Month: September 2007

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story of a woman in trouble for hanging her laundry on a clothesline — in violation of the rules of her subdivision: The regulations of the subdivision in which Ms. Taylor lives effectively prohibit outdoor clotheslines. In a move that has torn apart this otherwise tranquil community, the…

Yes, let me start by admitting to my own erotophobia. My fear of sex does not manifest itself as fear of people having sex, but rather it’s the fear of discussing it. I don’t like to write about sex too much, because it’s contentious, and it’s very easy to be misunderstood. Talking about sex is…

Via Pajamas Media, ShrinkWrapped has a great review of a great movie (3:10 to Yuma –which is compared and contrasted to High Noon). I saw the 3:10 film and loved it. In the post — a focus on the rites of passage from boys to men — ShrinkWrapped contrasts the growing up/American Western theme with…

Regarding the issue of whether adult sexual activity can cause harm to third persons, this story makes me feel morally obligated to issue a qualification. Or maybe that would be a caveat. Anyway, if these facts are correct, I’ll have to issue something: MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) – A 22-year-old carnival worker blames two friends having…

The New York Sun reports that a prominent Saudi cleric, Salman al-Awdah, once praised by Osama has turned against him. Howerver, that is not the most interesing point of the article. Mr. al-Awdah asks, “Have we reduced Islam to a bullet or a rifle? Has the means become an end?” The editor of an Arabic…

It has now been officially determined that whoever threw the unknown oily substance all over the Vietnam War Memorial committed an act of vandalism: The unidentified substance that was found splashed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial earlier this month was the result of vandalism, the U.S. Park Police said yesterday. Sgt. Robert Lachance, a Park…

We do rock music a lot around here. Here is a short piece (about 40 seconds) of some Gabrielli. I was not able to track down which of the Gabriellis wrote this (Som Metal – is the name of the ensemble) so if any one has a clue leave a comment. Was it Giovanni Gabrielli…

Quick question: What is health care? I guess the answer isn’t quite as simple as the question. What is health? The state of not being sick? The state of being well, or getting well? Because of the nature of humanity there is no right to be well or get well, so in that sense there…

According to today’s Wall Street Journal, now that the government tobacco subsidy is over, tobacco is back as a normal cash crop: CARMI, Ill. — Tobacco is back in the American farm belt. Three years after the federal government stopped subsidizing it, the leafy crop is gaining new popularity among U.S. farmers. Cheaper U.S. tobacco…

So I’m reading Stuart Taylor guest blogging over at The Volokh Conspiracy and one commenter notes that a previous guest blogger only lasted for two posts. No disrespect to her but maybe she was unfamiliar with the level of discourse on the blogging medium? Well yeah. So my friend Eric at Classical Values makes a…

Clayton Cramer links a provocative piece in Mother Jones magazine about sexual fluidity and the reparative therapy movement. Titled Gay by Choice? The Science of Sexual Identity, it explores various perspectives, and reports unsurprising evidence that some people can and do move in either or both directions sexually. What I immediately disliked was the premise…

The New York Times has a bit up on the Canon (Culture) Wars and how they have affected academia. It centers around a discussion of Alan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind. Today it’s generally agreed that the multiculturalists won the canon wars. Reading lists were broadened to include more works by women and…

The first stage of identity politics is using a word to describe yourself. Thus, I’ve always hesitated to call myself a liberal or a conservative, and I’ve just about reached the same point with the word “libertarian.” Ron Paul hasn’t helped much, and I can think of no one who has done more to discredit…

Dogs have souls. So argues Burt Prelutsky: …if an entire species is, by its very nature, warm-hearted, conscientious, loyal and brave, one would be hard-pressed to maintain that, in spite of all these virtues, they are soul-less. This does not come as news for Coco. She was very attached to Puff, and she spent a…

I was a Navy man before it went co-ed. Dang. H/T Villainous Company.

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” So says Alan Greenspan. To which I’d add: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the modern appearance and relentless growth of Saudi Wahhabism — and its vicious offshoots…

The melting of Arctic sea ice has caused the North West Passage to open up again. The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean along the northern coast of North America via the waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The various islands of the archipelago are…

From: The Victory Caucus – A Gathering of Eagles. The url on the poster leads you to The People’s Cube. A most amusing site. Cross Posted at The Astute Bloggers

For the past couple of days, I’ve been reading about conservatives who are defending fired UC Irvine’s law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky. There are way more conservatives than I can count. In “Righties defend dismissed lefty law dean Chemerinsky,” the LA Times listed some of the more prominent ones. While I can’t list them all,…

Instead of focusing on putting criminals away or taking away the guns they are prohibited from having, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Johnson (now “suddenly” embattled) continues to blame guns, and in a maneuver which I think is clear grandstanding, is now seeking help from the Nation of Islam-affiliated Millions More March organization. (Grandstanding works, for the…