Switch Hitter

Since exiting Christianity, I have been forced to reassess many things, including particular ethical issues. And as the Bible was written, compiled and translated by the Church, I now consider it to be a questionable source for ethical formulation. All of which is a long preface to this statement:

Without a Biblical mandate, I am at a loss to see how homosexual activity is inherently immoral.

Taco Bell Goes Green by Offering Menu of Foods with No Ingredients from Nature

Why rob Mother Nature? Taco Bell is taking a bold new environmental initiative. But those of us who have been eating Taco Bell food for years know that this is a change that they have been working on for a long time.

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature

Web Site Story: The Internet Musical

[Video Link] The comedy geniuses at College Humor put together this very professional musical about a web-based romance. HT: Neatorama

This Reminds Me of Every AD&D Campaign I've Ever Been In

The DM of the Rings is an absolutely hilarious webcomic-book-thingy in which the characters of The Lord of the Rings movies think that they're playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Here's the first page.

Thanks to John Meunier for this find.

There, I Fixed It

There, I Fixed It is a photoblog of jerry-rigged repair jobs and technical solutions, such as this "fixed" windshield defroster.

HT: Neatorama

Winston Churchill, Techno Star

[YouTube Link] "Lift Up Your Hearts" is a music video by Michael Schmoyoho Gregory that remixes a 1941 speech by Winston Churchill with techno/electro music. Truly awesome.

HT: Double Plus Undead

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

So I am presently reading the second book of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have found it to be a laborious read, and will probably stop for quite a while before taking up the third. It is unlikely that I would have read it had more interesting fare lying around the house this weekend.

The series has been described as a "non-modern novel", meaning that reader is not privy to the inner thoughts of the characters. This is certainly true, and I had not thought about it until I read this explanation. It reminds me of, more than anything else, Beowulf or the Old Testament. The Lord of the Rings is an ancient epic written in modern times. It is not simply a fantasy novel as, say, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. The Lord of the Rings is a wholly different creature.

Take, for example, the funeral of Boromir at the beginning of The Two Towers. Upon releasing his body into the river, Aragorn and Legolas spontaneously burst into coherent and topical songs about the heroic life of Boromir. The reminded me of the way that Hannah began singing in The Book of Samuel immediately after she was told that she had conceived a son. This a literary device, not literal history, and reflects the oral culture from which Tolkein's characters hail. In fact, the many stanzas of poetry that the characters have committed to memory is almost alien to the modern, text-bound mind. The men and women of The Lord of the Rings are not 21st Century people with swords and chain mail; they are ancients in mind and outlook.

And not only the poetry -- the way that the characters address each other in honorifics and speak to each other like warriors inevitably bound for immortalization by troubadours -- all of it reflects the premodern approach that Tolkien took. I neither approve nor disapprove, but I do recognize what an enormously challenging task the author undertook.

Nonetheless, I find myself rather bored of the story, and am moving on. I anticipate that the next book that will come in is Jeff Cooper's The Art of the Rifle.

Potato Gatling Gun

[YouTube Link] Make magazine interviews the creators and provides a demonstration of a rapid-fire revolving potato gun. HT: Bits & Pieces

Heresy!

I have seen the new Star Trek movie. It was a decent action film, but a bad Trek movie.

I realize and accept that the franchise must be re-invented in order to have new life. Still, it saddens this Trekkie's heart to see so many needless discontinuities. Especially the horrific one at the end of the film.

Still, the miniskirts were a nice touch.

This Onion news story is quite accurate:

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Except the part about the plot making sense. It was never really clear what the problem was, or the solution to it. But by that point, I confess, the pain had become some overwhelming that it was hard for me to concentrate.

Question of the Day

Do you like green eggs and ham?

John Hodgman at the Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner

[YouTube Link] It's like the White House Correspondents' Dinner, only less prestigious. President Obama was in attendance, and John Hodgman's address was largely concerned with his role as the "first nerd president". I prefer the term "geek". That word originates from carnival sideshow performers who used to bite off the heads of chickens, and so somehow seems more appropriate, at least for myself. But regardless, Obama then goes on to fail Hodgman's tests of true geek status.

His praise for Obama is a bit over-the-top at times -- well, maybe just for me, since I didn't vote for him -- but the speech is still quite funny.

HT: Topless Robot

Property Rights and Historic Preservation

The Third Church of Christ, Scientist, one of the finer examples of Brutalist architecture, is inching its way to demolition. The debate over its fate is between the owners, who would like to sell it, and historic preservationists, who want to compel the Christian Scientists to maintain it.

Brutalism has few fans and far more devoted enemies. It is, for many, the architectural equivalent of an erotic novel about Helen Thomas: not something that you want your eyes to fall upon. But as a matter of public policy, I agree with Jonah Goldberg that those who wish to preserve historic items always have the option of buying them:

The church doesn't want to destroy the building, the church wants to better serve its flock by selling the building. If the government or a group of folks like yourself want to save the building, I am sure the owners will gladly sell it. What the historic preservationists want is to save the building, but make the church bear the financial burden. That seems unfair to me generally, and especially problematic given that it's a church and the state isn't supposed to boss around churches.

