Posted 11/30/2002 08:00:00 PM by Sid link


Radical Islam: An Apology

We would like to apologize for the way in which Radical Islam is represented in this weblog.

It was never our intention to imply that radical Muslims are weak-kneed, incontinent wife-beaters who are concerned more with their personal vendettas and private power struggles than the future of their religion, nor to suggest at any point that they sacrifice their credibility by denying free debate on vital matters in the mistaken impression that religious unity comes before the well-being of the people who are supposedly their brethren, nor to imply at any stage that they are squabbling little toadies without an ounce of concern for the vital problems of today.

Nor indeed do we intend that readers should consider them as crabby ulcerous little self-seeking vermin with furry legs and an excessive addiction to violence and certain explicit sexual practices that assistant French crack whores would find offensive.


We are sorry if this impression has come across.


We would also like to apologize to a Mr. M. Python, for blatantly ripping him off.

Posted 11/29/2002 02:26:00 PM by Sid link


Corporatacracy

Despite the now-increased threat of bankruptcy that has dogged the company all year long, United Airlines managed to find $192,275 to give the Democratic and Republicans parties in 2002.

So, from a shareholder's point of view, is that money well-spent if it buys enough influence to keep the company from going under? If it's not, how much money should United have spent? Would five hundred thousand dollars have been enough? As big as amount as that is, it's a drop in the bucket for a company with a billion in cash reserves. If you're an an American citizen as well a shareholder in United, do you celebrate the rise in value of your stock given the parlous economic times, or do you decry the influence of big money on the government, even though that influence has benefited you personally?

I suspect that most citizens would do both, either because they haven't made the connection that how government treats a particular company directly affects its business performance, or because they are like me, a realist, or embittered cynic, if you prefer that term. The correct thing to do, if you decried big money's influence on your government, would be to donate the difference, I suppose. I wouldn't do it.

And since I wouldn't, since I would not follow through with the logical actions dictated by my belief that the influence of corporate big money on the government is a bad thing, that belief must in some way be flawed. What am I to do?

Hmmmmm. Okay, legally a corporation is considered a person, right? If I was United Airlines, and I had a choice between ruining my credit, ceasing to exist, or paying the Mob protection money that also brought me influence within the Mob, how much money is too much? Faced with an imminent, perhaps a permanent reduction in my circumstances, whether or not to give the Mob more money is not the question. I've already decided to give more. A billion would buy me a crapload of influence, but I wouldn't have anything left to live on. $194K seems like too little, so I must be retarded, perhaps idealistic in my way the world works, or I may have just been testing the waters, seeing what the exchange rate is while I pursue my other, now dwindling, options.

I may not like doing this, but that's the world I live in. Who are you to condemn me, especially if you're the couple hundred guys who pay the Mob to come round twice a year and make sure my sewer system hasn't got any leaks that might end up contaminating the groundwater?

I'll end that metaphor, before it gets increasingly detailed and lengthy, but I trust you see my point. Corporations will always attempt to buy influence, because influence protects them. Legislation restricting the flow of money will not stop the flow of money, it will just redirect it.The problem with big corporate money in the government lies not in the corporations, but in the voters. Corporate and special interest money buys influence because there aren't enough voters to set up a countervailing influence. Politicians are beholden to money because money buys them elections. If enough voters bother not only to vote, but to educate themselves on the issues, then corporate and special interest won't be nearly as important, because that money is spent on television commercials, and commercials only sway ignorant voters. I'm not so partisan as to think that an "educated" voter will vote the same way I do an an issue, which is what that term so often means when it is used, but an educated voter, regardless of his or her personal politics, is less apt to be influenced by things politicians spend money on in order to be re-elected.

The conventional fix for the lazy voter is not to insist that they straighten up, but to remove money's role from an election, which is akin to deciding the best thing for your lazy fat self is not exercise, but a stomach staple. Federal financing is guaranteed to have unfortunate side effects, it's a feature inherent in the system.

My personal preference for dealing with the lazy voter is for poll tests, a notion that is neither legal nor likely to happen any time soon, but unless something is done to force the average American out of their state of apathetic torpor, the system will keep on just as it is.

Which is, after all, what we will deserve.

Posted 11/29/2002 12:52:00 PM by Sid link


Hellooo Detroit!

The Carnival of the Vanities is going on tour. First stop is is the 800 pound blogorilla that is a small victory, who will be hosting it next Wednesday, December 4th. While I'm perfectly happy hosting the Carnival here, I've decided that the best way to keep the idea fresh is for others to take a stab at it as well. I'll coordinate the schedule, and forward any submissions I get onto the host of the week, but for now I'm setting it free to roam around the blogosphere as it will.

Anyone is welcome to host it, and if you'd like to do so, send me an e-mail listing the Wednesdays that you are unable to be a host, and I'll draw up a schedule from there. I won't say first come first served. It's my baby, and I'm going to pick friends of Hraka over strangers, and blogs with an established traffic pattern over those with trickles in the event of a conflict. That's why I only want to know the days you cannot host, rather than the days that you want to.

