Thursday, April 01, 2010

Is...?

This entertaining Gawker post (via Jonathan Chait) about frequent google searches for celebrities-- and the constant recurrence of one in particular-- prompted a few minutes of fooling around to come up with the following about prominent academics.

First of all, I think it's noteworthy what google gives you when you just type in the word "is" . Try it and see.

But on with the show. Google's suggested questions:

Is Cass Sunstein
Jewish

Is Cornel West
married
wife white
married to a white woman
a Christian


Is Larry Summers
Jewish

Is Milton Friedman
still alive

Is Henry Louis Gates
married
married to a white woman


Is Paul Krugman
a liberal
Jewish
a democrat
married


Is Rawls
a utilitarian

Is Tyler Cowen
autistic

Is Weber
a functionalist
a jewish name


Is Michael Ignatieff
Jewish

Is Michael Sandel
Jewish

and, best of all:

Is John Mearsheimer
Jewish