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05.20a Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy, and Junk Science. There's been some discussion on the Volokh Conspiracy on Brown v. Board of Education, which just had its 50th anniversary, so I thought I'd organize my thoughts on that case. The opinion itself is silly and even its main argument is high dubious. I think it was probably rightly decided, but for a completely different reason, unmentioned in the opinion: that the "separate but equal" rule had proved itself unworkable, and the only practical way to get equal treatment was to forbid segregation. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.20a.htm]


05.19a Evolution and Old Age; Alagalans and Baragarans. I was just realizing that Fitness can be increased in two ways, not just one. The naive view is that an animal is more fit if it survives longer. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.19a.htm]


05.19b McCarthyism and Kerryism. It has been well publicized by now that when he returned from Vietnam John Kerry made wild, false, and slanderous accusations that the U.S. army committed atrocities in Vietnam. I just realized that this has considerable similarity to the accusations by Joseph McCarthy back in the 1950's. Both men made undocumented allegations of widespread severe misconduct, allegations which seemed improbable but which would be major scandals, not just in themselves but because they implied cover-up by the Administration. ... [permalink: 04.05.19b.htm]


05.19c The Falsity of Three Vietnam Images-- the Napalmed Running Girl, Shooting the Vietcong Prisoner, "Destroy the Village". Mona Charen's book, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First reports from B. G. Burkett's Stolen Valor that these three images are all misleading ... ... [permalink: 04.05.19c.htm]


05.19d Mona Charen on Nicaragua in the 1980's: The "Dear Comandante" Letter from 10 Congressmen. Mona Charen's book, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First has a good description of the liberal love affair with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.19d.htm]


05.18a More on Johnson. Comments on my May 18 post on patriotism.


05.18b The Geneva Convention and Interrogation. The Wal l Street Journal makes the interesting point that it is a violation of the Geneva Convention to interrogate enemy prisoners *at all*-- whether using force or not. Under the Geneva Convention, soldiers are not to be asked about past or present military operations. They are not like civilian criminals; you cannot say, "We'll let you go if you tell us who was the mastermind behind the operation and where he is hiding." ... ... [permalink: 04.05.18b.htm]


05.17a Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel"; Wilkes; Kerry. In the American Spectator, James Bowman writes ... [permalink: 04.05.17a.htm]


05.17b CAIR-Farah-Hamas. Joseph Farah has more on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the subject of my May 12 post. Apparently, it has close links to the Hamas terrorist group. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.17b.htm]


05.17c Oppression in the Netherlands--Old Man Prosecuted for Shooting a Robber. Clayton Cramer directs us to the prosecution by the Netherlands of an old man who shot and killed one of four armed robbers. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.17c.htm]


05.16a Wesley: Our Joy in a Created Good; Temporal Beauty and Impermanence; Poems About Jonah; Tying Up Trees with Benjamin. I finally returned to my Jonah webpage, and added five poems by various people. The best by far is by the Wesleys. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.16a.htm]


05.15a Mosteller on Teaching Statistics. Frederick Mosteller was (is?) a famous statistician whose article, Frederick Mosteller, "Classroom and Platform Performance,"The American Statistician, February 1980, Vol. 34, No.1, pp. 11-17, is posted on Edward Tufte's website. Here are some of his ideas on teaching... ... [permalink: 04.05.15a.htm]


05.14a Piercing the Veil of Stated Purpose To Find Meaning in Power Allocation; The U.S. Supreme Court; The UN Human Rights Commission; Does Kerry Favor the Destruction of Israel?; The UN-Iraq Food For Oil Scam. A procedure I have found very useful when somebody proposes a rule for some good purpose is to ask who gets to enforce the rule and what would happen if they chose to follow their own purposes instead of the stated purpose. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.14a.htm]


05.13b Conservative Judicial Activism; Ten Possible Conservative Rulings; Barnett v. Bainbridge. I don't see how anyone can pretend that the conventional theory of constitutional interpretation is intellectually respectable, or even coherent. Roe v. Wade is the best example: ... ... [permalink: 04.05.13b.htm]


05.13a Criminal Soldiers: Iraq, Okinawa, Belgian and Canadian UN Troops in Somalia. It is foolish to talk of Rumsfeld resigning or Bush apologizing on account of the misconduct of the U.S. prison guards in Iraq (I think Bush already has apologized, but it was foolish of him to do so). It certainly sounds like severe misconduct, and I might not even mind it if the culprits went before a firing squad after a court-martial. Certainly they should be punished, and quickly. Moreover, their superiors, even if they had no knowledge of the particular incidents, should be demoted. And the combat unit-- the regiment or whatever-- should be disbanded in disgrace. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.13a.htm ]


05.12a The Council on American-Islamic Relations; The Bloomington Mosque. How can we know whether American Moslems are pro-American or anti-American? More generally, how can we know whether they favor atrocities or oppose them? The most prominent organization seems to be the Council on American- Islamic Relations. ... ... [permalink: 04.05.12a.htm]


05.11a Chinese English on a Jujube Package. While I was at the American Law and Economics Association conference, my wife and children went to Chinatown and bought me a present, which said this on the package: ... ... [permalink: 04.05.11a.htm]


05.11b Israel's 1981 Pre-emptive Strike on Iraq. The Wall Street Journal editors remind us that in their June 10, 1981 article, "Mourning the Bomb", they were right to praise Israel for attacking Iraq and everybody else, including the Reagan Administration, was wrong. How can liberals keep giving stern foreign policy advice when they're wrong time after time? Stalin, Castro, Mao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Rwanda, Iraq, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Arafat, Al Qaeda, ... I can think of only one example of conservatives being wrong: South Africa is doing fine under black rule. Everywhere else, history vindicates conservatives, often showing their warnings to be in, fact, much too mild. ... [permalink: 04.05.11b.htm]


05.10a University Wireless Security. I've not been posting for a few days because of grading here at IU and because ... [permalink: 04.05.10a.htm]


05.10b Hansmann: Why Are Companies Organized As Generic Corporations? One good talk at the American Law and Economics Association conference was Henry Hansmann's Presidential Address. Knowing the rotten acoustics in Northwestern Law School's Atrium from a past ALEA conference, I made sure to sit only eight feet from the podium this time. Thus, I learned at least these two things: ... ... [permalink: 04.05.10b.htm]


05.05a Things are tough this week. I actually missed May 4 without noticing it, busy grading and preparing for three different papers, on auctions, options, and tortious interference that I'm presenting soon. It seems as if we in academia like grand climaxes-- why else do we not schedule conference for the middle of the summer, when we're less busy?

At any rate,here are a few links to think about:

"O il for Terror by Claudia Rosett at NRO

Reasons Why Mrs. Gorelick Should Resign-- it's odd that the 9-11 Commission would find one of its Commissioners the chief culprit, isn't it?

Why Not Let the Top Seeds Pick Their Opponents? by Stuart Benjamin at the Volokh Conspiracy.

A list of Heather MacDonald articles. This is a reporter worth reading.

Paul Weyrich, at the American Spectator, on human connection and sympathy in reporting, with special reference to the recently deceased Mary McGrory. It's hard to be unfair to someone you know.

... [permalink: 04.05.05a.htm]


05.03a Two Aphorisms. Hearing Professor Leflar on mistakes at the Champaign conference on Japanese law, I thought of this:
"To err is human; to forgive is, professional courtesy"
Professor Port quoted someone as saying,
"How do I know what I think till I see what I say?" ... [ 04.05.03a.htm]


05.03b Jury Nullification. Professor Hoffman talked about whether Japan should reintroduce criminal juries, rather than just having judges decide cases. One oddity of our jury system is that one purpose--perhaps the main purpose-- is "jury nullification"-- the idea that juries provide a check on unjust laws and interpretations of laws by judges because the jury can always refuse to let the power of the state be used to oppress someone.... ... [permalink: 04.05.03b.htm]


05.03c Japan's Constitution and Article 9 on the Self- Defense Force. Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan says ... ... [permalink: 04.05.03c.htm]


05.02b Faith and Perception; Jonathan Edwards; Pastor Whitaker; The Book of Hebrews. Pastor Whitaker's sermon today was one of his best. It was on Hebrews 11:1:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.... [permalink: 04.05.02b.htm ]




05.02a Polls and Support for Incumbents. I am trying to track down the factoid that after US election more people say they voted for the incumbent than actually did. This is not incompatible, I guess, with polls saying they would not vote to re-elect him but then re-electing him anyway, which seems to happen in America and which Michael Barone in US News says is standard in Britain: ... ... [permalink: 04.05.02a.htm]


05.01a Tom Ginsburg's Japanese Law Conference in Champaign. CORRECTED, MAY 11. The University of Illinois School of Law conference on Japanese Law was a great success. John Haley and I kicked it off by debating the degree of independence of the Japanese judiciary... ... [permalink: 04.05.01a.htm]

04.29a The Death Penalty in Japan and the United States. I'd been meaning for a while to look this up, and since I have a conference on Japanese law coming up, this is a good time. Japan and the United States both make active use of the death penalty, unlike the European Union. The statistics are interesting... ... [permalink: japdeathpenalty.htm]

04.28a Paragraph Indentation in HTML. I've just learned how to do paragraph indentation in HTML. ... ... [permalink: 04.04.28a.htm]

04.28b Capitalization Rules for Titles. I recommend the NIVA, Inc. Writer's Block site, Writing Tips. It has a page on the Subjunctive and one on Capitaliz ation in Titles.... ... [permalink: capitalization.htm ]

04.27a The Affirmative Action Loyalty Oath at UCLA Medical School. Steve Sailer reports that applicants to UCLA Medical School must sign the goopy-sounding commitment to diversity to be found in full here... ... [permalink: 04.04.27a.htm]


04.26a IQ Scores in Different Countries. I just came across the book, IQ and the Wealth of Nations, by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen (Praeger, 2002). Table 6.1 on page 60 has a summary of IQs in 81 countries... ... [permalink: 04.04.26a.htm]