As far as the format of the Carnival goes, do with it what you will, there is no need to follow the pattern I've used here. As long as you provide a link and a blurb, I don't think anyone will object.

The Carnival of the Vanities is published every Wednesday. Information on how to join the Carnival is available here.

Posted 11/28/2002 12:45:00 AM by Sid link


The Invisible Hand

A reader (a reader, we have a reader!) objects to my take on Fundamentalist Christianity and my perception of it as a close cousin to the Islam of Osama Bin Laden in Indistinguishable from Magic

I'm not one to rail at dissenters, and I'm not going to trot out a blanket "I'm offended." But, Bigwig, I object to your characterizing Christians with strong moral viewpoints as anything like Osama and his ilk. I don't care for Jerry and Pat very much either. But quite frankly this is a major slap in the face to someone who truly believes that Jesus is God, as I do. You use as an example of freedom a lesbian writing about Jesus in bed with Mohammed. Why is it "morally" better for someone to mock my beliefs than for me to call her a blasphemer for doing so - as I would someone who portrayed Jesus in a homosexual relationship? Objectively speaking, to someone who is a non-believer, neither is more oppressive - both are an opinion about a person. Yet you would hold up her as admirably free and me as a modern Satan?

Bigwig, I'm a Christian with very conservative views on a lot of things; some would call me fundamentalist although I don't use that term, and I'm not associated with the evangelical movement. Am I Osama hiding behind a cross because I think it's better for all concerned if men and women both refrain from stripping down to nothing in public?

I know you're talking in part about "forcing" people into certain behaviors, rather than just having differing viewpoints. Are you such a complete libertarian that you believe in anarchy outside of national defense, and even that only on our shores? Or would you, for example, object to widespread sexual involvement of adults with children? Making a law against that is an application of some standard of morality, whether originating in Christian beliefs or otherwise, and in the minds of some it is an oppression. Are you morally oppressive to want that limitation? There are a lot of other examples, with moral and societal implications. Object if you wish to the morality that some extremists want to impose, but don't say they're trying to impose their own morality and you are not. You just wish for a different one to be imposed. Which morality should be imposed is a very different argument than whether morality should be imposed.

I don't mean to make you the object of all my distress at this attitude, but I'm getting pretty tired of Christians taking the fall as some kind of bizarre caricatures of dark Spanish Inquisitors. How can you expect me to have any respect for your views when you mock, deride and attack mine (by implication)? When you have as your opening premise that my beliefs are childlike and founded on nothing but wishful thinking and magical notions? When you tar me with the same brush as people I disagree with vehemently, painting fundamentalists as one-dimensional boogiemen? And *then* compare all of us to a monomaniacal murderer who thinks nothing of slaughtering anyone who disagrees with him?

It just makes me sad, and angry.

It makes it especially bizarre to me when you've made a point of talking about taking your own daughter to church because apparently she needs churching to be a whole person. WHY?! If you can raise her without any reference to a god, and that's a good thing, why take her to church? Isn't that hypocrisy on your part?

I'm going to write a post about this, probably for tomorrow. It's my intention to mention your post very little, because I'm truly not wanting to rip at you. Your attitude and words are very familiar to me because I've heard versions of them for many years, so I don't have to key off your post to say what I need to say. And like I said, I do really like you, and your blog. I guess that's one reason why I'm so upset about it. When I see things like this from people like you, it just disheartens me.

I think that you might be inferring certain things from the post that I did not mean to imply, like "When you have as your opening premise that my beliefs are childlike and founded on nothing but wishful thinking and magical notions?" I've re-read the post a couple of times, and I can't find anything I think implies that. I do think that about certain belief systems, like Wicca. Whatever Wicca is though, it is not authoritarian, which is what I was talking about when I lumped Jerry and Pat in with Osama and Barbra.

Christian Fundamentalism certainly has some different flavors, but the old tradition of the Southern Baptist denomination, one that allowed a wide variety of interpretations in each member church, came under attack beginning in the 70's, and is almost nonexistent today. Any church that does not toe the fundamentalist line has been forced out of that denomination, or has left.

Baptist Churches were founded on the belief that individuals should interpret the Bible on their own. In the Southern Baptist denomination, that founding principle has been essentially overturned, so that now a Southern Baptist might as well be a Catholic as far as his or her freedom to chose a doctrine is concerned. There's a Southern Baptist seminary in Wake Forest, Southeastern, where my father once taught.

He's a Methodist minister. I've blogged about being a PK before, but it doesn't come up often.

20 years ago, Southeastern turned out both Methodist and Baptist ministers, but after the Southern Baptist convention was taken over by the fundamentalist movement, any professor with a viewpoint other than the one held by its president was forced out. Dad had to leave when the Methodist church pulled its accreditation.

Where once Southeastern turned out Methodist and Baptist ministers with a wide range of faith and theology, it now graduates only fundamentalists. The product may not be hamburgers, but Southeastern is essentially a theological McDonalds.

