Well, at least they have some convictions

Unlike many Hollywood types, I have to at least credit these folks with following through.

The more I know about people…

the more I love my dog:

Academic Freedom

Eugene Volokh has a post up in the midst of all this Ward Churchill hoopla where he defends academic freedom. He defines it as follows:
By academic freedom principles, I mean First Amendment protection for those of us at state-run schools, but also contractual protection and the protection provided by the profession’s social norms.
Firstly, it seems to me, everyone has First Amendment protection and that’s not even an issue here; there is no talk of jailing Churchill or of throwing him into one of Ashcroft’s gulags in North Dakota. One of the cherished tactics of the left is that whenever some non-academic has the temerity to challenge things they’ve said is to wrap themselves in the Constitution and proclaim that their First Amendment rights are under attack (mind you, these are the very same people who have taken away our First Amendment rights by getting “Hate Speech” legislation passed). Nonsense. Let’s review the First Amendment, shall we?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
It says Congress. There’s nothing in there that can possibly be construed as to mean “my boss can’t fire me if I act like a walking talking rectum.” You have the right to say whatever you like without fear of retribution from the government, no doubt, and that’s how it should be. However, your fellow citizens also have that right, and the things they can say include “you’re fired.”
So in no way, shape or form is this a First Amendment issue.
So why do I agree that Churchill should not lose his job over what he wrote?

Read more »

Continuing with our “Fun Named Hootch” theme

Just a wee dram before dinner

Currently in my glass

I’m finishing off a bottle of “Casa Lapostolle” 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Raphael Valley, Chile which was given to us by some friends. While I admit that part of this wine’s appeal to me is the name (I said to my bride “Honey, I’m going postal!”) as I pulled the bottle out of the cabinet, it has a lot of structure and fruit. It may in fact be too tannic for some folks. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it contains some cabernet franc, although the label makes no mention of it. All in all, perfectly decent if you like a full-bodied red, and while mine was *ahem* free, Chilean wines are always good values.

Boy, if there’s one thing I’m a sucker for…

It’s a “100 present risk free transaction”

Read more »

As I Was Saying…

Justin Katz provides yet another excellent example of what I was refering to below, the self-created cult of the ‘expert’, the all-consuming fervent belief that your knowledge equates to your Right and Goodness.

Halo

Rachel has a post on the lure of Halo over the SOTU speech. I agree with her except for one point: I prefer Halo to Halo2. Sure, the levels got repetitive after a while, but it was so darn exciting, a feeling that is missing in all the hype about Halo2; it seems to me to be more Halo 1.2 rather than a great leap forward.
Still fun though; my daughter gleefully enjoys sticking plasma grenades to my back when we’re playing coöperative…”Oops! Sorry Daddy!” (snicker-snicker)
heh.

Sorry

I’m playing around with the code. I’m just pasting things in and seeing what pops up…

yum

That about covers tonight

Academedia

A little while ago Sheila started a wonderful discussion on Robert Conquest’s book The Great Terror: A Reassessment (yeah, yeah, I know; big shock there, Sheila starting a great discussion. Work with me here.). My lovely bride, after only the slightest of hints on my part, was kind enough to get me the book for my birthday, and I took it with me to Brazil to read on the flight and during the various amounts of ‘downtime’ that one always has on business trips, especially when one is travelling alone.
Brief aside: find the geek in the following scene…Rio de Janeiro, middle of the summer. You’re poolside at the swankest hotel in Copacabana. Your eyes drink in the tanned twenty-something ladies frollicking in their tangas (not that, technically speaking, there’s all that much that can accurately be described as being in a tanga), the corpulent sixty-year-old men with their tanned twenty-something ladies purring about in their tangas, the tanned slim men lounging together in their tangas, and the pasty white fellow sitting in his LL Bean swim trunks under a large umbrella with a caipirinha in one hand and The Great Terror in the other…
Sigh.

Read more »

Blech. Just Blech.

This is just so ick.

First Ossie, then Max and now…

Dean Wormer.
It’s almost all too much to bear.

Of Iraq, Athens, and US

From QandO Blog:

So died these men as became Athenians. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence of your country, though these would furnish a valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as the present, you must yourselves realize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes upon her from day to day, till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her greatness shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling of honour in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer.

Martha’s Apprentice

Should I wear my striped pantsuit to the interview?
*THS informed me that in my ignorance I originally wrote “stripped” as opposed to the correct “striped”. Frankly, I think a compelling argument can be made for either…

Flyin’ Down to Rio

So I’m in Rio last week, waiting in the lobby of the Copacabana Palace Hotel to be picked up by my friend (of Tylenol fame). We were going out to dinner at Gero in Ipanema, which is currently ‘the’ italian restaurant in Rio (gawd, I love business trips and expense accounts!). Anyhow, as I’m waiting there, I notice two slightly dumpy, paunch-endowed guys in their late 50s/early 60s waiting for a cab. Let’s call them Shorty and his best bud Tubby. You know the type. The ones with the neon signs floating in the air above their heads flashing “GRINGO! GRINGO!”

Read more »

Pssst! Hey little girl…want some Bayer?

My lovely and talented bride is a university professor (and no, none of her brilliance has rubbed off on me). One of her cardinal rules is that a student’s cell phone is only allowed to ring if someone has died; a reasonable prohibition given the complete breakdown of any semblence of decorum in their use these days.
So it was a bit of an attention grabber the other day in “Sixteenth Century Sonnet Writers, And The STDs They Died Of” (ENGLIT208) when her phone rang…

Read more »

Tylenol…that evil controlled substance

I recently went down to Brazil for a business trip. A friend there asked me to bring him some Tylenol Flu capsules, which for some odd reason he couldn’t find there. Please note that one can buy Codeine over-the-counter in Brazil (and believe me, I have), but evidently not Tylenol…
Anyhow, I mosied to the local chain pharmacy to pick up a few boxes, and was confronted by “Daytime” and “Nighttime” formulas. Argh. So I took 2 boxes of Day and 1 of Night, just to cover all the bases. When I handed them to the clerk, she told me that she wasn’t allowed to sell me three boxes…

Read more »

Eeeek! Let a feller get dressed before you peek!

Yes, well we seem to be up and running, don’t we? Well, once we get some content we’ll let you know.