Month: April 2007

I’m sure by now you have heard about the Virginia Tech shootings. So of course we have the usual: “We live in a society where guns are pretty well accepted,” said Jim Sollo, of Virginians Against Handgun Violence. “There are 200 million guns in this society and obviously some in the wrong hands.” Actually what…

Bad news for me. PECO (my utility company) says the power could very well be out for four days! Which means blogging will be a major pain in the ass. I’m sitting here at the nearest WIFI spot, and lucky to have a place to sit (obviously, this is what a lot of people are…

Just thought I’d write a quickie post to point out that I have no power. There’s four inches of snow here on top of a huge two day rainstorm, and it’s knocked out local rail lines and of course my power. Right now I am blogging using my laptop, only because my modem and router…

A bunch of us have been working on understanding the physics of the Bussard Fusion Reactor. The subject of getting a copy of Mathematica has come up several times. What is detering us is the cost. Since I have several students in school and know several teachers from grade school to college level I may…

Clayton Cramer’s link to my last post about the gun issue prompted a few additional thoughts. I’d like to think that sooner or later, people who have common sense would perceive that it’s a blatantly racist claim to say that black people are unable to resist being turned into criminals by guns. Instead, the idea…

Philadelphia-based talk show host Michael Smerconish is a moderate Republican who (for reasons that deserve exploring) has drawn the type of leftist enmity normally reserved for talkers considered to be on the far right. I don’t listen to his show, but I wrote a long post about him when he was the subject of a…

While shopping for essentials at the local Target I noticed something which our very own proprietor Eric alerted me to once before on this blog, namely the false bargain of larger quantities. He was talking about retailers playing upon consumers’ assumption that buying in bulk saves money, but this is more nefarious: Now, I’m a…

Glenn Reynolds (who with his wife Dr Helen has a great great podcast on the same subject) links Megan McArdle’s discussion of psychologist Robert Epstein’s thoughts on extended adolescence. “It occurred to me that young people must be capable of functioning as competent adults, or the human race quite probably would not exist,” says Dr.…

The debate over what should be allowed in private (and in public) always intrigues me, and while Clayton Cramer does not always reach the same conclusions that I do, he has a keen ability to raise challenging and logical questions, and spot issues like this: The entire liberal movement is based on the idea that…

I’ve just been reading the largely forgotten story of a black athlete named Devon Sherwood. He was also a student at Duke University — that mostly white, prestigious place where “well-heeled, well-connected, well-publicized young men” always get off the hook. His crime was simply being black, being on the same Lacrosse team as the accused…

I don’t know whether the Clintons had anything to do with the decision to give Imus the axe, but if what Glenn Reynolds linked earlier is any indication, taking him down might have been might have been more than a little shortsighted: …today, with Imus’ career in tatters, the fate of the controversial shock jock…

I’m always tempted to skip the stories when I pick up the morning paper and see yesterday’s online news displayed in headlines, but reading today’s Inquirer story — “CBS fires Imus from radio Show” — I found something new, in the form of this gem from Jesse Jackson No one should use the public airwaves…

This post at Classical Values got me to thinking about: what are the standards we should adhere to these days? Hillary Clinton had a fund raiser hosted by rapper Timbaland to wind up her March 31st Money grub. No wonder she blasted Imus. Translation: how are we to know at whom and when to be…

According to Newsmax, Hillary Clinton blasted Don Imus as a bigot and a sexist. “Small-minded bigotry and coarse sexism” were her exact words. And via Glenn Reynolds I see that now she’s milking the denunciation of Imus for all its worth by turning it into an integral part of her campaign. While Imus’s remarks were…

So said Raul Yzaguirre, the president of the National Council of La Raza until 2004. Considering the man’s organization and its agenda, I guess no one should be surprised by what is (IMO anyway) a clearly racist statement. What is suprising is that someone who thinks that way would be appointed as co chair of…

In an op-ed titled “Trash rap makes Imus possible — Gangsta shock-jocks gave him the seal of approval. Why are so many blacks stone silent about degrading lyrics and their consequences?” Earl Ofari Hutchinson offers a cultural sampler of acceptable speech — for blacks only: Can U Control Yo Hoe” – so asks the high…

Bill has some new posts up here and here on critical thinking. I’m just starting to read them myself. Bill is always excellent so go read them yourself. H/T Transterrestrial Musings Cross Posted at Power and Control and at The Astute Bloggers

As M. Simon’s last post reminded me of my previous post rant about a “speech code” for the blogosphere, I thought a new post would be in order. In light of what is a recurrent trend of blaming — then suing — bloggers for the words of commenters, I find myself wondering whether the longterm…

Kate Coble of Just Another Pretty Farce has written about her experiences with a “head hunter” company by the name of J. L. Kirk & Associates, or Kirk Associates, or JL Kirk, or JLK, or JLK-A, or sometimes just “Kirk”. Bob Krumm came up with all those Kirk names in another delightful and witty post…

I run into some of the damnedest things, and in a book which arrived in the mail today (Dali’s The Tragic Myth of Millet’s Angelus) I found this: THE BLACKHEADS OF SPACE Do not stupidly shrug your shoulders, those of my readers who consider the extraction of the blackheads in question a matter requiring little…