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stcynic | June 4, 2004Los Angeles County has decided to remove a tiny cross from their county seal under threat of a lawsuit from the ACLU. A lot of Christians are up in arms about this, and for once I agree with them, at least in part. No one is a more outspoken proponent of separation of church and state than I am, as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows. But this is just silly. Why not just go after the name of the county? It does, after all, mean "the angels", and angels are purely religious entities. The entire history of California is saturated in Catholic history, that's why half the cities begin with…
stcynic | June 3, 2004The Snohomish Public Utility District released transcripts and tapes of phone conversations by Enron employees that show that Enron manipulated the recent California energy crisis in a number of ways. First, by cutting deals to move production facilities offline, thereby pushing the price through the roof. Second, by overstating future energy need projections so that it appeared that there was a shortage when production numbers didn't match the exaggerated needs. The tapes also show that Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the head honchos, knew about it all along and were getting rich off it. What…
stcynic | June 2, 2004Timothy Sandefur writes of the Libertarian Party nominating Michael Badnarik as their presidential candidate:
I think the Libertarian Party is far more often an embarrassment than an aid to defenders of freedom.
I wish I could dispute that, but I can't. I'm a longtime libertarian voter, but I don't know that I can vote for Badnarik, who strikes me as a first class loony and a fraud. He is called a "constitutional scholar" on the LP website, but his educational background is in chemistry and his entire work history is in computer software. His views on constitutional law are, from what little…
stcynic | June 1, 2004Via Atrios, who got it from here, who got it from here. This eloquent letter speaks volumes to the anti-gay crusaders:
Letter to the Editor
by Sharon Underwood, Sunday, April 30, 2000
from the Valley News (White River Junction, VT/Hanover, NH)
As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided people can be.
Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.
I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting…
stcynic | June 1, 2004There is a battle going on in Europe as they try to write the first constitution for the European Union. It's the same battle that was fought over the American constitution during its writing and ratification, over whether it should include references to God and/or Christianity. The US Constitution, of course, has no references to God or to Christianity, which was considered a major flaw in the document by many of the fire and brimstone preachers and political theocrats of the late 18th century. They put forth proposals to change the wording to declare official fealty to God, or to declare…
stcynic | May 28, 2004Yesterday I was reading an article about anti-gay protests at a gay pride parade. One of the protestors was holding a large sign that said, "Got AIDS yet?"; another had one that said "AIDS: Kills Fags Dead". My first thought was that it's too bad there isn't a disease that afflicts the ignorant and bigoted. My second thought was to realize that if those people actually knew anyone afflicted with AIDS, if they could humanize the reality of AIDS, they would know to be ashamed of their hurtful words. So with that, let me tell me a couple of stories.
Lynn and I have both lost loved ones to AIDS…
stcynic | May 27, 2004Timothy Sandefur has written a brief reply to my post on Miles Davis, in which he states:
I cant imagine Miles Davis being on someones second tier. If Miles is on your second tier, your tiers are broken.
I suppose it depends on what we're talking about. As a composer, I would certainly place Miles in the first rank. Strictly as a musician, I put him in the second tier, but I fully recognize that this is only because, as Timothy noted, I don't prefer the Harmon mute sound that Miles was so fond of. So that means that while I fully recognize his genius, there are others whose music I generally…
stcynic | May 26, 2004Okay, I spent enough time ripping on the typical commencement speech, how about a good one? William and Mary brought in alumnus Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central and one of the funniest stand up comics working today, to give their address and bestowed an honorary doctorate on him as well. Now this is what commencement speeches should sound like. A few choice excerpts:
Thank you Mr. President, I had forgotten how crushingly dull these ceremonies are. Thank you...
I congratulate the students for being able to walk even a half a mile in this non-breathable fabric in the…
stcynic | May 26, 2004Thanks to Timothy Sandefur for reminding me that today would have been Miles Davis' 78th birthday. Miles is in my second tier of jazz icons. I never cared for the tone of his trumpet playing all that much, it always sounded a bit tinny to me (I prefer the deeper tones of, say, Wynton Marsalis or Clifford Brown), but he was a virtuoso talent and a legendary composer. Like Timothy, I prefer his early and middle work. Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain (which, unlike Timothy, I don't consider overrated), Porgy and Bess, Miles Smiles, and Kind of Blue are all wonderful. And I certainly agree…
stcynic | May 26, 2004Since half the blogs on the net seem to be making lists of their favorite movie quotes, I thought I'd add some of mine. Some movies are just goldmines of great lines - Caddyshack, almost any Kevin Smith movie, Bull Durham. Herewith some of my absolute favorites, without the title of the movie so you can guess where they come from.
"Wouldn't it be great if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If needy were a turn on?"
"You know, I've been doing some of the most important thinking of my life today. I wonder of this is the right time to tell you about it . . . I figured out why I'…
stcynic | May 26, 2004Mblog seems to have had a temper tantrum and deleted all of my posts from yesterday. And a couple of them were quite good, I thought. I really must find a more reliable hosting service soon, don't you think?
stcynic | May 24, 2004This is amusing. A blog called ChristWeb has a post on the Justice Department intervening on behalf of a Muslim girl who was told by her school that she couldn't wear her headscarf. They correctly informed the school that the student had the right to wear religious clothing in schools. You'd think one would be happy about that, but not to this person. He writes, in predictable fashion,
So if a school suspends a Muslim for wearing a head scarf, the US Justice Deparment will intervene. But when Christians are suspended for wearing articles of clothing voices their religion, and are suspended,…
stcynic | May 24, 2004Well, 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 plane bounced around the sky like a hyperactive child.
The graduation ceremony was typical of graduation ceremonies, except my big brother was involved and that was cool. We yelled so loudly that the president of the university laughed and asked my brother if he had a third of the audience there…
stcynic | May 20, 2004There 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 him and his family. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
stcynic | May 19, 2004Welcome 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 you behind the next door....but frankly, I'm so busy with work right now that I'm going to take the easy way out and just list all the submissions for you in the order they were sent to me. Think of it not as lazy, but as "minimalist". That sounds like a vaguely impressive rationalization. Anyway,…
stcynic | May 18, 2004And 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 hand wringing. I just can't help but be amused by blog entries like this one from a blog entitled, ironically, Sunny Days in Heaven. It appears as though the cloud of gay marriage is ruining this poor fellow's day. He begins,
When words like marriage become debased (and thus meaningless as we see…
stcynic | May 17, 2004John 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 reminder of why John has one of the must-read pages in the blogosphere. A few things that stick out:
Some people don't think you should invite your exes to the wedding. But I think it's not such a bad thing to have one person in the crowd slightly depressed that they let you get away. They'll get…
stcynic | May 17, 2004Timothy 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 probably would have abandoned the speeches and panel discussions to jump into a few satellites for the World Series of Poker or hit the 10/20 holdem tables. But it sounds like he had a great time. He's also changed the URL of his blog, moving from blogspot to typepad. Good move, I think.
His former…
stcynic | May 14, 2004Thanks 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 tend to be broad. He writes often on topics such as reationism, judicial activism , constitutional theory, poker and stand up comedy. He writes brilliantly and debates like a gentleman. Mr. Brayton often uses his blog to challenge and debate the ideas he finds in other forums and does it without…