Good news for free speech

It is good news that the Supreme Court rule that a law prohibiting sales of violent video games to minors is unconstitutional.

It’s good news because the First Amendment is the only thing which prevents the liberal elites who control our country from making it illegal to write the truth about HBD. The McCarthy hearings turned out to be a really good thing in the long run because it put the liberals on board with free speech.

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I think as part of a new feature, every time I link to a NY Times article, I will write something about the guy whose byline is on the article.

Adam Liptak, the Supreme Court correspondent for the NY Times, is fifty years old, and was born in the wealthy New York City suburb of Stamford, Connecticut. He went to Yale for both undergrad (BA in English) and law school. He worked as an associate at the elite BIGLAW form of Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Yes, that’s the very same law firm where his co-NY Times Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin’s dad was a partner.

Adams father, Bela Liptak, is a rather interesting person. When he was 20 years old, be was jailed by the Soviets for his participation in the Hungarian revolution, but somehow escaped prison and became a refugee in the United States where he went then had a successful career in electrical engineering (that’s traditional electrical power engineering and not computer chips) and became the owner of his own engineering firm, and he is an adjunct professor at Yale University. He owns a modest house in Stamford worth only $640,500 according to Zillow.

Adam’s wife, Jennifer Bitman, also graduated from Yale. She’s a veterinarian (a rather weird profession for a Yale grad).

So we see that like every other NY Times journalist I’ve profiled, he has elite education, an elite spouse, and at least upper-middle class parents (although Liptak's family is less elite than most NY Times journalists because his father actually did value creation work and didn't live off a trust fund). Is there anyone at the NY Times who comes from a regular middle class background?

Comments

[Peter]

Why is being a veterinarian a strange job for a Yale graduate? Getting into veterinary school is very tough, supposedly harder than getting into medical school, so having an undergraduate degree from a top university can be a real plus.

[Nicole]

HS,

Take a look at what the Chinese men are doing in Africa. I predict in the near future there will be a large half African/half Chinese population.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/06/chinese-workers-in-africa-who-marry-locals-face-puzzled-reception-at-home/240662/

[dcdc]

In your new focus on how to become elite, how about some posts on government contracting (probably the grandaddy of all value transference, even if finance has surpassed it in terms of the amount of value being transferred)? IIRC you used to work in the industry

Seems like a fairly good way up from where I sit, there is a HUGE contingent of quasi-reactionary, HBD-aware-if-not-by-that-name, folks around here as well (huge of course relative to any other big time institution).

Most of the readers of this blog can easily get a secret clearance and many would not have problems with TS/SCI. Big bucks, decent working hours, near total job security (of course barring real political change and/or systemic collapse).

[JP]

"It’s good news because the First Amendment is the only thing which prevents the liberal elites who control our country from making it illegal to write the truth about HBD. The McCarthy hearings turned out to be a really good thing in the long run because it put the liberals on board with free speech."

Oh please. The Left will *happily* ban speech they don't like as "hate" even as they encourage speech offensive to the Right. Advocates of the Living Constitution can, and will, cite the same First Amendment to different effects depending on the politically desired outcome.

As for McCarthyism, it was NOT a good thing for free speech, because in the long run it discredited anti-anti-Communist speech, and enabled the Left to scream "McCarthyism!" to shut down any debate about past and present Leftist treachery and infiltration of the government.

[Dan]

NYT probably looks for an elite intellect and elite education in their journalists.

People from wealthy backgrounds are the only ones who can afford to squander an elite education and elite intellect on a less than 6 figure salary.

[Peter]

I'd certainly have no trouble getting a government security clearance, it's not as if I have ever said anything that might indicate disloyalty.

Glory to Mohammed! Down with infidel America!

[HS: It's not difficult to get a security clearance. Millions of people work for the government.]

[JP]

"It's not difficult to get a security clearance."

You're forgetting the Catch-22: can't get a job without a clearance, can't get a clearance without a job.

[CamelCaseRob]

Keep on profiling the elite. I think it may lead to something good, although I'm not clear, yet, on what.

[Peter]

"It's not difficult to get a security clearance"

I've been waiting almost two weeks for completion of a background investigation just so I can work as an outside vendor in a large national retailer's stores. No access to money or customer accounts or inventory, nothing remotely sensitive at all. This retailer is extremely stringent about security.

[HS: I didn't say it was convenient, I said it wasn't difficult as in the vast majority of people who go through the process get cleared. As long as you're not stupid enough to admit that you used drugs.]

[Peter]

Selection bias may explain the high approval rate for government security clearances. Something like 98% of gun buyers pass the federal background check. The obvious reason is that people who know they won't pass do not bother trying to buy guns through legal channels.

[HS: Anyone with a clean arrest record (except normal number of traffic tickets are OK) and no bankruptcies and who isn't stupid enough to admit to any illegal activities and who never told his coworkers he was plotting to overthrow the government will get cleared.]

[ron]

i think the NYT profiles are awesome. much more interesting than what they write in the paper.

NYT ("elites") love to study proles like zoo creatures. interesting to turn the magnifying glass around.

also - by focusing on journalists individually, they are more likely to focus on HS blog, and thus give attention to your ideas.

hopefully further reinforcement to continue down the interesting path you've been on lately.

[sestamibi]

Much enjoy your profiles of elite NY Times journalists and how out of touch they are with what's on the rest of America's mind.

Hard to believe that there was once a time when journalism was regarded as being just one step up from blue-collar work, with practitioners who came from such backgrounds and carried themselves similarly. If you live in NY, think Jimmy Breslin or Pete Hammill. If you live elsewhere, think Ernie Souchak, the character John Belushi played in "Continental Divide."