Blog Links
stcynic | February 12, 2005Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the start of Positive Liberty, by Jason Kuznicki. It is an anniversary that is well worth noting and celebrating. Jason thanks me for the many links I've made to his blog over the last year, and I have tried to send people to his blog as often as possible. But there's a reason for that, and it's because Jason has written so many compelling and thoughtful posts in that time. And for that, I want to thank him. There is a really interesting passage in his post on the anniversary that I want to quote:
In part, I've created a persona, which is something I…
stcynic | February 12, 2005I've gotten a lot of new links lately and I should say thanks for them. They include the New Jersey Humanist Network, Jesus Politics, and Sleepy Sage.
stcynic | February 12, 2005Jon Rowe pointed out that Eric Alterman linked to both his page and mine in a recent article. While I appreciate the link from such a prominent figure in the media, I'm at a loss to understand why he linked to me. It's a strange snippet from Alterman. First he takes a shot at Andrew Sullivan for being bothered that British Muslims were refusing to attend a ceremony in Europe noting the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Then he links to Jon's post about Daniel Lapin, a Rabbinic neo-conservative, appearing to endorse Christian anti-semitism. And then at the end he links to my post on…
stcynic | February 10, 2005Rusty Lopez, with whom I've had many an interesting exchange since I started this blog, has written a very gracious post apologizing for part of an exchange we had almost a year ago. I'd just like to say thanks for that post. Despite our disagreements, and they are many, Rusty is a gentleman and one has to respect the fact that he is willing to make amends for something that happened long ago. Also, you really should check out Rusty's photography blog. He really is an excellent photographer, good enough that he probably should be selling prints of many of them.
stcynic | January 25, 2005It seems I have been nominated for something called the Koufax Award for best blog series, specifically for my Idiot of the Month series of posts. I haven't received a single vote so far, and frankly can't imagine that I deserve to get one for that particular series. But you should go there just to see some other really good writing.
stcynic | January 20, 2005Jon Rowe has a couple of excellent posts up, one on gay adoption and one on John Adams (there's no connection between them, but I didn't want to bother writing two different posts to link to them). The first one looks at the question of gay adoption and pretty much shreds the argument that James Dobson and his fellow travelers make against allowing gays to adopt children. The second looks at the question of whether John Adams was a Christian and, if so, in what sense.
stcynic | January 15, 2005Reed Cartwright thoroughly demolishes the DI's spin concerning the Cobb County case in this post at the Panda's Thumb. Timothy Sandefur continues the fisking in this post, where he points out that all the talk of "critical thinking" on the part of the ID advocates is disingenuous nonsense. Nice work as usual, gentlemen.
stcynic | January 7, 2005Sandefur continues his posts on the differences between conservatism and libertarianism. The 4th in the series was about Thomas Jefferson. The 5th is about conservative reactions to Jefferson. And the 6th is a long answer to a question posed to him by Joshua White, who comments here at Dispatches from time to time. More great writing from Timothy, as usual.
stcynic | December 27, 2004I should also note that Judge Richard Posner is guest blogging this week at Brian Leiter's page. Judge Posner is one of the true giants of the legal field, and certainly one of the most unusual judges around. While sitting on the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, he still teaches law at the University of Chicago and continues to publish widely in the law journals. He is a libertarian, and is the foremost scholar and originator of the economics and law theories that have revolutionized legal theory over the last few decades. It is extremely rare that you find a sitting judge so willing to…
stcynic | December 27, 2004Jon Rowe is guest blogging at Sandefur's place this week, which is great because I only have to go to one place to find both of their posts for a while. Already, Jon has a great post up about Harry Jaffa and his views of homosexuality, and Timothy has a follow-up to it extending one of the arguments with a wonderful passage on the "nudist fallacy" from Daniel Dennett's amazing book, Freedom Evolves.