Which brings me to my next point. Some people might call you a fundamentalist, but the fundamentalists almost certainly would not. As you said, "I'm not associated with the evangelical movement." The evangelical practice of "witnessing" to others is integral to the modern fundamentalist movement. Evangelism is why well-coifed church-goers show up at my door every now and then and ask me if I've been saved. Evangelism is why Southern Baptists to pray for the salvation of the Jewish people during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Evangelism is part and parcel of Christian Fundamentalism, as is biblical inerrancy.

Dad used to be a fundamentalist minister, back in his teens and early twenties, before Korea and Duke Seminary. (In case you're wondering, I don't know what he thinks about Hauerwas.) I've inherited most of my views on the weakness and brittle nature of Fundamentalism from him.

He once told me that a fundamentalist is someone who doesn't know a lot about Christianity. The fundamentalist response to that, as Tammy Fae Bakker said, is "You can educate yourself right out of a relationship with God."

Of course, what Tammy Faye Bakker had to say didn't really matter much in our household, just as what we said didn't matter too much to her and Jim. I think that mocking a religion should have pretty much the same status. If your belief system can't take a good mocking, then it's not much of a belief system. And your faith will be mocked and derided. It's your cross to bear, so to speak. Jesus was mocked and derided. I've heard tell he turned out ok.

Frankly all faiths, all beliefs, not just religious ones, will be attacked at some point or another. They'll either survive it, perhaps with a stronger internal philosophical framework, or they'll fall by the wayside, to be nurtured and cared for by only a few, or they'll die out entirely.

"Think of it as evolution in action," he said, tongue pressed firmly in cheek.

If a radical lesbian feminist wrote a book where Jesus and Mohammed took turns being a bottom for each other, big deal. Feel free to condemn it if you like, that's as much a part of your civil liberties as it would be a part of the author's to write it. Both the act of writing the book and the act of condemning the book are morally equivalent.

But burning the book, or issuing a fatwa against the author, is an immoral act, because they impede the full expression of the civil liberties of others. Unsurprisingly, U.S.S Clueless has addressed something of this argument.

In essence, you have no obligation to associate with people like that. You have no obligation to in any way help them spread their opinions. But you should not attempt to actively suppress them, to actively work to try to prevent them from expressing their point of view. In part that means you should not attempt to use the power of government to persecute them, but it also means you should not attempt to coerce others to join you, except through the power of argument on the basis of the issues. Where you cross the line is when you do anything which works to prevent others from making up their own minds.

Certainly I don't regard Christian fundamentalists with the same jaundiced eye that I view the Islamofacists, but I don't view most of Islam with that eye, either. If I have to rank actions according to a moral standard, then a fatwa calling for the murder of a author or a journalist is certainly more immoral than burning a Harry Potter book. I tend to just label both actions as "immoral" and let it go at that. That said, some Fundamentalist Christians are perfectly happy with a certain type of fatwa when it comes to abortion.

When it comes to calling for death, Islam just has a lower threshold.

Editorial aside: Not that I think the writer is one of those people. Indeed, I think such fundamentalist terrorists are vanishingly rare, and make up a far lower percentage of the Fundamentalist population that do Islamofascists in Islam.

Object if you wish to the morality that some extremists want to impose, but don't say they're trying to impose their own morality and you are not. You just wish for a different one to be imposed. Which morality should be imposed is a very different argument than whether morality should be imposed.

Gandalf, you there?

Gandalf: Indeed he is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring and assailing him with war, seeking to cast him down and take his place. That we should wish to cast him done and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind.

Which morality should be imposed is an argument that I shan't be seeing anytime soon, as I answered the whether morality should be imposed argument in the negative long ago. I think moral systems should have to compete in the marketplace of ideas, just like any other thesis has to. I see radical Islam's rejection of Western ideals as a admission of its inability to compete with them in an open marketplace. The same admission is made when a fundie burns a book.

I don't worry about the "widespread sexual involvement of adults with children" because that particular moral choice has been declining in popularity for years. It's an odd argument to choose as a straw man in any case, as the arranged marriage of a barely pubescent girl to an much older man is a recurrent theme in authoritarian religions like Islam, as well as some of the fundamentalist Christian sects. Were it still a viable part of Western practice, I might have already arranged Ngnat's marriage to one of my college buds by now.

Speaking of Ngnat, I take her to church for the same reason that when she gets old enough, I'll open a bank account for her, or give her an allowance. People need practice with morality, same as they do with money. I'm not going to give her $200 bucks and set her loose in a Wal-Mart when she's 5, god only knows what kind of glittery crap she'll come back with. I don't want her coming home with the moral equivalent of that same glittery crap once she grows up. Going to church will give her a familiarity with the Judeo-Christian concepts and values that underlie Western Culture. Those values will give her a base to work from when the time comes for her to make her own choices. She, like myself and my parents before me, will be an educated consumer.

And that's all I really want.

