Uncategorized
stcynic | April 29, 2005Sandefur is making a list of songs with a libertarian bent. So far he has listed It's My Life by Billy Joel, My Way by Frank Sinatra and I Hear My Train Coming by Jimi Hendrix (which I haven't heard), and readers have suggested three songs: Welcome to the United States by Frank Zappa and The Boys from Alabama by The Drive By Truckers. I haven't heard either of those either, but another reader suggest The Trees by Rush and that's very much a libertarian song. You'll find a lot of Rush songs with a libertarian theme because drummer Neil Peart, who writes all of their lyrics, is himself a…
stcynic | April 28, 2005I've been working on the new website for Michigan Citizens for Science. Skip Evans was kind enough to make a logo for us and install it on the page. He's a real pro at the Postnuke content management system. I think I've finally got the page where I want it in terms of look and function. We'll roll out more features over time, but it's in good shape for now. Check it out.
stcynic | April 25, 2005If the Gull Lake teachers do file a lawsuit claiming that it is a violation of their rights if they are not allowed to teach creationist or other anti-evolution material in their science classes, there are three primary legal precedents for such a suit. All of them have found against the teacher's assertion of a right to teach such material and all were summarily dismissed and the dismissal upheld on appeal. I have transcribed the rulings in two of those cases on the MCFS website and will provide a link to the third (which is already available on the TalkOrigins Archive site), along with a…
stcynic | April 24, 2005I have returned from a day and a half away, involving a freak late-April snowstorm and a huge pileup on the highway (I was not involved in it except that it backed up traffic for what seemed like about 20 miles) and some fun as well. I return to find that, irony of ironies, I was mentioned in the Rev. Moon's Washington Times. Sadly, they didn't quote any of my voluminous examples of their owner's insanity.
stcynic | April 22, 2005I got some good news yesterday. My old friend Troy Britain, who I've known since the old days of the Compuserve religion forum (back when it had to be accessed with proprietary software dialing in to their system rather than through the internet, which I did on a 286 with 1 meg of ram!), informed me that he did manage to tape most of my radio appearance from a few weeks ago. It's taped from a handheld recorder playing through the speakers on his computer, so it's not the best quality in the world, but it's clearer than I assumed it was. I've asked the host for permission to make it available…
stcynic | April 20, 2005Virtually everyone, me included, has assumed that Chief Justice Rehnquist would be retiring at the end of this term due to his ongoing health problems and advanced age. But is that true? One court-watching blog is reporting that Rehnquist has just hired his 3 law clerks for the October 2005 session. Might mean something, might not.
stcynic | April 19, 2005I saw this on John Coleman's blog and thought it was an interesting idea. You should be reading Coleman's work, by the way. He is on the staff of Crux, the pro-ID magazine, but he is a really bright and thought provoking writer. Anyway, the meme is this:
Behold, the Caesar's Bath meme! List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can't really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling...but nice."
Well this could be interesting. Only five? Okay, in no particular order...…
stcynic | April 18, 2005Cathy Young has an excellent post on Reason's Hit and Run about the fawning obituaries given in the last week for Andrea Dworkin, the anti-sex feminist. She writes:
It's sadly obvious that this supposedly bold and visionary prophet was, in actuality, insane. (Among other things, she described the Caesarian section as "a surgical fuck" by "the new rapist, the surgeon.") So why the praise? Is this really little more than slightly over-the-top rhetoric in defense of the oppressed? Is challenging the very existence of sexual intercourse really a wonderfully bold and provocative idea, as even pro…
stcynic | April 17, 2005Found via Radley Balko, this story about a new technological solution to the pesky problem of not being able to track every human being at all times:
IBM will begin installing a "Smart Box" system in vehicles in the United Arab Emirates next year, potentially generating millions in traffic fines for the Gulf state. The UAE signed a $125 million contract with IBM today to provide the high-tech traffic monitoring and speed-enforcing system in which a GPS-enabled "Smart Box" would be installed in cars to provide a voice warning if the driver exceeds the local speed limit for wherever he may be…
stcynic | April 15, 2005Sandefur is defending himself against Owen Courreges of Southern Appeal on the rude question asked to Scalia, and doing quite well I think. He writes:
Courreges concludes, "stop being a jerk about this and admit that the question was inappropriate." I have admitted the question is inappropriate - that was my entire point. Whether or not I am a jerk is not the issue. The issue is, why is it inappropriate to ask Justice Scalia this question, but okay to drag John Geddes Lawrence in handcuffs to the witness stand to ask him the same question?