04.25c Naturalism in Philosophy: Quentin Smith. I started an intriguing but difficult article by Quentin Smith, "The Metaphilosophy of Naturalism". In his introduction, he says that naturalism has lost its underpinnings and has been displaced from the frontier of philosophy over the past thirty years. ... [permalink: 04.04.25c.htm]

04.25b Philosophical Justifiction and Defeaters; My Concealment Paper. Quentin Smith's "The Metaphilosophy of Naturalism" has some good discussion of method in philosophical argument. I may find this useful for my paper on God's concealment of his existence. ... ... [permalink: 04.04.25b.htm]

04.25a Planned Parenthood's Hostility to Marriage and Religion. Return of the Primitive refers us to a Planned Parenthood website lampooning religion and marriage as bad things: ... ... [permalink: 04.04.25a.htm ]

04.23a Good Character in Politicians; George W. Bush. Peggy Noonan has a good illustration of the importance of character in politicians:... ... [permalink: 04.04.23a.htm]

04.23b Unincorporation Conference. Steve Bainbridge mentions the University of Illinois conference on "Unincorporation" this weekend looks interesting. The papers are on the web, too, at here . Hansmann and Kraakman on "THE NEW ENTITIES IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE," sounds especially good for an outsider like me. ... [permalink: 04.04.23b.htm]

04.22a Derbyshire on "Diversity" as an Empty Idea. John Derbyshire and Peter Wood note that "diversity" has come to be accepted as a self-evident good without ever passing through a stage at which someone made even a feeble intellectual case for it.... ... [permalink: 04.04.22a.htm]

04.21a "Any More" versus "Anymore". Which usage is better came up in G492 yesterday, and I told the students I wasn't sure. I found a good webpage on it, though, "Anymore" and "any more" by Bob Cunningham. He says that educated opinion is divided on what to do, saying that three alternatives are (1) "Anymore" is always wrong,(2) "Any More" and "Anymore" are interchangeable, and ... ... [permalink: 04.04.21a.htm]

04.20a Lehman's Arab Male Fine Question-9.11 Commission. I have long been puzzled by why supposed defenders of civil liberties do not object ... ... [permalink: 04.04.20a.htm]

04.19a Kerry's Mysterious $500,000 Painting Investment; Two Major Mistakes in Kerry's Tax Return; Reasons for Politicians to Release Tax Returns. Senator Kerry's 2003 tax return , though not his wife's, has been made public. He made two mistakes, which resulted in underpayments of about $11,000 and $2,000, and his biggest source of income was the capital gain on the sale of a $500,000 investment in a painting. ... ... [permalink: 04.04.19a.htm]

04.19b Kerry's Charity; A Research Idea; Regression Analysis Looking at Tax Returns of Politicians from Safe Seats. The York article "How Did He Make That Money? Questions about the senator�s book and art deals": discusses Senator Kerry's political contributions. They were small when he was just senator from a safely Democratic state, but increased markedly as he became a Presidential prospect. ... ... [permalink: 04.04.19b.htm]

04.18a Perry Miller on Jonathan Edwards; Making God in Our Own Image; God's Morality versus Ours; The Mystery of Suffering and Predestination. I've slowly been reading Perry Miller's fine 1959 book, Jonathan Edwards. It's tough going, because it is an intellectual biography, more philosophy than narrative, though philosophy improved by the practical illustrations of life and the drama of contention. ... ... [permalink: 04.04.18a.htm ]

04.17a Does Free Trade Make Welfare State Policies Harder to Maintain? Comparative and Absolute Advantage. I was listening to a student report on NAFTA in G492 this week, and heard the conventional wisdom that free trade makes it harder for a country like Canada to maintain its welfare state. It struck me, though, that it is not at all obvious what the problem is. Suppose we have two countries, one and only one of which imposes costly regulations on all its industries-- a family leave law, or a minimum of 6 weeks of vacation, or something like that. Let's call them Canada and America. Initially, the countries do not trade, because of prohibitive tariffs. Then we drop the tariffs. What will happen? ... ... [permalink: 04.04.17a.htm]

04.16a Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.
William Tucker arguing for the "get-out-and-don't-fret-about-nationbuilding" Iraq policy, with interesting thoughts about the disruptive effect of polygamy in Islamic history.

"When Islam Breaks Down" by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, with observations on how badly Moslems do in England compared with Hindus.

"Al l Eyes (Should Be) on the FBI The agency dropped the ball on 9/11 -- big time" on how the place to look for organizational problems and clear villains for 9-11 is the FBI.
04.15b Lileks: "Not Losing Your Going". I like this story from James Lileks somehow, even though I'm not sure what it means.... ... [permalink: 04.04.15b.htm]

04.15a Kerry Is the Most Extreme Senator on the Left. As explained by Mr. Murdock in N ational Review: ... ... [permalink: 04.04.15a.htm]

04.14a Lyrics: "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" The lyrics of country music songs are available on the web. They need the music too, but they're worth having on hand. Here are the words for a 9-11 song sung by Toby Keith, ... ... [permalink: 04.04.14a.htm]

04.13a The CIA and Intelligence. I came across a great article in National Review Online on intelligence. Here are some longish excerpts: ... [permalink: 04.04.13a.htm]

04.12a Size of National Debt. I was just reading an article by Professor Kotlikoff and some co-author in the Chronicle Review. He mentioned that the U.S. government debt is now about 4.4 trillion dollars, which is about 40% of GDP. That is the wrong comparison. It compares a stock (the debt) to a flow (GDP). Instead, we should compare the 4.4 trillion debt to the wealth of 200 trillion or so that I calculated in my April 9 post. That doesn't look so bad. Even European debts probably aren't bad, by that sort of calculation. The problem is if we want to keep having a budget deficit every year, rather than the size of past debt. Most of Kotlikoff's article was about the impending social security problem, though, which is much worse. ... [permalink: 04.04.12a.htm]

04.12b Democracy versus Justice: Haiti and Aristide. It's interesting that nobody much complained when Clinton sent U.S. troops in to restore a vicious thug to power in Haiti, despite the old leftist complaint that we ought not to be allies with dictators who were anti-communist. Aristide was very bad compared to past Latin American dictators. But it is true, apparently, that he won his first election. So this is a good example of how so many Americans value the empty form of elections over the reality of justice and good government. People just don't understand that the purpose of elections is not to decide by fair means who gets to pillage and misgovern a country; the purpose is to try to get a good government. If we could get a good government by hereditary descent or by random selection, there would be nothing desirable about democracy. ... [permalink: 04.04.12b.htm]

04.11a The Atonement. The importance of the Crucifixion is one of those things that probably must remain a mystery. Some people make much of Jesus's pain on the cross, and how wonderful it is that He was willing to suffer it for us. It is wonderful, but not extraordinary. ... ... [permalink: 04.04.11a.htm]

04.11b Stanley Kurtz, Anti-Americanism, and Title VI. I posted on HR 3077 and cited Stanley Kurtz articles on April 2 and April 5. Dr. Kurtz emailed me to correct one false accusation against him that I unwittingly passed along: the are undocumented and completely false" American Council on Education's unfootnoted charge that he characterized U.S. Middle East scholars at centers receiving federal funding as "anti-American" and as "those most determined to undermine American foreign policy". ... [permalink: 04.04.11b.htm]

04.10a The Japanese National Anthem, Kimigayo. There's been a fuss lately because in Tokyo schoolteachers are being required to sing the national anthem, ... ... [permalink: 04.04.10a.htm]

04.09b The Wealth of the United States. In G406 I was teaching the idea of putting dollars values on human lives for rational decisionmaking about risk. I needed numbers for the mean and median wealth of Americans. In a quick search, I couldn't find that anybody had done this. The problem is to get not only financial assets and physical assets, but the value of human capital and of raw human labor. So I tried calculating it myself.... ... [permalink: 04.04.09b.htm]

04.09c Gun Control Rules In Iraq-- One Automatic Weapon per Adult Male-- But with Permits. Gun control in Iraq:

A new law, established June 15, in An Nasiriya allows each adult male in a household to possess one firearm, not to exceed the size on an AK-47, as long as the weapon is registered with the police department. Anything larger is outlawed, and any weapon not registered with the police can be confiscated.
04.09a Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.
Martin Kramer on how a professorship donated by someone to counter anti_Israel sentiment was, predictably, given to an anti-Israel intellectual.

Why the WMDs May Be Hard to Find

What may be a Siamese a review of my book with Mark Ramseyer on Japanese judges. If anybody can tell what it says, please let me know!

04.08a Nuclear Missiles Have To Comply with EPA Regulations Too. Strategypage.com reports:... ... [permalink: 04.04.08a.htm]

04.07a Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.
Clayton Cramer reports on a Mexican woman who did a C- section on herself, successfully, with liquor for a painkiller (though someone else came and stitched her up, and she was transferred to a hospital).

Danie l Pipes on CAIR suing its critics, and on the discovery trap.

Steve Emerson trying to prevent and search rules causing 9-11, from the American Spectator.

