application is incidental; this idea is just as important in economics: [... permalink 03.07.27b.htm ]

JUDICIAL CORRUPTION strikes again, this time in the Illinois Supreme Court. As the Sun-Times tells us (I tip my hat to David Bernstein guesting at Volokh's web-log)

Setting up a potential constitutional crisis in Illinois, the seven members of the state Supreme Court Thursday ordered state Comptroller Dan Hynes to boost their pay from $158,103 a year to $162,530 a year and to boost the pay of all judges in Illinois by about $4,000 a year. [... permalink 03.07.26b.htm ]

THE NEW YORK CITY CITY COUNCILLOR SHOOTING has some interesting features not widely noted. The basic story is that incumbent city councillor Davis was shot to death in City Hall by semi-serious primary challenger Askew. The two points of interest are the implications for gun control of the concealed guns both were carrying and the homosexuality of Mr. Askew. [... permalink 03.07.25a.htm ]

SHOULD A CHRISTIAN OWN A BMW? I bring this up because yesterday I drove to Louisville and bought a 2003 Mazda Protege Mazdaspeed to replace my 1990 Protege. [... permalink 03.07.25b.htm ]

GOOD COOKING AND GOOD POLITICAL THOUGHT have their similarities. Digby Anderson, who ought to write more than he does, says in his short piece, "Tradition, Self-Restraint and Social Control," [... permalink 03.07.23a.htm ]

THREATS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT are illegal, even though threats against ordinary citizens are not. That is undemocratic and wrong, even when the law is applied only to serious threats. [... permalink 03.07.22a.htm ]

THE TAWDRINESS OF EUROPEAN POLITICIANS is surveyed in a piece by Mr. Stuttaford in today's National Review [... permalink 03.07.22b.htm ]

NATURAL VERSUS DIVINE LAW was my subject a few days ago. I didn't have citations, but here are some from the Revised Standard Version. [... permalink 03.07.21a.htm ]

A NUMBER OF HISTORIANS filed a brief in the Lawrence sodomy case before the Supreme Court. It turns out to be false in several statements of fact, as shown by the comments following it at the History News Network site. [... permalink 03.07.20a.htm ]

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH and conservatives are appalled by the idea of homosexual marriages, and rightly so. It is a weird idea, akin to house-man marriages--- that is, the terms in the phrase just don't fit together. What it means, of course, is the elevation of a certain kind of homosexual relationship to the same level of government approval as marriage. But what interests at me at the moment is why it is this issue which is exciting attention, rather than, say no-fault divorce, which has had such a deleterious effect on the family and society that "gay marriage" has little left to kill. [... permalink 03.07.19a.htm ]

MARK STEYN has scored another hit with his column on European integration, "There was a European, a European and a European . . ." A sample paragraph:

Under the convention's proposals, a new European Trait Commissioner will be given the authority to break down trait barriers within the EU and correct regional imbalances. "Mr Berlusconi, for example, would benefit from being more Finnish and dour, or if necessary Swedish and suicidal." [ 03.07.18a.htm ]

Instapundit points out a CBS story on FBI incompetence. Translator Sibel Edmonds complained about purposeful slackness and a Turkish spy, and was fired. Senator Grassley has been investigating. [... permalink 03.07.17a.htm ]

JOE LIBERMAN was actually once thought to have more integrity than most politicians--- hard to believe, isn't it? But he's moved into more than just abandoning his religion for his campaign, as the American Prowler notes:

For example, both of the Lieberman children who are on the campaign are earning six- figure salaries. While it's fairly common for candidates of all ilk to bring family on board, the Lieberman payouts were surprisingly excessive for a man who prides himself on watching the bottom line.

