Apologies to William James for that post title. What kind of atheist am I?
You scored as Scientific Atheist. These guys rule. I'm not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future.
Scientific Atheist
92% Militant Atheist
58% Angry Atheist
50% Spiritual Atheist
25% Apathetic Atheist
17% Theist
17% Agnostic
17%
What kind of atheist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
(Hat tip: The Happy Curmudgeon)
Those irrepressible wags at NewsMax.com have sent me another email with the delightful title, "Fight Back Against 'Tax and Spend' Liberals!"
Timely, too, now that we've turned over control of the US Congress from the 'Tax and Spend' conservatives. Heh.
Two perspectives on illegal immigration, one from Victor Davis Hanson and one from Penn and Teller.
Without doubt or exaggeration, Penn and Teller are the more intellectually respectable. I am aware that many on the Right worship Hanson, but what are we to make of this paragraph?
The problem with all this is that our now-spurned laws were originally intended to ensure an (admittedly thin) veneer of civilization over innate chaos—roads full of drivers who have passed a minimum test to ensure that they are not a threat to others; single-family residence zoning to ensure that there are adequate sewer, garbage, and water services for all; periodic county inspections to ensure that untethered dogs are licensed and free of disease and that housing is wired and plumbed properly to prevent mayhem; and a consensus on school taxes to ensure that there are enough teachers and classrooms for such sudden spikes in student populations.
"All these now-neglected or forgotten rules," concludes Hanson, "proved costly to the taxpayer...."The government’s attitude at all levels is to punish the dutiful citizen’s misdemeanors while ignoring the alien’s felony, on the logic that the former will at least comply while the latter either cannot or will not."
Well. What far too many "conservatives" of Hanson's stripe refuse to consider is that giving such authority to the state is illegitimate in the first place, that it's all "costly to the taxpayer," and that "punishing the dutiful citizen" is about all most government agencies do today. His contempt for the term "laissez-faire" is telling, and it isn't limited to him.
So it's considered a legitimate discussion to argue over the issuing of driver's licenses or Social Security cards to illegals -- but it's beyond the pale to argue that nobody, not California or Arizona or the United States government itself, should be issuing such documents at all. Meanwhile, it will soon be the case that I, a lifetime citizen of the US and a resident of a border city, will be required to present a passport in order to re-enter the land of my birth and citizenship, if I should presume to spend any time in Mexico. Thanks, all of you "respectable" pundits and educators and politicians, conservative and liberal both. You have destroyed or are destroying the idea of America.
The Penn and Teller bit is from their Showtime series, which I love anyway. It's on illegal immigration, pro and con, and it features (on the con side), Mark "Libertarian Cowflop" Krikorian and (on the pro side) Reason editor Nick Gillespie.
Few more comments: during the third segment, the discussion of racism arises. Mark Krikorian opines that there are some on the pro-immigration side of the debate who dislike white people, to which Penn Jillette responds, "What the fuck?!" But on this one, I think Krikorian is probably correct: there's racism to be found on all sides of this one. I also agree with the show's hosts that the anti-immigrant Minutemen are not motivated by racism. I don't agree with the positions held by the Minutemen, but most of them are probably just (as Penn Jillette says) decent guys motivated by doing what they think is the right thing.
The problem with immigration laws and quotas is the same problem we have with any Prohibition, from alcohol in the Twenties to (some) drugs and (some) immigrants today. And everywhere around us, the results are the same, too.
Bonus at the end. Heh.
According to this story, Target is dumping Proraso products.
Proraso has provided an introduction to wetshaving for lots of American men. I'm one of them. Their stuff is great, it's moderately priced and -- until now -- easy to get, thanks to Target.
Well, strong recommendation: get it while you still can. This just sucks.
Interesting read about two CIA officers shot down during the Korean conflict. They went to spend twenty years in Chinese prisons before being released. Their story is here.
(Hat tip: Arts and Letters Daily)
Meme-thingy: Oldsmobiles and Old Movies
Haven't done a quiz or a list in a while (Or any damn posts at all.-- Ed.), so here's one I picked up from Out of Lascaux.
What do you think about Ouija boards?
They are games. Games which cause fewer fights than Monopoly, but games nonetheless.
Your favorite TV shows?
Current shows - House, Boston Legal, final season of The Sopranos. All time favorites - Yes, Minister. Firefly. Soldier Soldier. Water Rats. Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Wire.
Favorite Board Game?
Trivial Pursuit
Favorite Magazine?
Probably Testosterone Nation, online. In the past: Reason, Guitar Player, Crawdaddy, Playboy, National Review, The Economist.
Favorite smells?
Coffee.
Worst feeling in the world?
Thinking that I'll never be able to run again (thanks a lot, obsctructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy heart murmur).
Best feeling in the world?
Teaching something, speaking in public.
Favorite Soundtrack?
Quadrophenia, A Hard Days Night.
What is the first thing you think when you wake in the morning?
"Hmm, another morning."
Roller coaster - scary of exciting?
Both.
How many rings before you answer the phone?
Doesn't matter.
Favorite foods?
Burgers, cashews.
Chocolate or vanilla?
No contest. Chocolate.
Do you like to drive?
Yes. More than I used to.
Storms - cool or scary?
Great, except when the power goes out.
What type was your first car?
A 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale. Eight cylinders, seven ash trays.
If you could meet one person dead or alive - who would it be?
Rachmaninoff, maybe. Paul Pimsleur. Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, George Mason or Thomas Jefferson, Beethoven, lots of people.
Favorite alcoholic drink?
Beer.
What is your zodiac sign?
Libra.
Who is your favorite poet?
For years, Chaucer and Cummings. More so lately, Shakespeare. But I think Chaucer and Cummings will always be in my Top Ten list.