Meanwhile, Jason Kuznicki is back from his family Christmas with a post about the anti-gay views of Orson Scott Card that reminds us once again what a gifted writer he really is. The first part,…
stcynic | December 22, 2004Jason Kuznicki is off to the Carolinas to spend the holidays with his in-laws and leaves us with a great post offering a history of Festivus that no true Seinfeld fan would need. But more than that, he also includes a link to this absolutely precious anti-gay rant, which has to be seen to be believed. In all its glory:
Today as of November 23th tuesday 2004 8:20 PM, I DECLARE FULL OFFENSIVE WAR on the TERRIBLE DISGUSTING SEX OFFENDERS TO THE LIKES OF HOMOSEXUALS, LESBIANS AND THE OTHER WORST SEX OFFENDERS LIKE PEDOPHILES, RAPISTS AND MOLESTERS!!!. HOMOSEXUALS YOUR HORRIBLE DISGUSTING "…
stcynic | December 20, 2004Thanks to Walter Olson of the great weblog Overlawyered for his mention of my blog yesterday. I cringe a bit when I see myself listed as a "legal analyst", since I don't have a law degree; at minimum, the word "amateur" should be attached to it. But I appreciate the recognition from someone who really is a legal analyst, and a very good one.
stcynic | December 17, 2004I've been busy today so I haven't had time to write anything, so you all should be out exploring this little corner of the blog neighborhood. Specifically, you should be stopping in at Jason Kuznicki's place to see this post where he fisks the latest ridiculous idea from the religious wrong. And when you're done there, you should head over to Jon Rowe's pad and check out his take on the role of religion in the Declaration of Independence. And while you're there, you should probably steal some of his cookies too.
Update: Thanks to Steve Sanders, who just emailed me to tell me that he has…
stcynic | December 6, 2004Ah, Robert O'Brien is mad as hell and he's not gonna take it anymore. My pet troll, as PZ has dubbed him, has started his own blog, from where he will no doubt launch unintentionally amusing attacks on me. Here's my favorite part of his post addressed to me. After pasting the text of his initial email to me, he says this:
Ed responded to my message with all the wit of a schoolyard taunter (I refer interested parties to his blog for the full exchange) complete with schoolyard back up.
I'll take psychological projection for $1000, Alex. The funny thing here is that it was Mr. O'Brien - a…
stcynic | December 4, 2004The first is from Andrew Sullivan, an article on how the red state/blue state division is largely one of those who talk the talk and those who walk the walk. The red states talk about morality and "family values", but the blue states tend to actually put those values into practice far more often:
Take two iconic states: Texas and Massachusetts. In some ways, they were the two states competing in the last election. In the world's imagination, you couldn't have two starker opposites. One is the homeplace of Harvard, gay marriage, high taxes, and social permissiveness. The other is Bush country…
stcynic | November 29, 2004Maybe I just have a soft spot for cranky elitists (being one myself, of course), but I think this passage, in response to a column by George Will on the problems in academia, is really funny and brilliantly written:
But let us translate: what Mr. Will really means is that universities are places where the banalities and misinformation which are the lifeblood of the mass media are not taken seriously; where people who think Iraq attacked the World Trade Center have a tough time holding their own in grown-up conversation; where apologists for state terror have to confront the arguments of…
stcynic | November 19, 2004I've been rather lax lately about reading other blogs and linking to articles that my readers might enjoy. To my delight, lots of other people have continued to write thoughtful stuff even while I wasn't there to read it (perhaps this suggests an answer to that "if a tree falls in the forest" question). So here is a roundup of some of the more interestin posts on some of my favorite blogs recently. I urge you all to follow the links and see what we've both been missing.
Steve Sanders at Reason and Liberty has this post about the now often heard claim that gay rights advocates have pushed too…
stcynic | November 8, 2004Every once in a while I come across a blog and think, "How on earth did I not know about this one before now?" Reason and Liberty is a perfect example. The blog's owner, Steve Sanders, is a 3rd year law student at the University of Michigan, my home state, and he is, like me, a relentless scourge both to the Moral Majority crowd and to the creationists. This one goes on the blogroll immediately.
stcynic | September 13, 2004Okay, this made me laugh. The irony of a google ad for a gay matchmaker service showing up on Clayton Cramer's blog is overwhelming. Cramer is, as Jon Rowe puts it, a tad bit obsessed with gays:
stcynic | August 30, 2004Jason Kuznicki, the Grand Poobah of Positive Liberty, has decided to shorten his blogroll for the sake of aesthetics and intellectual clarity, and went through a difficult culling process (described here) that presumably involved goat entrails and a ouija board. I'm proud to announce that Dispatches from the Culture Wars made the cut. Contrary to the current rumors going around, I did not have to promise him either my copy of the Kathy Lee Gifford Christmas Album or my signed Jim and Tammy Bakker PTL Club Partner Bible.
P.S. As a fun side game, guess which of those two items I really do own.