Good news from Senator Jon Kyl

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Michael

This may be the first good thing he has ever said.

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona is expected to announce his retirement Thursday, David Catanese and Jennifer Epstein report for Politico, opening up a seat he’s held for three terms and complicating Republican efforts to hold it.

Kyl will make his official announcement at a press conference this afternoon in Phoenix.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Leniency for monsters

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Michael

I wrote back in December that I had very little confidence in our judicial system in sentencing faith healing parents who are responsible for the deaths of their own children. Lenient sentences happen again and again – and bad parents keep praying for their children instead of seeking real medical help. This recent sentencing isn’t going to help.

Speaking in court, [negligent father] Herbert Schaible asked the judge [Carolyn Engel Temin]for leniency to allow the couple to support their family.

“We are grieving and will always feel the loss of our son,” Schaible said. “With God’s help, this will never happen again.”

Temin sentenced them to 10 years of probation, during which they are required to seek routine and emergency medical care for their seven children, ages 1 through 15.

No, with the help of the judiciary doing its job and discouraging other parents from neglecting their children, this will never happen again. With the help of the legislatures in the 30 states which offer protection for faith healing, this will never happen again. With the eradication of religion, this will never happen again.

Two of the three things I mentioned are within easy reach.

Filed under: News, Religions | Tagged: , , , , | 8 Comments »

Judge denied end-run

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Michael

Judge James DeWeese of Ohio was found to be in violation of the constitution when he hung a poster of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom in 2000. It was a pretty obvious finding, one the Supreme Court let stand. But did that stop DeWeese? Of course not. He’s Christian and American. Just like Jesus. He ought to have special privileges. Or not.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court’s ruling that Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese violated the constitutional separation between church and state by displaying [a second] poster…

The latest poster titled “Philosophies of Law in Conflict” shows the Ten Commandments in a column listed as “moral absolutes” and secular humanist principles in another column listed as “moral relatives.”

DeWeese attached a commentary to the poster that said he sees a conflict of legal philosophies in the United States — between moral absolutism and moral relativism — and that he believes legal philosophy must be based on fixed moral standards. At the bottom of the poster frame, readers are invited to obtain a pamphlet further explaining DeWeese’s philosophy.

It seems the only real conflict here is between DeWeese and the reality of the constitution. Let’s just hope he never gets to rule on a case trying to weasel creationism into the classroom.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

New York City to become healthier

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Michael

I’m happy for every person in this photo.

And here’s why:

New York City on Wednesday moved a step closer to ban smoking in parks, beaches and other outdoor public spaces, amid grumbling that the city government may have gone too far in its war on salt, fat and smoke.

The city council voted 36 to 12 in favor of the smoking restrictions, extending an existing ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he would sign the bill, and it would come into effect 90 days later.

This is excellent news. But for all the paranoid people out there, don’t worry. It’s a cigarette ban. Your rights haven’t suddenly vanished in some apocalyptic march of anti-freedom; the skyscrapers will still stand:

You can still drive the streets:

And you can still visit your museums:

You just can’t poison other people as often is all.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

Gay marriage updates

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Michael

Here are just a few of the recent news stories concerning gay marriage:

  • Dubya’s daughter, Barbara, has come out in support of gay marriage. She is helping the fight for basic equality in New York. Currently, thousands of families with gay heads of the house are being forced into unnecessary financial difficulties while they face bigoted social stigma. It ought to stop.
  • Illinois has taken a step in the right direction by legalizing civil unions. Gay couples will still face unnecessary hardships, but they now have some relief. Oh, and the negatives? Nothing. Absolutely nothing negative will come from this law.
  • New Hampshire lawmakers are trying to turn the state back. They’ve attached the banning of incest to a law that would ban gay marriage. I find this repulsive for two reasons. First, the most obvious reason is that it associates two separate ideas, as if it’s okay to say homosexuality and incest go hand in hand. Second, this is simply logically offensive. It’s a classic “When are you going to stop beating your wife?” fallacy. That is, it’s asking two questions but seeking one answer. (Remember that famous Watergate inquiry, “What did Nixon know and when did he know it?”) On the plus side, it is destined to fail.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social, Rights, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , , , , | 6 Comments »

New Facebook setting

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Michael

I guess this is why Facebook was down all last night.

Facebook finally provided a way to keep any random jerk in the café from hijacking your account. But you have to go out of your way to enable this protection, and you might have to wait. Still: Jump on this.

Facebook has at long last offered an option to use the encrypted “HTTPS” protocol, a feature it will begin rolling out today but won’t finish for a “few weeks.” You should check now if it’s available, and sign up as soon as it is enabled for your account. The performance overhead is minor—zippy Gmail, for example, uses HTTPS for everything—and it’s an important step to keep your Facebook account safe from being hijacked on an open or poorly secured wireless network.

I can’t access it yet, but if you can you’ll want to go Account>Account Settings>Account Security and then check off Secure Browsing.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

How much is Facebook worth?

