Month: February 2004

  • Quantum leap in artsy pics!

    Here are a couple more photos of art. I like art that you can live with, or that makes a statement about its natural or human surroundings — or provokes thought about both. (Right now I am wondering about band width!) Still life with heads and fruit: Crab hanging on sun: Hey folks, today’s the…

  • Quality of life issue

    Now that I have had a day or so to mull over the Howard Stern controversy, I realize I didn’t fully express my concerns. I previously posted about my fear of what I call “quasi-governmental censorship“, and Glenn Reynolds was kind enough to link to it. But right now, that post is so far down…

  • De gustibus non est disputandum!

    Why are people always saying that God hates something? And why does it always have to be about sex? (You can’t judge a book by its cover, but because Amazon failed to include a photo, here it is, in the interest of full and complete accuracy.) Well, I don’t care what God hates; I refuse…

  • All hail the film review I never wrote (about a film I haven’t seen)!

    Bloggers I greatly respect have offered differing opinions about “The Passion.” Donald Sensing, more of an expert on Christianity than anyone I can think of in the Blogosphere, after noting numerous inaccuracies in the film, finally concludes with this: I was filled with a deep sadness – indeed, shame – at the profound deficiency of…

  • $100,000 penalty! (Well, at least it beats the gulags….)

    Here’s a real treat for people who enjoy contemplating hypocrisy in its various dimensions. A champion of Berkeley rent control was ordered last week to pay his former tenants more than $100,000 in restitution by the very rent board he campaigned to create. By a unanimous vote, the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board found that Michael…

  • Chaos Rules!

    Friday is always Online Test Day at Classical Values, and I try not to disappoint. Not sure how to characterize today’s theme, but the omens seem to be along the lines of cartoons…. and RULES….. ___________________________________ The first test I found via Glenn Reynolds, who linked to something he called “frightening.” The link indeed led…

  • Politicized sexuality means sex is political!

    More on free speech. In numerous essays, I have argued that sex has become political, as has religion, which is increasingly a highly political voice against sex. What this means is that sex and pornography can no longer been seen solely as “appealing to prurient interests.” Sex, pornography, and obscenity are now in the realm…

  • OUTRAGE OF THE DAY!

    In the wake of national hysteria induced by the glimpse of a mammary organ at the Superbowl, a pontificating and sanctimonious company called “Clear Channel Communications” has taken Howard Stern off the air in a number of cities. Fortunately not Philadelphia or San Francisco. Jeff Jarvis offers some thoughts on what this means, and what…

  • What Would Jesus Wear?

    These days, the politically organized religious right and gay activists don’t seem to get along that well. Not only is it all but impossible for friendships to develop between these two groups, but even dialogue is impossible. Each one of these groups tends to believe that the others are: a threat to their families/lifestyles persecuting…

  • Carnival!

    The 75th Carnival of the Vanities is up at Da Goddess’s incredible blog! The posts are all enveloped in a collection of lingerie, and I was tickled pink to see mine billed as “straight thoughts for the queer guy.” The posts are all great, but I was appalled and fixated by one post about an…

  • Bonfire!

    Be sure to read this week’s Bonfire of the Vanities, hosted by The Argus (a great blog, which, by the way, is run by a latent lesbian). Among other things, dramaqueen links to free psychological testing (which I am afraid to take), and Ghost of a flea offers a picture that should tantalize men, women,…

  • Zzzzzzzzzzzz………

    Long trip to New Jersey in the snow! Puff says it’s time to crash:

  • Flush this post!

    I am on the road in New Jersey, and thus cannot with ease create links. But here I am sitting in a parking lot, so I thought I — oh screw it! ………. I’m home now, sitting on the toilet! What could be more personal, more intimate, than that? How invasive blogging has become in…

  • Outbreak of incidents of communitarian thinking

    In my last post, I only touched on communitarian thinking because in the context of the FMA, it gets complicated. The debate over same-sex marriage is hopelessly fraught with communitarian reasoning, which, to my mind, is based on unsupported premises on both sides. First of all, marriage in the purest sense is not an individual…

  • Apples, oranges, and other fruits of licensing

    Here’s a story which isn’t going to go away, nor should it. The right to arms is constitutionally guaranteed. The right to keep and bear your homosexual marriage is not. Of course, I wonder what the opinions of gay gun nuts are on the issue? Say Uncle refers, of course, to this letter (which touches…

  • Tenet of Arafat?

    Initially, I was quite puzzled by this report about the deportation of Palestinian democracy activist Issam Abu Issa. I like to think that our government would support freedom-loving Arabs, especially those in dialogue with such figures as Natan Sharansky. A few choice excerpts: Mr. Abu Issa?s experience is par for the course when it comes…

  • Possession is nine-tenths of the law a gram!

    Here’s a good argument against criminalizing simple possession of things: SOUTH HAVEN ? An assistant high school principal is being investigated after police say he admitted to planting marijuana in a student?s locker. Police say Pat Conroy told them earlier this month that he placed the marijuana in the male student?s locker at South Haven…

  • Ask what you can do for your enemy!

    Has anti-Bush hatred become mainstream? Here’s a local (Philadelphia) man — with an anything-but-local message: Mark Aronchick, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer and Democratic fund-raiser, shares the intensity. Talking about Bush, he could barely sit still: “I haven’t seen this kind of anger and disdain directed at a president since the worst days of Richard Nixon.…

  • Another White House Intern scandal!!

    Now it’s my turn to stick up for a White House intern whose local-boy-makes-good story is being largely ignored! And right here in his hometown at that! Take a close look at this photograph (it’s from the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer, February 21, 2004): The second guy from the left is Michael Marcavage,…

  • Where were you in ’72?

    At the risk of repeating what I said earlier, I was 318. (Still can’t verify that number because I cannot find the damned 1954 birth year lottery — the one which assigned Sharpton number 103 — so it’s from memory!) But I am relieved to know that Chris Satullo, the editorial page editor of my…