It is nice to see that Courreges is capable of being…
stcynic | April 14, 2005Thanks to Jon Rowe for the link and kind words about my post on unenumerated rights and legitimate authority. He follows up with some interesting information about the 14th amendment and anti-miscegenation laws, so go read his post as well.
stcynic | April 13, 2005Anyone remember this guy?
This is the Ultimate Warrior. He was a WWF wrestler back in the late 80s/early 90s who tied colored ribbons around his bulging biceps and shook the ropes really hard, looking for all the world like a hyperactive child throwing a tantrum. Well it turns out that after leaving wrestling he's turned into a conservative motivational speaker type, and he's still throwing tantrums. And yes, he still calls himself Warrior. Out loud. In public. And now he's threatening to sue Rich Kyanka, owner of Something Awful, for making fun of him on his website. And you've got to read…
stcynic | April 12, 2005Michael Ferris, president of the Home School Legal Defense Fund, has a crazy proposal to reign in those out of control judges. Here are his three ideas: eliminate binding precedent, create a 2/3 Congressional "veto" over court decisions, and to impeach judges based on a larger set of criteria. You can see him defend those ideas here.
stcynic | April 12, 2005As a follow up on the story about Newsweek and In the Agora, Radley Balko of The Agitator has publicly distanced himself from the equation of Agora with Powerline as well. He writes:
But it's not quite accurate. The column notes the Schiavo memo controversy, and says I've called for Powerline and In the Agora to "eat crow."
Almost. While I do think Josh Claybourn may have been wearing ideological blinders, and been a little too eager to find comfirmation for his hunch that the Schiavo memo was written by Democrats, I also think he handled himself very well when he discovered he was mistaken…
stcynic | April 12, 2005In Newsweek's "blog watch" section, due to hit the stands today apparently, one of the group blogs that I write for, In the Agora, is mentioned. We would normally welcome the mention in a major publication, but in this case they did a very poor job of reporting on the facts of the "Schiavo memo" story as it concerned that blog and a couple of others. The story was essentially this: ABC News and the Washington Post ran a story about a memo that was allegedly distributed by "Republican party leaders" to Senators on the floor of the Senate, and it included some talk about the political viability…
stcynic | April 11, 2005Okay, I've unveiled a new look for Dispatches from the Culture Wars. This template is a modified version of one that I downloaded from Style Monkey. I tinkered with the style sheet a bit, but it's essentially one of the 3-column templates found here. Tell me what you think.
stcynic | April 8, 2005I just find it funny that there are people dumb enough to fall for this sort of thing:
KIBBUTZ MAANIT, Israel - A Texas oilman is using his Bible as a guide to finding oil in the Holy Land.
John Brown, a born-again Christian and founder of Zion Oil & Gas of Dallas, can quote chapter and verse about his latest drilling venture in Israel, where his company has an oil and gas exploration license covering 96,000 acres.
"Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be favored by his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil," Brown quotes from Moses's blessing to one of the 12 Tribes of Israel in…
stcynic | April 8, 2005You might notice that I now have a few small google ads in the left sidebar. I'm not looking to make real money with my blog, but I figured with readership growing, why not see if I can at least cover the costs of the space and bandwidth? I'm also looking into an Amazon associate arrangement. Since I frequently reference books, I may as well get a little something if someone clicks on a link and buys one of them. Ain't capitalism grand?
stcynic | April 4, 2005I just found out from Jim Babka that things were not properly set up to archive the internet stream from yesterday's show, so there is no mp3 of the show available. A couple of people said they were going to try and record it off the web, but one of them couldn't get it set up in time. The other I have not heard from yet. So it's looking like there is no recording of the show available for those who didn't get to listen to it live.
stcynic | April 4, 2005From Salon.com (you have to view a commercial to get free access to the whole article:
New Rule: Abstinence pledges make you horny. A new eight-year study just released reveals that American teenagers who take "virginity" pledges of the sort so favored by the Bush administration wind up with just as many STDs as the other kids.
But that's not all -- taking the pledges also makes a teenage girl six times more likely to perform oral sex, and a boy four times more likely to get anal. Which leads me to an important question: where were these pledges when I was in high school?
Seriously, when I…