Catastrophic Success

Steven Den Beste has been spotted at Eternity Road debating the connotative and denotative meaning of war. Interesting discussion and it is continued in a separate entry here.

Actually, Michael Powell, son of soon-to-be-former Secretary of State Colin Powell will soon announce that he will step down as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He has two years left to his term, but, for undisclosed reasons and at an undisclosed time (just soon according to the AP), he will announce his resignation. Now who’s gonna bitch about seeing Janet Jackson’s breast? It sure as hell won’t be me!

I hope he and his dad enjoy some quality time together out of the media spotlight and somewhere they won’t be called Uncle Tom, murderer, or “[p]ompous and imperious, an ideologue”. Maybe they can take the boat out, throw back a couple of cold ones and pull in some keepers.

Maybe, now some realism will creep back in to the FCC. I don’t particularly want my three-year-old to watch R-rated movies, so I take steps to prevent that from happening. I would never use the phrase “exposed to R-rated movies (or whatever)” because they are not exposed to them by some dirty guy in a trench coat. They would be “exposed to” such things only if I or my wife were not doing our jobs as parents. Just because I have decided to prevent my children from watching certain things, playing certain games, hearing certain words doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy watching those things, playing those games and USING those words.

To quote Robert Henlein < aside>I’m only just discovering Heinlein. I wish someone would have clued me in to what I was missing. < /aside> in “The Man Who Sold the Moon:

“The whole principle is wrong; it’s like demanding that grown men live
on skim milk because the baby can’t eat steak.”

I can’t stand it when a politico doesn’t think that I can handle seeing a breast for .8 second on television or that my children will be forever spoiled to see ordinary citizens carrying guns, or frankly, a building being blown up in a video game. No I can’t control the commercials that come on, but if I decide my daughter should not see a commercial, I have a perfectly working remote control. I can certainly change the channel. Or, god forbid, turn my television OFF. All I’m saying is that just because I can’t afford a nanny (no matter how tall, busty, stupid and Swedish she is) I don’t want one provided for me. I certainly don’t need one for my children.

I suspect though that whoever is appointed to FCC Chairman will be more of a moral, if unlikely, crusader than Powell was.

I suspect that Hot Rod Blagojevich (Illinois’ Governor for those of you unfamiliar with my neck of the cold, cold woods) is ready to jump on whatever “save the children from the evil filth-peddlers!” campaign that Powell’s successor (almost inevitably) leads. He proposed legislation about two weeks ago to ban the sale of Mature-rated video games to minors in the state of Illinois. So stupid for so many reasons. The fact is that most minors can not afford to shell out the $50 to buy a new video game on their own anyway (at least until they are 16 and can get a job), and so their parents are usually the source of the necessary revenue to purchase the games. I would venture to say that most games minors receive are in some fashion given to them. Oftentimes, their parents either buy the game for them or are in the store while they purchase it. It is the parent’s responsibility to prevent the sale in the first place, but so many parents still treat video games (and comic books I might add) as kid stuff and don’t realize that certain games are meant only for adults. Nothing in this law prevents a clueless parent from purchasing a Mature-rated game and giving it to his or her child for Christmas, birthdays, etc. Even if the parents are hip to that stuff (as I am), the same does not go for obliging, but unaware, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. This law basically lets Rod claim that he has done something to protect the children without doing a damn thing to “protect the children.” Unless he plans to make it illegal to also GIVE a child such a game, he may as well piss into the wind for all the good it will do.

I expect myself to be a responsible parent. That comes with certain duties. They are not always easy, but they are certainly necessary. I expect the same of other parents with regard to their children and, furthermore, I expect them to expect it of me. I do not need the government telling me what forms of entertainment are off-limits to me because my children might be affected. I don’t buy the violence in the media argument. If it were true, it would be provable that there has been a DRAMATIC increase in the level of violence (in empirical numbers) since the advent of mass media. We had two major World Wars in the time that mass media consisted of newspapers, film and radio. Now you want to tell me that my TV and my Nintendo breed violence? I don’t think so.