Where did the forgeries come from? [... permalink 03.07.15a.htm ]

IRAQ DID NOT, IT SEEMS, PURCHASE URANIUM from Niger. Democrats therefore say that President Bush is a liar. But they are lying themselves, as a Clifford May tells us in National Review, because that is not what Bush said. What he said in his State of the Union address was: [... permalink 03.07.14a.htm ]

GOING TO CHURCH is neglected by many people who call themselves Christians. That is a mistake. If you really wish to serve God (a big if, admittedly), then you should realize that churchgoing provides at least a minimal amount of each of several things you should be doing weekly. These are things it's pretty hard to argue with, no matter what your variety of Christianity (as opposed to, say, Communion, the need for which is debated). [... permalink 03.07.13a.htm ]

ROTTEN ORGANIZATIONS do not indicate their rottenness so much by operational problems as by the way they deal with the problems, and, in particular, how they punish those to blame. A case in point is Brooklyn College. The Johnson tenure case shows that the history department is thoroughly corrupt, but that does not by itself indicate that the college is corrupt as a whole. The best organizations have the occasional problem. But if it is a good organization, the problem is precisely the occasion on which its quality is revealed. [... permalink 03.07.12a.htm ]

JUDICIAL SUBVERSION of the Constitution is old news, I guess, but Eugene Volokh points out a particularly egregious case by the Nevada Supreme Court. The Nevada state legislature was deadlocked and hadn't authorized state spending-- a not uncommon problem in legislative brinkmanship, and one that has often happened before in Nevada. Also, the state constitution (a) requires the state to fund public schools, and (b) has a 2/3 requirement for enacting tax increases. What the Court did in Guinn v. The Legislature , with just one dissent, was to order the legislature to fund the state government immediately rather than wait until the start of the new fiscal year, and to do it by ignoring the 2/3 requirement needed for new taxes. They do this quite baldly. Rather than hint that they won't object if the Legislature violates the 2/3 requirement they command the Legislature to ignore it-- a command presumably enforceable by jailing the legislators indefinitely for contempt until they obey the Court's order: [... permalink 03.07.11a.htm ]

DEFINING "HUMAN" is not easy and it matters. Whose death can be murder? Who counts in the utilitarian or Pareto calculus? Who has a soul that can be lost or saved? I just came across a 1997 posting by Dean Sherwood that introduces a new angle: the human as property-owner and contract-maker. [... permalink 03.07.10a.htm ]

SODOMY LAWS are an example of morality laws. Libertarians oppose such laws,which also include laws against such things as private racial discrimination, drug use, cannibalism, cruelty to animals, adultery, and prostitution. The American intelligentsia is confused on this, leaning libertarian when it comes to anything to do with sexual behavior but remaining against drugs and discrimination against blacks. What is interesting is the weakness of the conservative press on morality. I had thought an important element of conservative thought was that virtue is one of the ends of government, or at least an important means to the end of happiness. Plato and Aristotle, and, indeed, almost everyone would have thought so at one time. But even the awareness of virtue as a possible end has vanished for many people. [... permalink 03.07.09a.htm ]

PRAYER IN SCHOOLS is supposed to have really bothered certain atheists. But did it really? If people are really bothered, they start pulling their kids out of the public schools and home-schooling them or starting private schools. Catholics did this on a large scale, during the period of school prayer-- because there weren't *enough* prayers, and not of the right kind. Nowadays, evangelicals do this on a large scale too, partly for the same reason and partly because they rightly believe that the public schools teach immorality as much as morality. Clearly, religious people care a lot about education. [... permalink 03.07.08a.htm ]

POOR EUROPE. One of the best articles I've seen on its problems is "Old and in the Way," by Karl Zinnsmeister, American Enterprise, December 2002. [... permalink 03.07.07a.htm ]

INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE and adoption are still surprisingly controversial. Human Events mentions an interesting fact in an article pointing out that William Pryor, the Bush judicial nominee accused by Democratic senators of being a racist, is supported by Alabama Democratic legislator Alvin Holmes as one of the bravest non-racists in the state: [... permalink 03.07.06a.htm ]

WHAT DO WOODROW WILSON AND GEORGE W. BUSH have in common? They both aggravated the French with their attitudes in the same way. Philippe Roger's 2002 book, The American Enemy (L'Ennemi Americain) reports that the French conservative Maurras said [... permalink 03.07.05a.htm ]

APOPHATICALLY is a word not in any on-line dictionaries I checked, but useful nonetheless. It means discovering by the via negativa of saying what something is not, rather than what it is.