Do you eat the stems of broccoli?
It happens.
If you could have any job you wanted, what would it be?
Raquel Welch's sex slave. Working on that. The job thing, not the Raquel Welch thing.
If you could dye your hair any color, what would it be?
Women won't allow me to dye my hair, he said smugly.
Is the glass half empty or half full?
As per George Carlin, that glass is too damn big!
What is your favorite Snapple?
Don't drink Snapple. I prefer Diet Dr. Pepper.
Favorite movies?
Casablanca. The Godfather. The Eagle Has Landed. Chocolat. The Birdcage.
Are you a lefty, righty, or ambidextrous?
Righty.
Do you type with your fingers on the proper keys?
Most of 'em, yes. Only way to do it.
What is your favorite number?
No favorite number. There are too many of them (thank you, Beavis).
Favorite sport to watch?
Cricket .
Favorite quote?
"He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad" - Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche. I may as well steal that one from Alexandra. But "I'm shocked -- shocked ..." from Casablanca or Brando's "If he should be struck by a bolt of lightning" from The Godfather are right up there.
Having just cleared a boatload of spam in the form of Italian trackback pings, maybe now's the appropriate time to pass on that a lot of the language courses from the Foreign Service Institute are available online. You can find French, German, Greek, Spanish, and Thai, among others.
Russian? Not there yet. But you can always go to Princeton for that. Er, on the internet, at least.
(Hat tip: Language Hat)
I learned last night that Kurt Vonnegut has died. I thought my comment on this would be "So it goes," but... I just can't. So I'll point you to his short story, "Harrison Bergeron," (hat tip on the link to John J. Miller at The Corner), an excellent short story on equality, of all things.
It must be said that Vonnegut was a leftist, apparently of quite the loony variety. But the truths he covers in "Harrison Bergeron" and in Slaughterhouse-Five remain true nonetheless, and so is this:
What are the conservatives doing with all the money and power that used to belong to all of us? They are telling us to be absolutely terrified, and to run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off. But they will save us. They are making us take off our shoes at airports. Can anybody here think of a more hilarious practical joke than that one?
Smile, America. You’re on Candid Camera.
New York Times obit here.
Critic of conservatives and admirer of Mark Twain. My kinda guy. Rest in peace.
Ann Coulter gets it. And as far as I can tell, she's the only one who does.
Years ago I heard someone say about Rush Limbaugh that he disagreed with fully fifty percent of everything Limbaugh said -- but that, after years of the Fairness Doctrine and the resulting lockstep liberal media, it was a refreshing fifty percent. I'm the same way with Coulter: I'm not really a fan, but I don't find her to be a hate-monger, either, and a lot of what she writes is funny.
And true. And that's the problem.
Lately I see a lot of dancing chimps "commenting" on the latest Don Imus flap, in which the Rutgers girls (ladies?) basketball came to be described as consisting of "nappy-headed ho's." Oh dear. How evil Don Imus is. We must reject him and all his works. But, last night on Hannity and Colmes and today at FrontPageMag.com, Ann Coulter shows that she really does get it:
The reason people don't like what Imus said is because the women on the Rutgers basketball team aren't engaged in public discourse. They're not public figures, they don't have a forum, they aren't trying to influence public policy.They play basketball – quite well, apparently – and did nothing to bring on an attack on their looks or character. It's not the words Imus used: It would be just as bad if he had simply said the Rutgers women were ugly and loose.
People claim to object to the words alone, but that's because everyone is trying to fit this incident into a PC worldview. It's like girls who say, "It's not that you cheated on me; it's that you lied about it." No – it's that you cheated.
If Imus had called me a "towheaded ho" or Al Sharpton a "nappy-headed ho," it would be what's known as "funny." (And if he called Anna Nicole Smith a "flaxen-headed ho," it would be "absolutely accurate.") But he attacked the looks and morals of utterly innocent women, who had done nothing to inject themselves into public debate.
I don't mean to besmirch, begrudge, or belittle Ann Coulter, nor to insult her in any way. But she's created her career, and her public persona, and she is what she is. She's a bomb-thrower. And that is exactly my point: When Ann Coulter is the only voice of reason in a public debate, then what you have is not a debate. It's a circus. *
* The actual word describing such a situation, courtesy of the United States Marine Corps and heard to amusing effect in Heartbreak Ridge, is not "circus," but rather, begins with "cluster" and rhymes with "firetruck."
The other day I recieved e-mail from NewsMax, with the subject line mentioned above.
Got me thinking. I voted for Reagan twice, in spite of Ayn Rand's prescient warnings, and what did we get? What, in fact, would Reagan do?
Let me see: talk shit about taxes. Raise taxes. Select liberals for high office (George H.W. Bush and Sandra Day O'Connor come to mind). Talk shit about terrorism but let Iran do whatever the hell it wants to in the Middle East, even to American citizens.
Yes, I like the idea of asking people what they think Ronald Reagan would do.
And please, the question is do. Not what he said. Not rhetoric. We've all heard his speeches. Unfortunately, we've all, also, seen what he did with the high office he inhabited. Thanks a lot.
This quote is from Eric Dondero, the Chairman of the Libertarian Defense Caucus.Tell me what you think is wrong with it:
Even Ayn Rand was staunchly Anti-Communist and backed Reagain in 1980 cause he could most effectively "fight" the Communists.
Well...okay. Except that Ayn Rand opposed Ronald Reagan as well as Jimmy Carter in 1980 (see, for example, the excerpts from her Ford Hall Forum talk, "The Age of Mediocrity," found here.
The entire reference to Rand fails to make sense. "Even Ayn Rand was Anti-Communist." Even Ayn Rand? Right. Reagan addressed Gorbachev by his first name and was willing to negotiate the end of all nuclear weapons. Try again, guys.