“History is an illustrious war against death.” – José Ortega y Gasset, Man and Crisis (1958) Afghanistan and “Palestine”: Newly Emerging Linkages At first glance, there are no obvious connections between the Taliban victory over the United States in Afghanistan and Palestinian terrorism against Israel. Upon closer inspection, however, the recent Taliban triumph reflects more [...]
Jennifer Homendy, head of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), recently expressed safety concerns about Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) feature. This comes at a time in which the NTSB has announced an investigation into another Tesla crash and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Tesla collisions with emergency vehicles that [...]
The Supreme Court’s 2021-2022 term which starts the first Monday in October will likely be one of the most important of the last 50 years. The Justices have already agreed to hear disputes involving gun control legislation and abortion rights and are likely to decide a major affirmative action case as well. Given that Republican [...]
Samuel Moyn’s vicious and unprincipled attack on Michael Ratner, one of the finest human rights attorneys of our time, was published in the New York Review of Books (NYRB) on September 1. Moyn singles out Ratner as a whipping boy to support his own bizarre theory that punishing war crimes prolongs war by making it [...]
Even though the US State Department is issuing positive statements about the Taliban, it is hard for the US to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s lawful government. The reasons are evident and understandable. First, the Taliban have defeated the US military in a protracted war stretching over twenty years (2001-2021). The hurt in the Pentagon, [...]
RBG’s ghost is stirring. When the US Supreme Court added a Mississippi case to its docket this term challenging a state law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, alarms went up that the Court’s new 6-3 conservative majority was coming after Roe v. Wade. Many believe the Court tipped its hand this week by declining to [...]
Abstract: Following US withdrawal from Afghanistan, America’s security focus will turn more expressly to Iran. The core problem with America’s Afghanistan withdrawal was not one of timing or tactics, but of original misconception. In essence, the “Afghanistan Problem” stemmed from an initially underestimated and misunderstood military operation. Looking ahead, Afghanistan’s incoherent conclusion means, inter alia, [...]
The arguments made by the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry for limited regulation and rapid deployment of self-driving car technology bear a striking resemblance to the discussion about the US regulatory response to Covid-19 vaccines. Both appeal to exigent circumstances as a reason for rapid action to save lives, even if that means throwing some precautions [...]
On August 18, 2021, Senators Blumenthal and Markey asked the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Tesla for a misleading advertisement about the capabilities of its “Autopilot” technology. The request follows high-profile accidents involving Tesla vehicles and prior requests for FTC action by others. The FTC ought to investigate by considering what evidence, if [...]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance system because it appears to have difficulty recognizing stationary emergency vehicles with flashing lights, such as police cars and firetrucks. This investigation presents an opportunity for the NHTSA to answer an important question: What is the federal government’s position [...]
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