Posted 11/27/2002 12:24:00 AM by Sid link


Carnival of the Vanities
The Ten Horned Beast

We're hosting the family Thanksgiving at our house this year. You'd think that would be be a pretty straightforward statement. Not really that much to think about. Cook a little turkey, bake a little pie, watch a little football. The problem is that the actual definition of "family" on my side of the family is pretty amorphous, and depending on the circumstances can stretch to cover pets, friends, and the pets of friends. It drives the accountant wife up a wall, since she can never tell whether she is to prepare herself for a quiet evening with a small circle of relatives, or for something approaching the size of a Catholic wedding party.

I remember a time, back when we were still kids, where the youngest son of the family up the street just "happened" to drop by every night about dinner time. He'd knock on the door, say something like "Ya'll come outside when you're done." We'd ask if he'd eaten yet, and he'd say "no", even though we found out later that wasn't true, and we'd pull up a chair and he'd eat dinner. Eventually Mom just started setting a place for him.

In case you're wondering, he wasn't poor, or abused, or anything like that. He just wanted two dinners.

We've had a "family" beach trip the past two years. This year, the "family" beach trip included a newlywed cousin and his dog and his new wife and their two friends whom we had never met, all of whom showed up the day before we were due to leave. I cooked them scrambled eggs and made sure they had enough beer. Dad regaled them with a story from his childhood where he conned a man into buying a bag of turds for a dime and the wife's head popped off and flew around the room, shrieking imprecations at the heavens.

Well no, not really. It was a close thing, though. Her experience at the cousin's wedding a few months previous certainly didn't help. It was hours away, and held on Ngnat's 2nd birthday weekend, and the directions were vague and imprecise, and they called that the day before the rehearsal dinner to see if we were coming to the rehearsal dinner, even though our invitation had been "lost", and the bride didn't stop by our table to say "Thank you for coming" at the reception, a practice which is apparently de rigueur, which I was unaware of although I had observed it numerous times before;

"At every single wedding I've taken you to." I was informed.

Are they coming to Thanksgiving? Well, they might. We don't know. We haven't heard from the cousin's parents in a week, after they wrote to tell us that they were probably coming, after they had their own dinner at a somewhat unspecified time in a city two hours away. I wrote back at the better half's behest to make sure the dog at least stayed two hours away, and since then there has been silence.

The next day my mother emailed to ask if Ngnat's great-grandmother was coming with the cousin's family, or if they were getting her. As the arrival of the cousin was going to be unknown prior to the collapse of his particular wave function, much like the fate of Schrodinger's cat, I asked them to bring the ancestral matron with them. Whether or not this will actually occur is also unknown. My family doesn't waste electrons confirming things. I also asked if they had heard from my sister.

Yes, she is doing fine. No, she didn't say if she was coming. No she didn't say that if she came, she was going to bring her gay friend with her who comes to all of our family events with or without her anyway. No, she hadn't heard from him.

The next day brother Kehaar wrote and asked if his friend who is a girl, not a girlfriend mind you, but a friend who is a girl, can come.

"I dunno," I said. "I'll have to check."

So I checked.

"Can Kehaar bring a girl?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because I told him I had to check."

"That makes me look like a bitch! Why didn't you just tell him she could come?"

"I.....don't......know?"

"Well, thanks a lot! Is this a girlfriend?"

"Um.....no. It's a friend who's a girl. She wanted to see what the turducken is like."

"I hate that damn thing."

So I brush the singe off my eyebrows and e-mail Kehaar that yes, the girl who is a friend can come.

He writes back. "Ok, good. She thinks she might not have her kids that day, so if she doesn't, she'll come."

Come Thanksgiving, we'll have somewhere between 3 and 12 people showing up for our "family" Thanksgiving.

Wish her luck.

Welcome to the Carnival. New to us this week are;
tonecluster
Bloviating Inanities
The Truth Laid Bear
The Big Vague
Chuck Simmins' Journal
Dissecting Leftism
The Light of Reason
Occam's Toothbrush
Facts of Israel
The Talking Dog
Kesher Talk
The Eclectic Chapbook


Balancing The Humours
tonecluster - Riddles in the Dark - Look. How many times must I explain? An exception isn't a condition unless you make the exception a condition of something unconditional. So if something is unconditional except for some exceptions,that aren't conditions, of 8 or 9 installations, those exceptions do not conditionalize the unconditional agreements. You see? There are no conditions and they can look anywhere they want except for 12 or 13 locations, and we will except any conditions, and that is what makes it unconditional. We make exceptions to all conditions, no condition is to be excepted, except for any and all unconditions, and under no condition are there to be any conditions. The exceptions are unconditional, which still keeps my promise of unconditional inspections. You know, none of this bothers Blixie.. why does this bother you so much?

Bloviating Inanities - Crosstown Traffic - So I'm driving home from work listening to Hannity and he's interviewing Congressman Gary Ackerman. I'm barely paying attention. Then, Hannity says indignantly, 'Have you read the Cox report?'
I am not making this next part up...
Ackerman replies, 'I have read the Cox report.'
And then, no kidding...
'I have also read the Dicks report.'