Saying "you should save that" is always easy, when the costs are carried by someone else.

1945 by Robert Conroy

It is surprising that I found myself reading a Conroy alternative history, as I found his 1901 to be historically absurd. But I picked up 1945 and started reading anyway.

The point of divergence is that, shortly before Emperor Hirohito was able to deliver his address calling on the people of Japan to surrender to the Allies, he was kidnapped by a clique of military officers. These men overthrew the government and planned to continue the war, even though the U.S. had threatened to nuke every Japanese city, one at a time.

Conroy contrives a scenario whereby America can no longer practically use atomic weapons against Japan and must proceed with Operation Downfall -- the planned invasion of Japan in the Fall of 1945 and Spring of 1946. His rationale is not really all that good, but it is good enough to get the reader to the rather intriguing scenario in which Downfall actually takes place.

Conroy is a worse historian than Harry Turtledove, but a better novelist. Overall, it's worth reading if you're into alternate history.

Getting Serious About Prison Rape

In 2003, Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, initiating a comprehensive study of the phenomenon. Two days ago, the Commission released its findings. Here is the executive summary.

It suggests various legislative changes that can take place. While any single incident of rape that can be prevented is a good thing, I fear that little will change until prison rape becomes morally abhorrent in our society, rather than a source for humor.

[Previously discussed on this blog here.]

HT: The Corner

Dr. Manhattan's Pants

[Video Link] Watchmen taught us that a sufficiently advanced superhero is indistinguishable from a naked guy with blue skin.

Post-It Love

(YouTube Link)
Post-It Love is a short film about two office co-workers who discreetly confess their love for each other through creative uses for Post-It Notes. Run time: three and a half minutes.

HT: Neatorama

Now That's a Vibrant Democracy!

Lots of people are upset about Iran's recent national election, but it's noteworthy that voter turnout exceeded 100% of eligible voters. Whereas in America it was only 57% in the 2008 election.

We've got a long way to go before we can criticize the Iranians about public citizenship.

HT: Instapundit

Sheriff Andy Taylor, Libertarian

Darrin Knode argues that the main character of The Andy Griffith Show, Sheriff Andy Taylor, is a libertarian, in contrast to the statist sensibilities to Deputy Barney Fife.

Andy was portrayed as always civil and ever courteous gentleman, using his wits in place of violence and the pointing of guns, as Barney was all too quick to do, which rarely turned out to work. It was rare Andy ever arrested anyone who was truly non-violent, and even the violent were treated with a base respect for life. In episode 95: "The Big House," Andy fools two escaped convicts back into the jail instead of turning the streets into a war zone, and to his credit, without hurting the convicts. He often boasted throughout the show that he accomplished a task without firing a shot himself, and in episode 166 ("Off to Hollywood "), even receives $1,000 from the Belmont Film Studio for rights to his story, "Sheriff Without a Gun."

[...]

Andy was also opposed to coercively intervening in other people’s affairs that he felt was not his legal or moral right to become involved with. In one instance, Opie is being bullied by another boy and Andy does not intervene but chooses to let Opie fight his own battles, believing he must learn to stand up for his rights. Imagine that! In another episode (152: "The Case of the Punch in the Nose"), Barney opens an old case that involved Charley Foley charging Floyd with assault. The whole ordeal took place such a long time ago that no one even recalls how it began. Barney, being the statist busybody and the “look how important I am!” sort of goon he is, manages to refresh everyone's memory and rekindles the nose punching fire of old. Andy steps in again as the real man--the adult--in the scene and convinces everyone to talk out their problems, and it works. Incredible! Through peaceful discourse and discussion, the two opposing parties, through the use of a neutral third, achieve a peace without more punching. Barney, on the other hand, was more than willing to pull a gun and start making threats.

I can think of two episodes in which Barney and other townspeople urged Andy to arrest local oddballs who had not violated any laws, but were weird and disrupted social expectations. Andy refused, essentially arguing that he would not use government force to curb the lawful and harmless actions of people who flaunted social norms. Such was a libertarian response.

HT: Hit & Run

Zombies and Liberal Politics

Paul Waldman writes in The American Prospect that the emergence of the zombie as a cultural meme is a reflection of progressive/liberal politics:

While one can certainly use zombies to express all kinds of ideas, I would argue that at heart, the genre is a progressive one. It's true that fighting off the zombie horde requires plentiful firearms, no doubt pleasing Second Amendment advocates. And in a zombie movie, government tends to be either ineffectual or completely absent. On the other hand, when the zombie apocalypse comes, capitalism breaks down, too -- people aren't going to be exchanging money for goods and services; they're just going to break into the hardware store and grab what they need (and if you think your private health insurer is going to be paying claims for treatment of zombie bites, you're living in a dream world). But most important, what ensures survival in a zombie story are the progressive ideals of common cause and collective action. A small group of people from varying backgrounds are thrust together and find that they can transcend their differences of age, race, and gender (the typical band of survivors is a veritable United Nations of cultural diversity). They come to understand that if they're going to get out of this with their brains kept securely housed in their skulls and not travelling down some zombie's gullet, they've got to act as though they're all in it together. Surviving the tide of zombies requires community and mutual responsibility. What could be more progressive than that?

