U of T Blog

2004-06-14T14:36:00.000-04:00

Whiny, Selfish People This article on CNN has led me to believe that people these days have an even larger sense of entitlement than I thought. The article explains that many readers of online newspapers are upset by the fact that they have to enter in personal information in order to access the paper's content. I think this quote from the article amply rebuts most of what can be said against

2004-06-04T10:37:00.000-04:00

Those Progressive Capitalists Interesting article about how corporate America seems more receptive to gay marriage than the country itself. Though of course this is just another manifestation of how money trumps all other concerns. Any chance we could just pay off the social conservatives?

2004-06-04T10:28:00.000-04:00

Wrong and Wronger As readers of this blog know, I have a distinct dislike for PETA and its tactics. Nevertheless, there are times when those they are attacking are completely clueless.The shareholder proposal, brought by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, had asked Petco to study ending animal sales in its 670 stores. The proposal won approval from less than 2 percent of shareholders,

Test

2004-06-04T09:16:00.000-04:00

The End of America Usually, I semi-enjoy reading Victor Davis Hanson's weekly NRO column. Granted, it often makes the same points as the week before. But for all the straw-men he demolishes, he has a talent for distilling the arguments conservatives have in favour of current Bush policy, and that's something that is, at the very least, useful. Unfortunately, he occassionally lapses into what is

2004-06-02T15:34:00.000-04:00

Humour, RNC Style Via the front page of FoxNews.com, it seems as though the leadership of the RNC has decided that the best way to make John Kerry look bad is to point out how much money he spends, and that he is out of touch with the common American. And they're serious. As even the FoxNews story admits "Three leading Republicans in the federal government — President Bush, Vice President

2004-05-07T17:52:00.000-04:00

Spanish Politics I know I'm way late to this. Way late. But it annoys me when commentators refer to terrorists as having "toppled" the Spanish government, and caused their troops to "flee" from Iraq. The fact is, though the Spanish government supported the Iraq war, the Spanish people... Here's a CNN article from March 29, 2003:With opinion polls showing more than 90 percent of Spaniards are

2004-04-18T13:23:00.000-04:00

Death Penalty The death penalty is one area where, despite the subject's gravity, I'm relatively indifferent. On the one hand, I think it's appropriate for the worst of crimes. On the other, the way it is applied in the US leaves something to be desired. Case in point: CNN spends 500 words discussing the supreme court appeal of a prisoner on Arizona's death row. They quote the Arizona

2004-04-14T09:32:00.000-04:00

Iraqi Troops An Instapundit approved reader has some perspective on Bush's press conference:If last year before the war started someone told me Bush was going to be complaining about the poor quality of Iraqi troops by April 13, 2004 I'd have been overjoyed!Unfortunately, I think that thought is incomplete. What he meant to say was that if that were the worst of our problems, he'd be overjoyed.

2004-04-08T19:19:00.000-04:00

Bush's Vietnam A couple of days ago, Ted Kennedy referred to Iraq as George Bush's Vietnam. As would be expected, the right side of the blogosphere jumped on his remarks, interpreting the analogy to mean that Kennedy thinks America is losing/will lose the war in Iraq. He was accused of sowing discord and confusion amongst our friends, and giving aid to our enemies. (I'm not really in a position

2004-04-05T04:13:00.000-04:00

Dresscodes A muslim student who was suspended for wearing a hijab is suing the Muskogee Public School District, on both religious freedom, as well as equal protection grounds. Even before hearing the arguments against her, I was willing to take her side, given the importance I place on religious freedom. Reading the school districts apparent defence only confirms the correctness of my choice. To

2004-04-05T03:58:00.000-04:00

Cellular Kaboom This CNN article suggests that terrorists are only now discovering the joys of the cellphone detonator. Aside from the fact that I'm fairly certain the phenomenon isn't quite as recent as CNN would lead one to believe, I'd like to point out that in 1996, the Israelis used such a setup to kill Yahya Ayyash, then Israel's most wanted terrorist. So certainly the idea of using a cell

2004-04-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

This Is Just Sad Tigger was always my favourite.