Blogatta Mondatta
Everything Must Go - Post it and they will come: Confessions of a new blogger - My publishing experience immediately before 9/11 had been as an activist with the local (SF Bay Area) Green Party, subjecting what I wrote to the approval of a left/liberal committee, and believe me, that kind of writing isn't fun. After the Green Party made some repulsive America-bashing statements, I left and discovered Andrew Sullivan, InstaPundit and the rest of you, and after a while I changed my voter registration to Republican. Aside from one close friend, I didn't know anyone who wasn't a liberal, so I had no one to talk politics with except on blogs. I enjoyed commenting on other people's blogs so much that, a week and a half ago, I finally started my own.

The Kitchen Cabinet - The 'Revenge of the Blog Conference' at Yale Law School - After a near-sleepless night of anticipation and self-doubt, I am here at the Revenge of the Blog conference and ready to blog it! Glenn Reynolds is scheduled to begin speaking in about 10 minutes. So far, turnout looks low.
Editor's note: Scroll up from link

Solonor's Ink Well - Solonor's World - Hi, I'm Lester. I'm a 40-year-old geek with nothing better to do than to type stuff (and junk) about his life into a computer. Oh, yeah, and I use my D&D name

Digitalis
The Truth Laid Bear - Open V. Closed Security And Software V. Reality - Jane seems to argue that naturally, the American public in an open effort is better at solving problems than any one group of expert would be. And I think that's likely true. But I would argue that the huge advantage that an open effort has in finding problems does not apply nearly as much when it comes to solving problems -- open is better, but the gulf is not nearly as dramatic as with problem identification.

South Knox Bubba - SKB is back on the air - At some point you will actually start hoping these people coming down the aisle won't stop and ask the same questions you've been asked a hundred times already that day because you know it is another product selection committee from another worldwide mega-conglomerate that isn't going to buy anything in your or their lifetime but are nonetheless on a mission to collect product information from every vendor on the planet as part of their due diligence for The Project that isn't funded and they will ask a lot of stupid questions like will this product shift our paradigm or evolve our line of business infrastructures to align them with our core value proposition or something and then they will go back and have nine months of meetings during which the short-listed Andersen Consulting approved vendors with products that are exactly what they are looking for except they will have to be completely redesigned and rewritten will be strapped to a 767 and flown in to jump through hoops of fire and roll over and sit up and beg until finally a $100 million project is approved that will never get off the ground or if it does it will fail miserably or funding will be cut half-way through and by this time next year they will all be fired and the selected vendor will have all the life sucked out of them by the black hole that was The Project and be out of business when the new product selection committee comes walking down the aisle.

Dogs of War
The Claremont Institute - End Games - On a recent edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, a cadet asked what the U.S. "exit strategy" might be in the event of a war with Iraq. The guests, all retired generals, answered his question, differing from one another only in degree, not in kind. None challenged whether the question was legitimate in the first place.

Helloooo chapter two! - We'll Get Right On That - Worst. Civilization. Ever. Oh thank you, Osama, for making us see the light! You can be certain that I'll get right on that whole setting-up-sharia-in-America thing, just as soon as I stop GUT-LAUGHING, you spoiled little rich brat from Saudi FREAKING Arabia. When we start stoning women for getting raped in the US, I'll be sure to be less sarcastic about this.

Fast Food Nation
The Eleven Day Empire - Whatever Happened to Personal Responsibility? - I'm sorry the plaintiff kids are unhealthy. And I'm sorry they're unhappy. And I'm sorry their parents have spent years not knowing, or not caring, about their diet and their health. But that is not the fault of McDonalds!

Silent Running - 'Merkin Fast Food - Oh god, Popeyes is good! Why don't we have it in Australia and New Zealand? It's essentially Cajun-style crispy chicken, with lovely spicy rice and these utterly amazing things called "biscuits". Now these aren't what Antipodeans like me would call biscuits, our biscuits here would be called "cookies". No, these are delicious hunks of a slightly fried breadlike substance, crisp on the outside and softer on the inside. They are to die for!
And WARNING to New Zealanders and Australians - Do NOT make the chicken recipe Tom Paine published and serve it to an American Southerner and call it "Fried Chicken". A Fight may ensue.

Heartstrings and Hand Grenades
The Big Vague - Politics and Personality - A serious heart condition made her different from other kids. Her skin was actually a bluish color. She was like a blue angel to me, sweet and very funny, but to a few kids at school she was just a freak. So they added to her torment and subtracted from an already short life by taunting her.

JimSpot - Every Morning - I have been taking Ashley to school every day since school started. At first, I would stand with her and wait for the bells to ring, then kiss her and send her inside. In talking with the Nun who runs the school and Ash's teacher, I discovered that they don't really want the parents to do that.