It's an interesting notion. But I would add that two central elements in the politics of the Right are the notions that (1) the individual must ultimately fend for him/herself and (2) there are threats that one cannot negotiate with, but must simply kill. These are also features of most zombie narratives that I have encountered.

HT: Hit & Run

Happy Fathers' Day

My happiest moment with my father was when I was six years old. He had fixed up an ancient bicycle for me and took me to a large lawn in a nearby business park. He taught me to ride. I ended up skinning my knees, but not before my Dad held me on my bike as he ran down the hill, holding me upright.

Another came when I was 15, and I was breaking up an old belltower on my grandmother's farm with a sledgehammer and axe. I hit one board, and it swung back at me and drove a rusty nail into my toe. As I we drove to the nearby doc-in-a-box, I must have given the impression that I was about to faint. My Dad, driving, looked at me, got a very serious expression on his face, looked back at the road, and floored it. It was then that I knew that my Dad cared about me (this is not necessarily self-evident to a 15-year old).

What is your best memory of your Dad?

Nugget Man

(YouTube Link)

A song by Paul and Storm, memorializing Robert C. Baker, the genius who invented the chicken nugget. The first verse:

Robert C. Baker died on a Monday
We all know his work, although few knew his name
A Cornell professor who taught poultry science
Forever enshrined in the poultry Hall of Fame
84 years worth of food innovations:
Chicken dogs, turkey dogs and turkey ham
Beyond them all stands Baker’s greatest creation
For Baker begat chicken nuggets for man

O, Nugget Man
O, Nugget Man
Headin’ on down to that old Promised Land
Happy the meals all have been since the day
That the Nugget Man came our way

I Love a Politician With a Sense of Humor

Politics rarely produces people who can laugh at themselves, which is one reason why Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under the Clinton Administration, is one of my favorite Democrats. Here's a sketch that he made with Conan O'Brien, playing two hard-boiled street cops out to bite crime in the shins.

More funny videos from the "Heavy Music" channel at Heavy.com

HT: Bits & Pieces

Childhood Toys/Shows Made for Adult Audiences

Including ALF by John Carpenter and The Smurfs by Peter Jackson.

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

HT: Topless Robot

Modern Forensic Science Alone Isn't Enough to Justify the Death Penalty

A couple of weeks ago, we got into a conversation about wrongful convictions and the death penalty. Jeff the Baptist commented:

Bob is right. Some people like to say that the success of these projects is proof that we should, say, abolish the death penalty. Moral debate about that aside, they don't show that at all. What they show us is that most of the wrongful convictions of the past would never even get to trial today.

We are far more capable now of accurately discerning criminal guilt and innocence than ever before. I find it difficult to use that as an argument against specific types of sentencing.

Well, hopefully modern forensic science would prevent such terrible miscarriages of justice. They would have a chance if convicts were allowed to access DNA testing in order to challenge their convictions:

Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an individual whose criminal conviction has become final does not have a constitutional right to gain access to evidence so that it can be subjected to DNA testing to try to prove innocence. This was one of four final rulings the Court issued Thursday, leaving ten remaining. The next release of opinions is expected on Monday.

If it's even possible to make a criminal justice system good enough to risk the death penalty (consider me a skeptic), knocking down bad decisions like this would be a first step.

HT: Radley Balko

10 Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument

Geek Dad has a great list:

10. “No real programmer would ever use PHP.” - This won’t work for every geek, of course, but for those it works on, it should work really well.

9. “Comic books are just for kids!” - I’m sure you’ve heard this one before—I know I certainly heard it often enough in high school, and even though it’s even less true now than it was then, I’m sure comic book afficionados still hear it today.

8. “Role-playing games are just for people who can’t deal with real life.” - There are, sadly, still a lot of people who think anyone who plays D&D must live in his parents’ basement and bathe once a month. Such people must be put straight, and immediately!

And a follow up post of 10 more:

10. “Internet Explorer is much better than Firefox—why else would it be the most popular browser?”

9. “Jar-Jar Binks was so funny, I wish he’d been in the original trilogy, too!”

8. “Homeopathy works, no matter what ’science’ has to say about it.”

7. “If open-source software was really that great, they’d charge for it.” - I’ve actually had people say this to me a few times over the years. As a software engineer who’s used lots of open-source projects, I’m particularly sensitive to this one.

6. “The best Star Trek film was number five, no question.”

Anyone who says #6 is asking for a beating, not an argument. Add your own in the comments.