2004-04-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

Evolution and Religion The NCSE is an organization that has tirelessly fought to prevent the introduction of religious objections to evolution into the classroom. Thus far their efforts have been successful, and I'm always thankful for that. According to this John West column, though, they seem to be acting a touch hypocritically. West points to a website they published with the aid of a

2004-03-29T11:57:00.000-05:00

Cold War II: This Time, the Russians aren't Nearly as Scary Maybe we need Condi as NSA after all:However, with Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania set to become part of NATO's air defense umbrella, alarm bells have been ringing in Russia, Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the international affairs committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, said Monday.... "NATO's steps have had an unfriendly

2004-03-29T11:53:00.000-05:00

Nevermind I had assumed that Jacques Verges, the French lawyer representing Saddam, was just a media-whore; how better to get your name in the papers than to defend the worst of the worst? But then I read this:Verges also was a long-time friend of Pol Pot, the infamous Khmer Rouge leader who was the architect of Cambodia's 1975-1979 "killing fields" regime.There goes my theory.

2004-03-28T22:04:00.000-05:00

Quantitative Advantages of Belief In Non-Specific (Versus Specific) Additional Attributes of “the” God A special guest post from my lovely brother! General Assumptions: i) There is some omnipotent, omnipresent, free-willed and above all unique God. Without these “base attributes” of this unique God, there is nothing to

2004-03-26T13:28:00.000-05:00

More NRO Wit Shorter Florence King: Gay marriage is a shoo-in because 1. conservatives are afraid of being called racists and 2. liberals want to debate religion, which everyone knows is impossible.

2004-03-26T13:19:00.000-05:00

The Slippery Slope Rich Lowry has a column up on NRO where he (rather cleverly) gives us a glimpse into the future, specifically the text of an American history book, where all mentions of an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent being have been removed. And while Lowry is obviously correct in pointing out that there is quite a lot of God in American history, the slippery slope he proposes is a

2004-03-25T22:48:00.000-05:00

What Did You Expect? LGF links to this Al Jazeera piece whose headline exclaims "Israel 'fabricated' child-bomber story". Note the extra set of quotation marks. The story only points to Palestinian leaders who make this claim; Al Jazeera has no, you know, proof. If the WaPo or NYT had run a story like that, I'd be excoriating them. But it's Al Jazeera. So why should I be even the slightest bit

2004-03-25T22:26:00.000-05:00

The Coming Storm I just don't buy it whenever I read articles critical of Israel on the grounds that the Jewish state's actions are going "to lead the region into chaos." That's where we are now. And it's going to get worse before it gets better. As for the points the article makes, there's some new points, and some tired canard. First, the old: Sharon's a butcher (a somewhat fair, somewhat

2004-03-25T11:26:00.000-05:00

Funny Stuff Instapundit and LGF both link approvingly to this video by Evan Coyne Maloney. And I guess I'm doing the same thing. After all, the video was quite enjoyable, in the same way that Bowling for Columbine was enjoyable: both movies were highly entertaining, and completely missed the point. It's easy enough to point out how Dems talked tough about Iraq. But there are two differences.

2004-03-21T20:34:00.000-05:00

A Sane Anti-war Sign Well, actually, it's more of an anti-Bush sign, but I'll take what I can get at rallies where International ANSWER is involved. Check out pic #47 on this page. The guy with the sign outlining his beefs with the administration is actually quite accurate. Don't get me wrong: I'm not suddenly convinced that I should be anti-war, but that's obviously not the point of these

2004-03-18T03:46:00.000-05:00

Focus This results of this poll are hardly surprising. The only result I found to be at least interesting was this:While seven in 10 in the United States feel their country takes into account the interests of other countries when making international policy decisions, few in the other countries shared that view.This isn't really an opinion question: the US takes other countries' interests into

2004-03-18T03:33:00.000-05:00

Plan for a Complete Waste of Money Though I initially checked out this article because I wanted to learn how an Alaskan test discriminates against the disabled, it was a different part of the article that caught my eye:The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, seeks to create reasonable accommodations for disabled students and to develop alternative ways of assessing students who can't do well on tests. (

2004-03-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

Overriding a Judicial Veto Atrios points to a new house resolution that would allow congress, provided 2/3 of both houses concurred, to reverse any supreme court judgement they wanted. A few observations, mostly based on the comments made on Atrios's blog: Before anything else, I want to express my agreement with the many people who pointed out that this is pure posturing, and simply won't

2004-03-03T14:35:00.000-05:00

Now I Know What I've Been Missing Up until this afternoon, I had never heard Rush Limbaugh speak. In fact, I knew almost nothing about the man, beyond A) he commands legions of loyal "Dittoheads" who take his word as gospel, and B) he doesn't like the drugs but the drugs like him. After listening to his show for 10 minutes or so, I've come to this conclusion: Al Franken is completely correct.

