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Friday, February 28, 2003There is a pro-Bush rally being held this Saturday on the south lawn of the Washington Monument from 11am - 3pm. For more information, visit FreeRepublic.com!
Says it all. . . and another steal from Glenn Reynolds. I understand that he has a bad name in the Blogging community, but for the life of me I'm not sure why. Tells it fairly plain, so I can't imagine that it would be the content (unless one completely disagrees with the content). Courtesy of Glenn Reynolds, KRAUTHAMMER IS RIGHT!
Yep yep. Couldn't have said it better myself. Thursday, February 27, 2003
I attended a meeting of Downtown Fredericksburg clergy during yesterday's snow concerning the Westboro Baptist Church and their protest against MWC's production of the Laramie Project. It seems as if the best way to handle these guys is simply not to handle them at all. They have a very strategized method of confronting parishioners and engaging in altercations that usually end up in settlements, money with which they travel elsewhere to prey upon other unsuspecting souls. From what I understand, they have even sued someone for offering to shake their hand, respecting their right to protest. So what to do when these guys are at your church? Walk past them, do not engage them, and pray for them. WBC's tentative schedule for Fredericksburg is as follows:
These guys have been known to switch up at the last minute, so be forewarned. Whatever you do, simply don't engage them. Man, this WBC stuff is kinda like the old stories of people warning their kids about gypsies and stuff. Sheesh.
Here's a little something that I posted on the FredTalk website concerning the Vatican's new directive concerning Catholic politicians. Re: Catholics, religious views & the law 1/30/2003 Greetings all, I typically don't reply to letters of this nature in FredTalk or otherwise, but knowing that the Vatican document concerning Catholics in political life applies to me and every other Catholic invovled, let me give you my US$0.02 for what it is worth. My concern with Mr. Mickle's 17 Jan 03 LtoEd is with this quote right here:
Now whenever I see comments like this, some warning bell in the back of my mind goes off. One has to question this method of trumping of morality with absolute freedom, because it ultimately places the will of the individual above the rights of one's neighbor, for better or (more often than not) worse. The problem with this - and Eric explains this quite well - is that there are certain choices that are antitheticial to commonly held concepts of right and wrong. Objectively, such things as murder of innocents, theft, infidelity, all of these things are frowned upon. These commonly held principles are simply not fly-by-night preferences, and those who believe that they are debateable open themselves up to the condemnation of their respective societies. That's why we have laws - to punish evildoers and protect citizens. Laws are inherently moral, and arguments to the contrary are dichotic and self-destructive in the long run. What the Vatican document concerning Catholic politicians does is promote the idea that these commonly shared principles are non-negotiable. In other words, one cannot be pro-abortion and still call oneself Catholic, and it is a Catholic politicians duty to uphold them. It would be akin to Sen. Lieberman coming forward and announcing that everyone should work on Saturday. Could he still call himself an Orthodox Jew? While this comparison is trivial compared to the gravity of other issues such as abortion, it makes the same point. In order to be a Jew, there are certain beliefs one must uphold. It's the same for any religious tradition. One wonders why should it be any different for Catholicism. Is that conformity to chosen religious beliefs a restriction on the freedom of choice of the individual? Not at all. One can choose to be pro-abortion, but at the cost of being opposed to Catholic teaching, not to mention losing the monkier of 'faithful Catholic'. Was it Rep. Pelosi who called herself a conservative Catholic, even though she is one of the foremost proponents of abortion in America? It is comparable to being a Muslim yet denying that Muhummad was the sole prophet of Allah. There's a theology that is being undermined, and for what? So someone can win Catholic votes? Mr. Mickle does have a point by stating:
But as already discussed, there are two arguments to this. Firstly, unless one is willing to argue that any of these religions advocate the right to murder innocents, steal, or practice infidelity, then Mr. Mickle's concern is well-intentioned, but baseless. Secondly, the Vatican document is directed only at Catholic politicians, and not towards those of other religious faiths. The logic is simply that if one is Catholic, one must faithfully exercise one's beliefs. For any religious tradition ask its membership to do otherwise seems counterintuitive. The only route where the Vatican document leads IMHO is that such non-negotiable wrongs such as the murder of innocents, theft, and infidelity would be emphasized not as trivial matters, but as objectively wrong. Who could argue against that? Hopefully that explains the Vatican document a bit better, and its implications. Credit Mr. Mickle for bringing up an excellent point of concern, and Eric for explaining it in proper terms. Regards, Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Schiedler v. NOW has been ruled in favor of the pro-life position, 8-1!
And if you think we are getting it bad in Fredericksburg, it's snowing in Jerusalem. Twelve inches and counting. Tuesday, February 25, 2003For those of you who went out of your way to gobble up all of the duct tape in the free world, have I got a game for you while you're waiting for the worst to pass over. What game is this you ask? Why, simply make your very own fashion line of duct tape gear. Or you could simply buy from the website:
Students for War
Students Protecting America from Harvard University.
And have you ever heard of abandonware?