Art Blogging: Audrey Kawasaki

Audrey Kawasaki is an American painter. She was born and raised in Los Angeles by Japanese immigrant parents and studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Her primary subject matter is women on wood panels, in fact, one particular theoretical woman:

All my pieces, all my girls, are a portrayal of his one particular being. They are all portraits of her. maybe physically different, but ultimately its she who i am conveying. I am addicted to her, she haunts me. She is my obsession. My love. My drive. My muse. My curse. My unattainable.

When I paint/draw, it’s like a desperate search for her. Painting is like digging. Sometimes I find her. Sometimes not. Though even if I do capture a glimpse of her, she’ll often immediately fade away. Never is she forever captured in my paintings, and that what makes it so interesting to me. It’s the hunt, the chase, that makes it so thrilling.

She is strongly influenced by manga and Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, as is quite evident in her both haunting and sensual work.

As I Fall, 2008.
If Only You Were Here, 2008.

Karamari, 2008.

Matthew Lesko on the Bailouts

[YouTube Link]

ALSO: Stimulis -- Because All Economies Have Performance Issues

A Husband With Two Wives

Emily Yoffe, who writes for Slate as the advice columnist Prudence, has an article in XX about her husband's first wife. She died of cancer before they met and married, and although Yoffe never met her, she has a special place in their family:

Maybe when my husband and I get old, memories of his life with Robin will become even more vivid than our years together. If so, I hope I’ll welcome those memories. I’m grateful to Robin, not jealous (even if she left it to me to convince our joint husband that the laundry hamper was invented for a reason). I only knew my husband for four months before we got married. But I heard from others how protective, tender, and devoted he was to her. Because of their relationship, I knew that this was a man who could be trusted, who stayed, for better or worse. I also knew that it’s possible to have more than one love of your life. I am the love of his, and so was she.

[...]

I am sarcastic and occasionally (sometimes? often?) harsh. Robin wasn’t—I know because I asked, not because John holds her over me or compares us—and he would have had a gentler life had she lived. I try to remind myself that I owe it to her to do as good a job of taking care of him as she would have. I will catch myself about to say sentences that begin “How many times have I ...” or “Weren’t you listening when ...”, and stop thinking that if he were still married to Robin, he wouldn’t have to hear this.

It is a touching, if wrenching personal memoir. Read it all, for it is good.

Famous Last Meals

An interesting list:

Adolf Eichmann: He declined a special meal, preferring a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine. He drank about half of it.

John Wayne Gacy: A dozen deep-fried shrimps, a bucket of original recipe chicken from KFC, French fries, and a pound of strawberries.

Timothy McVeigh: Two pints of mint chocolate-chip ice cream.


What will you ask for when it's time for your last meal?

HT: Urlesque

100 Funniest One-Liners on the Internet

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

HT: Neatorama

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

One Second After is Bill Forstchen's depiction of life in America after a nuclear bomb was detonated 300 miles above the earth directly over the United States. The ensuing blast produced no fallout or shockwave, but the electromagnetic pulse destroyed every electrical device in the country -- from car engine ignitions to radios, as well as the entire electrical grid.

Forstchen writes about the land and work familiar to him as a professor of military history at Montreat College near Black Mountain, North Carolina. The main character is a retired U.S. Army colonel who teaches military history at that same college, a widower who cares for two daughters and continues to mourn the death of his wife four years previously. When the EMP suddenly changes life as he knows it, Colonel John Matherson helps organize the people of the valley to survive from the ravages of famine, disease, and a horde of looters known as The Posse.

The novel starts out slowly, but became a captivating read in the final one hundred pages. Much like Forstchen's Lost Regiment saga, One Second After is the story of men and women overcoming tremendous hardship and their own fears to stare down destructive forces of nature and man.

It is an intentionally political novel, designed to drive home to the reader the dangers of an EMP attack, which the book's forward and afterward warn is very real.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Life of a Disney Princess...After Reality Sets In

A photo essay by Dina Goldstein. HT: Neatorama

The Desecration of the Sacred in the Arts

Roger Scruton has an interesting article in City Journal about modern aesthetics. He argues that since 1930 or so, one of the major themes of the arts -- and a new one in the Western tradition -- has been to intentionally depict ugliness:

I used the word “desecration” to describe the attitude conveyed by Bieito’s production of Die Entführung and by Serrano’s lame efforts at meaning something. What exactly does this word imply? It is connected, etymologically and semantically, with sacrilege, and therefore with the ideas of sanctity and the sacred. To desecrate is to spoil what might otherwise be set apart in the sphere of sacred things. We can desecrate a church, a graveyard, a tomb; and also a holy image, a holy book, or a holy ceremony. We can desecrate a corpse, a cherished image, even a living human being—insofar as these things contain (as they do) a portent of some original sanctity. The fear of desecration is a vital element in all religions. Indeed, that is what the word religio originally meant: a cult or ceremony designed to protect some sacred place from sacrilege.