2004-02-26T17:07:00.000-05:00

Gay Marriage v. Civil Unions Atrios feels that, concerning the difference between gay marriage and civil unions, "[t]his distinction was always a sham, because it's a distinction without a difference." John Edwards seems to think there is. But I think Atrios has a good point. As far as I can tell, the only real difference is that two homosexuals who are bound within a "civil union" wouldn't

2004-02-02T18:28:00.000-05:00

Surprise Surprise Quoth CNN: "Montana Death Row inmate found dead." How strange.

2004-02-02T04:25:00.000-05:00

Fair is Fair Not too long ago, I criticized PETA for what seemed to be a somewhat inconsistent stance on the use of leather in seats. Apparently, I was wrong. So that's what it feels like.

2004-01-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

How... Expected This CNN story seems to think that people are going to be surprised by the fact that the numbers of urban highschoolers who have had sex, done drugs and drank alcohol are similar to those for suburban schools. I just don't know why. I think most people are aware of the fact that teenagers are hot-headed, and have poor judgement, regardless of how much money they have. Extra:

2004-01-28T15:30:00.000-05:00

The 28th Amendment I was all set to write a rare pro-PETA post about how funny their Chris P. Carrot/Colonel Corn presidential ticket is. Really, I was. But then I looked at their platform. I can stand the usual litany of PETA initiatives (some of which are quite worthwhile; the government shouldn't be subsidizing farmers of any kind (though I wonder what PETA thinks of vegetable farm subsidies.

2004-01-28T14:46:00.000-05:00

You Know Someone's Going to be Pissed About This Fox's newest reality series involves "12 female little people contestants competing for the affections of a 4-foot-5 bachelor. But in the second episode, things take an 'Average Joe'-like turn when women of normal stature show up to compete with the vertically challenged contestants." I have nothing to add.

2004-01-28T14:16:00.000-05:00

Somewhat Selective What would my first day back be without a little PETA-blogging? The pickings were pretty slim today, as most of the action alerts, while of little concern to me, are reasonable in general. There is one, though, that I don't think makes a lot of sense:Tell Delta that you will not fly Song while animals die for its seats. Urge the company to pledge that Delta and Song will stop

2004-01-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

Huzzaw for Law After investing 4 years in a comp-sci degree, many of my family-members and friends didn't understand why I would want to go to law school. Aside from the fact that I think I'd enjoy law, this is why I thought that I might need something more.

2004-01-28T12:45:00.000-05:00

But Can You Feed It? I don't have too much to say about this article, beyond the following slippery slope concern: Once pets are uniformly treated as "children", rather than property, how long before a custody battle ensues over a TV, whose "best interests" would be a dry home, with a nice media-room in which it could live, and ample electricity for food?

2004-01-28T12:39:00.000-05:00

Tough Decisions There is a lot to think about in this article. And I'm not quite sure where I stand. First, the background: A student at McGill who refused to submit his essays electronically in order to prevent his professor from running them through the turnitin.com plagiarism detection system has won his appeal: the prof. has to mark them without submitting the essays to the site. So. Who's

2004-01-28T11:21:00.000-05:00

The Return Apologies for the paucity of posts this past semester. I decided that I might actually have to do a tiny bit of work in order to get my grades high enough so that I might go to the law school of my choice. And then I just got lazy. But then I noticed that Sean Kirby linked to me, with one of the nicest compliments I've ever received. (Thanks, Sean!) So now I'm back, ready to use my

2003-08-14T10:58:00.000-04:00

Trouble Ahead? This article on the BBC News website suggests that, though the pass-rate for the country's "A-Level" exams is up, the rise is partly due to a shifting test demographic. According to the article,The A-level figures are released for the main exam boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the Joint Council for General Qualifications. They show a trend away from subjects such

