stcynic
Posts by this author
May 24, 2004
A large portion of what Mencken wrote was criticism, particularly of books. He was in fact probably America's most prominent book critic of the 20th century. This caused many to wonder why he chose to be a critic of other men's ideas rather than an expositor of his own, as well as to wonder what…
May 24, 2004
Well, I'm back from a grueling weekend of travel. We basically spent all of Friday and all of Sunday either driving or flying. We were delayed yesterday in Chicago because of the weather, and it wasn't fun taking a little puddle jumper prop plane to Grand Rapids with storm systems all around. That…
May 20, 2004
There won't be anything new for a few days. Tomorrow morning, I'm flying to Colorado to attend the graduation ceremony for my brother, who is receiving his master's degree in computer science. It will be the first time I've seen him since my mother's funeral, so I'm really looking forward to seeing…
May 19, 2004
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside.
I thought about coming up with some really clever theme for this week's Carnival. I thought about doing it like a real carnival barker, telling you what mysterious and amazing things await…
May 18, 2004
And I feel fine. But it seems as though yesterday's official start of legal gay marriage in Massachusetts has provoked much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the religious right. This is to be expected, of course, but I can't be the only one who is actually enjoying watching all of this feverish…
May 17, 2004
John Scalzi has a wonderful post today about weddings and marriage, in the form of advice to gay couples getting married now that the Massachusetts ruling has gone into effect as of this morning and gays are allowed to marry in that state. It's brilliant and funny and moving, and all in all a great…
May 17, 2004
Timothy Sandefur has returned from his weekend in Vegas. Unfortunately, he didn't go there for a weekend of drunken debauchery and gambling, but to participate in panel discussions at Freedom Fest, a gathering of the libertarian-minded. It's probably a good thing I didn't attend this event, as I…
May 16, 2004
Went to Soaring Eagle last night to play some poker for the first time since they reopened the poker room. I arrived about 4, but there were already fairly substantial lists going for most of the games. I put myself on the lists for 3/6 and 6/12 holdem and went to the buffet for some dinner. Came…
May 14, 2004
In yet another blow to those who have bought the "the ACLU just hates God" line from the religious right, the ACLU has successfully defended the right of a student to place a bible verse in her yearbook. The case involves Abby Moler, the 2001 valedictorian at Sterling Heights Stevenson (a school I…
May 14, 2004
Thanks to Skippy at Enjoy Every Sandwich for blowing up my ego to possibly dangerous levels with this very nice endorsement:Anyhow, the whole point of this post is to direct you to Ed Brayton's Dispatches From the Culture Wars. Mr. Brayton's format is similar to mine in that his areas of interest…
May 14, 2004
Andrew McCarthy, the prosecutor who put Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in prison for the original WTC bombing in 1993, has a fascinating article at the National Review Online. He begins by debunking the notion of the "war on terrorism":Terrorism is not an enemy. It is a method. It is the most sinister,…
May 14, 2004
John Scalzi has a really good post on the "frat meme" that is going around, comparing the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison to fraternity hazing. Rush Limbaugh has been pushing this meme, as has Tom DeLay. Scalzi rightly blasts this ridiculous idea, but what fascinates me are some of the…
May 13, 2004
After reading Randy Barnett's latest post on the ongoing debate between he and Stephen Bainbridge (and by proxy, between Jonathan Rowe, Tim Sandefur, Larry Solum and myself against Clayton Cramer and Owen Courreges), I was planning to finally write something in disagreement with a position he has…
May 12, 2004
I've never heard of Adam Felbers before today, but after reading the piece I'm going to reproduce below, I'm ready to nominate him for the comedy hall of fame. He gives permission here to reproduce this transcript in e-mails of a commentary he did on This American Life on the radio recently, so I…
May 11, 2004
Timothy Sandefur has posted an excellent essay on libertarian judicial philosophy, as part of an ongoing debate going on between myself, Sandefur, Jonathan Rowe, Randy Barnett and Larry Solum (on the libertarian side) and Clayton Cramer, Stephen Bainbridge and Owen Courreges (on the conservative…
May 10, 2004
"To me, the comic is the guy who says 'Wait a minute' as the consensus forms. He's the antithesis of the mob mentality. The comic is a flame – like Shiva the Destroyer, toppling idols no matter what they are."
Bill Hicks
After writing yesterday's list of the greatest comedians, it has occured to…
May 9, 2004
Inspired by a conversation this afternoon, prompted by the death of Alan King, I'd like to lay out my list of the greatest comedians of all time. If anyone bothers to read it, I'm sure there will be lots of debate over who is on the list that shouldn't be, or who was left off the list that should…
May 8, 2004
Clayton Cramer, in the midst of taking on Jonathan Rowe and Randy Barnett on the matter of judicial activism, paused to address, rather badly, the issue of whether America was "conceived as a Christian nation". Cramer begins:Rowe has a very long blog entry trying to debunk the notion that the…
May 8, 2004
One of the arguments that we often hear from those who are either opposed to separation of church and state entirely, or who favor a more accomodationist view, is the argument to the effect that modern interpretations of the first amendment religion clauses were unheard of among the founding…
May 7, 2004
My thanks to Jon Rowe for the very nice comments in this post, where he references some entries I wrote on the founding fathers and Christianity. He chides me for missing why the Patrick Henry quote is also fraudulent, and I have to confess that I didn't really give it much thought. The quote in…
May 7, 2004
Randy Barnett has a post on the Volokh Conspiracy that is quite interesting, concerning criticism leveled at him by Stephen Bainbridge and a letter to the editor from Robert Bork in the Wall Street Journal. Professor Barnett, as usual, makes the point about judicial activism that I've been making…
May 7, 2004
Sean Carroll, the UChicago physicist behind the delightful Preposterous Universe blog, linked to my post on the World Series of Poker and added some thoughts on the nature of poker from a theoretical perspective. It has never occured to me to combine, even in theory, my interests in poker and…
May 6, 2004
In the first installment of About Me, I listed 10 random things about myself. Now I feel the need to reel off 10 more.
11. I actually like to watch pro wrestling. I don't do it often, and I've never ordered a pay per view or anything. But if I'm flipping channels and come across it, I can get…
May 6, 2004
I've recently added a new link to I Speak of Dreams, the blog of Liz Ditz. Lynnie and I have really enjoyed exploring her page and strongly encourage everyone to pay her a visit. Liz has a varied and interesting background, including working for the Cato Institute and the Institute for Humane…
May 5, 2004
I've had several people ask me recently what the word "fisking" means, as I use it often. I had only a vague conception of it myself, as a thorough refutation of a blog entry or article, but lo and behold I came across a good definition::fisking: n.
[blogosphere; very common] A point-by-point…
May 5, 2004
I haven't paid much attention to the Pat Tillman situation. The pious invocations of heroism in the media have been met with sarcastic derision from some, while the casual dismissal of his sacrifice by the likes of Ted Rall have provoked cries of moral outrage from those who like their heroes…
May 5, 2004
This is a must see post by Timothy Sandefur that dovetails nicely with several of the subjects we've been discussing lately, particularly feminism and postmodern thinking. His post is a response to this piece of postmodern nonsense from someone named DF Moore, which purports to be a postmodernist…
May 4, 2004
The World Series of Poker is going on right now at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas. Most people are familiar with it from the replays on ESPN, watching Chris Moneymaker win last year. But if you're not a poker player, you probably don't realize that the event that is televised is only the last of…
May 4, 2004
The folks at mblog support tell me that the recent problems are all fixed. You may have noticed the sidebar on the left disappearing and reappearing, in whole or in part, seemingly at random, over the last few days. Apparently they were running short of hard drive space and have the problem fixed.…