The demise of the indispensable Arts & Letters Daily is very sad, but I take some comfort from its fission into Philosophy & Literature, Arts Journal and SciTech Daily, even if it does crowd my links some.
Oct 082002
Oct 082002
I oppose mild gun laws, because they don’t work and cultivating disrespect for the law by passing ineffective laws is a bad idea; and I oppose harsh gun laws, because they do work, and disarming the citizenry is a worse idea. That said, I suspect the shootings in Maryland are exactly the sort of crime that Draconian gun laws would discourage. Susanna Cornett plausibly speculates — Susanna is always plausible — that the Maryland perp is employed, reasonably functional, without a criminal record, and an ardent gun hobbyist. (Also white, male and in his 30s or 40s, which is less relevant for our purposes.) If owning guns were essentially illegal, wouldn’t shooting sprees of this type by otherwise law-abiding people be among the first things to go?
The Brady Campaign, oddly, says it will “refuse to capitalize” on the shootings in Maryland, when to do so would be far less dishonest than usual.
Oct 052002
The baseball page has been revamped, especially the search function. I always wanted to be able to make custom searches of a historical baseball database, but I never could. So I wrote it myself, and now I can, and so can you.
Oct 052002
Google’s new page-ranking algorithm may have hurt better blogs than mine, but who cares? I’m now the #1 Haspel, ahead of my mother and sister, who write (about food) for actual money, some camera service in the Netherlands, and the summer-suit purveyors who own the eponymous domain.
In a related story, I’m on page 14 of the Aarons, behind Hank Aaron, Aaron Copland, Aaron Burr, Aaron Carter, Aaron’s Tracheostomy Page, and the notice that Aaron’s Tracheostomy Page has moved.
Oct 052002
Canadian Customs seems to believe that pamphlets entitled “A Moral Defense of Israel” may constitute “obscenity or hate-propaganda.” These were to be distributed for a lecture by the noted obscene hate-speakers at the Ayn Rand Institute.
Of course it is impossibly stupid to confiscate this particular pamphlet, even according to the Customs guidelines, which say, according to the National Post story, “that ‘full recognition should be given to freedom of expression’ and goods that may constitute hate propaganda will not be classified, for example, if they express a religious opinion in good faith or are discussing a matter of public interest.” Surely Israel’s right to exist constitutes a matter of public interest. The Customs officials finally released the pamphlets, after three days. But the real evil is the guidelines — the idea that someone can decide what constitutes “hate speech” in the first place — not the particular stupidity.
Silver Lining Dept.: I wouldn’t be surprised if this incident prompts a public reconsideration of “hate speech” statutes, simply because of its monumental idiocy. Hard cases often make bad law, and easy cases sometimes make good law, for similar reasons.
(Thanks to Arthur Silber for pointing out this horror.)
Oct 042002
Blogging will be light for the next couple of days. I’m gussying up the baseball part of this site. Those of you who are interested in baseball statistics will have something to look forward to; the rest of you, well, won’t.
Oct 032002
Being Time Warner means never having to say you’re sorry. They yanked my cable service at 8:30 this morning, and restored it at 3:30 this afternoon, offering no explanation in either case. And no apology either. They did, however, offer me the opportunity to purchase premium channels, which was nice.
Oct 022002
Get your BS in BS Studies here. Then your Master’s. And your Ph.D. Quick, before the link rots (another permalink busted on Blogspot).
I wrote once about how Marx (and Freud) are behind the death of rational discourse, but this guy is better. Much better.
Oct 012002
Mark Wickens catches the Toronto Star saying silly things about the Kyoto treaty, and makes them admit it.
Sep 302002
Technical difficulties put this site off-line for several hours late this afternoon and early this evening. Alles jetzt in Ordnung. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.