2003-08-14T10:26:00.000-04:00

Fining The Shields Eugene Volokh had a brief but informtative post up yesterday, concerning the legality of placing fines on some Americans who went to Iraq as human shields. He concludes that while such fines may or may not be the right course of action, they certainly seem to be well within the law. The implication is then that the human shields probably should've checked if their actions had

2003-08-14T10:13:00.000-04:00

Just Getting It A letter to the editor in today's NYT has a couple of interesting features:Re "U.S. Moved to Undermine Iraqi Military Before War" (front page, Aug. 10): It is now obvious that President Bush wasn't telling the truth when he said repeatedly between September and March that he had not yet made a decision to go to war. CHARLES S. CLARK Interesting Feature #1: This guy seems to

2003-08-14T09:55:00.000-04:00

Odd Logic Logic is all about assumptions. Sometimes, when a person is making an argument, their assumptions differ from yours, and you wind up with reasoning that seems to border on the ludicrous. This is especially the case with Islamic terrorists. Their assumption that every life is equal (in it's lack of worth, anyway,) leads to odd justifications for their attacks. A beautiful example

2003-08-11T18:09:00.000-04:00

From The "Duh" Department CNN has this entry as the second-most important Health story today: "Research: Parents less likely to commit suicide." How shocking. The sub-headline has another amazing fact: "...young children add an extra layer guarding against suicide for women." Quite unbelievable. Aren't you all glad someone looked into this?

2003-08-08T21:48:00.000-04:00

A Narrow View Rich Lowry has a column on the Town Hall website, advocating the return of the "Stay-at-home mom". His reason? Daycare is bad for kids, and the media is covering it up. While I won't dispute Lowry's evidence for this, since it's veracity isn't germane to my point, I wonder why Lowry would only want stay-at-home moms? What about dads? Lowry spends much of the column belittling

2003-08-08T15:55:00.000-04:00

What's Written In Law According to a story on CNN today, the 19-year old woman who has accused Kobe Bryant of rape has admitted that the two had started fooling around before she told Bryant to stop. While some of the lawyers quoted in the article suggest that this is an issue, the only person making sense in the article is the defence attourney quoted near the end of the article:Ultimately, the

2003-08-08T14:50:00.000-04:00

One Article, Lots Of Issues In this article concerning lawsuits that attempt to force an assortment of small businesses into complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act, there are a number of issues that are mentioned that warrant mention. Misleading Statistics: Regarding victories won by disability rights activists, the article says that "Disability rights groups hail these victories

2003-08-08T13:20:00.000-04:00

To Coin A Term A substance that has the ability to be fissioned is known as "fissile" material. Accordingly, any article that has the ability to be "Fisk"ed should be known as "Fiskile."

2003-08-08T11:22:00.000-04:00

Yes! I'm the first result for the Google as well as Yahoo search for "anti peta u of t" (no quotes surrounding the search terms), and second on MSN. Nice.

2003-08-08T10:13:00.000-04:00

Odd On the front page of the NYT, the top headline is Soldier and 2 Guerrillas Die as Israelis Raid West Bank City, and the link is to the NYT story on the incident. (Yes, I think it odd that members of Hamas are referred to as guerillas rather than terrorists, but at least the headline is complete in its identification of the dead.) At the top of the International News page, though, the

2003-08-08T10:01:00.000-04:00

Angels Larry King is one of the most respected talk show hosts in the US. He is often able to land the interviews no one else can, and his guests are usually relevant and interesting. Which is why it confuses me when he occasionally invites psychics to appear on his show.

2003-08-07T16:17:00.000-04:00

Missing The Point Mickey Kaus thinks Arnold made a mistake when he described his wife as "the greatest wife in the world ... a fantastic partner". Kaus believes that Arnold will be trying to combat accusations of womanizing, and feels that by using the "wildly unromantic" word "partner", he has erred. I completely disagree. A womanizer would see his wife as an object, and thus describe her as

2003-08-07T15:41:00.000-04:00

Why The Internet? Recently, University of Florida psychologists published an article suggesting the following acronym for determining whether or not an individual is addicted to the internet: More than intended time spent online Other responsibilities neglected Unsuccessful attempts to cut down Significant relationship discord because of use Excessive thoughts or anxiety when not online