04.06a The Decline of Movie Attendance in the 1960's. Michael Medved notes this in the Wall Street Journal, and attributes it to the rise of dirty movies: ... ... [permalink: 04.04.06a.htm]

04.06b Hans Blix Says Iraq Would Be Better Off if Saddam Had Not Been Overthrown. To be precise, according to the Associate Press (as Drudge notes), Mr. Blix said... ... [permalink: 04.04.06b.htm]

04.05c Conflict of Interest and Self Delusion. From WORL D magazine comes this quote by Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean, on the $7.2 million that the Dean campaign paid his consulting firm last year:
"I had no conflict of interest because I wasn't interested in money."
04.05a More on HR 3077 and Title VI. I put together web links and my opinions on HR 3077, which would create advisory boards to look at the grants for area studies centers. It really is an amazingly mild bill. An alternative would be to set up free-standing government centers, perhaps located on university campuses in the same way that seminaries are. But that would not allow for healthy competition, unless it were made easy for the government to defund a center if it was not performing well. Maybe that could be done, though. ... [permalink: title6.htm ]

04.05b Useful HTML Commands; Hebrew Letters; Color; Escape Sequences; Footnotes. Here are some useful HTML commands:... [permalink: 04.04.05b.htm]

04.04a Learning Requires Forgetting; Sherlock Holmes, Cigar Ash, and the Sun; Shooting the Eye in the Mahabharata; Shiva the Destroyer; Creative Destruction; the Eisenhowers. In his sermon last week, Pastor Whitaker noted that if we remembered everything it would be very hard to know anything. We are hit with a lot of information most of it irrelevant. I don't know that we are hit with more information now than 500 years ago-- considering that anybody with his eyes open gets information such as the shape of the clouds and the length of the grass-- but we get more irrelevant and hard-to-absorb information now. ... ... [permalink: 04.04.04a.htm ]

04.04b Marion Barry on Jesse Jackson: Nordlinger tells us:

This reminds me of one of the most delicious things Mayor Marion Barry ever said (and he has said many). Will Jackson actually run for mayor of D.C.? No: "Jesse don't want to run nothing but his mouth." So true, and beautifully put.
04.04c Judge Mills's Drunk Driving Race Defence. Nordlinger also tells us: ... ... [permalink: 04.04.04c.htm ]

04.03a Byron: "Why then publish?" I had this up on my office wall for a while. I don't agree entirely with it-- publishing can aid the public good too, after all-- but I like the language and the idea is good as far as it goes.From Canto XIV of Don Juan: 


But `Why then publish?� There are no rewards

Of fame or profit when the world grows weary.

I ask in turn why do you play at cards?

Why drink? Why read? To make some hour less dreary.

It occupies me to turn back regards

On what I've seen or pondered, sad or cheery,

And what I write I cast upon the stream

To swim or sink.

I have had at least my dream.
04.02a Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.
The history of antit- terrorism 1976 to 2004,by Ann Coulter

The U.S. and world public opinion from instapundit and Lileks.

04.02b Kerry's Amazingly Confused Foreign Policy. Read these excerpts from an interview of John Kerry by Gideon Yago of MTV, reported by Taranto- Best of the Web- WSJ , and it is hard to see how you could respect either Senator Kerry's intellect or his character, even without knowing anything else about him. ... [permalink: 04.04.02b.htm ]

04.02c Who Do the Saudi's Want To Win: Bush or Kerry? ... ... [permalink: 04.04.02c.htm ]

04.02d Title VI; African Studies Boycott of Wisconsin; Anti- Americanism on Campuses. I just read an article on Title VI and African Studies programs that says most programs actively try to deter students from working for the U.S. government, and, interestingly, that they have gone so far as to ostracize one university-- Wisconsin-- for refusing to go along with the boycott. For details, see Stanley Kurtz ... ... [permalink: 04.04.02d.htm ]

04.01a The 1971 Plot to Assassinate U.S. Senators-- Was It a Crime? There has been discussion recently of Senator Kerry's lie about not being at the 1971 VVAW meeting that voted down a proposal to assassinate Senators Thurmond and Stennis. I have seen no comment on another issue this raises, which is what to do about the people who, unlike Kerry, were in favor of this plan. ... [permalink: 04.04.01a.htm ]

03.31c CIA Incompetence; Covert Work; The Plame Affair. From "Everything you know about the CIA's clandestine work is wrong," in the Weekly Standard, by Reuel Gerecht: ... ... [permalink: 04.03.31c.htm ]

03.31b Forced Fumbles in the Presidential Campaign. Dick Morris writes:

Kerry's two gaffes - on foreign leaders with whom he allegedly spoke and on his flip- flop on the money for the war - were not unforced errors: They were fumbles caused by the aggressive pressure of the Bush campaign.... [ 04.03.31b.htm ]

03.31a Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.
Clayton Cramer on scientology's secret special tax treatment

"Colu mbia U. Releases Edward Said Chair Donors: Names Arab Government," Front Page on a chair funded by foreigners and given to a political activist to help administer U.S. federal funds.

Steyn on Clarke and the Grand Strategy of Anti-Terrorism

March 29, 2004, " Israel vs. the World Fence double standards," National Review, Erick Stakelbeck

03.30a Gore, Cummock, and Clinton's 1996 "White House Commission on Aviation Safety". The Clinton Administration considered and rejected tighter airport security in 1996 after getting a sudden influx of contributions from the airline industry. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.30a.htm ]

03.29b Misestimates of Risk As a Reason for Regulation. I have two ideas I want to jot down on this. (1) If some people overestimate and some underestimate, then government info provision is a better solution than requiring safety precautions (or banning precautions). (2) Ambiguity aversion in experiments might be based on fear of trickery or of showing low ability; in either case, it gives a good reason for government ignoring such aversion in the case of natural risks. For an example to use for both, suppose that scientists all agree that the risk of mad cow disease from eating organic cow brains is level 100 per million meals. ... [permalink: 04.03.29b.htm ]

03.29a Damages for Fired Professors. Suppose a professor is wrongly fired by his university, as it seems Nona Gerard was. If the professor sues and wins, what remedy should the court award? ... ... [permalink: 04.03.29a.htm ]

03.28a Nona Gerard Penn State Case; Primary Documents Scanned In. I've blogged on the case of Nona Gerard, stripped of tenure and fired by Penn State, on March 10th, 12th, 15th, and 18th. I said she claimed to be willing to make all documents public, and now she has indeed sent me the charges of August 11, 2003 and the report of February 17, 2004, which I have scanned in (huge pdf files now-- 1 or 2 MB). ... ... [permalink: 04.03.28a.htm ]

03.28b Spiritual Disciplines and Sports Disciplines. Consider a basketball player who takes up the discipline of throwing free throws for a half an hour daily. What the dangers of this? ... ... [permalink: 04.03.28b.htm ]

03.27c The Old UCLA Daily Bruin Rooster Campus Censorship Incident; James Taranto; Rasmusen Letter. I don't recall this story as being exactly as David Bernstein relates it at the Volokh Conspiracy:... ... [permalink: 04.03.27c.htm ]

03.27a Cheney on Kerry's Thoughtless and Harmful Comments on Foreign Affairs. Vice President Cheney explained that Senator Kerry has tried to wreck multilateral foreign policy .... ... [permalink: 04.03.27a.htm ]

03.27b Mark Steyn on Kerry's Inability To Take Criticism. Senator Kerry does not respond well to criticisms like those of Mr. Cheney. Who could put it better than Mark Steyn?... ... [permalink: 04.03.27b.htm ]

03.26a The Poor Design of Computer Keyboards; Remapping Keys; Icons versus Language. Once Walter Mossberg wrote a good WSJ column on the poor design of computer keyboards. I forget what he said, but let's think about that theme of computer design. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.26a.htm ]

03.26b Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

The Popularity of Terrorists in Palestine: "Thousands protest Yassin assassination in Nazareth"

Kerry and the 1971 Plot to Assassinate U.S. Senators: "Did Kerry Quit VVAW Before or After the Assassination Vote?" By THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB

Clarke's Conflicting Stories: "Transcript: Clarke Praises Bush Team in '02"

Section 18: 1001: "Don't Talk to Cops"

03.25a Richard Clarke's Complaints About Lack of Access to the President; Management Tip: Fire, Don't Demote. David Frum says: ... [permalink: 04.03.25a.htm ]

03.25b The Pope an Idolater? Mariolatry Example. Tim Bayly writes, quoting the Roman Catholic Vatican news service, Zenit: ... ... [permalink: 04.03.25b.htm ]

03.24a Urban Outfitters Blasphemy: The Dress-up Jesus Figure. WorldNetDaily reports ... ... [permalink: 04.03.24a.htm ]

03.23a Arafat Apologizes for the Death of An Innocent Bystander. Why would he do that? Because the person killed was an Arab, not a Jew. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.23a.htm ]

03.22a Solzhenitsyn on the Old Bolsheviks and the Moscow Show Trials. I liked Arthur Koestler's novel, Darkness at Noon, , loosely modelled on Bukharin in the Moscow show trials in the 1930's. Alexander Solzhenitsyn point out in The Gulag Archipelago , though, that the novel's basic theme-- that the Old Bolsheviks could be brought to confess to absurd plots by playing on their loyalty to the cause, but not by torture-- is wrong.... ... [permalink: 04.03.22a.htm .

03.21b Notes on Caplan (2003) on Personality Tests and the Five-Factor Model. On March 8 I posted on Bryan Caplan (2003) "Stigler-Becker versus Myers-Briggs: Why Preference-Based Explanations Are Scientifically Meaningful and Empirically Important," ... ... [permalink: 04.03.21b.htm . ]

03.21a Church Organization. Sunday School today at Fox River Lutheran was about the New England Puritans and the Halfway-Covenant. This made me think about four degrees of involvement in a church: ... ... [permalink: 04.03.21a.htm . ]

03.20a British Government Decides to Bill the Falsely Convicted for Food Consumed During Their Prison Term; What Should the Policy Be To Compensate the Wrongly Punished? ... ... [permalink: 04.03.20a.htm . ]

03.19a More on Bookstores in Cambridge, Mass. A well informed reader says more on the subject of my March 12th , 14th and 17th ... ... [permalink: 04.03.19a.htm .       ]

03.18a Sapporo Fiber Beer. I came across this on my trip to Cambridge. It has lots of soluble fiber in it, though the taste and mouth feel is just that of an ordinary Japanese beer--a Sapporo or Kirin or Asahi.