Scruton provides several examples of the glorification of evil, not in the sense that evil is represented as good (e.g. Nazi propaganda films), but that evil is praised for being evil. It is a rejection of the hero/journey motif for a villain/destruction one and a nihilism that is all too present in postmodern life, from Robert Fisk's praise for his attackers to the movie Natural Born Killers. It is an urge to simultaneously destroy and be destroyed.

Art Blogging: Art Adams

JD, who blogs at Proverbs 19:20, requested that I write an art blogging post about Art Adams, an American comic book artist. Adams' first introduction to comics came from bales of discarded comics that his mother would purchase for him at a thrift store. He began marketing his own work at conventions at the age of 17. Within two years, he was working professionally, and has thrived ever since.


Here is one of Adams' images of Power Girl, a DC superhero. Hmm. There is definitely something appealing about his work, although I can't quite put my finger on them. Uh, I mean 'it'.

I can't find a title for this touchingly romantic scene, but it reminds me so much of when my wife and I first met.

The Incredible Hulk. I'm more of a DC person than Marvel, though. Maybe just because I'm more familiar with the DC universe, so it's easy for me to slip into the middle of a story. I know that some Marvel people regard DC as a bit unsophisticated, but I don't care.


So, JD. Tell us about what you think of this artist? Why does his work speak to you?

How Are You Feeling Today?

[YouTube Link]

More Thoughts on Harry Browne's How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

I've finished reading this book. I like Browne's assertion that the individual is the only legitimate judge of how he or she shall live. But I disagree with him on some points.

1. Consequentalist morality.
Browne asserts that morality is entirely relative to the individual, and that such a system works:

Neither do I have to worry about whether anyone is "getting away" with anything. I am not the world's policeman. I know that everyone will experience the consequences of his own acts. If his acts are right, he'll get good consequences; if they're not, he'll suffer for it. The consequences are the only standards that matters -- and I'm certainly not needed to impose those consequences. (349)

This strikes me as incredibly unrealistic. Under this moral system, if a thief breaks into your house and robs you, he hasn't done anything wrong so as long as he doesn't get caught and face consequences.

At minimum, a moral code requires individuals to respect each others' lives, liberty, and property, because...well, because people have a right to live, live as they choose, and have stuff so as long as it doesn't infringe on other people's rights to do likewise.

2. Marriage.
Harry Browne rejects marriage as a concept. He thinks that no relationship should be a permanent commitment, but only at the consistent mutual desire of all of the parties involved. To an extent this is true, but he envisions love as an uncontrollable emotion that can either come and go. But love can be an action verb, a conscious decision made between consenting parties. Marriages can be crushing and soul-consuming, but they don't have to be.

3. Children.
I see the decision to be a parent to be a permanent commitment over a lifetime. I may not always financially support my daughter for her entire life, but I will always love her, and I will certainly support her until she is able to take that responsibility for herself. Browne proposes that if a parent grows weary of a child, simply place that child up for adoption and be free. In his understanding of parenting, a parent is not morally required to remain in the parent-child relationship indefinitely. Browne himself had not seen his own daughter for nine years at the time that this book was published, and he was okay with that, because it was an acceptable price to pay to get free from his marriage. As he sees it, the desire to be free is cause enough to abandon spouses, children, and anything else that impedes one's personal freedom.

I disagree. The desire to be free does not provide justification to abandon all commitments of responsibility.

Question of the Day

Which is your favorite Star Trek movie?
	The Motion Picture
	The Wrath of Khan
	The Search for Spock
	The Voyage Home
	The Final Fontier
	The Undiscovered Country
	Generations
	First Contact
	Nemesis
	Star Trek
pollcode.com free polls

I've Finished Reading The Fellowship of the Ring

A few weeks ago, I began reading the first book of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have now finished it.

It is definitely not a modern novel, in the sense that it does not probe into the inner minds of the characters. And the many heroes of the novel are not flawed characters, nor filled with pathologies which preoccupy the writer. It reads more like Beowulf than anything else I have read, which makes sense given, Tolkein's background.

I found it to be a laborious read, and didn't really enjoy it. If I didn't feel a desire to become familiar with this tremendously influential book, I wouldn't have continued.

And it certainly is influential. I have now seen the origin of many of the stories that I have encountered before in derivative works.

I may later read The Two Towers, or not. For now, I shall address other books piling up in my now active reading list. They include a post-apocalyptic novel called One Second After by William R. Forstchen, about life after an EMP attack on America. Another is Robert Conroy's 1945, an alternate history in which a convention invasion of Japan by the Allies becomes necessary. And finally, there is Depth of Revenge, which is the tale of an Israeli nuclear ballistic missile submarine after a surprise nuclear attack obliterates the State of Israel.

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne

My current read is How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne. Browne was professional investor and writer, as well as the Libertarian Presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000.

This book was first published in 1973, and is Browne's treatise on how to avoid falling under the control over other people, institutions, and ideas that enslave us. His objective is to teach readers how to become freer from these fourteen 'traps'.