2003-08-07T15:14:00.000-04:00

Back To Normal Ah. This feels right. PETA is back to meddling in events of little consequence. Like the letter sent to Milwaukee Brewers after the sausage beating incident, PETA has once again issued an action alert that doesn't seem useful:Urge Christ Church in Little Rock, Ark., to Cancel Men’s Steak Dinner NightPlease. Is a national alert really necessary to stop a single church in Arkansas

2003-08-07T11:52:00.000-04:00

Well Said Dave Barry on the correct answer to an important question:So Tide it is. But which Tide? Deep Clean Tide? Clean Breeze Tide? Deep Clean Breeze Tide? Deep Clean Breeze Tide With Bleach? New Ultra-Deep-Clean Lowfat Country Meadow Potpourri Tide Now Fortified With Lemony Scent Calcium? The guy brain cannot handle all these consumer choices. The guy brain is designed to deal with deeper

2003-08-07T10:57:00.000-04:00

Prisoners Reading this piece in the NYT, it has become abundantly clear that Israel end any and all prisoner releases. While the prisoners who have been freed are mostly those who had short stays left anyway, the fact they were released at all should demonstrate that the Israelis are at least willing to consider the absurd request to release prisoners who have commited actual crimes. Instead,

2003-08-07T09:49:00.000-04:00

So Far, No Winged Pigs Wonder of wonders: I agree with PETA! Seriously. I mean it. Stop laughing. I read here that PETA will be encouraging alunmi and students of Palmer Chiropractic University to eschew their school's use of cats and rats in government funded chiropractic experiments. For once, I have to agree. Chiropractic isn't science, but pseudoscience. Thus, while I support scientific

2003-07-30T12:13:00.000-04:00

Not Again The Dept. of Homeland Security has issued a warning, advising airlines and passengers that "As of mid-June, Islamic extremists may have been planning suicide hijackings to be executed by the end of summer 2003." That in and of itself isn't particularly big news, or even news at all. No one could reasonably believe that after such a spectacular success, al Qaeda would suddenly cease to

2003-07-24T17:21:00.000-04:00

Judges And Ideology On a party-line vote yesterday, the senate judiciary committee allowed the nomination of Alabama attourney general Bill Pryor to go through to a full-senate vote. Despite the victory in that particular battle, the GOP will seemingly lose the war, as the Dems have all but promised to filibuster Pryor, ensuring that he will not take his place as a judge for the court of appeals

2003-07-23T16:39:00.000-04:00

Weak This article by Bruce Shapiro attempts to make a case, but really just ends up missing the point. He argues that two incidents at private universities have signalled the end of political correctness, and the beginning of "roughshod policing of the boundaries of acceptable campus speech and speakers." Get real. To that I say "Good". Political correctness has deserved to die a violent death

2003-07-23T15:46:00.000-04:00

Ha I have shamelessly stolen this paraphrase from Jay Nordlinger:Three Americans and an Israeli soldier are caught by cannibals and are about to be cooked. The chief says, "I am familiar with your Western custom of granting a last wish. Before we kill and eat you, do you have any last requests?" Dan Rather says, "Well, I'm a Texan, so I'd like one last bowlful of hot, spicy chili." The chief

2003-07-23T10:13:00.000-04:00

Camp Ever wonder why the generations have been getting progressively wussier? Here's one more reason.

2003-07-23T09:52:00.000-04:00

The Truth According to this BBC report, the Palestinians are warning the Israelis that if Israel doesn't release Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants being held prisoner, then the peace process will be all but over. Seriously. According to the articleThe Palestinians see the prisoner releases as a key part of the plan, but Israel sees it as a goodwill gesture rather than an obligation.Their is

2003-07-22T18:48:00.000-04:00

Current Intent Interpreting the law can be tough a business, especially when the law in question was written some time ago, or is worded ambiguously. The second amendment to the US constitution is a perfect example, and as such the debate over its meaning has raged for the better part of 100 years. (Incidentally, it has been those with the guns who have thus far triumphed more often than not.