03.18b Bukharin, the Nona Gerard Case, and Penn State's No-Comment Confidentiality Strategy. I wrote on March 15 of my belief that modern Americans would and do react to injustice in much the same way as German professors in the 1930's... ... [permalink: 04.03.18b.htm . ]

03.18c More on Game Theory and Spain's Appeasement Strategy. On March 15 I wrote about Spain's strategic mistake in loudly pulling out of Iraq ... ... [permalink: 04.03.18c.htm . ]

03.17a Puritan and Modern Cambridge; The Sending of the Seventy; Photos. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.17a.htm . ]

03.16a Christianity in China. Via the Christianity Today weblog I came across some numbers on growth since 1949 and good thoughts on the government's attitude and on what might happen if the Christians become influential in government. This is from an interview ... ... [permalink: 04.03.16a.htm . ]

03.16b Toby Keith Country Songs: "I Wanna Talk About Me" and "Courtesy Of The Red White And Blue". I heard these two songs on the radio today. One is personal and one political, but they both have clever lyrics and music and a good feel for psychology. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.16b.htm . ]

03.15a The Spanish Election. It's amazing that Al Qaeda actually seems to have knocked Spain out of the War on Terrorism with one operation.... ... [permalink: 04.03.15a.htm .      yahoo.com. ]

03.15b Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

McCain says wild things about being Kerry's VP candidate
The Novak Exception--I from the WSJ, on the Plame Affair.
An Evolvin g Alphabet
03.15c The Poor Science Education of City Officials; The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Clayton Cramer's "Why Don't I Think Much of Democracy?" ... ... [permalink: 04.03.15c.htm . ]

03.15d Neutral 1930's Germans and 21-Century Professors; Nona Gerard Penn State Case; Michael Berube; Donors of Theatres to Universities. One thing about the case of Nona Gerard, stripped of tenure for criticizing colleagues, that has surprised me is the lack of sympathy of people I'd normally expect to support academic freedom. I'm shocked at how common a response is "Well, Penn State must know what it's doing, and she does sound pretty obnoxious." It's a good reminder that Germany in the 1930's was not anomalous. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.15d.htm . ]

03.14b Karma, Dharma, and Natural Law. I had a party for my undergrads last weekend. At one point Paul F. and Manu S. were arguing religion ... ... [permalink: 04.03.14b.htm .       ]

03.14a. Harvard Wireless Oversecurity; Harvard's Lack of Used Books. I'm still in Cambridge, and didn't get round to blogging yesterday. This is the fault of the Harvard tech people, ... ... [permalink: 04.03.14a.htm . ]

03.12a. Harvard's Lack of Used Bookstores; Norms; Procedural Protections; Michael Berube and Erin O'Connor on the Nona Gerard Case at Penn State. I'm at Harvard today for a conference ... ... [permalink: 04.03.12a.htm . ]

03.11a. Going to Jail for Lying to Police; Martha Stewart Guilty of Silence--Jury Instructions; USC 18:1001; Law Review Articles by Kim and Gomez. I posted on Section 1001 on March 8. Professor Tung Yin... ... [permalink: 04.03.11a.htm . ]

03.10b. Damsels in Distress: Naomi Wolf, Nona Gerard, and Martha Stewart. I just realized that all three people I've discussed recently as being picked on unfairly are leftwing women. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.10b.htm . ]

03.10a. Ashcroft Hatred; People Out To Lunch Together. Gun Offense Prosecution. Via Drudge and Townhall, Michelle Malkin writes ... ... [permalink: 04.03.10a.htm . ]

03.09c. Data Sources on the Web; G492. I taught a very useful G492 class today on data sources. My big contribution was really just to create the G492 Data Page, a compilation of links I recommend to students doing research. I added the twist this time of using only free sources, since these students are seniors, who will shortly lose the wonderful advantage of access to one of the top research libraries in the world (Indiana University really is extremely good in this dimension-- not quite up to Yale and Harvard, but in the same league).

03.09b. Discrimination Against Conservatives; Discrimination in the Academic Job Market; Imagine that You Are Trying To Get Your Students Hired. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.09b.htm .       ]

03.09a. The Good Samaritan; Who Is My Neighbor? My Bible study group tonight looked the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I think I finally am getting a grip on what the parable means. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.09a.htm . ]

03.08c. Port. Professor Bainbridge writes
Graham's 10 Year Old Tawny Port (Portugal) NV. An outstanding tawny port. (This sample was bottled in 2003.) At least as good as my long time favorite from Dow, if not better. A perfect color: medium ruby with lots of brick. A powerful nose of toffee, mocha java, caramel, and candied fruits. The palate follows the nose, with a perfect balance of acidity and sweetness. A very long finish wraps things up. Very highly recommended.

 03.08b. Personality Tests, Myers-Briggs, the Five-Factor Model, and Intergalactic Explorers. This week in our game theory study group we'll be thinking about an article that's not game theory, but is important for thinking about commitment, rationality, and preferences: Bryan Caplan (2003) "Stigler-Becker versus Myers-Briggs: Why Preference-Based Explanations Are Scientifically Meaningful and Empirically Important,"... ... [permalink: 04.03.08b.htm . ]

UPDATED TWICE LATER THAT DAY. 03.08a. Martha Stewart Case; Obstruction of Justice; Lying to Police, an Economic Approach. Amidst all the comment on the Martha Stewart case, I think the most important point has been missed: the law under which she was convicted is a bad law. I don't mean the securities laws--- that malicious and silly charge was kicked out by the judge. Essentially, what she was found guilty of was lying to policemen. I don't think that should be a crime... [permalink: 04.03.08a.htm . ]

03.07c. Meditation, Christian versus Eastern; Roger Zelazny's Science Fiction Novel, Lord of Light. Pastor Robert Whitaker, said in his January 25 sermon at ECC that "Christian meditation moves from detachment to attachment." ...... [permalink: 04.03.07c.htm . yahoo.com. ]

03.07b. Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

Professor Jack V. Matson, Environmental Engineering,Penn State's University Park campus, on Nona Gerard and other evidence of problems at Penn State.
Other Nona Gerard Penn newspaper articles from March 3, January 21, and some other day.
Iraq Now Leadership Lessons from Iraq
National Review on Evangelicals and Jews.
Drudge: "OFFICIAL 'KERRY FOR PRESIDENT' WEBSITE RIDDLED WITH OBSCENITIES"
G492 magic tricks, for my Tufte lecture for G492
MIT on dining etiquette
03.07a. More on Paul Sweezy, Stalin, and Brad DeLong; The Weblog Comment Feature's Problems. I posted yesterday on Paul Sweezy and Brad DeLong's understated comment on his Marxism. I had quoted Professor DeLong's comment as a comment on from another website, and only today looked at his own website, where he wrote the same thing as a post with comments. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.07a.htm . ]

04.03.06a. Paul Sweezy, Stalin, and Brad DeLong; The Kinked Demand Curve Interrupted. Marxist economist Paul Sweezy just died. His obituary in Th e Guardian is full of stuff like this ... ... [permalink: 04.03.06a.htm . ]

3 p.m. I updated the post below by appending details on 4 of the 5 committee members. All 4 are from Penn State-University Park-- 2 professors, and the arts-and- sciences and b-school deans.

04.03.05a. Nona Gerard's Tenure Loss at Penn State; Tenure and Hurting Your College; Ole-Lena-PennState-Murderer on What to Disclose. Nona Gerard, a tenured professor, was fired from Penn State, apparently, for sending critical emails to colleagues and for publicly voicing her opposition to one of her department' programs. Brian Leiter reports that several people who emailed Penn State heard this from Steve MacCarthy, Vice- President for University Relations:... ... [permalink: 04.03.05a.htm . ]

04.03.04b. Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.
Organizational Incompetence: U. of Texas Can't Update Its Webpages, from Leiter
Hard-hitting commentary on the Democrats leaving their Judiciary Committee lobbyist memos in open view
More weird writing by Paul Krugman quoted, and a nice concept of Evasion English.
Bri an Leiter on Penn State-- note dean's 5-0 claim
March 3 on Penn State from Erin O'Connor
 04.03.04a. Kreps and Wilson Chainstore Paradox Article, JET 1982; The Intuitive Criterion. We had another good game theory study group session today. I noticed a couple of things I hadn't remembered about the article, regarding (a) the possibility of "cooperative behavior" for the entire length of a finite-period game, and (b) implausible off-equilibrium beliefs and use of the Intuitive Criterion. These notes won't have much meaning for non-economists, but ... ... [permalink: 04.03.04a.htm .       ]

04.03.03a. A Backdoor Hate Speech Code at IU? Faculty Governance; Voting Order; Sneaking New Clauses into Contracts or Legislation. A few interesting things happened at the Bloomington Faculty Council today. Interesting? Well, as a story in faculty governance, of limited interest in itself but perhaps useful experience for me and some generalizable lessons for you. Up for its second reading, and vote, two weeks after the first reading, was the revision of our Student Code, which is 90 pages or so long... ... [permalink: 04.03.03a.htm . ]

04.03.03b. Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

An article by Professor Demingin which he mentions his favorable evaluation for praising President Boren.
Via Bainbridge, Civpro blog on being a "transactional lawyer"-- contracts and such.
Best of the Web on Kerry's conspiracy theories and on his 9-day-apart letters to consituents with opposite positions.
04.03.02a. Nona Gerard Stripped of Tenure and Fired at Penn State-Altoona for Criticizing Colleagues. ... ... [permalink: 04.03.02a.htm . ]

04.03.02b. Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

National Review on Dr. Seuss
The Diversity Lie (Federalists)
A biting crit icism of conservative Episcopalians from the right for failing to object to no- fault divorce.
Professor Tom Smith on himself, Crooked Timber, and conservatives in academia.
Bad predictions by scientists of environmental dangers
New Zealand film success
04.03.01a. Kripke's Paradox; The Two-Armed Bandit. Crooked Timbers has an interesting post which mentions in passing the Kripke Paradox: ... ... [permalink: 04.03.01a.htm . ]

04.03.01b. Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

Penn Psych case about tenure denial.
Leadership lessons from Iraq
Miranda memos, Senate Judiciary Committee (Weyrich)
Weekly Standard review of Return of the King
04.02.29a. My Reasoning for Design of Organizational Grievance Procedures; Matthew 18. Yesterday I talked about Naomi Wolf's accusations against Professor Harold Bloom I realize that the procedure I suggest resembles what is referred to as "Matthew 18" procedures by those up on their Scripture. ... [permalink: 04.02.29a.htm . ]

04.02.29b. Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

Shadow Illusion via Volokh.
The Telegraph on an Oxford student who spoke in China on economics by mistake.
S uicides in the German and American armies
04.02.28b. Naomi Wolf, Harold Bloom, Yale, and Accusations Against Professors. Naomi Wolf, Yale '84, recently wrote an article in which she accused distinguished English professor Harold Bloom of touching her leg ... [permalink: 04.02.28b.htm .      ]

04.02.28a. Just Links, for Lack of Time to Comment.