Never knew this existed. But I'll be more than happy to see where the five-finger discount can apply. Friday, February 21, 2003The Westboro Baptist Church has decided to pay Fredericksburg a visit. It seems as if Mary Washington College and the Dance & Theatre Department's showing of The Laramie Project is the catalyst, but they will also be paying a visit to our local churches as well. It seems as if the tactic that the WBC employs is to protest the play's performance, then head off to the local "lukewarm" churches to provoke fights. If some well-intentioned but hapless parishioner confronts these guys, they immediately slap a lawsuit on the parishioner and ultimately win. The money awarded in the civil suit is then used to travel to other sites across the nation. Better to give these guys all of the attention they deserve. And that is none. In other news, Google's alt.philosophy.kant UseNet group is in the process of discussing not my paper, but the implications of quantum physics and relativity theory have on Kantian epistemology. Concerning my paper, it seems as if there are four flaws than need to be addressed.
Unfortunately I am being stalked by one individual concerning Kant and quantum physics, and the discussion has carried over to the Yahoo Groups Kant-I board as well. Seems to be nothing more than a bombthrower, but his critique has been marginally helpful. It would still seem that - with one exception - the paper is generally well received by those who read it. Monday, February 17, 2003Now I am the type of person who appreciates a well organized argument. So when I see President Bush and Colin Powell fumble for a response to anti-war activism, it's refreshing to see that Prime Minister Blair is offering the type of leadership, reason, and argumentation we need. Thanks to Jason for the link:
Now I ask you, who is really doing the leading here? Perhaps it is the Prime Minister who is leading the "coalition of the willing" while America provides the strength? Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants. Sunday, February 16, 2003Just posted to a Google chatlist on alt.philosophy.kant to see whether or not I could get some good critique on Qantian Epistemology. It won't come up for another three to nine hours (and I have no idea why it would take that long), but it's worth a shot.
Now I know I have to be careful about spreading this paper around too much, but I can take some solace in that it is dated material, and I haven't found a single piece of text that resembles this paper other than Dr. Palmquist and the Friesian School website maintained by Dr. Kelley Ross. Both great sites - highly recommened if you are interested in the effects that quantum physics has on philosophy. Saturday, February 15, 2003
Nothing more than than the Axis of Weasels truly deserve, notwithstanding the fact that recent polls put American opposition against a potential war against Saddam at 18%, while support continues to remain near 70%. What's more, 23% of American's polled thought that the standoff in the United Nations had gone on long enough.
Go figure. More Americans are angry that we haven't gone to war than the peacemongers who believe otherwise. Wednesday, February 12, 2003
The universe is 13.7 billion years old, constantly expanding, and only 4% of it consists of atoms. So says NASA after accumulating one year's worth of data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Writing for the UK's The Independent, Johann Mari has an excellent article on the historical differences between European and American foriegn policies:
Congratulations to ShaunKenney.com! I have been awarded the prestigious 5 Fish Award by FishRush.com. The award is given to the best weblogs of 2002 to website with intelligent content. Not a lightly issued award it seems. In other news, the Fredericksburg area will be holding a "We Support the President Rally" on President's Day (17 February) at 6pm:
Monday, February 10, 2003Here's a great point. The Toronto Star's Olvia Ward makes the argument that Saddam believes that he is in a 'Catch-22' concerning weapons inspectors:
Saturday, February 08, 2003
It's about time someone said it. Sean McConeghy at my alma mater fires back at the progressive liberals at Catholic Univeristy:
When I was there, CUA was in the midst of debating and implementing Ex Corde Ecclesiae. The debate, it seems, still rages on. Friday, February 07, 2003
OOPS! Prime Minister Tony Blair and his staff seem to have made the mother of all mistakes. Namely, the document released last Monday entitled "Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment Deception and Intimidation" seems to have been plagarized. To make matters worse, the article was plagarized from a work from Mr. Ibrahim al-Marashi, a research associate who published his article "Iraq's Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis" in September 2002. Now in all seriousness, the claims of both the British government and Mr. al-Marashi are well documented. But someone in at Downing Street needs their clock cleaned. Thankfully, al-Marashi is not upset that he was used as a source, he only wished that the British and (and by virtue of Colin Powell's use of the document on 05 Feb) American governments simply gave credit where credit is due. Material from Jane's Intelligence Review was also scammed for the article without citation, and they are much less forgiving than al-Marashi. Give credit to al-Marashi though, he's being very respectable about the entire thing, if not somewhat amused. Monday, February 03, 2003
Most people wouldn't believe this, but I used to want to be an astronaut. And not just any astronaut. I wanted to be the commander of the Space Shuttle Challenger, until it blew up of course. But I had all sorts of astronomy books, space shuttle books, a chemistry set, space shuttle toys - the whole bit. Typical '80's kid when it came to all of that stuff. So all of this stuff about Columbia really brings back memories. And then I think to myself, "hey, that was 17 years ago. How come we haven't come up with a better shuttle yet?!" I have a soft spot in my heart for the space program and NASA just like most '60's radicals have a soft spot for these anti-war demonstrations. So I propose we strike a deal - build a space colony that houses 30,000 people and take the anti-war activists to the Moon. A modest proposal if I do say so myself. . .
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JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General?1) John Brownlee2) Ken Cuccinelli AboutShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia.ContactThe Jeffersoniad
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