Eric Rasmusen’s Weblog

Rasmusen Weblog Archives By Date

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These are archives, arranged by date.

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"> 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. "04.05.17a.htm#05.17a.update "> 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 HREF="http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=6570 ">writes …
[permalink: 04.05.17a.htm]

05.17b CAIR-Farah-Hamas. " http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35811"> Joseph Farah has
more on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the subject of my "04.05.12a.htm"> 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 "http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=19&stor y_id=7581">
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 " http://mypage.iu.edu/~erasmuse/_religion/_Jonah/jonah.htm ">poems by various
people. The best by far is by the Wesleys. … … [permalink: HREF=
"04.05.16a.htm"> 04.05.16a.htm]

05.15a Mosteller on Teaching Statistics. Frederick
Mosteller was (is?) a famous statistician whose article, Frederick Mosteller, "http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/mosteller_p1">“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, HREF="http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=11000300 9">“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"> 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:

“How do I know what I think till I see what I say?” … [ "04.05.03a.htm"> 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: HREF=
"04.05.03b.htm"> 04.05.03b.htm]

05.03c Japan’s Constitution and Article 9 on the Self-
Defense Force. Article 9 of the " http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Japan/English/english-Constitution. html">
Constitution of Japan says … … [permalink: "04.05.03c.htm"
> 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 [+/-]ERROR: You have exceeded your quota of 500 requests per day. Please contact the developer of this application if you have questions. (If you're the developer and have questions about this error message, please contact Crossway.)
:

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 "http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneweb/mb_040429.htm">Michael Barone in US
News says is standard in Britain: … … [permalink: "04.05.02a.htm"> 04.05.02a.htm]

05.01a "http://www.law.uiuc.edu/faculty/DirectoryResult.asp?Name=Ginsburg,%20 Thomas "> 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: HREF= "04.04.28a.htm"> 04.04.28a.htm]

04.28b Capitalization Rules for Titles. I
recommend the NIVA, Inc. Writer’s Block site, "http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/index.htm"> Writing Tips. It has a page on the HREF= "http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipsep96.htm">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 HREF="http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/frames/admiss.htm">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, "http://www.philoonline.org/library/smith_4_2.htm"> “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 "http://www.philoonline.org/library/smith_4_2.htm"> “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 HREF=" http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2004/04/chicago_and_ran.html "> mentions
the University of Illinois conference on " http://www.law.uiuc.edu/conferences/uncorporation/pdf/CONFERENCE%20PRO GRAM41.pdf ">
“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"> 04.04.23b.htm]

04.22a Derbyshire on “Diversity” as an Empty Idea. HREF="http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire200404221015. asp "> 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"> 04.04.22a.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"> 04.04.21a.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]

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.