*pant pant* Enough soapboxing. I think my point is made. I will be watching with interest to see who the new FCC Chair will be and how he or she will conduct him or herself.

Brian Becker, National Coodinator of ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), on the stage protesting Bush’s Second Inauguration:

“Today is a workday for all of those lucky enough to still have a job after four years of George W. Bush [slight delay] and Wall Street”

[Crowd Cheers]

“How many of you took off [of] work to be here today?”

[Large portion of Crowd cheers]

“How many of you are looking for work?”

[About 3 people half-heartedly cheer]

“Oh, a much smaller group [stammer] Well that’s good.”

[He then moves on to a chant of "Sexist! Racist! Anti-Gay! Bush and Cheney go away!"]

Via Laura Ingraham this morning about 15 minutes or so into hour 2 today.

Everything in brackets, of course, is my desription of the crowd reaction or of Becker’s speaking.

So either, the jobless hippies were not looking for jobs, were being awfully quiet or didn’t show up. It could even be, as Laura Ingraham postulates, even the hippies have jobs now. “Now that’s what I call a full employment economy!” she said.

This is a pretty nifty Ergonomic Keyboard, but it costs $299, plus another $89 for the foot pedal. That’s Right. I said FOOT. PEDAL. Hellz YA!

You drive your computer!

Terry Goodkind uses it to write the Sword of Truth books. Pretty high recommendation to me.

IwantitIwantitIwantit.

I don’t know if I could use it, but … IwantitIwantitIwantit.

Moorewatch reports that the Moore story from this morning is apparently too good to be true. According to a note sent to them from the employer of Patrick Burk, the subject of the story:

1. Patrick Burk was once assigned to protect Moore, but was never “his” bodyguard. He was not working for Moore at the time.

2. The gun was legally registered, Burk was just not licensed to carry a gun in New York.

3. The gun was locked, unloaded and in his luggage.

However, as Moorewatch comments, it’s still hypocritical of Moore to value his person so much that he would hire a bodyguard, but would yet think it unconscionable that you might so value your life that you would want to carry or own a weapon to protect that life from those who wish to destroy it.

As for the issue that we raised, the hypocrisy of Moore … [ellipsis in original] in my opinion it still stands. It goes back to the first time we heard that Moore was hiring armed guards. He considers his own safety paramount, and feels that a weapon can protect him, but he doesn’t want the average American to have that same protection. The argument that can be made is “Well you can hire a bodyguard.” No, most of America can’t hire someone to watch over them 24 hours a day. It flies in the face of reason and logic to expect such a thing. We’re each responsible for our own personal safety. Since we cannot afford to hire armed guards…we arm ourselves. That is the very essence of the Second Amendment.

I sit, pajama-clad, corrected.

This is petty, especially on such a historical day of reflection as the Inauguration of our President, but the speech just started and I have to attend a meeting during it so I’ll have to watch it on VHS when I get home. Instead I present our Schadenfreude Moment of the Day.

Michael Moore’s Bodyguard Arrested for Unregistered Handgun at Airport

NEW YORK — Filmmaker Michael Moore’s (search) bodyguard was arrested for carrying an unlicensed weapon in New York’s JFK airport Wednesday night.

Police took Patrick Burke, who says Moore employs him, into custody after he declared he was carrying a firearm at a ticket counter. Burke is licensed to carry a firearm in Florida and California, but not in New York. Burke was taken to Queens central booking and could potentially be charged with a felony for the incident.

Moore’s 2003 Oscar-winning film “Bowling for Columbine” criticizes what Moore calls America’s “culture of fear” and its obsession with guns.

I remember when Rosie O’Donnell got caught in a similar faux pas as having an armed bodyguard after denouncing ALL guns to Tom Selleck on her show a couple years ago. Apparently guns are bad for everyone, except for the famous since their more important than you. To her credit, O’Donnell apologized and she scored major points with me after September 11th when she donated $1 million and encouraged everyone she knew to do the same rather than participate in the concert. I don’t expect Moore to do anything like that.