Best of the Web on U.S. State Department support for terrorists in Israel. Same weblog: murder as abortion.
Confessions of a Welfare Queen. How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars John Stossel
What Can We Deduce From the Priest Sexual Abuse Numbers?by Clayton Cramer
04.02.27a. Rabin on Expected Utility and Small Risks. This came up in the law-and-econ lunch yesterday, and it's an important idea, easily mistinterpreted, including by Professor Rabin. The idea is this: the economist's standard interpretation of risk aversion as concave utility (which I discussed last September 17) fails to explain why people are averse to small risks-- on the order, say, of losing $100-- because utility functions are locally almost linear. ... ... [permalink: 04.02.27a.htm . yahoo.com. ]

04.02.26b. John Kerry's Divorce and Annulment. One of the great hypocrisies of the Roman Catholic church is its pretence that it does not allow divorce. ... [permalink: 04.02.26b.htm . yahoo.com. ]

04.02.26a. Just Links. I'm going to try posting just links when I don't have time to do more, with the hope of coming back and excerpting and commenting later.

Lei ter on Sweden versus America
National Review on KGB Financing of Anti-Vietnam War Activities Such As John Kerry's
Via Clayton Cramer, a Dave Barry column on writing mistake humor.
A review of a new translation of Sap pho.
04.02.25a. Weblog Policy: Just Links. I'm going to try posting just links when I don't have time to do more, with the hope of coming back and excerpting and commenting later. Thus:
Naomi Wolf on Harold Bloom's Misbehavor
Via Clayton Cramer: Interim head of Catholic Springfield, Illinois diocese says that homosexuality has been common and accepted among priests since the 1950's.
04.02.25b. The Defence of Duffer's Drift I just read Major General Sir Ernest Swinton's excellent little book, "http: //www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/misc/duffers-drift/duffers -drift.htm">The Defence of Duffer's Drift. It is a series of dreams in which a young British officer tries to defend a ford with his fifty men in the Boer War. Each dream starts in the same situation, except that he is left with lessons such as "Don't let your sentries light fires for warmth" from the previous dreams. It's a great way to teach, and entertaining. ... [permalink: 04.02.25b.htm . yahoo.com. ]

04.02.24a. Warren Buffett'sBerkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter, 2002. I'm using this as an example of good business writing in class. ... ... [permalink: 04.02.24a.htm .      yahoo.com. ]

04.02.23a. Academic Freedom; Bias in the Classroom; Two Hypotheticals. The two stories below are hypotheticals that we discussed at our law and econ lunch, with much diversity of opinion, particularly on the question of whether a professor should publicize his biases or try to hide them. ... [permalink: 04.02.23a.htm . ]

04.02.22a. Astrology, The New York Times, St. Augustine, and the Scientific Method. The New York Times published an op-ed by an astrologer just two days after explaining its high standard for op-eds... ... [permalink: 04.02.22a.htm . ]

04.02.21a. International Comparisons of Poverty. Tom Smith found a source--McKinley Blackburn, AER 1995-- that did the calculations to compare poverty rates across nations, a subject I posted on February 16. ... ... [permalink: 04.02.21a.htm . ]

04.02.20a. Movies To See. Here is a list of movies I would like to see. ... ... [permalink: 04.02.20a.htm . ]

04.02.20b. Legal Rights and Moral Duties of a Host and a Husband. James Fitzjames Stephen's book, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873?) rises in my estimation every time I dip into it. Here's his answer in Chapter 5 to people who said that to make the husband the head of the family is to create tyranny. ... ... [in full at 04.02.20b.htm . ]

04.02.20c. Replacing Complicated University Procedures with Simple Ones; Example of Revising the Student Code. It is interesting that universities are so bureaucratic. I'm afraid part of this due to faculty governance. We scholars say we like good writing and dislike bureaucracy, but in practice I'm noticing a great love for detailed procedural rules and reporting requirements, and no great appreciation for simple, direct writing. ... [permalink: 04.02.20c.htm . ]

04.02.19a. Manuel Miranda's Farewell Note to Senator Hatch. The latest chapter in the wimpiness of Senate Republicans is the odd resignation of Manuel Miranda, an aide of Senator Hatch, which has resulted from his learning, as a result of Democratic carelessness in leaving their memos (some of them scanned in here, I learn from David Wagner) exposed on a common computer system, about sleazy Democratic behavior on the Judiciary Committee.... [permalink: 04.02.19a.htm . ]

04.02.18a. Gay Marriage and Confucius's Rectification of Names; Dogs, Houses, Grandmothers, Everybody. I find it hard to take the gay marriage debate seriously. Calling a legal arrangement that imposes certain restrictions on the property ownership of two men "marriage" doesn't make it marriage. Like the word "gay" itself, this is perversion. Confucius had it right in the chapter on "The Rectification of Names" ... ... [permalink: 04.02.18a.htm . ]

04.02.17a. Barnett on Morals Legislation and Uncertainty. Professor Barnett objects to the traditional definition of the police power of the state as protecting the "health, safety, morals and welfare" of the population, because he thinks morals claims are too hard for a court to review. ... [permalink: 04.02.17a.htm . ]

04.02.16a. Tom Smith Destroys Brian Leiter's Credibility; Statistics on Comparative Welfare Internationally. I'm afraid I won't be able to trust Professor Leiter after he's made the howler on poverty that Professor Smith here reveals: ... ... [permalink: 04.02.16a.htm . ]

04.02.16b. Tom Smith on the Prejudices of Duke Faculty; Poli Sci Chairman Munger's Story. Again, Tom Smith hits the mark, and hilariously: ... [permalink: 04.02.16b.htm . ]

04.02.15a. The Tetragrammaton in Translation; New Testament Usage; Bibletools Website. A big question in Bible translation is how to translate the name of God, י ה ו י. The American Standard Version (1901) uses the direct translation, "Jehovah". ... [permalink: 04.02.15a.htm . ]

04.02.14a. Libertarianism; Moral Externalities, Altruism, and Property Rights in Actions. On February 8 I talked about how the assignment of property rights is an Achilles Heel for moralistic libertarianism. If John's 14-year-old son wants to commit sodomy, and John does not want him to, any system of ethics must allocate the property right over "Decision of whether John's son commits sodomy". John could decide; the son could decide; consent of both might be required for sodomy; consent of either might be required for sodomy; the government could decide; the boy's mother could decide; and so forth. ... [permalink: 04.02.14a.htm . ]

04.02.13a. Jonathan Aitken, former British Defence Minister, on Preaching the Psalms in Prison. In England, when a leading politician commits perjury, he goes to jail in disgrace--- at least, if he's a Tory. Oh, those unsophisticated Europeans, so ready to impose harsh penalties on immoral politicians! ... [permalink: 04.02.13a.htm .       ]

04.02.12a. Duke University's Bias Against Conservatives. Via Best of the Web, I found an article on Duke Universisity's Leftism. The theme is the always-interesting "There are a zillion Democrats and hardly any Republican professors" survey. That's old news, but what is interesting in this article are the quotes from the chairmen of the history and philosophy departments, so out of touch with America as to reveal their bias even in trying to deny it: ... [permalink: 04.02.12a.htm . ]

04.02.11b. Judge Tevrizian's Mendoza Opinion: It is Unconstitutional to Criticize Judges for Violating the Law. In his Mendoza opinion, Judge Tevrizian struck down a federal requirement that information be collected on which judges violate the sentencing guidelines. His reason? That judges can do no wrong, and the information might help people who want to criticize them: ... [permalink: 04.02.11b.htm . ]

04.02.11a. Bombing the Concentration Camps, Now and Then; Auschwitz, Rwanda, Cambodia, North Korea, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Turkey. I was just reading an article somewhere on the old question of whether the U.S. should have bombed out Auschwitz in 1944, ... ... [permalink: 04.02.11a.htm . ]

04.02.10a. Benjamin Franklin on Learning To Write. From the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: ... ... [permalink: 04.02.10a.htm . ]

04.02.09a. Weapons of Mass Destruction: Democrats and the First Iraq War. I was just reading about Senator Kerry's vote against the First Iraq War, and realized that it reveals why the WMD hunt is irrelevant. Back then, everybody knew that Saddam had poison gas. Not a Democrat questioned it. Yet they voted against the war anyway. So how can they say now it is so important to them that Saddam was supposed to have poison gas? (Not to mention, of course, their claim that President Bush and the CIA fooled them when they showed the Congressmen the intelligence information that was available.) ... [ ]

04.02.09b. Norwegian School Bans Star of David as Offensive to Moslems. Via The Volokh Conspiracy, I see that a Norwegian school has barred a teacher from wearing a small Star of David because it might offend his Moslem students. The students, it seems, are free to wear headscarves, etc. It looks like typical administrative cowardice to me-- the "heckler's veto" probably. ... [ 04.02.09b.htm . ]

04.02.09c. International Comparisons of Military Spending. I found the good SIPRI site in Sweden that has data on military spending. By the PPP figures, the USA is top with 335 billion dollars per year, then China at 142, then India at 66, and Russia only fourth, at 55. India ahead of Russia? ... [permalink: 04.02.09c.htm . ]

04.02.09d. Important Things to Learn: Tyler Cowen. Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution lists what he advised his daughter "if you could only learn five things from schooling in no particular order ": ... ... [permalink: 04.02.09d.htm . ]

ט Two Kinds of Libertarianism; Moralisms; The Curmudgeonly Clerk. The Curmudgeonly Clerk discusses Professor Bainbridge's saying that some things (such as cannibalism and incest) should be banned simply because they are yucky... ... [permalink: 04.02.08a.htm . ]

י Pride and the Full Corn in the Ear. Mark 4: 26-29 is a good parable about pride. ... [permalink: 04.02.08b.htm . ]