Chuck Simmins' Journal - My Father - Dad quit school in the eighth grade when his father died, and went to work to help support his eight brothers and sisters. Scrambling for money on the mean streets of Jersey City during the Great Depression. People starved, you know. You could then, without really trying. Now, you have to go out of your way to starve in the United States, but not then.

Jack Handey Has a Posse
Philosoblog - John Rawls - Suppose that you knew that in the next moment were going to be reborn as a new baby, such that where you were going to end up on the ladder of wealth and opportunity were going to be a matter of pure chance. If you would say, "Hang on a moment. Can we first put in place the most generous welfare minimum possible? I really don't like gambling," then you do not believe your present society is a just one. You believe the rules of the game are not reasonable or impartial. You don't think the wealthy in your present society do unto the poor as they would have others do unto them if they were poor. You know that only a society with the most generous welfare minimum possible would be just. This is Rawls's argument for an extensive, elaborate, cradle-to-grave welfare state. The rich should give and give to the poor until giving more won't do any more good.

The Road To Surfdom - I'm With Stupid - Individual freedom is inseparable from a secure society in which to be an individual. Thus, the rightist prescriptions of unfettered "free markets", deregulated industries, and businesses whose only interest is "shareholder value" is not only wrong, it is impractical and self-contradictory. Individuality and individual freedom are arguably the products of social relations, not something separate from them. So the hard-right policies are problematic because such practices undermine the conditions--a coherent society--in which our individuality is able to flourish.

Media Bash
ClubBeaux - Empty headlines - If you're like the majority of Americans you stop reading right there, armed with a "fact" to throw in the face of that right-wing nut you work with or your brother-in-law, who maintains that American society is superior to Arabic Islamic society since there has been no anti-Islamic backlash in the United States.

Mondegreen Nation
skippy the bush kangaroo - there's a bathroom on the right
- mrs. skippy's inability to understand the old group the hollies "all i need is the air that i breathe and to love you" is one of our personal favorites. she swears when she was a teeny bopper in the 60's she heard them say "all i need is some lsd and to love you." of course, context is a major factor here.

Money for Nuthin'
Dissecting Leftism - "Reparations" For Slavery -- A Solution - This does of course go against a most basic principle of natural justice -- that people are not liable for the deeds of others -- even if those others happen to be our grandparents. Let us however assume that this case is exceptional and that a doctrine of inherited guilt has to be accepted on this occasion. So who is guilty?

Paging Mr. Orwell
The Light of Reason - Living By Permission, Revisited - It certainly is true that, in terms of the great benefits conferred by technology generally, our lives are infinitely enriched. Nonetheless -- and this is the point that is crucial, and that seems to be ignored -- the fact is that the government has incredible powers over each and every one of us now -- and all that is required for the government to put its already existing machinery into action against you is for some nameless, faceless government bureaucrat to decide to use it. The laws and regulations are already in place for him to do pretty much whatever he wants, should he decide to take advantage of the opportunity.

Heretical Ideas - Living By Right Or Permission? - What does it mean to be living by "right" or by "permission"? In context with the discussion, what it boils down to is the level of control that a person has over their own life. To live by permission is to live in a state in which "everything not compulsory is forbidden." That is, the ultimate control over one's life is dictated by somebody other than oneself. To live by right, then, is to have complete autonomy over personal decisionmaking, so long as you don't interfere with the liberty of others.

Pictures at an Exhibition
Northwest Notes - Lakeshore Photos and Volcanocam - These are from my walk last week in Colman Park by Lake Washington, just southeast of where we live.

Poll Tests
Occam's Toothbrush - Mangy Poll Cats - The margin and the confidence level are usually chosen in advance, at some acceptable level, so the pollster can determine x, the amount of people that he will need in his sample. Trying to get the margin of error down, or the confidence level up, will make x prohibitively large. But the whole thing is a joke, because the pollsters are violating the first rule of statistics, by starting with a sample that is anything but random.

Smiting the Semites
Facts of Israel - Land for War - In 1994, I served as a medic in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces, or Israel's army). I spent a few days near Naharayim, land that was given back to Jordan in return for peace. The land in question was named the "Island of Peace" – allowing regular Israelis and Jordanians to meet near the Jordan River and make peace a reality. Unfortunately, in 1997, a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a bus of Israeli school girls, murdering seven eighth-graders. That pretty much stopped the meetings and the "Island of Peace" is today only remembered as the place where this massacre occurred.

The Talking Dog - La Cosa Nostra di Ramallah - Think of the Palestinians in general (these morons, anyway, who will now set up a shrine to the mass-murderer they had the misfortune to have raised) as comparable to the stupid neighbors of Dapper Don John Gotti, who were so pleased with the Don's Christmas pageants and Fourth of July fireworks that he was regarded as a local hero and civic leader, rather than what he was: a *&&^^%^ criminal, whose minions had dozens of people or more killed in the course of their activities.

Kesher Talk - Pesky Liberal Jews - Republicans need to convince us they will maintain a separation of religion and state. Many of us have personal memories of being forced to pray Christian prayers and sing Christian songs in school, or getting beaten up or ostracized for not doing so. We are acutely aware that large swathes of the Republican religious right still think we are heathens and want to convert us. When missionaries ring our doorbells, we don't think "Democrat."