2003-07-21T15:50:00.000-04:00

Support Having long believed that this was the correct course of action, it's nice to see that there is some evidence that the teaching of a foreign language should be done as early as possible:Nakuma also thinks that most American children begin language studies too late. "After puberty, which happens on average around age 13, it is harder to learn a language and sound native. Before then, it

2003-07-21T10:11:00.000-04:00

Sometimes It's Just Funny More often than not, PETA appears on this page when I've uncovered a new reason to excoriate them. Not this time, though:Deciding to make a "life statement" and to "give [her] name real meaning," a 20-something member of PETA’s staff—formerly known as Karin Robertson—has now legally changed her name to GoVeg.com.That's right: Now every time this woman is introduced, the

2003-07-18T15:36:00.000-04:00

Meet The ISM The Internation Solidarity Movement describes itself asa Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and International activists working to raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. We utilize nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies.Seems noble, right? Sort of

2003-07-18T12:10:00.000-04:00

Amnesty Still Doesn't Get It On the front page of their site, they link to a piece about how in Iraq, people need to come first. They decry the death of all civilians, and mention with pride how they handed the UN a 60000 signature petition calling for an investigation into the human toll of a war. A fair idea, but they do manage to ignore an important point: The reason the Iraqis were

2003-07-18T11:04:00.000-04:00

PETActic Irrationality This article discusses one organization's attempt to evaluate the fiscal responsibilty and effectiveness of the many charitable organizations operating in the United States. In its first report, Charity Navigator found that many US charities were ill-managed, and thus received fairly low ratings in the four-star system. On such charity was PETA, which was labeled as a

2003-07-17T11:02:00.000-04:00

Liberal Media The debate surrounding the apparent bias in the news media has been raging for some time now. Both liberals (the new kind anyway) and conservatives carp at eachother over their perceptions that the media is biased against them. To liberals, there's nothing but Rush Limbaugh. To conservatives, there's nothing but the New York Times, the most respected (at least until recently) paper

2003-07-16T12:18:00.000-04:00

A Not-so-bright Would-be-Bright First, some background. In a July 12 op-ed, Daniel Dennett explains what it means to be a "Bright". As he puts it, "A bright is a person with a naturalist as opposed to a supernaturalist world view." Simple enough. And really, I the piece should end right there. Instead, Dennett goes on and on about what he perceives to be some sort of anti-Bright bias. His main

2003-07-15T16:34:00.000-04:00

Intentional? Via ConsumerFreedom.com, I found a link to a page that describes a lawsuit in which a man was awarded $200 000 after claiming that a car crash turned him in to a homosexual. The description of the incident isOnce again, an Ann Landers column has provided another look at an outlandish jury award from a bizarre lawsuit. A 27-year-old Michigan man was awarded $200,000 after claiming a

2003-07-15T15:59:00.000-04:00

PETA And Morality AskCarla.com (as mentioned before) annoys me. A lot. She is PETA's self-styled "Kindness Consultant", and the site is a compilation of Carla's answers to common objections and queries concerning PETA's policies. One question asks CarlaVegetarianism is a personal choice. Why are you trying to force it on everyone else?Before I get to her answer, I wanted to point out that there

2003-07-14T13:05:00.000-04:00

Moral Blindness Via LGF, I found this article about a Jewish member of the ISM which contained the following passage:Razowsky is quick to condemn suicide bombings, saying in an e-mail they are not a "fruitful tactic of resistance" by "Palestinian fringe groups."The willful ignorance of the scope, purpose and morality of suicide bombings displayed by this woman is dispicable, though wholly

2003-07-14T11:58:00.000-04:00

Human Is The New White As a coda to my post below, I offer the following snippet from Jennifer Cohen's winning essay:I looked into the eye of one of the chickens, who was scratching around right near my feet. She became perfectly still and looked back at me. She was a beautiful chicken, with pure white feathers. The upper portion of her beak had been cut off when she had been in a factory farm.

2003-07-14T11:41:00.000-04:00

A Sad Day Orin Kerr is leaving the Volokh Conspiracy for a year to clerk for Justice Kennedy. He was one of my favourite posters (behind only Prof. Volokh,) and I eagerly await his (hopefully) eventual return.

