~norman-s-blog | Bookmarks (6)

Academic freedom has always seemed a weird concept to me. I mean, universities generally promise it to their professors; I’ve seen many people argue for it; I’ve hardly seen anyone argue against it (at least not in principle – it’s always “this is an exception” rather than “the rule is wrong”); but still, the whole idea seems so naive. When someone has been hired...

The Wire is one of the great shows of our time: exciting yet sticking close to reality. I generally disdain TV shows and movies, and have hardly even heard of most of them. But The Wire has the reputation of being highly realistic, which is what got me to watch it in the first place, and it didn’t disappoint. It doesn’t get absolutely everything...

The cause of the recent inflation seems clear, but a lot of people are getting it wrong. Kamala Harris is blaming price gouging, dismaying even people who are trying to cheer for her. Donald Trump, in his interview with Elon Musk, pointed to oil price increases as the main driver of inflation – which is plausible enough to deserve an actual refutation, since transportation...

A recent post by Eugene Volokh describes a legal case which hinges on a rule of libel law that most people are likely unaware of: “It has long been the law of Pennsylvania that statements made by judges, attorneys, witnesses and parties in the course of or pertinent to any stage of judicial proceedings are absolutely privileged and, therefore, cannot form the basis for...

Reparations for slavery were paid a long time ago. They were paid in blood, perhaps the only suitable currency for such a payment. As Lincoln put it, “…every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…”. In context, that was an unwanted possibility rather than a threat or a promise; but by the time he spoke...

“It’s made of plastic” is a common put-down. Marketers selling higher-end bits made of plastic (like gun parts) try to evade the stigma by calling it “polymer”, but that’s just a stupid euphemism: every plastic is a polymer, though not every polymer is a plastic. The word “polymer” says nothing to indicate that this might be a superior sort of plastic. Yet there are...