They are:
1. Identity trap
2. Intellectual trap
3. Emotional trap
4. Morality trap
5. Unselfishness trap
6. Group trap
7. Government trap
8. Despair trap
9. Rights trap
10. Utopia trap
11. Burning-issue trap
12. Previous-investment trap
13. Box trap
14. Certainty trap

These traps are mostly states of mind, whereby a person incorrectly assumes that they cannot -- or should not -- be free and rule themselves. Browne attempts to cut through these faulty beliefs.

The book (so far) seems strongly Objectivist. It is not a strictly libertarian work, and directly rejects libertarian or other political activism. Browne advises that, in the face of government restriction, one should avoid government, not confront it. Don't organize against government, because that will incur retaliation from government. Just keep a low profile and focus on your own desires. Your goal shouldn't be to free society, but to free yourself -- to care about your happiness and only your individual happiness.

It's quite an interesting work. Here's a passage from The Morality Trap:

There are plenty of people who will be delighted to tell you how to live. You'll hear the words "moral" and "immoral" often enough.

A person who tells you to act "morally" might have any one of a number of reasons. He might really believe that your moral conduct is essential to the future of the world. Or he may believe that he's God's appointed policeman. Or he may be using morality as a weapon to pressure you to do what's best for him. Or he may just have nothing better to do with his time.

Whatever his reason, remember that it's his reason. Too often, morality is used merely as a tool by which one person hopes to manipulate another.

Your reasons for how you live will necessarily be your own. No one knows you as you can know yourself. And only from that self-understanding can you hope to create a code of conduct that will bring you the freedom and happiness that you crave....

Personal morality is an attempt to consider all the relevant consequences for your acts. If you think out of morality for yourself, it should open up a better life that will be free from the bad consequences that complicate matters....

When you decide to take matters into your own hands, someone may ask you, "Who do you think you are? Who are you to decide for yourself in the face of society and centuries of moral teachings?"

The answer is simple: You are you, the person who will live with the consequences of what you do. No one else can be responsible, because no one else will experience the consequences of your actions as you will.

During my own long exit from Christianity, I slowly came to realize that the leaders of the Church who claimed authority over my life -- to whom I had willingly yielded authority -- had only self-serving motives. It would have been difficult for them to be more blunt and explicit that they really didn't care about what happened to me and my family. They had broken covenant with me, therefore I was under no obligation to heed their will in any matter.

The expectation and birth of my daughter really sharpened my thought processes. I was a father. I held my child in my arms minutes after she was born and promised her that I would do all within my power to provide for her and protect her. The Church had done nothing but drain me and my family emotionally, physically, and most importantly, financially. As a husband and a father, it would have been recklessly irresponsible for me to remain a Christian.

I had to get out of that cult before it destroyed us all. So I did. To be a good father to my child, I had to be a fully functional human being, and so I acted accordingly.

Responses were numerous, and usually supportive. Some, not so much. Some questioned who was I to dare to speak out against the Church. Some suggested that I had a moral obligation to God to continue to remain under its domination (God and the Church being synonymous). To reject this obligation imposed upon me was immoral.

Who am I to determine right and wrong? Who am I to oppose the Church? I am human being. And for the sake of myself, my wife, and my child, I will be as free a human being as I possibly can.

No god worthy of my worship would condemn me for having done so. And if a god sends me to hell for refusing to sacrifice my daughter for the petty whims of liars and frauds, then to hell I will gladly go.

Jonathan Coulton's Re: Your Brains Performed in Zombie Sign Language

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I'm pleased that ASL has a sign for 'zombie'.

The Humans Are Dead

Life after the robot uprising. A song from The Flight of the Concords


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Previously on The Zeray Gazette, a Christmas carol taking place after robots have taken over the world.

Hungry, Hungry Hippos Practice Good Table Etiquette

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My 15 Seconds of Anonymous Fame

On the subject of blogging anonymously, I sent off an e-mail to Jonah Goldberg, who excoriated the practice. The part of the e-mail that Goldberg quoted was:

Jonah-

If it's cowardly to blog anonymously, were Madison, Hamilton, and Jay cowards for publishing the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym "Publius"?

Apparently, I touched a nerve. Or, perhaps better phrased, Goldberg did in his response to me. I'm slightly giddy that I was able to cause a ripple in the deep end of the political blogosphere. This is Goldberg's follow-up.

Mean Greeting Cards

When you care enough to say "I hate you."

HT: YBNBY

Ed Whelan Has Apologized

Good for him (background here).

Also, Jonah Goldberg published an e-mail that I sent him, which is kinda cool. He does, however, fail to explain why it is okay for professional bloggers (or writers/commentators) to write pseudonymously, but not mere peasants like yours truly, whom he deems "cowardly".

Question of the Day

Which artist would you like to see featured in an art blogging post?

Art Blogging: Tran Nguyen

Tran Nguyen is a Vietnamese illustrator. She is a BFA student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Nguyen strives for emotional bonding between observer/participant and the work of art in what she describes as a therapeutic purpose:

I've always been particularly interested in therapeutic imagery. I think art can be used to better lives rather than pure aesthetic purposes. As a person and as an artist, being able to create something that can bring about well-being and contentment is all that matters. Life is stressful enough, so I guess you could say my work could serve as one of those Tempur-Pedic beds.