ט Teachers in Canada Cannot Say Publicly That They Regard Homosexuality as Immoral; Kempling. The Supreme Court of British Columbia has just ruled that a public high school teacher could be suspended for a month because he wrote letters to a newspaper critical of homosexuality. The ruling says outright that anti-homosexual speech does not deserve the usual protection of freedom of speech, that it is irrelevant that the letters were written as a private citizen, and the fact that the suspension was ordered by a teacher's association rather than an elected body just made it all the more acceptable. ... [permalink: 04.02.07c.htm . ]

י Game Theory as Training for Futures Traders. Someone emailed me... ... [permalink: 04.02.07a.htm . ]

ך Game Theory's Players-Actions-Payoffs and the Five W's of Newspaper Writing. At my weekly game theory study group with Tillman Klumpp and Rick Harbaugh, we realized that good practice in game theory, economics in general, and newspaper writing is similar. ... [permalink: 04.02.07b.htm . ]

י Stigler on Economists and Lawyers. On the first page of the first issue of the Journal of Legal Studies in 1972, George Stigler says, ... [ 04.02.06b.htm . ]

ך Using Others' Email Lists; A Game Theory Problem. I just had a political threat idea that might prove useful. Suppose I want to send email to a mailing list which Smith has created of 50 people I know, but he has set it up so nobody else can use it for REPLY ALL ... ... [permalink: 04.02.06a.htm . ]

ך Politicians Bribing Politicians; Immortal Politicians via Dynasties. Last December Slate described how retiring Congressman Nick Smith said that other politicians had offered money to his son's political campaign in exchange for his vote on a Medicare bill: ... [permalink: 04.02.05a.htm . ]

ך The Know-'Em-All George Bush. Thinking. The WSJ has a great op-ed about George W. Bush by Michael Segal, "The Know-'Em-All". It has two big ideas. 1. An important part of college, and life, is getting to know people. 2. George W. Bush has a talent for knowing who to trust, and somebody who has that talent doesn't need to know anything else. ... [permalink: 04.02.04b.htm . ]

כ The Korematsu Japanese Internment Decision and Special Interest Lobbying. I note that in footnote 12 of the Murphy dissent in Korematsu, he obliquely makes the argument that the internment of the Japanese and Japanese- Americans was due to lobbying by those who stood to gain economically. He actually uses the term "special interest group". ... [permalink: 04.02.04b.htm . ]

ם Ashcroft Hatred; Senatorial Discourtesy Links to Bush Hatred? Jay Nordlinger at NRO wrote a good article in 2002 on Ashcroft hatred. Like Bush hatred, it is unhinged from reality, full of apparently sincere fear, objectively false statements, and visceral repugnance. Is piety the key to why both are hated and feared by liberals? ... [permalink: 04.02.04a.htm . ]

כ Tom Smith on the Chop and Veil of Ignorance. I thought this phrase of Professor Smith's worth noting:
It certainly is not obvious that you would be better off being born randomly (assuming you could avoid getting aborted of course; 25% of fetal American get the chop before they make it through the veil of ignorance) into some European social democracy than into the heart of American darkness.... [ 04.02.03a.htm . ]

כ Ledeen on WMD's and CIA Inaction. Michael Ledeen gives us more information on President Bush versus the CIA on weapons in Iraq ... ... [permalink: 04.02.02c.htm . ]

ל Legends in the Bible?--C.S. Lewis. Mr. Jacobs in First Things, quotes C.S. Lewis to the effect that a biblical scholar who has not also read and appreciated legends and romances is not going to be able to tell which parts of the Bible are legends and romances, and, indeed, is likely to lack the breadth to be able to interpret the Bible well at all, even as an unbelieving anthropologist. [permalink: 04.02.02a.htm . ]

ם Clayton Cramer Quotes on Pedophilia. Clayton Cramer wrote a good post on pedophilia recently. His framing comments say, ... [permalink: 04.02.02b.htm .       ]

ל The Darley-Batson Good Samaritan Experiment. I was up till 4:30 a.m. last night working on my chapter on Norms in Law and Economics for the Handbook of Law and Economics. Jeffrey Rachlinski's good article, "The Limits of Social Norms," Chicago-Kent Law Review, 74: 1537-1567 (2000), describes a number of good experiments, including Asch's Lines, Milgram's Shocks, and Darley-Batson's Good Samaritan. ... [permalink: 04.02.01a.htm . ]

ט Offensive Humor; Best of the Web; Howard Dean's Yeagh and Hillary Clinton Dancing. Mr. Taranto's Best of the Web rightly links to James Lileks's Yeagh Song of Howard Dean... ... [permalink: 04.01.30a.htm . ]

י Appeasement in 1933 and 2003; Hitler and Hussein. If you want to understand the War in Iraq, it helps to read the history of the 1930's in France and England. I recommend the second volume of William Manchester's bio of Churchill and William Shirer's The Collapse of the Third Republic. What is fascinating is that the appeasers back then had exactly the same sorts of motivations for inaction against Hitler as people do now in arguing that we ought not to have acted against Saddam. There were four types of appeasers, with different, even opposite, motivations: Pacifists, Multilateralists, Moneysavers, and Realists. ... [permalink: 04.01.30b.htm . ]

ט A Late-Term Abortion Story; An Argument for Infanticide. The Christianity Today Weblog linked to a long Boston Globe story by a woman who aborted her baby becaause its spinal cord had not closed properly. The story is openly pro-abortion, and chilling for that very reason. "But in my case, everyone said it was the right thing to do-- even my Catholic father and Republican father-in-law". In the absence of criminal or social sanctions, when it comes to personal convenience versus human life, human life will usually lose. [permalink: 04.01.29a.htm . ]

ט Inspector David Kay's Self-Interest in Saying No WMD's Exist. Via Instapundit on January 26, I see that Dust in the Light has a good post looking carefully at what ex-weapons inspector David Kay has been saying. I want to make a different point: it is important for Mr. Kay's self-interest and self- esteem that people believe there are no WMD 's in Iraq. ... [permalink: 04.01.28a.htm . ]

ט The Vietnam War; Most Who Served Were Volunteers; John Kerry's Atrocity Lies. National Review has an important article on the false atrocity claims John Kerry made in testifying before Congress in 1971, and on the the Vietnam War generally (did you know that 2/3 of those serving were volunteers, and 77% of the combat deaths?). ... [permalink: 04.01.27a.htm . ]

י Professor Hallie on Conservatives Being Liars. Cornell philosopher Benjamin Hellie wrote in his weblog a rather silly argument to show that conservatives are liars, ... ... [permalink: 04.01.27b.htm . ]

ט Voting Against Politicians Because of Their Religion. We discover from the Pew Forum that voters don't want an atheist or Muslim leader, that many don't want an evangelical, and that a few don't want a Jew or Catholic. ... [permalink: 04.01.26a.htm . ]

י Rasmusen Weblog: Chronicle Bulletin Board. The Chronicle of Higher Education's discussion board on my weblog controversy is not very interesting. Even I, someone with more interest than most, didn't go very far into it. ... [ 04.01.26b.htm . ]

ך Michael Moore's Accusation that President Bush Was an Air Force Deserter, Wesley Clark, Mark Kleiman. Donald Sensing (learned via Instanpundit?) demolishes the charge that George Bush was a deserter back 30 years ago, and chastises Mark Kleiman and Wesley Clark for furthering such a baseless accusation. ... [permalink: 04.01.26c.htm . ]

כ Kerry's Repudiation of His Major Votes. Rick Lowry has the nicest writeup I've seen of how Senator Kerry's opposition to Bush mainly attacks policies that Kerry himself voted for and praised lavishly at the time--- the No Child Left Behind Act, the Patriot Act, the War in Iraq, and NAFTA. ... [permalink: 04.01.26d.htm . ]

ל Recess Appointments: The Federalist Memo. The Federalist Society has a good memo, "Judicial Recess Appointments: A Survey of the Arguments". ... [ 04.01.26e.htm . ]

ם Whistler: "The Knowledge of a Lifetime". A quotation collection has this good economics quotation from Whistler's lawsuit against the critic Ruskin, who said one of his Nocturne paintings was overpriced. ... [permalink: 04.01.26f.htm . ]

מ Edelstein on "The Return of the King". Via Volokh, The following insightful paragraphs in David Edelstein's review of Return of the King: ... [permalink: 04.01.26g.htm . ]

ל Races in the Bible. On January 4 I posted on Pastor Whitaker's race-metaphor sermon. I've looked up some relevant passages now. Look for the Greek word "trecho", τρεχ ω, which has "to run on a race course" as one of its two main meanings (the other being "to go in haste") in Hebrews, I Corinthians, and the other New Testament passages below. ... [permalink: 04.01.25a.htm . ]

ט Indianapolis Curfew Law Struck Down by the 7th Circuit; Hodgkins v. Peterson. The Seventh Circuit federal court has just said that curfew laws violate the First Amendment. According to the three-judge panel, state law cannot authorize a policeman to stop unaccompanied children out on the streets at 2 a.m. The Court's reasoning is that the kids might be on their way to speak at a political rally, and this violates Freedom of Speech. ... [permalink: 04.01.24a.htm . ]

י Ann Coulter on the Democratic Presidential Candidates. Ann Coulter's January 21 column is quite good. The current Democrats are behaving even more weirdly than politicians usually do. Switches on abortion are old news, and usually occur over decade-long periods, so a generous observer might accept that they are true changes of opinion. But two of the mostly intemperately expressed Democrat views are: (1) The Iraq War is evil, and (2) The Patriot Act is evil, yet many of the politicians expressing them actually voted for the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, and voted for them at a time when the cost-benefit analysis for both things was much more unfavorable than now. ... [permalink: 04.01.24b.htm . ]

י Matrilineal Descent in Judaism. I just love how theological disputes make it onto weblogs of smart people. It is wonderfully Jacobean, and fits my interests. Professor Bainbridge had some Roman Catholic post recently, I have frequent Calvinist posts, and David Bernstein brings up Jewish points. He had a good post on one of those today. To be counted as a Jew, is it your mother that matters, your father, or is neither important? ... [permalink: 04.01.23b.htm . ]