In the apophatic (or negative) way ... one approaches God by stripping away all concepts, definitions, and adjectives which would seem to "confine" the infinity of divinity in order to stand in utterly open prayer before the Holy Trinity. ( "Connections to the World of Orthodoxy" ) [ 03.07.05b.htm ]

IT'S THE FOURTH OF JULY, so let me think of some good things about America. [... permalink 03.07.04a.htm ]

ADVICE TO PARENTS is usually unwanted, but I was inspired to write some down. This is applicable to children in the 1-4-year-old range. [... permalink 03.07.04b.htm ]

BEING A SOLDIER IN IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN is dangerous, but a soldier's chances of death in action are still trivial. [... permalink 03.07.04c.htm ]

THE SUPREME COURT'S ARROGANCE in the Lawrence sodomy case is the subject of a good National Review piece by Jonathan Cohn. [... permalink 03.07.03a.htm ]

JUDICIAL TEMPERAMENT is important. But I see that it can be entirely misperceived. Via Romesh Ponnuru at National Review, I discovered that July 2 Andrew Sullivan writes of judicial temperament, [... permalink 03.07.02a.htm ]

It is easy when writing a scholarly piece to keep adding notes as new thoughts occur to one or as new sources come to one's attention. But at the end one should go back and interrogate every note carefully, asking: Is this a qualification or continuation or amplification of the text, and if so can it be worked into the text so that the flow of discussion is not broken? Is it a minor point that can be dropped without impairing the integrity of the work? Can it be consolidated with another note? [ 03.07.01a.htm ]

ADMINISTRIVIA IS A POTENT TOOL for destroying policies one dislikes. The Left has used cumbersome procedures as a pillow to suffocate the death penalty despite its strong public support. It should be even easier to use administrivia to wreck policies that are publicly unpopular, and have been imposed by runaway courts. Affirmative action is a good example. O'Connor's Grutter majority opinion [... permalink 03.06.30a.htm ]

WHY FIRMS PAY DIVIDENDS has long been a puzzle in finance theory, since then shareholders must pay taxes on the dividends, whereas if company retained the earnings and the shareholders just sold shares, they could get the same amount and pay less in taxes. Even putting aside taxes, why should a firm EVER pay dividends? [... permalink 03.06.28a.htm ]

PLESSY V. FERGUSON is the celebrated Supreme Court decision that declared that segregation was lawful so long as it was "separate but equal". This was interpreted to mean that, for example, segregated schools were lawful so long as the school qualities were equal. They weren't, of course, so Southern school systems were in violation even of existing law in, say, the 1920's, but for many years nobody challenged them in court. In the 1940's, they started to, and Southern states started to hurriedly upgrade their black colleges, knowing they'd lose lawsuits otherwise.

The lesson for today? That American universities will engage in racial discrimination that is illegal even under our tolerant Supreme Court unless they are challenged in court. [... permalink 03.06.25a.htm ]

EDWARD SAID'S VIEW OF ORIENTALISM, like anything he wrote, should be suspect, since his dishonesty is well known (is "honesty" perhaps a Western concept-- but we must include ancient Israel in that West?). A good demolition job is Keith Windschuttle's "Edward Said�s `Orientalism revisited' '' in The New Criterion (17, 5, January 1999). Said's three big claims are that (a) Orientalist scholarship was a crucial motivation and means for Western imperialism, (b) Western countries needed the East as an "other" for their own cultural self- definition, and (c) Orientalists mischaracterized Islamic culture, which is too diverse to be captured as a unified culture. [... permalink 03.06.23a.htm ]

SCRIPTURAL COMMENTARY used to include a lot of allegory, but not in the past few centuries. I was surprised to see Erasmus, one of the moderns, supporting it ... [... permalink 03.06.22a.htm ]

CHECKING FOR BROKEN LINKS is a good process to automate. Xenu's Link Sleuth , by Tilman Hausherr, is good freeware for that. His writing style is superb, too, in the specialized genre of information about software---he actually makes it interesting to read, with his concise bullet lists, tangential discussion of Scientology, comparisions with similar software, and so forth.

