Liberals often try to defend affirmative action as fair compensation for historical injustice. To put their argument crudely and briefly, they say that whites got ahead unfairly for centuries, and now it’s time to help blacks get ahead. Regardless of its philosophical merits or demerits, this argument is incredibly controversial. On its face, it allows an analogy to be drawn ... Read More
I like to think of David Brooks as The New York Times’ “Chronicler of the Powerful and Rich.” He’s gotten some pretty extravagant (and hilarious) criticism for his work as the Chronicler of the P&R — work which should basically be read as a twice-weekly “What Should I Think?” guide for Upper East Side Manhattanites — but for the most part, honestly, ... Read More
Until now I’ve resisted commenting on the controversy that was created last week when Harvard 3L Stephanie Grace’s private email saying she “does not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent” came to light. But now I see that Andrew Sullivan is having a related conversation about race and intelligence, and ... Read More
I want to comment on Sam’s final club post from the other day, which I find compelling but nevertheless insufficient. Let me try to explain why. Sam gives us the standard-line “progressive critique” of the clubs. His is an argument that’s been made many times before — by the likes of April Yee here, Sabrina Lee here, and most recently by ... Read More
For nearly half of American households this year, April 15 will be no different from any other day. AP’s Stephen Ohlemacher reported on Thursday that, according to the Tax Policy Center in Washington, about 47 percent of Americans will pay no federal income taxes for FY2009, either because their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions, ... Read More
The Obama administration environmental agenda reemerged on Thursday with the announcement of additional restrictions on strip mining, new fuel efficiency standards for cars, and expanded offshore drilling. These measures may have some merit, but a solution to America’s energy problems will require more comprehensive reform that reduces carbon emissions, eliminates dependence on foreign energy, minimizes economic impact, and is politically ... Read More
On December 23rd, 2009, Harvard Law student Hebah M. Ismail’s ’06 landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport with the intention of joining Clinical Instructor and Global Advocacy Fellow Ahmad Amara, as well as another fellow student, for research on land disputes between the Israeli government and Bedouin communities in the Negev desert. At airport security, Ismail was interrogated for ... Read More
The tea-party movement has always contained potentially contradictory strains of populism and libertarianism. Back when we were bailing out the big banks, these strands coincided: conservatives could say, look, Obama is giving your money away to Wall Street fat cats and he’s interfering in the free market. But now that Obama is proposing to recoup the bailouts with a tax ... Read More
Twilight is big. Yes, I realize that that was not exactly an original observation nor a particularly timely one. However, I just wanted to posit that quite aside from the merits of Twilight as such (have neither read nor seen it), the cultural prominence of Twilight/vampires in general really does speak to the conservative trope that America is a “center-right ... Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court may be about to render the most important business decision of the decidedly pro-business Roberts era, but one might not know it from the details of the case. The plaintiff is a small conservative advocacy group, not a major corporation; the focal point is a corporate-funded anti-Hillary Clinton documentary that was banned by the FEC, as ... Read More
