Author: Dave

H/T Helius

There is a rather long discussion going on at the post The Government IS The Devil. In that post I suggested that the government was limited to protecting public order and that its intrusion into the business of schools (currently a socialist enterprise called the Public School System) and the socialization of morality through ventures…

Scientist at DOE’s Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, have found a material that is very hard and slicker than teflon by a factor of 2.5X. A superhard substance that is more slippery than Teflon could protect mechanical parts from wear and tear, and boost energy efficiency by reducing friction. The “ceramic alloy” is created by…

I’m having a conversation with one of my social conservative friends about marriage and child welfare. This is what I had to say: The government IS the Devil. Not metaphorically. Really. Everything you get from government will have a price much larger than the value of the object gained. Some times the price will not…

There is a really interesting discussion going on between Kelly and Edgar in the comments at the Power and Control post Sanctification. May I suggest a read?

I just got a comment at one of my blog posts on the attitude Real Republicans™ should take towards homosexuals. I ain’t naming names or quoting the rest of the text but here is the gist of it: Leviticus 18:22 [22] You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it…

I have always wondered why Christian social conservatives have trouble with gay marriage. Most Christian social conservatives have no problem with domestic partnerships. So it can’t be legal rights. So I’m guessing here that since they are always going on about the sacredness of marriage it must be something else. Holy matrimony. And what are…

Scientists are finding surpising value in the daily use of small amounts of marijuana. Ohio State University scientists are finding that specific elements of marijuana can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation there and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells. Their research suggests that the development of a legal…

Some times you can tell a lot about the future by looking at the past. The past I want to look at was the Bush/Kerry, Keyes/Obama election results in Illinois from 2004. I’m going to repost a bit I did then in its entirety. Jack Ryan was the Republican who Obama’s confederates got kicked off…

I ♥ Sarah’cudda Cross Posted at Power and Control

Jonah Goldberg is discussing his book Liberal Fascism at Salon. I don’t have any problem with liberals or conservatives criticizing stuff that goes on in the popular culture … [I]t’s when you want to dragoon the state into these things, everything from hate crimes to these early interventions in childhood. You read “It Takes a…

We have a contingent in America that wants to treat us all like children when it comes to economics and another contingent that wants to treat us like children when it comes to culture. Two different kinds of nanny state. I’m against the nanny state. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I came across an interesting discussion of abortion at Admiral Quixote’s Round Table. This is from the comments. I spoke with my dh who did receive smicha (Orthodox) though he is not a practicing Rabbi; he learned the law as I have earlier stated; that if any harm came it was referring to the woman…

Here is a bit of text that I think many of you will find very interesting. The Jewish distinction (rooted in the original Hebrew text) between the life of the mother and the life of the child is emphasized in a striking text of the Mishnah (Ohalot 7:6): “If a woman has difficulty in childbirth,…

I just found a most interesting document giving in layman’s terms the Jewish position on abortion [pdf]. The document is authored by Rabbi Raymond A Zwerin and Rabbi Richard A. Shapiro. It is a very interesting document and only four pages long so it is well worth a read. It also provides a basis for…

Yeah. That is a funny spelling of potato. It is former Vice President Dan Quayle’s trademark. Well Mr. Quayle is at it again. He is global investing chief of Cerberus Capital Management which owns Chrysler. And of course Chrysler wants in on the proposed auto bail out. Let’s assume that the powers in Washington —…

Part Two of the video is here. Reform Jews speak out in favor of Medical Marijuana. The Union Of American Hebrew Congregations favors Medical Marijuana. Here is a short bio of one of the participants in the video. William Martin, Ph.D. taught criminology for 35 years. He has chaired the Department of Sociology and at…

The Dow closed below 8,000 today and Nymex Crude Oil Futures below $53. And the outlook for the semiconductor industry is not so hot either. “In discussions with semiconductor suppliers, equipment OEMs, and contract manufacturers, a story of fear and great uncertainty has emerged,” iSuppli’s Ford said. “As dramatic declines in consumer and industrial confidence…

A comment piece (I’m not going to get the hackles up before the discussion starts by giving the name of the author) in The Washington Post talks about long term Republican prospects. It is not pretty. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party…

It seems like Mr. Obama can’t buy a friend. The No. 2 leader in Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is dishing out criticism and offering a warning to United States President-Elect, Barack Obama. A new audio message has surfaced online where Al-Zawahiri calls Obama a dishonorable man. According to the SITE Institute, a U.S. organization that monitors…