Have I fixed the broken links in my own webpages lately? No... after I finish those pesky referee reports and get my presentation ready for the conference next week, maybe, ... [ 03.06.21a.htm ]

BUDDHISM is really an entire array of religions. World magazine has a good series of Olsavky articles on early Buddhism, bodhisattvas the Japanese Tendai, Zen, and Nichiren sects, and the Pureland sect. [... permalink 03.06.20a.htm ]

HISTORY FRAUD seems to be rampant in that academic profession. Erin O'Connor's June 19 blog is about a new book, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History by Keith Windschuttle. [... permalink 03.06.19a.htm ]

INNOCENT PEOPLE WILL DIE if we make killing them pay well enough. [... permalink 03.06.18a.htm ]

THE FLYNN EFFECT is the huge increase in average performance on intelligence tests from 1920 to 1995. [... permalink 03.06.17a.htm ]

THE NEW EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION is further evidence of European decadence. David Frum writes on June 15 of former French president Valery Giscard D�Estaing, [ 03.06.16b.htm ]

THE DEATH PENALTY is extremely popular in the United States, where liberal politicians have learned that overt opposition to it is fatal to their chances of elected office, yet it is extremely unpopular with American and European intellectuals. The Economist has review of Franklin Zimring 's new book, The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment . [... permalink 03.06.15a.htm ]

EDITING POETRY is a task made difficult by the modern notion that writing poetry is trivially easy, as easy for a pre-schooler as for Pushkin. [... permalink 03.06.14a.htm ]

MORE NUGGETS FROM DANIEL PIPES'S BOOK, Militant Islam Reaches America: [... permalink 03.06.13a.htm ]

IS AN IDEOLOGICAL TEST DESIRABLE for candidates for public office? [... permalink 03.06.11a.htm ]

DANIEL PIPES'S BOOK, Militant Islam Reaches America, will probably make it to my Christmas Recommendation List this year. Although it is a thinly disguised compilation of his journalism, there is a common theme: Islamism is a new political ideology that is dangerous in all its forms but downplayed by governments and press. [... permalink 03.06.09a.htm ]

AMERICANS HAVE BEEN GETTING FATTER for a long time. A recent working paper, "Why Have Americans Become More Obese," by Cutler, Glaeser, and Shapiro has a nice analysis. During about 1900- 1950, American calories consumed actually fell, but people were working in more and more sedentary occupations, and so weight rose. Since then, the main problem has been not reduced physical movement, but-- and here is the author's contribution--- increased snacking. From roughly the 70's to the 90's, people didn't eat many more calories at mealtime (even though there was a shift from home to restaurant dining), but they ate a lot more snacks. [ 03.05.31a.htm ]

HAS ANYONE NOTICED something strange about the South and Presidential races? Memories linger of a Republican "Southern Strategy" of appealing to white Southern voters despite the losses that entail among black Northern voters. But in fact, until 2000, Southern whites were unimportant to the Republicans, while Northern blacks were highly significant. [... permalink 03.05.27a.htm ]

A FALLACY OF REGRESSION TO THE MEAN is nicely illustrated, I think by something in the Chronicle of Higher Education's May 16 daily briefing [... permalink 03.05.26a.htm ]

IN FOREIGN RELATIONS, who are the winners and who are the losers from Gulf War II? We Americans have been focussing on America, Iraq, and France, and I've seen a little attention given to Britain and Poland. Instapundit picked up on a perceptive article by Michael Mertes that explains how German is actually the biggest loser next to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. [... permalink 03.05.25a.htm ]

OUR LOCAL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION STORY has made National Review:

Dillon, overcoming months of foot-dragging by the university by filing a state public access complaint, pried loose from the Law School the data on admissions from 1990 to 1999. The results are indeed extraordinary. As Dillon explains, "For each year for almost a decade, the average black student offered admission had an LSAT score of roughly the 30th percentile nationally, while the average non-minority admit had an LSAT score in roughly the 80th percentile." In view of this 50-point gap, what is "race" in UI Law School admissions if not "determinative?" And if claiming an African- American identity does not "necessarily" count more than any other factor, what other factor makes up for a 50-percentile point deficit on the LSAT?

BUSH'S DIPLOMACY seems to have achieved what that of previous Presidents could not: it has persuaded Syria to shut down the offices it allowed terrorist groups to publicly flaunt. As the Guardian says,

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Doorbells and phones went unanswered at the Damascus offices of Palestinian militant groups the United States accuses of terrorism. Instead of veteran campaigners ready to rail against Israel for hours, visitors were greeted by posters of Palestinian ``martyrs'' on the walls outside - and silence. All signs pointed to what neither the Palestinians nor the Syrians will acknowledge: Syria has bowed to U.S. pressure and curbed the radicals it has hosted for years. Reached at home Tuesday, Ahmed Jibril, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, confirmed that his group and nine others have closed their Damascus offices, but refused to say why.