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Michael

A lot.

Facebook Inc.’s valuation topped Amazon.com Inc., leaving the social-networking company behind only Google Inc. among U.S. Internet companies.

Facebook is valued at $82.9 billion on secondary exchange SharesPost Inc. and has jumped by more than 40 percent since mid-December. Amazon shares dropped 7.2 percent yesterday after a disappointing sales forecast, pushing its stock market value down to $77.2 billion.

With all that worth, you would think they would have completed their current maintenance about 6 hours ago.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Shai Warfield-Cross sings the national anthem

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Michael

This sounds like a fine version of The Star-Spangled Banner to me. The singer, a 16 year old Indiana high school student, has her own stamp on it, but that her style is unique can hardly be called offensive.

Unless you’re an idiot.

Principal Jeff Henderson told The Herald-Times in a statement that people had complained that while the words to the anthem were the same, the tune was unrecognizable. He declined to comment to The Associated Press.

Some who complained after the game in Martinsville – a predominantly white community about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis – also said they felt the rendition was disrespectful to current and former members of the military, Henderson said.

I have no idea how Warfield-Cross’ rendition can possibly be considered offensive. It is certainly within the realm of traditional versions when one considers all the different renditions that are out there. Besides that, so what if it isn’t traditional? Uniqueness does not make something bad. If anything, I would rather hear a version like Warfield-Cross’ before a sporting event than some of the other versions I’ve heard – and I’m talking about some extremely well done versions I’ve heard at major sporting venues such as Fenway.

As for the race issue, I’m not willing to buy it. Maybe that was the motivation, but no news story has identified the chief whiner in all this. Surely that person has some illegitimate reason for the complaint, but it isn’t clear that race is at the heart of it.

And as for the school, an apology was issued.

The formal apology by Principal Jeff Henderson was made public Thursday after a nearly two-hour meeting with student Shai Warfield-Cross, 16, her family and other supporters.

Maybe next time the school and Jeff Henderson will know to stand up to the whiners out there.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , , , , | 41 Comments »

The horrors of Uganda

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Michael

At the hand of Christian hate, gays are being targeted and murdered in Uganda.

David Kato, a Ugandan gay rights campaigner who sued a local newspaper which outed him as homosexual, has been beaten to death, activists have said.

Police have confirmed the death and say they have arrested one suspect.

Uganda’s Rolling Stone newspaper published the photographs of several people it said were gay, including Mr Kato, with the headline “Hang them”.

US President Barack Obama was quoted as saying he was “deeply saddened” to learn of Mr Kata’s death.

His Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged authorities to investigate and prosecute the killers.

I have no idea how anyone can say ideas don’t kill people. We’re composed of ideas, of motivations, of convictions – of influences. If we can’t say humans are compositions of ideas, I don’t know how we can even talk about humanity. Anti-gay propaganda, rhetoric, hate, and violent encouragement led to the death of David Kato. And the fire, created from ignorance, is constantly being stoked by a strong Christian faith in the country – along with a strong influence from American Christians who hate gays.

This article would be longer if I wasn’t so sickened.

Filed under: News, Religions | Tagged: , , | 18 Comments »

When raising taxes works

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Michael

There are a few times when I think raising taxes is a good thing. If the unemployment rate is down? You might want to raise them. If it’s on an industry that is making more than it could ever need (i.e., the oil industry)? You might want to raise them. If the tax rate is extremely low already and you need funds, a la Illinois? Raise them. That doesn’t mean we always want high taxes. We don’t. But this no-taxes-ever mentality needs to stop. It’s just plain bad economics/greed.

Recently the mayor of Omaha raised taxes and some fees. He was heavily criticized, and in fact, he was almost recalled. But it’s a good thing that city has Jim Suttle.

[Recall] Organizers accused Suttle of supporting excessive taxes, breaking his promises and pushing for changes that threaten the city’s economic future.

But the tax increases helped the city generate a $3.3 million surplus by the end of 2010 and restore its AAA bond rating, meaning it can borrow money on more favorable terms.

It seems to me that the primary motivation for low taxes in all scenarios, aside from the usual greed and dismissal of poor people, is that people think the sooner they get money, the better off they will be. But that is not always the case. In fact, when it comes to investing in infrastructure, something the U.S. has largely been ignoring for the past couple of decades, it is absolutely the long term view that wins. In Omaha’s case, the investment was in gaining a better bond rating. (That isn’t to dismiss the short term win here as well; the massive increase in revenue has helped with the city’s current fiscal crisis.)

So are there times when it is best to raise taxes? Absolutely. In Omaha’s case, it has very low unemployment (4.7%; 4.4% for Nebraska). That doesn’t mean it would always be good to raise taxes. If the city had no shortfall, then why do it? But in tough times, people have to learn to sacrifice. I know that’s an unpopular notion in the 21st century, but it’s the only way a healthy economy can be sustained sometimes.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , , | 10 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »