stcynic
Posts by this author
February 27, 2006
Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, has an op-ed piece in the NY Times addressing concerns about the takeover of American ports by a UAE-owned company. It's not exactly comforting:
While the United Arab Emirates is deemed by the Bush administration to…
February 27, 2006
So I just got home from a visit to the doctor and the pharmacy. I have an outer ear infection and got a prescription for some antibiotic ear drops. When I stopped at the pharmacy to get the script filled, I noticed that one of the many products they sold over the counter was a copper wrist band…
February 27, 2006
Perhaps the most amusing and ridiculous pop culture phenomenon of our times is the Kabbalah fad currently gathering more of Hollywood's most shallow every day. Britney Spears, Roseanne, Demi Moore and, of course, Madonna, are all converts to this vague, new agey version of Jewish mysticism.…
February 27, 2006
Mark Creech, the head of a group called the Christian Action League of North Carolina, has a pretty typical creationist response to the Clergy Letter Project. In the process, he manages to completely mangle how science operates and misrepresent the relationship between observation and proof. And of…
February 25, 2006
Cathy Seipp has an interesting essay in the LA Times about a visit to City Lights, the legendary San Francisco book store and why, despite its long history of proudly promoting banned books, they refuse to carry Oriana Fallaci's The Force of Reason:
So, although my friend is no fan of Ward…
February 25, 2006
The two bills that Sen. Chris Buttars of Utah has been pushing in that state legislature, one that is anti-evolution and one that would prohibit students from forming gay-straight clubs in public schools, may both be vetoed by the governor of the state:
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said for the first time…
February 25, 2006
Paul Musgrave has decided to fold up his long-running blog and he is posting a final 15 long essays on subjects he feels strongly about. The first two, one on his hometown of Evansville and the other on the nature of patriotism, have been posted. They are well worth reading, if only to remind…
February 24, 2006
So I'm looking at some of my recent referrals (that is, webpages that have links to my page that people have used recently to come here) and I see a referral from godhatesfags.com, the webpage of the vile and repulsive Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church of evil bastards. Specifically,…
February 24, 2006
If there is an iron law in politics, it's this: if you find yourself to the right of James Dobson on questions of gay rights, you're a true right wing whacko. But believe it or not, Dobson is taking a ton of criticism from his fellow religious right leaders for not opposing a Colorado bill that…
February 24, 2006
The Federal government has settled an ACLU lawsuit by prohibiting further support for the Silver Ring Thing abstinence-only sex education program until the program is changed to eliminate the overtly religious content of the course.
Under the deal, the Silver Ring Thing program won't be eligible…
February 24, 2006
I know this will come as an enormous shock, but William Demsbski has - yet again - misrepresented what someone else has said on the subject of evolution. This time it's Leo Tolstoy, for some strange reason. Dembski writes:
Leo Tolstoy's last completed letter, dictated from his sick-bed at the…
February 24, 2006
Well, I've been nominated for a Koufax award, but bizarrely it's for best single issue blog. There's nothing like being nominated for an award by someone who clearly doesn't read my blog. I really hope no one votes for me.
February 23, 2006
At the risk of being called arrogant for daring to tell another country what they should and shouldn't do (not that I really care, mind you - if it's arrogant to insist that liberty be protected everywhere at all times, then I'm proudly arrogant), here's yet another instance of our European allies…
February 23, 2006
For those who think that the whole Muhammed cartoon issue is just a European issue, let me give some examples of how the zeal to repress anything that someone might find offensive is spreading to American colleges. FIRE is reporting on a number of controversies, the latest of which is a student at…
February 23, 2006
Thanks to flatlander for keeping me up to date on what's going on in Utah. Sen. Chris Buttars' anti-evolution bill is still being debated and some changes are being considered. The Deseret News reports:
SB96's House sponsor, Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem, wants to substitute the bill a third time, taking…
February 23, 2006
When Michael Jordan made his second comeback from retirement to play for the Wizards, a young player for the Pistons was asked in a press conference if he looked forward to playing against Jordan and seeing what he still had left at his age. The player responded by saying that Jordan isn't the…
February 23, 2006
You may remember a few weeks ago when I had a good laugh at the expense of our witless friends at StopTheACLU for thinking that they were going to be allowed to intervene in the ACLU's lawsuit against the NSA over the wiretapping program. Well now it turns out that Debbie Schlussel, the equally…
February 23, 2006
I found this story via Radley Balko. An unmarried couple in Missouri, who have been together for 13 years and have two children together (and one additional child), are being evicted from their home because they don't meet the city's definition of a family:
Shelltrack and Fondray Loving, her…
February 22, 2006
The Dover school board voted last night to accept a settlement over legal fees stemming from the Kitzmiller case for $1 million. The total cost was over $2 million, which is much higher than I had heard previously:
The Dover Area school board voted Tuesday night to pay $1 million in legal fees to…
February 22, 2006
Isiah Thomas, intent on breaking the all-time record for stupidity by an NBA general manager (currently a tie between Chris Wallace, Scott Layden and the whiz kid who put together the Trail Blazers from 2000 on), has just made a trade to acquire Steve Francis from the Orlando Magic. This gives them…
February 22, 2006
Does anyone here who leaves comments have AOL? Lynn is having a devil of a time leaving comments using AOL and Internet Explorer (apparently Firefox doesn't work well with AOL). The problem is that she signs on using Typekey and the comment entry box shows up for just a couple seconds, then…
February 22, 2006
Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, has an op-ed piece in the LA Times about the imprisonment of David Irving that is well worth reading. He cites a famous passage from the Robert Bolt play, A Man for All Seasons:
Roper: So now you'd give the devil benefit of law.
More: Yes. What would…
February 22, 2006
Not content with sentencing a man to 3 years in prison for speaking his mind, vile as his thoughts may be, Austrian prosecutors have appealed that sentence and demanded that the 67 year old historian David Irving spend ten years in prison instead for the crime of having made an unapproved speech in…
February 22, 2006
Interesting case in Florida where a Wiccan group is suing the state because they exempt bibles from the state sales tax, but not other religious books. Naturally, religious right legal groups are defending the law because, truth be told, their goal is to preserve government benefits exclusively for…
February 22, 2006
I'm afraid I just don't get the Bush administration's position on turning the control of our major ports over to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. It's just obviously a bad idea, obvious enough that even the Congressional leadership of both parties seem to be able to recognize it. And…
February 21, 2006
Sean Hannity parrots the ridiculous rhetoric about college students being "indoctrinated" by leftist professors and asks, "What can be done to remove these professors with these radical ideas from campus?" Michael Berube provides an appropriately sarcastic response.
February 21, 2006
Another fascinating decision today came from the U.S. Supreme Court involving the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the right to drink hallucinogenic tea as part of a religious ritual. What makes this fascinating to me is that it involves the RFRA, one of the more unusual pieces of legislation…
February 21, 2006
Those who are interested in eminent domain and takings law will be interested in this. The Oregon Supreme Court has reversed a lower court and upheld Measure 37, a law passed in that state by referendum that required the government to compensate property owners not only for the seizure of property…
February 21, 2006
The DI's famous list of "dissenting scientists" who "doubt Darwin" has gone over 500 names and they are crowing. Their press release is reprinted almost word for word in the Worldnutdaily and they've even launched a website about this list called dissentfromdarwin.org. But as I've said a thousand…