ך The Securities Fraud Charge Against Martha Stewart. In G492 yesterday in discussing paper topics, the Martha Stewart case came up. I commented that it was a little strange that customers would think her moral character relevant to her talent for baking cakes. ... [permalink: 04.01.23a.htm . ]

ך Bush Hating; Brad DeLong's Democratic Horses; Bush, Bush, and Reagan as Objects of Hatred. Brad Delong's judgement has to be questioned when he says that the 2004 field of Democratic candidates is strong, and strong compared to George Bush. ... [permalink: 04.01.22a.htm . ]

כ "Incisive commentary on Justice-Cowgirl O'Connor" by Tom Smith. I will repeat the following The Right Coast posting in full, since it is good I don't want to risk the link going bad one of these years. ... [permalink: 04.01.22b.htm . ]

ל Lee Harris on the Usefulness of the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary for Testing Character. Via James Taranto, I found some very well written commentary by Lee Harris. ... [permalink: 04.01.22c.htm . ]

ך Business School Rankings. Professor Acito put together the following table showing the sources of PhD degrees in Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and Management at the top 66 business schools, based on year of degree. (I have not included his entire table. I include all the Top 20 schools of 1990-2001 (21 of them due to a tie), plus 4 schools that fell out of the Top Twenty.) ... [permalink: 04.01.21c.htm . ]

כ Kerry's Sushi Bar. James Taranto of the WSJ's Best of the Web reports:

The New York Times has an article on verbal miscues by the Democratic presidential candidates--which, unlike President Bush's errors, the Times attributes to fatigue rather than stupidity. But one of them we don't quite get: "In a particularly run-down moment for Senator John Kerry, the Wahhabi Muslim fundamentalists he frequently mentions in speeches came out as 'wasabi.' "

As far as we know, the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam, is right. Wasabi Islam is a particularly harsh form of Sushi Islam, a religious movement that has its origins in Japan and foments raw hatred--and combating this scourge is crucial to winning the war on teriyaki.

Don't forget the roll of California in all this, or how it takes a war hero to have the rice stuff to be President, or how if you put a Wasabi under pressure he is apt, like Howard Dean, to lose his tempura.

... [ 04.01.21d.htm . ]

ל Page Breaks in HTML: A Solution! On January 18 I complained of the lack of a page break command in HTML. A reader very kindly told me of a quasi- HTML command that does this in my Mozilla browser and its inferior competitor, Internet Explorer. He referred me to Irt.Org (but note that the < /div > part of the command specified there seems to be unnecessary, mere clutter). The command is as simple as this: ... [permalink: 04.01.21a.htm . ]

ם Physical and Mental Learning and Ability. I have done quite poorly when trying to learn ballroom dancing and aikido, and for identical reasons It's not just that in each you're trying to twirl around your partner at the right time. Rather, my problem is in observing a sequence of motions and learning how to replicate them. ... [permalink: 04.01.21b.htm . ]

ל Charles Murray on the Discovery of Scientific Method; Herodotus and Phrygian Being the First Language; Gideon's Fleece Experiment. On the road to Mammoth Cave, I read bits of the excellent 2003 book by Charles Murray, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. The book is full of fascinating lists, one of which is meta-discoveries-- the biggest of the big ideas. One of them is "scientific method"; ... [more, 04.01.20a.htm . ]

פ Enron Plea Agreements, Game Theory, and the Stigma of Not Paying versus the Stigma of Stealing. I thought about the plea agreements of Mr. and Mrs. Fastow during Prof. Leandra Lederman's law school talk last Friday. She noted that although tax evasion does carry stigma in America, the stigma is much less than for other crimes. [permalink: 04.01.19a.htm . ]

ץ Martin Luther King's Plagiarism; Acquittal on Tax Evasion Charges. Martin Luther King is a singularly inappopriate figure to celebrate with a university holiday. For one thing, he was not much involved with desegregation of universities, or of any kind of schools for that matter. As the useful The King Center Chronology shows, he was very much involved with desegregation of transportation, housing, and public facilities, but not with the school desegregation happening at the same time; [permalink: 04.01.19b.htm . ]

 

צ Church Political Influence in Scotland. The Scottish Sunday Herald reports that Scottish politicians think the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church are influential. ... [permalink: 04.01.19c.htm . ]

ק Anti-American Americans; Ignorance of History. The American Spectator notes that liberal politicians often praise "American ideals" generally at the same time as they condemn every American ideal individually. ... [permalink: 04.01.19d.htm . ]

ר Tom Ginsburg,Judicial Review in New Democracies, 2003. There is a lot to be learned from this book, even in the form of little facts. [permalink: 04.01.19e.htm . ]

פ An HTML Flaw: Lack of a Pagebreak Command. Connected to the excellent 1999 Bare Bones Guide to HTML are some FAQs, including this one. ... [permalink: 04.01.18c.htm . ]

ץ More on Christianity, Judaism, and the Closest Continuer; The Eastern Orthodox Timeline, The 39 Articles, and the Westminster Confession. I still haven't dipped into my Nozick, but I got thoughtful comments on my January 11 post from Tim and Jim. ... [permalink: 04.01.18a.htm . ]

צ George Bush As a Nice Guy. Charles Colson tells this heart-warming story about a visit by Mr. and Mrs. Bush to an Alexandria church. [permalink: 04.01.18b.htm . ]

ל Being Heckled By Homosexuals Is a Crime in England. Eugene Volokh reports on an incident which shows that an outspoken conservative probably isn't safe from prosecution not just in Canada, but in England, further narrowing the list of countries in which I am safe taking my next sabbatical (goodbye, British Columbia, Oxford, and Cambridge!). The elderly Pastor Hammond, frail enough to be just a few years from death, concealed a sign saying 'Stop Homosexuality' while on the bus because he knew it elicited hostility. When he got out and did display it, he was heckled and had dirt and water thrown at him by a crowd of about 30 or so people. They were not prosecuted, but he was-- and vigorously. The court, and an appeals court, decided that he was criminally guilty, because his sign was insulting and his conduct in displaying it unreasonable. ... [permalink: 04.01.17c.htm . ]

ם The Cartoon Laws of Physics. James Taranto comments on William Shotts's 1997 Cartoon Laws of Physics, e.g., "Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation." ... [ 04.01.17b.htm . ]

מ The Cumberland College and Penn State- Altoona Cases. Erin O'Connor reports on two apparent scandals of academic freedom violations at Cumberland College and Penn State-- Altoona. At Cumberland College, an instructor was tricked into resigning after he set up a website critical of the administration's financial procedures. Penn State- Altoona is trying to fire a tenured art history professor who is critical of administrative reorganization. ... [permalink: 04.01.17a.htm . ]

ל Socialist Realism Poster Art and Madison. My January 15 post would not have been understood, I realize, by the typical American, who if he went to college probably lacks a college education. The art gallery Www.internationalpost er.com can help us out. Which of the posters below was painted 50 years after the others?

The artists and titles of these posters-- many of which, indeed, are things of beauty in spite of their evil origin, are below. An ethical question: If the price were low enough to make purchase tempting, should I refrain from buying because they're Stalinist? Would the answer be the same for Nazi posters?

Koretsky, Viktor,
The Komsomol Fleet greets the great Stalin!, 1939

Klutsis, Gustav,
May 1, the Day of International Proletarian Solidarity, 1931

Komorov, E,
To be a member of the young people's union means to contribute your work and energy to the common pur, 1932

Petrov, N.,
Glory to the great Stalin, the architect of Communism., 1952

Koretsky, Viktor,
Study, and serve in the Army with excellence!, 1947

A final question: Is the quality of U.S. government posters as high as this? Was it in 1940?

... [ 04.01.16a.htm . ]

ל Literal Iconoclasm in San Antonio, Texas. A news story from San Antonio tells of a man who broke down idols in a Roman Catholic cathedral there. ... [permalink: 04.01.15a.htm . ]

ם Wesley Clark Almost Starting World War III in Kosovo. Wesley Clark's record as Clinton's general was nothing to boast about even before Clinton fired him. Most notably, apparently only the insubordination of a British general saved Clark from responsibility for starting hostilities with the Russians. ... [permalink: 04.01.15b.htm . ]

מ Madison's Capital Times's and Joseph Stalin. A reader sent Jay Nordlinger this picture. Is it that the newspaper admires Joseph Stalin, or is it perhaps Enver Hoxha whose regime they wish to emulate? This is scary. By putting up a poster like this, the newspaper is telling people who know about Stalin that they approve of him, which means approving of the murder of millions of people. Moreover, this is not secret admiration, felt, but with guilt. The Capital Times wants to be associated with those crimes, and with the implication that they'd like to do the same to America. If what a leftist admires is just socialized medicine or high taxes, he can allude to other regimes; what the Stalinist regime represents is socialism without sentimentality about human rights. ... [ 04.01.15c.htm .      ]

ן Erin O'Connor's Pictures from an Institution Erin O'Connor has been running the Pictures from an Institution (also here, etc.) series on her weblog. It is a fictionalized version of the MLA job market conference. From the sound of it, the literature professors are organized very much like we economists, who also interview new-PhD job candidates in hotel rooms at our annual big conference shortly after Christmas. ... [permalink: 04.01.15d.htm . ]

 

נ Attrition in Graduate Schools. Erin O'Connor has been discussing graduate school attrition lately. What seems to be missed in practically every discussion of dropouts, whether it be from high school, college, or PhD programs, is that dropping out is not necessarily bad-- in fact, it can be a very good thing indeed. ... [permalink: 04.01.15e.htm . ]

 

ץ Gasoline Prices on Christmas Day: A Price Theory Question. A friend asked me why gasoline prices rise on holidays. ... [permalink: 04.01.14a.htm . ]

 

צ The Purported Kosovo Atrocities: USA Today's Jack Kelley Invented At Least One. This Kosovo story was made up by journalist Jack Kelley, recently exposed by his own employer as a fraud. ... [more at 04.01.14b.htm . ]