CUBA UNDER CASTRO has in no sense been a success story. Sometimes you hear people say that although GDP has not done so well, Cuba has good social services. That is plausible, because a country can get good social services (and a good army) by taxing away everything else. But it turns out that although the army is no doubt much bigger than under Batista, pre-Castro Cuba *already* had strikingly good living conditions, as I discover from Brad DeLong via Instapundit:

Just because people begin their papers with quotes from Ludwig von Mises does not automatically mean that they are wrong:

http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/asce/cuba8/30smith.pdf

http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/asce/pdfs/volume12/perezlopez.pdf

The hideously depressing thing is that Cuba under Battista--Cuba in 1957--was a developed country. Cuba in 1957 had lower infant mortality than France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had doctors and nurses: as many doctors and nurses per capita as the Netherlands, and more than Britain or Finland. Cuba in 1957 had as many vehicles per capita as Uruguay, Italy, or Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had 45 TVs per 1000 people--fifth highest in the world. Cuba today has fewer telephones per capita than it had TVs in 1957. [more, 03.05.20b.htm ]

BACK FROM TOWING A U-HAUL with furniture and books from my parents' farm in Illinois, I found a great quote about Clinton, Nixon, Kennedy, and presidential morality in Jay Nordlinger's column on National Review:

It's September 1998, and Clinton is conducting a cabinet meeting. Donna Shalala, the health and human services secretary, has the temerity to say, Surely, Mr. President, a president has some obligation to provide moral leadership. Clinton wheels on her, furious, and says, By that logic, you'd have preferred Richard Nixon in 1960 to John Kennedy.

THE FILIBUSTER is an example of the kind of lovable tradition that is so much a part of the English and American political systems, like the New Hampshire primary being first and the Democratic and Republican parties alternating whose convention comes first. This kind of tradition depends on fair play and reciprocity, though. The Democrats have innovated by using the filibuster to establish a veto on routine appellate court nominations. As many have noted, including Professor Eastman in National Review, the filibuster is not only not in the Constitution; it pretty clearly can be overturned by a majority of senators at any time. Just as the Senate of 2000 cannot pass a law that says that future Senates cannot ever pass a tax increase, so no Senate can pass a law saying that future Senates cannot end debate except by a 60% vote.

The filibuster, like the New Hampshire primary, has survived because it has been tolerated--as part of "playing fair". Now the Democrats have stopped playing fair. The obvious response is for the Republicans to retaliate by adhering to the letter of the Constitution, especially since that will also preserve its spirit, and to go further by ending the filibuster for everything, not just for nominations.

The Democrats would not have done this if they had foreseen that response. Rather, they expect the Republicans to either (a) acquiesce, or (b) return to the status quo, by passing a rule that nominations are not subject to filibuster. In case (a), the Democrats have succeeded marvelously. In case (b), they are no worse off than before. Thus, this was probably a smart, if immoral, move.

It is curious that the Democrats pursue this strategy in domestic politics, while eschewing it for foreign policy; and the Republicans do the opposite. Saddam Hussein tossed out the weapons inspectors in the hope that either (a) Clinton would acquiesce, or (b) Clinton would threaten war, and Saddam could back down and be no worse off than before. Clinton's response was to acquiesce. [... permalink 03.05.15a.htm ]

Jonah Goldberg brought up an example of this today-- students in the Bakke case:

Or recall the profile of Patrick Chavis, a black doctor who had been admitted to the UC Davis Medical School under the race-quota scheme that rejected Allan Bakke. Bakke, of course, sued and the result was the Bakke decision now under review by the Supreme Court. In a 1995 article, "What Happened to the Case for Affirmative Action," Nicholas Lemann, a writer as talented as he is liberal, contrasted the two doctors. Chavis was a heroic obstetrician working in Compton. Bakke was a mediocrity toiling in obscurity in Minnesota. Giving Chavis an opportunity � according to Lemann and the activists and politicians who rallied to the article � was a boon not only to Chavis but to the community, the nation, humanity, indeed all carbon-based life forms. Alas, two years after the article appeared, the Medical Board of California suspended his medical license, partly on account of Chavis's "inability to perform some of the most basic duties required of a physician." Chavis was found to have been guilty of gross negligence and incompetence in three cases; the judge overseeing his case ruled that letting Chavis "continue in the practice of organized medicine will endanger the public health, safety and welfare."