I highly approve of this approach, and use art as a means of relaxing. A good work of art is like a squishy mattress.

You can read an interview of Nguyen here, or read her blog.

Yoke.

The Frog Prince.




HT: Juxtapoz

Blogging Anonymously and Pseudonymously

The political blogosphere is buzzing over a tiff between National Review legal blogger Ed Whelan and a liberal blogger named Publius at Obsidian Wings. Whelan and Publius have apparently had long-running arguments over Supreme Court nominations and federal judicial decisions.

Well, Whelan somehow found out Publius' real name, and published it in a post.* Publius is an untenured law professor and apparently keeps some of his liberal political views private away from his conservative extended family. Now, he no longer enjoys the privacy of pseudonymity. You can read round-up of the issue here.

Now before I get into the issues of pseudonymous and anonymous blogging, I'd like to say that Ed Whelan's actions were shameful. Perhaps people should not blog under an assumed name. But Whelan was clearly motivated by a desire to hurt an ideological opponent personally, rather than undermine his arguments logically -- especially given that Whelan immediately followed up his post with an e-mail to Publius calling him a "coward and idiot".

Whelan's motivation was not to defeat an opponent in debate, but destroy an enemy's career. As Joe Gandelman wrote:

And the question then becomes: then just WHO was this revelation supposed to impressed?

Who was it supposed to sway?

It will not undercut Publius’ credibility one bit with people who read him or link to him.

It will not change how people who read Whalen’s posts already detest Publius’ writings.

It was, basically, taking the battle a step further — using the big blogging tool (a post, indexed on Google Web forever) to try to undercut someone personally.

Exactly.

Now, on to the subject of anonymous and pseudonymous blogging. I agree with Jonathan Alder:

I also think it is important to distinguish between anonymous and pseudonymous blogging. While complete anonymity may enable someone to evade any accountability for intemperate or unwise remarks, the creation and maintenance of a pseudonym can have a disciplining effect on blogger behavior, and thus should be encouraged as an alternative to purely anonymous blogging and posting. Reputation effects and the desire to maintain readership can impose significant discipline. A pseudonym operates like a brand name, and the value of the brand is, at least in part, a function of how the pseudonymous blogger acts over time. This disciplining effect is hardly perfect, however, particularly when it comes to maintaining civility. As I believe the tone and snarkiness of many pseudonymous bloggers and commenters attests, a pseudonym can reduce a blogger’s vulnerability to personal attacks and can shield him or her from social sanctions fur uncivil conduct. I believe this means that those who utilize pseudonyms should take greater responsibility for the tone and content of their own posts so their pseudonymous shield does not become a license for nastiness and snark (and I hope I was able to do this when I used a pseudonym). But I also believe that, barring exceptional circumstances (e.g. something far worse than wrong-headed criticism) other bloggers should respect the choice of others to rely upon pseudonyms.

Now anyone who thinks that he is truly anonymous on the Internet is a damned fool, so, as I've written before, it's best to assume that everyone in your life reads your blog every day -- even if they don't. Never think that you can live two separate lives.

Although I have made exceptions, I generally don't respond to completely anonymous comments. There needs to be a measure of accountability. And although I operate under a pseudonym, there are many readers who know my real name and could hold me personally accountable for what I have written -- and have. And there are many more readers who know me only pseudonymously, but can hold me accountable to the reputation that I would like for that pseudonym and this blog to have.

Totally anonymous commentors have no such accountability, and often act accordingly. Which is why I felt no compunction about outing the nasty anonymous comments left on my blog by Karen Sutherland, the lay leader of my former church that slandered me to my District Superintendent, Rick Neal, and had me driven out of the church and herself appointed pastor in my place. Which pissed her off.

But I digress. A little. Back to Whelan/Publius.

Whelan refers to Publius as "irresponsible". What exactly does that mean? Did Publius lie? Did he slash Whelan's tires? Or is "irresponsible" a codeword for "disagrees with me"?

Unless Whelan can express convincingly what Publius wrote that was so reprehensible, then his outing of Publius' real name was nothing but a particularly nasty ad hominem attack.

------------
*I would like to note the irony that Whelan used an anonymous source to out an anonymous blogger.

In Praise of The Innocence Project

Our abortion conversation meandered toward the end of the comment thread, and I had reason to bring up The Innocence Project.

These marvelous attorneys came together in 1992 to challenge the wrongful convictions of many people in prison in the U.S. They have made particularly good use of DNA evidence to free the incarcerated, even from death row. They have saved the lives of many, and redeemed others -- and in many cases, brought the real criminals to justice.

The Innocence Project has highlighted many of the failings in our criminal justice system, including evidence tampering, prosecutorial and police misconduct, forced confessions, and the unreliability of eye-witness testimony. It also advocates that states to provide financial compensation for those freed from prison after their convictions have been overturned.