 

ק The Flagstar Bank Example of Discrimination Created by Anti- Discrimination Laws. Professor Volokh refers us to a a Washington Post article on how Flagstar Bank explicitly discriminated against non-blacks in order not to be charged falsely with discriminating against blacks. This is the natural result of our laws., though most of the time the discrimination against non- blacks is better hidden. ... [permalink: 04.01.14c.htm . ]

 

 

ץ A Poll: Republicans Know More About Democratic Candidates than Democrats Do. Mr. Taranto of the Wall Street Journal reports on a Gallup poll that showed that Republicans were more likely to hear of a given Democratic candidate for President than a Democrat was. ... [permalink: 04.01.13a.htm . ]

 

צ Isn't a Jobless Recovery a Good Thing? The complaints about "a jobless recovery" are a good example of ignorance about economics. They refer to the odd current situation in which measured economic output is rising but measured employment is not. One possibility is that the measurements are wrong--- in particular, that employment is actually higher than measured. But let's suppose it isn't. Why shouldn't we be pleased if output can rise without any more people having to work? ... [permalink: 04.01.13b.htm . ]

 

 

ץ Bush's Immigration Plan. Professor Bainbridge and John Derbyshire (references by Bainbridge) have been discussing whether Bush's new plan makes it easier for an illegal alien to get a legal job in America than for an alien who isn't in the U.S. illegally. To be sure, the plan says over and over that it is not going to give an advantage to illegal aliens. But it looks like this is the process for three different aliens:

... [permalink: 04.01.12a.htm . ]

 

צ Instapundit Weblog Email Volume. Instapundit writes:

JUST PULLED 3850 MESSAGES off the server, accounting for one week's email to the InstaPundit account. If I haven't replied to your email, that's probably why. Sorry -- I do the best I can.
... [ 04.01.12b.htm . ]

 

 

ץ Christianity, Judaism, The Ship of Theseus, and the Closest Continuer Idea. Judaism suffered a sharp break when the Temple was permanently destroyed by the Romans about 80 A.D., because animal sacrifices of the prescribed sort became impossible. Who are the true Jews now, religiously? (biology and culture are two other questions, also interesting but distinct). Protestant Christians and Conservative Jews are two, but only two, of the many claimants. A subcomponent of the question is which branch of Christianity is the true heir of 1st Century Christianity or of medieval Christianity (e.g.: Was St. Augustine a Protestant, or a Catholic?) This morning I realized that the problem is quite similar to the personal identity problem addressed by philosopher Robert Nozick 's Closest Continuer theory. ... [permalink: 04.01.11a.htm . ]

 

 

ץ Leiter and Akerlof's Rating of George W. Bush As Worst President Ever. Brian Leiter , and George Akerlof, whom he cites, must be added to my file of irrational Bush Haters. Even if Bush is bad in all the ways Democrats say, that just doesn't add up to him being "the worst President in the history of the United States". ... [permalink: 04.01.10a.htm . ]

 

 

ץ The BBC Poll that Shooting Burglars Won; Stephen Pound, M.P; Richard Littlejohn of The Sun. The notoriously leftwing BBC 4 invited listeners to submit proposals for bills, and Stephen Pound, a Labor M.P., said he would actually introduce whichever one won the most votes. What won, to his outspoken dismay, was a bill that would allow homeowners to shoot burglars. ... [permalink: 04.01.09b.htm . ]

 

צ The Liberal Presbyterians, Like the Episcopalians, Do Crack Down on Dissent if It Costs Them Money. On August 24 I discussed the ferocity with which the episcopal church defends its property against deviant conservative congregations, and quoted Marx's aphorism that "The English Established Church, e.g., will more readily pardon an attack on 38 of its 39 articles than on 1/39 of its income. Now-a-days atheism is culpa levis, as compared with criticism of existing property relations." The liberal Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) proves his point too, it seems. ... [permalink: 04.01.09a.htm . ]

 

 

ע Blogging and Tenure. Professor Bainbridge has a very good post on today on how a university should evaluate blogging as part of a professor's performance, a letter to him from Dean Mark Sargent of Villanova's law school. I excerpt it below, but it is worth reading in full. I'll put my own musings at the end. ... [permalink: 04.01.08a.htm . ]

 

ע Howard Dean's Dr. Dynasaur Coverage of Children to Abort Them. Suppose poor women can get free abortions from the government if they are mothers, but not otherwise, and a pregnant woman shows up who doesn't have any children. If a liberal governor wants to give her a free abortion, what does he do? Say she is already a mother, legally, and then give her the abortion so she can leave that arduous vocation. ... [permalink: 04.01.07d.htm . ]

 

ף Dean's Relative Ranking of Bikepaths, Doctrines, Israeli Civilians, and Palestinian Terrorists. I've posted on Governor Dean's bikepath religion before. Below is a nice telling of the story, plus the additional note that although he left a denomination over a bikepath, he stays in a church that thinks Palestinian killings of Israel is trivial by comparison with Israel 's deeds. ... [ 04.01.07c.htm . ]

 

פ Steyn on the Jet Set Switch Over the Universality of Saddam's Crimes. Mr. Steyn once again puts things nicely:

Up to the moment Saddam popped out of the spider-hole, the international jet set's line was that deplorable as Saddam's rule might be -- gassing Kurds, feeding folks feet-first into industrial shredders, etc. -- it was strictly an internal matter for the Iraqi people. The minute the old boy was in U.S. custody, the international jet set's revised position was that gassing Kurds, feeding folks into industrial shredders and so forth were crimes against the whole world and certainly not a matter for the Iraqi people. Instead, we need a (drumroll, please) United Nations-mandated international tribunal.

... [ 04.01.07b.htm . ]

 

ץ The Episcopal Church in America Is Ashamed of America. National Review Online reports that the head of the Episcopal Church in America is ashamed of being an American. I guess it's mutual: ... [permalink: 04.01.07a.htm . ]

 

 

ץ Mammoth Cave. I'm just back from a two-day vacation to Mammoth Cave. Despite lots of rain the first day, a temperature drop of 40 or so degrees the second day, and a daughter who came down with a fever, we had a very good time. The park is deserted in January, and we only had about 12 people on our cave tour (that is, my family and 6 others) and were only charged $50 for a room at the park hotel. [permalink: 04.01.06a.htm . ]

 

ץ Derek Redmond's Hamstring and God's Grace to Mortal Man. Pastor Whitaker of Evangelical Community Church jogs, and used that theme well in his sermon today. That sounds too like "muscular Christianity", but his theology was good. What I liked best was the story of Derek Redmond (be sure and click on that link to see the photo): ... [permalink: 04.01.04a.htm . ]

 

צ Ashcroft's Recusal: Avoiding Going After the Press. I just realized there is a third reason beyond the two of No Prosecution and Unexpected Criminals for Attorney-General Ashcroft's removing himself from the Plame Affair prosecution: He doesn't want to put reporters in jail. ... [permalink: 04.01.04b.htm . ]

 

ק Saudi Corruption of American Intelligence: A Theoretical Prediction. How many of our intelligence agents are undetected employees of foreign powers? [permalink: 04.01.04c.htm . ]

 

 

ץ Government Failure: AIDS Research as an Example. It is gratifying that the idea of governmen failure has reached Eugene Volokh and Clayton Cramer . The idea that government is not a benevolent individual who acts for the public good, but an intricate tangle of people who act to further their own principles and interests using limited information is one of the most important ones of the past fifty years. It is crucial both positively---to explain why governments do inefficient things--- and normatively--- because it implies that even if the market is inefficient, government intervention might be even worse. ... [permalink: 04.01.03a.htm . ]

 

 

ץ French Foreign Minister Villepin's Columbian Intervention. I hadn't heard about the amazing epsiode in which French Foreign Minister Villepin personally tried to fly over Brazilian airspace accompanied by armed French intelligence operatives to give medical aid to Columbian rebel forces. Isn't such a thing a casus belli? [permalink: 04.01.02a.htm . ]

 

צ More on Body Parts From Abortion: The Death Penalty. On New Year's Day I suggested requiring women who have abortions to view the remains of the fetus, as a way of making sure they take responsibility for what they have done. A reader objection made me think about applying this to the death penalty too. ... [more, 04.01.02c.htm . ]

 

ק Top 400 Earners: 7% of Donations. That's what Professor Bainbridge reports, via some article he quotes thusly:

The top 400 American earners in 2000 provided nearly 7 percent of all the charitable gifts reported on income tax returns for that year, well in excess of their roughly 1 percent share of overall income, according to data released yesterday by the NewTithing Group, a charity that tracks giving.... [ 04.01.02b.htm . ]

 

ר Bainbridge Abbreviation for Subscription-Only or Registration- Only Links. Another gem from Professor Bain bridge: this time, an excellent suggestion for abbreviations on webpages. Here's a sample: WSJ ($). He says,

I've decided to flag subscription-required links with the following signal: ($). The LA Times and other sites requiring intrusive registration will be flagged with a (R) signal. ... [ 04.01.02d.htm . ]

 

 

ש Rational Irrationality: Political Positions as Poses-- Huemer and Caplan. Michael Huemer's "Why People Are Irrational about Politics" makes the good (though not new) point that a voter's political position is often driven by his desire to be seen as holding that position rather than by the policies he desires to see in place. ... [more, 04.01.01a.htm . ]

 

ת Abortion: Requiring the Mother to See the Body Parts. James Q. Wilson, I think, proposed some time ago that any woman wanting an abortion be required to view pictures of what a fetus looks like at her particular time of gestation. She could then make a more informed decision as to whether her particular abortion was moral. A variant on that would be to require the woman to view, after the abortion, the fetal body parts removed from her. This would require her to face up to what she had done. If the abortion was an early one-- say, 2 weeks-- this would not be too difficult, though still significant. At 6 months it would be quite a solemnity and, I think, a deterrent. ... [more, 04.01.01b.htm . ]

These archives continue back in 2003 at 2003/a2003.htm.