Or maybe early?

I just found this from ChicagoBoyz; those JibJab fellers have a new Bush cartoon up. I think they were a little harder on W this time, since they tended to be a little more even-handed during the election. On the other hand, he won, so he’s bound to be a bigger target.

Enjoy.

To quote Dork Tower: The Force can have a strong influence on the geek-minded!

Darth Tater Bends My Will!

Thanks to Peter David for bringing this to my attention. My wallet now officially hates you, you darn good comics writer you!

Haaretz – Israel News – Feminists outraged as B nai B rith Canada sides with Muslims on domestic law

According to the article, B’nai B’rith Canada (a Jewish Human Rights group) has filed a brief with the Canadian Court advocating allowing Canadian Muslims to privately adjudicate (non-criminal) disputes with legally binding Muslim courts that enforce Sharia law.

This whole thing smells fishy to me. While I certainly see no problem with private arbitration, I find a private, binding court system to be contrary to Western ideals of equal protection and application under the law. The article states that the Sharia court could not rule contrary to accepted Canadian law and the Canadian Charter of Rights, I foresee this becoming essentially a shadow court system and a black market ruling system.

What can women expect the Sharia Courts to provide them?

“Under Sharia, male heirs receive almost double the inheritance of females. Alimony is limited to a period ranging from three months to one year, unless a woman was pregnant before she was divorced. Only men can initiate divorce proceedings, and fathers virtually always are awarded custody of any children who have reached puberty.”

What is most surprising about this article isn’t necessarily that hard-right muslims are trying to implement Sharia law in Canada (just as they are everywhere else). What’s surprising is that this Jewish advocacy group is supporting it, and that Canada is seriously considering it.

“I’m not sure what a smart idea that was. Tradition should not be used as an excuse for limiting gender equality,” Ester Reiter, a secular Jewish feminist and a professor of women’s studies at Toronto’s York University said.

B’nai B’rith supports this because they don’t want to be forced to remove the Rabbinical Courts which apparently have a similar arrangement in Canada. However, the contradiction is that while there is an acknoeledged slight male bias in Rabbinical Court, Sharia Law is completely counter to Canada’s avowed commitment to equal rights (regardless of the overly leftward lean of Canada’s prominent policies). It essentially enslaves women to their male family members and husbands. It removes their personhood and relegates them to a life of ignorance and abuse. Regardless of one’s personal ox (the existence of the Rabbinical Courts), how anyone can advocate allowing this is beyond me. Certainly if the Sharia courts become commonplace they can argue that the existence of the Rabbinical Courts is counter to the Sharian beliefs since, according to John Syrtash, the lawyer who wrote the brief, “If you’re religious, then Jewish courts come down to us as the word of God,” and that is clearly blasphemy in the Islamic faith.

It is dangerous to give an inch in this regard. It seems pretty reasonable to assume that Sharia can’t be implemented in part. Its very definition requires that it be implemented in whole. This is the same appeasement strategy that gave hitler Czechoslovakia and Poland and was surprised by his invasion of France.

The feminist groups who are opposing the brief should be applauded and shouldn’t be alone in this. Everyone who cares for the Western cultural model should be opposing this. It does no good to fight Islamist extremism abroad only to give Islamists a foothold in our own backyard. One can only hope that Canadians, who seem intent to follow the Dutch model, learn the terrible lessons of the consequences of extreme tolerance sooner than the Dutch did.

NASA fired off a rocket today to intercept and strike a nearby (80 million miles away) comet on July 4th. It should provide all kinds of neat scientific data ranging from what makes up a comet to what matter was present just after the creation of the universe. The name: Deep Impact. The shape: distinctly phallic. No wonder people accuse the US of prick-waving.

Photo Source: AP