PATRIOTISM IS SOMETHING nobody seems to want to be admit lacking. I think patriotism is a virtue, but to be consistent, I think many other people should not. Take those people who thought Gulf War II was an unjust war. If asked, "Did you want Iraq to win?", how should they answer? If they answer, "Yes," they are being unpatriotic. If they answer, "No," then they are ascribing to the maxim, "My country, right or wrong." That is fine, but I'd like to see them acknowledge that they agree with the concept. [ 03.05.10a.htm ]

Britain was justified, of course, but that does not alter the fact that this was a pre- emptive war against Germany, started by Britain not because of any imminent threat from Germany, but out of fear that without a war in 1939, Germany would be strong enough to beat Britain five or so years later. And, indeed, Germany's U-boat program was not ready yet, having been scheduled for a later war. [... permalink 03.05.09a.htm ]

That thought was stimulated by John Derbyshire 's National Review column, "Confessions of a Metropolitan Conservative". Here is the part of it that poses the key question:

"Ah," she said, in the tone of someone who has just had her worst expectations confirmed, "that's typical of you National Review types! Milk and water conservatives! You talk a good game, but when it comes down to it, you're just another bunch of metropolitan liberals!" I was thinking about this all the next day. The lady had a point, of course. I seriously doubt there is anyone at National Review who would vote for a sodomy law. None of those NR writers who have declared on the matter have come out in support of such laws. That is not the same thing as saying that a state should not be permitted to have such laws, if the people of that state want them. We are mostly Tenth Amendment, strict- construction types here at NR, and I'm guessing that my position on the constitutional point is widely shared. We don't want to lock up homosexuals, though. Now, 43 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll last May said that homosexual relations between consenting adults should not be legal. So the uncomfortable question arises: If we NR-niks are to the left of 43 percent of Americans on this issue, just what kind of conservatives are we?

This is not the only situation where the Republican party has shown timidity. I suppose it has something to do with its conformist, don't-rock-the-boat instincts. Or perhaps it is the idea of playing by the rules--- even if the other side does not. Or perhaps it is the lack of ideology of the Republican leadership in most areas--and in the Senate in particular-- combined with the strong ideology of the Democratic leadership. [... permalink 03.05.06a.htm ]

[May 13: I wasn't the only one to think of this...]

"We haven't found Saddam Hussein or his sons either. Does that mean they never existed? "--Best of the Web Today, April 14 " 'We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet,' says a senior Bush administration official. 'Does that mean he didn't exist? ' "-- Newsweek, May 19 issue [... permalink 03.05.05a.htm ]

BILL BENNETT"S GAMBLING is an interesting story. He is a rich man who thinks many things are sinful, but, typical of Catholics, not gambling, and he does gamble large sums several times a year. The best article is Jonah Goldberg's in National Review, which says,

"But the biggest reason I find these Bennett articles so troublesome is what they reveal about the kind of society we 're building. Hypocrisy is bad, but it's not the worst vice in the world. If I declared "murder is wrong" and then killed somebody, I would hope that the top count against me would be homicide, not hypocrisy. Liberal elites -- particularly in Hollywood -- believe that hypocrisy is the gravest sin in the world, which is why they advocate their own lifestyles for the entire world: Sleep with whomever you want, listen to your own instincts, be true to yourself, blah, blah, blah. Our fear of hypocrisy is forcing us to live in a world where gluttons are fine, so long as they champion gluttony."

DIVERSITY sounds like a good thing in education. But so does uniformity. I hear lots of complaints from professors that it is hard to teach a class because the students differ so much in ability. It is easier to teach all smart students or all stupid students than a mix, which is one reason required courses are tougher to teach--- they get a random sample of abilities.

I actually have never heard a professor say a class was hard to teach because the students were not diverse. The closest is perhaps years ago when I heard Arthur Miller of Harvard Law say that the class dynamics changed a lot if he had even one or two outspoken conservative students in the class. I don't remember if he thought the change was for the better or not. [ 03.05.05c.htm ]