Month: March 2005

If you thought selling dildos in Alabama was bad, check out this story of depravity involving the deliberate, premeditated sale of (gulp) Girl Scout Cookies: Hoi Louis was in Williamsburg delivering the cookies with his daughter over the weekend. Louis said it was his old neighborhood, before he moved to Bethpage, and he and his…

We’re all going to have to rethink how we deal with the Internet. As exciting as these new developments are, there are a number of serious issues without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function… — Hillary Rodham Clinton, February 11, 1998 That was then. This is now: ALBANY, N.Y. — A growing number…

The following chart speaks for itself. Full story here: As Hispanic teens shed the language of their native countries and immerse themselves in American culture, they become dramatically more sexually active, a new study shows. A review of 7,300 Arizona teenagers’ behavior, which should translate well to other states that border Mexico, including Texas, found…

A startling new poll shows dramatically increased support for the war on terror. Who are these gullible people? you might ask. The Americans Michael Moore described as the most stupid people in the world? Hardly. They’re citizens of the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia. For the first time ever in a major Muslim nation, more…

Andrew Sullivan (writing in the Sunday Times) not only doesn’t think Hillary Clinton should be counted out, he thinks the Republicans might help her by miscalculating: Count me a sceptic of the view that Hillary is irreparably damaged. Time heals. Americans have increasingly fond memories of the 1990s. If Clinton can convince them she takes…

….[W]e need to have a master plan to do the same thing to the right that they’ve done to us since the Reagan years. There’s a whole new generation of Democrats who aren’t afraid to be labeled as “liberal,” and as Bai says, we’re “wiring a vast left-wing conspiracy.” Truer words may never have been…

Boy George is complaining that Madonna is a “hypocritical homophobe” (should that be ‘ypocritical ‘omophobe?) for embracing the Kabbalah: Gay pop star Boy George has slammed Madonna for embracing the Kabbalah, the mystical offshoot of Judaism which preaches homosexuality is a disease. The former Culture Club singer is horrified the Material Girl flirted with lesbianism…

Ever since that unfortunate incident with my older brother, I’ve been fascinated by the story of Atlantis. You’ve got a sunken city? Please, tell me all about it. Helike, Port Royal, Alexandria, it doesn’t really matter. They’re all good. But none can top Atlantis for, how to say this properly, _Style_. That is, until we…

<sarcasm> The Republicans are paying me good money to link to this stuff </sarcasm>, so here goes: Bush never accepted the view that Islamic terrorism had its roots in religion or culture or the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead he veered toward the analysis that the region was breeding terror because it had developed deep dysfunctions caused…

Apparently this story has been kicking around the blogosphere for over a week, but I only noticed it today. Sad to say, I was immediately indignant. I was all set to slip on my crime-fightin’ jammies and Pontificate in Unison with all the other freedom lovin’ typists. Then I re-read the article. A George Rogers…

Via Jeff Goldstein (and indirectly via Glenn Reynolds), I found a classic example of why ideology is so tedious. This highly shrill call for unleashing a “blog swarm” (of ad hominem attacks, naturally) hardly falls into the category of political punditry, or even discussion: We should hunt down anything Greenspan has ever written, said or…

While this link doesn’t work (obviously from Drudge-link overload), I managed to find the text of the Daily Californian story story here: The Daily Californian Friday, March 4, 2005 Senators Say Appointee Hid Conservative Affiliations ASUC President Plans to Override His Pick For Judicial Council By Lisa Humes-Schulz Daily Cal Staff Writer ASUC senators are…

There’s been much talk recently about the coming government crackdown on bloggers, regulation of blogs as “campaign contributions,” etc. Fortunately, the indispensable Glenn Reynolds has an excellent roundup of links. One of the most prominent figures in this discussion is FEC Commissioner Brad Smith, whose interview on C-NET has been widely linked. But today, Cam…

In today’s Inquirer, I stumbled onto a fascinating new development: city ordinances requiring companies to disclose past ties to slavery. A bill up for consideration in City Council today would require firms with city contracts to research and disclose whether they garnered any profits in the past from slavery. The bill, submitted by Councilwoman Blondell…

I’ve been rather enjoying the debate over whether or not “foreign” law should be considered as a source of American law, or constitutional law. At the outset, let me state that I don’t think any foreign law should supersede or in any way be controlling over the Constitution. But what is foreign law? Much of…

Back to the Der Spiegel article on the brutal “honor killing” of Hatin Surucu: At a memorial vigil held a few weeks after Hatin’s death, a mere 120 people showed up. Almost none were Turkish. In fact, most were from a lesbian and gay organization that — outraged by the crime — organized the make-shift…

This Der Spiegel article which Glenn Reynolds linked really did it for me. I am so sick of reading about these endless so-called “honor killings” that I’m almost beyond words. Women hacked to pieces for dating, murdered by their fathers for wearing makeup, running from abusive husbands they were forced to marry. The list goes…

Here is an example of why I get disgusted with the Republican Party: Indecency guidelines that over-the-air broadcasters must follow should be extended to cover cable and satellite broadcasters, congressional Republicans who are influential on telecommunications issues said yesterday. Most viewers do not differentiate between traditional TV and cable, so they do not know when…

Our esteemed commenter, Steven Malcolm Anderson, has outdone himself with the most comprehensive look at political, social, philosophical, sexual, religious, and cultural spectrumology I have ever seen. It’s an impressive feat of scholarship by any standard. And it’s just an overview. A teensy sample: “If sex is nothing but a joke, as the liberal “Naturalists”…

From today’s Philadelphia Inquirer: WASHINGTON – A bitterly divided Supreme Court yesterday banned execution of juvenile killers, overturning 72 death sentences and extending a dramatic trend of high court decisions limiting the scope of capital punishment in this country. In an impassioned 5-4 ruling, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said a growing national consensus about the…