2003-07-14T10:53:00.000-04:00

Open Minds My PETA blogging seemed to work pretty well on Friday, so I figured I'm come back on Monday and do it all over again. At least once, anyway. Perusing PETA's site I came across this year's "Why Go Veg?" contest, where PETA asks visitors to the site to write a moving 500 word essay on why they decided to end the cruelty. I considered submitting my own entry (and may yet,) since it

2003-07-11T16:31:00.000-04:00

Fear This is a very tough case, and I'm not sure where I stand on it. On the one hand, it's art, and should thus be protected under the first amendment. On the other hand, creepy boxes that no one seems to be watching in the middle of Times Square right after September 11th is bound to lead people to believe that it was some sort of terrorist plot. So what to do? I think the punishment the man

2003-07-11T15:32:00.000-04:00

Wrong Patrick Seale has determined (once again) that war in Iraq, and future wars elsewhere in the Middle East, are the product of Neo-Con imperialism, and a desire to use America's military might to help Israel. Right. Because nuclear armed Iraq or Iran wouldn't be a US concern. The article also saysNo scrap of evidence, however, could be found linking Saddam Hussein to Osama bin

2003-07-11T14:22:00.000-04:00

Huh? This op-ed from the BBC is one of the more incoherent pieces I've read. It reaches a sweeping causal conclusion that is far too complicated, without actually considering the far more obvious possibilities. It opens by giving us a few facts which will be used later:Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University in New York quotes recent figures showing that those he calls the "super rich"

2003-07-11T11:26:00.000-04:00

Y? Y Not. It's from a couple of days, ago but this Maureen Down column is absolutely hilarious. Sure, she backhandedly makes sweeping generalizations about a very large group, but hey, why not? It's apparently what she does best.

2003-07-11T11:07:00.000-04:00

Two Nice Points In this brief article about a Florida supreme court case, there are a couple of pleasant pieces of information. For one, the court made the correct decision in declaring a law requiring a minor to give her parents 48 hours before getting an abortion unconstitutional (under the Florida, not the US, constitution.) Parental notification would be preferred for minors wishing to get

2003-07-11T10:37:00.000-04:00

She Can't Be Serious I've always enjoyed perusing AskCarla.com as her answers are condescending and self-righteous - exactly what I've come to expect in everything PETA does. Her answer to this question, though, is unbelievable:If you were starving on a boat at sea and there were an animal on the boat, would you eat the animal? I don’t know. Humans will go to extremes to save their own lives,

2003-07-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

Delusional The Running of the Bulls is probably Spain's most popular once-a-year tourist attraction. It attracts thousands upon thousands of visitors every year, injecting billions into the local economy, and earning Pamplona worldwide name recognition. Now, PETA would like that to come to an end. In order to create an artificial stampede, event organizers prod the bulls in order to agitate

2003-07-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

Hypocrites I wrote earlier about PETA's Holocaust on Your Plate campaign, in which they compare the slaughter of animals to that of the Jews and other groups in the Holocaust. For those of you who don't feel like reading my previous entry, I'll summarize my position: It's a damaging comparison, and I think PETA should be ashamed (assuming, of course, that that's possible; I'm not so sure that it

2003-07-11T09:13:00.000-04:00

Self-Parody SNL has long made a living by reducing a group or individual's personality to a stereotype, and mercilessly mocking them through imitation of said stereotype. That's why SNL's Donatella Versaci is a fall-down drunk; why Harry Caray was a blithering but lovable idiot; and why Dave Matthews did nothing but sing in a high-pitched squeal. Most SNL viewers are well aware that the real

2003-07-08T18:04:00.000-04:00

I'm So Bad Clearly, I can't really be interested in the world of computers and the like if every post on the subject is elicited by my realization that I haven't posted on the subject in a while. Nevertheless, I can't argue with the fact that I do still think these things are cool. As such, take a look at this: Controlling Robots with the Mind. The article itself is fascinating. More to the

2003-07-08T15:07:00.000-04:00

Junk Logic I know I shouldn't pick on PETA. After all, it hardly seems fair to subject them to my ceaseless torment, but the more I read, the greater the urge I get to yell at them. On PETA's page denouncing dissection, they write the following under the heading "Killing Compassion Along With the Frog":In fact, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer attributed his fascination with murder and mutilation to

