Author: Aaron Weber

Assorted Update

I find I’ve been blogging and exercising less, and interacting with humans more, recently. Probably a good thing, despite the imperceptible loss of muscle tone. So, assorted links: Software development life cycle diagram. For anyone in software, it rings all too true.

NationMaster stats toy. Awesome power!

Now, I’d like to comment on Rasmussen’s note that many religious people do indeed object to non-Christian teachers, and that’s why they have religious schools. My reaction of course is “exactly!” If you have a particular religious agenda (No non-Christians in role-model positions, say) then you should have a religious school, not a legislative movement to impose your religious views on the secular majority.

Now, is there an empirically demonstrable danger to safety and well-being that stems from having homosexuals employed by our state school systems? I doubt it. Iain Murray looks into it further and comes to no conclusion at all.

I’ve got the Biggest…

The ToughMan Contest is described by the Wall Street Journal as the “martial arts version of karaoke.” It’s something like boxing, but it’s not regulated as boxing. It’s something like kick-boxing, but it’s not regulated… at all, really. In boxing matches, you get very closely matched opponents who know exactly what they’re doing. In Toughman competitions, you get uneven opponents. Toughman means uneven matches, and brutal, sometimes fatal, outcomes. It’s attracted the attention of state governments and major newsmedia. The WSJ profile of the business focuses on the regulations, the business, and the liabilities — and how something manages to slip through the regulatory cracks designed to prevent it.

Resume

I was recently sent a George W. Bush resume… Reading it, I’m reminded of the Dorothy Parker poem “Resume.” See the extended entry for the actual resume…

These are the kinds of unbalanced accusations that I like to see, despite recent discussion of the harmful effects of that trend. Let’s see the lefties quit pulling punches. I don’t mean to get untruthful– there may be a few errors in that resume, and I corrected at least one myself. I mean, let’s start talking about corruption, mistakes, class war, self-interest, ethics committees, felony records. Let’s drag the kids into this, let’s drag the cousins into it.

Oh wait, we did, and nobody cares because he looks good in a flight suit. Shitbird.
Continue reading “Resume”

Scootering

You ever wonder why people soup up their underpowered cars or bikes? Because tinkering is fun. You could buy the off-the-shelf power. But stock is boring. Much better to buy cheap and spend that much again to upgrade and modify. The modification is the whole point– not the end product, but the difference between the end product and what you started with. You could buy a faster bike or computer, but overclocking holds a special appeal, just like scooter tuning. I get annoyed when people make fun of the type-R stickers and so forth, even if I acknowledge that they’re silly at best and trashy at worst. Performance tuning (don’t call it “ricing,” a term which is racist as well as just generally insulting) is, essentially, a hack, and therefore worthwhile, even if, and often because, it has no real purpose.

Tobacco and Prisons

WSJ reported earlier this week that with more places banning smoking in prisons, it’s putting something of a crimp in the budget. Apparently commisaries put a 30-60% markup on smokes in prison, and that money pays for things like books, exercise equipment, and holiday parties. Like the lottery, tobacco is a vice that the state often depends upon.

I thought recently of a good argument for having a state lotto: a state-sponsored lottery tends to drive illegal gambling out of business, or at least make it much less profitable, because your average punter will go for that instead of a bookie. It may be just as bad for people, but at least it’s nonviolent and regulated and the money goes into the state budget instead of into gun-running operations.

Volokh, Moloch

For awhile now I’ve been wondering about the distinction that I make between the church and the state. This is particularly relevant what with the whole mess down in ‘Bama right now. secular editorialists were pretty angry about the encroachment of religion on the state, and religious editorialists felt the opposite, a but I find the most interesting discussion to be the one over at Volokh’s blog, and it hardly mentions the giant rock at all.

It discusses the differences between Hinduism and homosexuality. Few Christians would be able to argue that a Hindu should be denied rights, despite the fact that Hinduism violates several of the ten commandments. Really, if the ten commandments are so important, why do we allow people to violate them regularly? Blasphemy, idolatry, worshipping non-Judeo-Christian gods, coveting… none of these things are criminal acts.

Nor are the majority of the laws of Leviticus applicable today to blended fabrics, dietary practice, menstruation, selling your wife and children into slavery, or sleeping with your dead brother’s wife so that she can bear an heir to his estate.

So, why do they argue against homosexuality? It’s terribly difficult to make an argument that homosexuality is inherently dangerous, unhealthy, or damaging to society. I mean, really– if you want stronger families, why not encourage gay marriage? A gay family might not be your ideal family, but at least they’re married.

The objection to homosexuality is a religious objection and has no basis, and no place, in secular law. The only response I’ve been able to coax from the right on this one is “my objection to homosexuality has nothing to do with religious doctrine, it’s God’s word!” I hate to break it to you, buddy, but the things God says to you constitute a religious doctrine, a warning sign of paranoid schizophrenia, or both.

So, the religious right today, as represented by Judge Moore, insists on some, but not all, of the commandments. It insists on some, but not all, of the laws of Leviticus. These are profoundly inconsistent religious arguments about secular matters that just come down to “this is what I believe.” Well, good for you. We’re just going to have to agree to disagree then, so quit pushing it on me.

People like that make the vast majority of the faithful look bad. Those who are truly religious can be a powerful inspiration for those around them and for the world at large. But it takes a true force of belief, and humility, and respect for others. Religion is a beautiful thing, and what Moore and his ilk push isn’t religion. It’s political maneuvering and self-aggrandizement and arrogance.

Grrr. I shake my tiny fist in rage.

Really Big Ripoff

Via Nedia, there’s a StayFree magazine reprint of an old LAT article about super-sizing. Well, how about supersizing your social life with Friendster? Or was that
supersizing your social life with Ringo? Ringo of course is trying to super-stretch their ad budget by paying $1000 to a freelancer to make a campaign, and calling it a contest instead of an RFP.

That’s not as much of a lame ripoff as trying to trademark the number 22. Pimpercrombie and Bitch seem to have forgotten that time that Intel suddenly realized it didn’t own the numbers 486, 586, or 686, and having to come up with… “Pentium.”

Well, even without brands, science will find ways to make us buy. Supersize on, dude!

Vacation

I was amazed to see businesses in Europe close for an entire month or even several months. I mean, you can’t get a temp for that period of time? You can’t stagger the vacations? How can you still be paying rent on a busy street, and not be open for business 1/12 of the year? Perhaps summer is just not a time to buy furniture and it’s cheaper that way.

But the heat wave in Europe apparently caught hospitals understaffed. Hospitals. I know the comparisons are obvious with the Chicago heatwave of a few years ago: the city delayed the kind of reactions it should have taken early, making announcements on the radio about how to keep cool and how it’s especially important for the elderly. Hey grandma, hop on down to the cinematheque or the supermarche and stand in the frozen-food aisle for a spell.

But come on! How can a hospital just sort of close down for the summer? It’s not a designer-furniture store! Maybe there are fewer people in the city, and therefore fewer patients? It makes so little sense.