The Eclectic Chapbook - - The first thing the Jews did was launch a major conspiracy to re-leaf the region as discussed here previously. This was the sinister Tree Conspiracy. The aggressors showed no mercy, buying up land and planting lots and lots of trees. Obviously, the Egyptians were jealous and resentful.

Sports Night
Ipse Dixit - Is The NFL Insane? - Julius Peppers is on his way to being rookie defensive player of the year. He will probably be robbed of the opportunity to achieve that goal - and a considerable amount of his salary - because of a 4-game suspension for ingesting a perfectly legal substance.

This Green and Pleasant Land
Where Worlds Collide - Great Britons? - The BBC have been running a series called Great Britons, with the aim of choosing the greatest Briton of all time. The original 100 names, chosen by 30,000 of the great British public, had some bizarre choices and some notable omissions. There were far too many flavour-of-the- month celebrities like Robbie Williams, David Beckham, and, for Cthulhu's sake, Boy George(!), which goes to show the shallowness of a lot of people's educations.

Turkey Coma
Ravenwood's Universe - It's the end of the world, and I feel fine - One week from today, millions of Americans across the nation will sit down at their dinner table with family and relatives, to celebrate my birthday. I encourage all Americans to feast on turkey, potatoes, and stuffing, while the Cowboys and Lions host their annual football classics, in celebration of the anniversary of my birth.

The Short Strange Trip - Anecdotal Evidence- Ramon, was sort of the village patriarch. He was a wiry, elderly gentleman with grey hair and a goatee. He was also an original BMF (I once saw him shoot a rattlesnake in the head with a .38 from the hip). From previous trips, Dad and Dr. P. had befriended Ramon and they had a pretty amicable relationship. This time Ramon seemed different. Somehow through a mixture of Spanish and sign language he conveyed that he had a bad tooth which had been plaguing him for years. Now, it was reaching critical mass.

Weird Al Has a Posse
Amish Tech Support - Call CDC - SEBASTIAN the Crab, who is no longer a viable property, is about to be cooked for Michael EISNER's boardroom lunch when news of the cruise ship comes over the e-mail system. Sebastian sees an opportunity to save his shell.

MadKane - The Democratic Election Anthem of 2004 - When Liberals Rule (To be sung to "Blue Bayou," by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson)
I feel so bad, I got a worried mind,
I`m so anxious all the time,
Since the Dems were left far behind
And George Bush rules.

The Carnival of the Vanities is published every Wednesday at Silflay Hraka and Blog Critics. Information on how to join the Carnival is available here.

Posted 11/26/2002 01:52:00 PM by Katie Bug link


Searching for Santa's Rap Sheet

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, but not because he had been hitting the sherry!
His smile was so grand, he seemed to be so up,
But not because of drugs, fore he had already pissed in a cup.


This was written by the Associated Press:

SANTAS UNDERGO BACKGROUND CHECKS

MILWAUKEE - The jolly man in the red suit is a popular fixture at local shopping malls this time of the year. And chances are good that before Santa Claus hears one Christmas wish, he's undergone a criminal background check and drug testing.

``It's just a sign of the times for all businesses that provide services to families and children,'' said Barbara Sacco, vice president of marketing for Faison & Associates, which manages The Shops of Grand Avenue mall in downtown Milwaukee.

Nancy Conley, marketing director at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, said background checks and drug screening have become common place when hiring Santas.

``Even the elves are finger-printed and drug-tested,'' Conley said.



Finger printing and drug testing the elves??? Surely the ACLU hasn't gotten wind of this yet.

Posted 11/26/2002 11:29:00 AM by Katie Bug link


London Is For Lovers

Finally, I have proof to back up what I have been claiming to my wife for years. We do not "do it" nearly as much as other people. We can't let the Brits beat us at something, can we? It is our American duty to go to our homes and have sex as often as possible. Maybe wives, girlfriends, hookers, whoever, will be moved into action by a sense of duty to God and country........but probably not. Sorry guys, I tried.

Posted 11/26/2002 12:00:00 AM by Sid link


H - 24

Deadline for the next Carnival is Tuesday at 5 pm, EST, as normal. This looks like it will be a fairly large one, as we have almost 20 submissions already in, with a hefty number coming from bloggers new to the CoV, which is good.

Good because the traffic patterns from the last two Carnivals indicate that the largest single source of visitors is Blogdex, despite regular links from 5 or 6 blog heavyweights. The second biggest source of traffic is visitors from the smaller sites. Large audience sites send us less traffic every week they link to us. For those of you who thought Hraka was a blog heavyweight, I can only say that you've been sadly misled :)

I'll take The Daily Pundit as an example. Bill has been very good to us, linking to the CoV every week, yet the numbers coming from his site to the Carnival grow fewer every week. What I think this indicates is that eventually a particular blogger's regular audience grows accustomed to a weekly Carnival link, and have either already bookmarked Hraka and thus come directly, or they don't come at all. After all, if the CoV isn't your cup of tea the first couple of times you come to see it, it's not likely to be any other time, either.

