Several discussions, occurrence and articles over the last few months have led me to develop a unifying thought about the concept of linguistic prescription and its manifestation in the social and political realms. In particular, it seems to me that many of the world’s great debates, and the problems that arise from them, are centered … [Read more…]
According to Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, you can’t be both Catholic and libertarian. Well, I guess that basically consigns all the members of the Catholic Libertarians Facebook group to hell. The problem is, Cardinal Maradiaga doesn’t seem to know much about libertarianism. Here are some comments in reply to particulars from the article: 1. Catholics … [Read more…]
A couple weeks ago, film and TV critic Inkoo Kang published a thought-provoking article over at Vulture blaming Fox Mulder for a perceived rise of anti-government, anti-science sentiments in the new millennium. The key, Kang says, is the coolness behind Mulder’s “anti-government paranoia … and skepticism of science.” Furthermore, Kang sees Scully’s knowledge of science as … [Read more…]
A couple days ago, President Obama came to Central New York. I know because the traffic on I-690 was backed up, and I got stuck in the mire on the way home. For some reason (perhaps to avoid State Fair traffic), the presidential entourage — coming from Buffalo and Rochester in Western NY — went … [Read more…]
There’s a lot to get angry about with things political, and I certainly add my share of angst to the ire. In the last week, there’s been enough “commentary” about the SCOTUS decisions to strike down DOMA and California’s Proposition 8 to fill quite a few volumes. During that same time, President Obama’s speech about … [Read more…]
Today, President Obama signed 23 executive orders in a step to help prevent future massacres like the Sandy Hook shooting, along with gun violence in general. The orders are not yet up on Whitehouse.gov, but a list of order summaries is available at The Atlantic. Predictably, there are predictable reactions from various predictable people and … [Read more…]
On Sunday, I went to see Django Unchainedwith my brother. It’s a great movie, one of Tarantino’s best in my opinion, and there’s a lot I could say about it. However, one particular thing has stuck in my mind the last few days. As I ate dinner with my brother after the the movie, conversation … [Read more…]
Late last Friday night, I learned about the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. However, since I was attending the Mythgard “Mythmoot” conference over the weekend, I had limited opportunity and inclination to spend much time online. Thus, I did not learn many details about the attack until the last couple … [Read more…]
In the past week, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued unanimous decisions in two cases. The thing I like about both of these decisions is that the government makes clear, common sensible arguments admonishing various parts of the federal government for its nonsensibility. The first was for Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States, … [Read more…]
So, Obama will be in the White House for another four years. I expected as much, and honestly I don’t think it would’ve mattered much had Romney been elected. In his current term, Obama: Won the Nobel Peace Prizeand then invaded Libya Implemented a vast change to the nation’s health insurance (not health care) system … [Read more…]