More than 200 wrongfully-convicted people have been freed through its efforts.

I can think of no other philanthropic organization that does work as holy as The Innocence Project.

Art Blogging: Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly (1941- ) is an American glass artist. He studied glasswork at the University of Wisconsin, which was, at the time, the only formal glasswork instruction school in the U.S. Chihuly then studied ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design and later founded its glass program. In 1968 he won a Fulbright Scholarship to Venice, where he learned the team process of collaborative glassmaking. He returned to America to shatter the traditional boundaries of glasswork to create elaborate sculptures and installations.
Dappled Orange Ikebana with Purple and Chartreuse Stems, 2000.
Early Persian Forms, 1987.
Pink and Opal Seaform Set, 1981.

Art Blogging: Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey (1970- ) is an American lowbrow artist. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, he studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is now lives in Los Angeles and is a prolific graphic designer.


Fairey rose to national attention with this 2008 screenprint of Barack Obama. You can read an interview of Fairey about this iconic work here.







Peace Woman, 2008.






Tyrant Boot, 2008.




War By Numbers, a stencil collage.

Recommended: Murder, She Wrote

Lately, I've been watching through a bizarre TV show from the 80s and 90s called Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury.

Ostensibly, it's a show about a mystery novelist named Jessica Fletcher who travels around the world solving murders, as well as those that take place in her own sordid village of Cabot Cove, Maine. The wrong person is always fingered for the crime, often one of Jessica's relatives, and it is up to her to find out the true culprit.

But beneath the surface, it is a story of a demented and manipulative serial killer. No one ever pieces together the fact that no matter where this woman travels, someone dies. No suspicion ever falls upon Jessica, but instead upon her friends and relatives who she sets up to take the fall for her crimes. She then "rescues" them by redirecting blame to someone else, thus destroying the lives of her family members while becoming their hero; she simultaneously weakens them and draws them under her control and in her debt.

It is a subtle, thoughtful social critique on American culture. Even in the final episode, Jessica Fletcher's true nature is never revealed. It is up to the viewer to discern the madness that lays within her lifestyle. On the surface, she is an ordinary small town widow who tends to the garden, enjoys tea with friends, and writes banal novels. But beneath the veneer of this everyman (or woman) lies the heart of demented sociopath. What were the writers, I wonder, trying to say about our ordinary lives and the secrets that we keep?

So check out Murder, She Wrote. But don't watch it just before going to bed.

FYI

I'm growing mutton chops. Big'uns. They're thin right now, but in a couple of weeks, they should be really groovy.

The Murder of an Abortion Doctor

I find it hard to argue with Jacob Sullum's logic:

Yet if you honestly believe abortion is the murder of helpless children, it's hard to see why using deadly force against those who carry it out is immoral, especially since the government refuses to act. It may be unwise or counterproductive to the cause, as Schenck suggests when he worries that the killing could be "a greater setback to the pro-life movement than anything the so-called pro-choice movement could do." Promoting an image of pro-life activists as murderous extremists might dim the prospects for legislation restricting abortion, thereby leading to more deaths of unborn children than eliminating one abortionist prevents. But this is a tactical question that does not have to do with the inherent morality of killing in defense of innocent children.

Nor is it sufficient to note that killing Tiller was against the law. When the law blesses the murder of babies, it is hardly worthy of respect, any more than laws blessing the enslavement of Africans or the gassing of Jews were, and violent resistance against such enactments surely is justified in principle.

Some of Sullum's commentors point to a third option: pacifism, which might decry abortion as murder, but morally forbid violence in response. Others discuss the nuances of Just War Theory as it would relate to an extrajudicial killing.

UPDATE: Further ruminations from the ever-thoughtful Megan McArdle.

So. Now I can move onto the observation that if you actually think late-term abortion is murder, then the murder of Dr. Tiller makes total sense. Putting up touching anecdotes about people he's helped find adoptions, etc, doesn't change the fact that if you think late-term abortions are murder, the man was systematically butchering hundreds of human beings a year--indeed, not merely butchering them, but vivisecting them without anaesthetic. I'm sure many mass murderers have done any number of kind things over the course of their lives, to which the correct response, if you're trying to stop the murders, is "so?"

Imagine a future in which the moral consensus has changed, and our grandchildren regard abortion the way we regard slavery. Who will the hero of history be: Tiller, or his murderer? At the very least, they'll be conflicted, the way we are about John Brown.

Art Blogging: Niagara Detroit

Niagara Detroit (1956- ) is an American lowbrow artist. She originally started in music as the frontperson for the 80s punk band Destroy All Monsters. Her initial forays into the visual arts were in cover art, where Detroit established her motif of dangerous, sultry women. Her first gallery exhibit in 1996 was appropriately titled "All Men Are Cremated Equal". Are these works unsophisticated? Detroit said "I don’t care about making art that only talks to other artists."



Ahh, so romantic. Takes me back to the days when my wife and I were dating.