Monthly Archives: January 2010

The Supreme Court handed down its decision in Citizens United v. FEC, a case that considered whether the FEC could regulate the publication of a movie critical of Hillary Clinton via a video-on-demand service. My celebratory tweeting attracted skeptical responses … Continue reading →

My friends Jerry and Cord have launched a new website that’s worth checking out if you’re at all involved with the creation or maintenance of websites—and these days that’s a lot of us. The site, called ReadyMadeWeb, keeps you up-to-date … Continue reading →

Back in October, I praised a Kerry Howley essay for Reason in which she criticized libertarians who focus exclusively on threats to liberty that originate with the state. And I pointed to the free software movement as an example of … Continue reading →

More US taxpayer money being spent to prevent Haitians from escaping Haiti: Every day, a United States Air Force cargo plane specially equipped with radio transmitters flies for five hours over the devastated country, broadcasting news and a recorded message … Continue reading →

My brother was in Haiti when the Earthquake struck. He was lucky to be on a building that didn’t collapse, and so he wasn’t injured. He spent the next several days helping dig people out from under the rubble, assisting … Continue reading →

Over at the New York Times “Room for Debate” blog, I discuss whether Google can help defeat Chinese censorship: Google can also help by embedding privacy-preserving and censorship- circumventing technologies more deeply into its existing products. Its recent decision to … Continue reading →

Google made a surprising announcement on Tuesday that it is considering pulling out of China in the wake of a sophisticated attack on its infrastructure. One aspect of Google’s post that hasn’t received a lot of attention is Google’s statement … Continue reading →

This is the season for end-of-the-decade roundups, and the tone has been glum. I’m inclined to agree with Reihan Salam’s contrarian take: we shouldn’t let the obvious negative trends blind us to positive trends that are subtler but may be … Continue reading →

I love it when people comment who know more about the subject at hand than I do. Commenter Mike explains the differences among loans (and states): Debts are categorized as either “recourse” or “non-recourse”. Under a “non-recourse” debt, the lender … Continue reading →

A quick follow-up on the mortgage default issue: people left some great comments on my last post. The key question, I think, is the nature of the agreement between a bank and a borrower. Luis characterizes it as follows: The … Continue reading →