But it appears that a page one ranking on Blogdex makes up for losing visitors from the deep-pocketed sites. The longer the Carnival goes, the less valuable a link from the Daily Pundit, or File 13, or Cut on the Bias is as far as direct visits from those sitesare concerned. Their links soar in value indirectly, because the higher a rank the Carnival has on Blogdex, and the longer it stays there, the more people pour in from there.

Which brings me to a realization. It's possible to manipulate Blogdex. We do it every week when I beg for links from the Blogdex registered among you. Not only is it possible, it's fairly easy. 7 or 8 links is all that it takes to put a site on the front page. Right now #4 on the page is Michelle, and she's only got 10 incoming links.

I can see a time in the future when groups of the Blogdex-registered will all agree to point at each other's posts on a particular day, thus covering the first page on Blogdex with posts of their own choosing. That's got a really powerful propaganda potential. Imagine hacking Blogdex on Election Day 2004, with blogs for the party of your choice. Likely it wouldn't swing a lot of votes, but it would make a hell of an Internet ruckus.

And it would likely get the perpetrators kicked out of Blogdex, assuming that they have some mechanism for removing sites that practice......spamlinking? splinking? I think I'll go with spelunking, as it has both the necessary initial phoneme and already exists as a word. There's also the visual image of lots of caves joining together to form one massive cavern, which is a decent visual metaphor for Blogdex, to my way of thinking.

So assuming that there is a Blogdex punishment for spelunking, each group could only do it once. Another Blogdex hack would be possible if one person created multiple free blogs, registered them all and pointed them at the same content every now and then. Such a a practice would also be a lot harder to track, especially if the spelunker took the time to actually update each log with an innocuous link each day. Rather than updating one blog eight times a day, the nefarious spelunker would update eight blogs once a day, and whenever he either wrote something or saw something he wanted more widely spread, he would link to it.

I don't think I can figure out a way to prevent that, at present. I'm going to look at the Blogdex registration process again. Back later.

Posted 11/25/2002 01:52:00 PM by Katie Bug link


Party Time!!!

Can you imagine the throwdown of a party these girls could come up with? Friends, family, presidential motorcades, security, guns, playing quarters with White House crystal.............

Posted 11/25/2002 01:37:00 PM by Katie Bug link


And the Emmy Goes To………..

Last week I mentioned some of my favorite movies ever (many of which a number of you didn’t agree with), and that started me thinking of other favorites of mine, which eventually led me to focus on television shows. What are my favorite shows of ALL time? There is a lot of pressure in coming up with this seeing as some of you took the time to tell me how wrong I was with my movie choices. These are MY favorite movies and others not liking them does not make me like them any less. I didn’t say they won the most awards, made the most money, or that others liked them the best, just me.

So, here we go again. This is a list of some of MY favorite television shows ever. After the first couple they are in no particular order. Once again, please feel free to tell me how wrong I am and suggest your favorites as well.

1. Cheers
2. Seinfeld
3. Twilight Zone
4. The Wild Wild West
5. Friends
6. The Andy Griffith Show


I also like Everybody Loves Raymond, but am not ready to put it among my favorites just yet. Noticeably absent are many 1 hour programs. I watched Hill Street Blues, and Magnum, P.I. when they used to come on, and liked them a lot, but have since not watched a lot of dramas. Too long and can’t dedicate the time to watch them each week. I will rely on others to supply a list of those that are not represented here.

Posted 11/25/2002 11:33:00 AM by Sid link


Taught To The Tune Of A Hickory Stick

Crowds Rampage After Ohio State Win

`I'd like to say most of these people are not our students, but unfortunately they are our students,'' Bill Hall, university vice president for student affairs, said as police were clearing crowds.

Ok, Ohio State, put your money where your mouth is. If you want to prevent violent celebrations after a sports win, do something other than issue ineffective mea culpas after the fact. Forfeit the game. Have Jim Tressel apologize to the nation for the behavior of your student body, and inform them that due to their actions, Ohio State will forfeit not only the Michigan game, but decline all bowl invitations this year. Let the students know that if they behave badly in future, then you'll do it again. It'll be the one lesson you can be sure they'll remember from their college days, and it will stick.

I'll not hold my breath, though. You won't do a thing. Nor will NC State, Clemson, Washington State or any of the other colleges where the mobs rampaged Saturday. The reason you won't is because, just like most major universities, the alumni money you get for a successful football season far outweighs any duty you have to educate your students. I'd like to think that the Universities might tear themselves away from the alumni money teat once a victory celebration kills a few students, but I don't believe it. A few dead kids probably wouldn't be enough to wean the American Sports University. I think that they would trot out their version of Bill Hall, who could mouth platitudes and issue apologies and try to keep the lid on.

A few dead alumni might be, though.