2003-07-08T12:23:00.000-04:00

Special Equivalence Earlier this year, PETA started a campaign called "Holocaust on Your Plate", employing the twisted idea that animal slaughterhouses are essentially equivalent to modern Auschwitzes. Now, this is one of the most misleading, wrong-headed, and destructive campaigns in recent memory. I object to it both as a Jew and member of the human race. As a Jew, I'm disgusted that any

2003-07-07T17:47:00.000-04:00

Snappy Questions, Snappier Answers Here are my answers to Acidman's set of questions (since everyone else seems to be doing it.) [Found Via Steven den Beste.] 1. Do you have a personal hero? If so, who is it? Don't really have a single person. I suppose if you fused Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and George Patton into a single entity, you might be getting close. 2. What is your favorite

2003-07-07T13:25:00.000-04:00

Sub-Par Having been forced to eat lunch at my desk, I figured that today was as good as any to try out the Quiznos that opened a couple blocks from my office. I had been told that their toasted subs were better than any others. Being the curious consumer that I am, I decided that I would give them a shot and let them convince me that it's worth walking the extra block past the Subway. I'm sorry

2003-07-02T17:04:00.000-04:00

See You In A Bit I'm going on a posting hiatus until Monday morning. From now until then, I will be spending time on more important things. See you later.

2003-07-02T10:39:00.000-04:00

Canada Interesting piece on Canda from the Washington Post. Nothing new, really (Canada struggles for identity, blah blah blah...) Nonetheless an interesting read. Note the baby seal reference: it ain't the Canadians doing the clubbing.

2003-07-02T10:03:00.000-04:00

Political Correctness And Scientific Deficiency A couple months ago, I saw Diane Ravitch as a guest on the Daily Show. She was promoting her book, The Language Police, the authoritative tome on the political correctness found in many school text books. In this op-ed Ms. Ravitch provides us with a new list of inane subjects that cannot be broached in the pursuit of an education system entirely

2003-07-02T09:01:00.000-04:00

Misrepresentation In Maureen Dowd's latest rant about... something (it's unclear exactly what her point is,) she mentions that, while at Harvard med school, senate majority leader Bill Frist used to visit animal shelters, adopt stray cats, and then use them for "practice." So how does the nytimes.com summarize the piece?Senate majority leader Bill Frist thinks gay marriage is unholy. He also

2003-07-02T08:41:00.000-04:00

Evil Though this article discusses another victory for the gay rights movement, the most interesting and significant passage is on a related topic:With Wal-Mart making the policy change, 9 of the 10 largest Fortune 500 companies now have rules barring discrimination against gay employees, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group in Washington, D.C., that monitors discrimination

2003-07-01T14:50:00.000-04:00

Creepy Many criminal psychologists contend that children who torture animals are more likely to be serial killers. So what about this guy?

2003-06-30T15:43:00.000-04:00

Constitutional Ammendment For The Worse In the wake of the landmark supreme court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas which reversed Bowers v. Hardwick, and made current anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional, activist groups on both sides of the political spectrum have switched into high gear. Gay rights groups have taken the ruling as a signal that the fight for gay marriage may yet be won. Conservative

2003-06-30T12:23:00.000-04:00

Life And Property A woman's right to choose is one of the most arduously defended component of the freedoms women have won over the past 100 years. Their right to vote is constitutionaly guaranteed, and while the ERA failed to pass, equality has been inching closer, though at perhaps a slower rate than most (including me) would desire. Unlike the analog scale of equality, the empowerment

2003-06-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

Cool New Old Art For the most part, I dislike the direction art has taken over the last 50 years or so. Gone were the beautiful recreations of the most potent features of our world. Gone were the nuanced portraits, and the wild yet constrained impressions of the sun setting over one's native land. They have been replaced with what amount to gimmicks, paintings, sculptures and other artistic

2003-06-26T16:33:00.000-04:00

Equivocation I understand that CNN feels some sort of journalistic duty to be at least superficially objective. But allowing for the possibility that Hamas is strictly humanitarian? Give me a break.

2003-06-26T15:45:00.000-04:00

Playing The Game Part II [ Part I ] Greenpeace's dedication to the elimination of nuclear weapons is both admirable and repugnant. As a goal, it is something towards which we all should strive. In the current geopolitical situation, however, the path Greenpeace wishes to pursue is excessively naive. Greenpeace's desire is to see every government voluntarily destroy any nuclear weapons it owns,