What Ampersand is reading today

  • Via Diotima, I came across this amusing article in the National Review, “Confessions of a Metropolitan Conservative.” It discusses the odd fact that no one at the Review would vote to criminalize sodomy, or believes in creationism. (Hey, “creationism” doesn’t exist in this spell-checker! How annoying and yet appropriately symbolic.)
  • While I’m praising National Review folks, let me point out that this article on prison rape (via Eve Tushnet, whose permalink is bloggered) is excellent. It discusses some tiny-steps-in-the-right-direction legislation that is being held up by the Bush administration. (Before any Democrat readers feel superior, recall that the Clinton administration didn’t do anything about prison rape, either.) The article also makes an interesting point about how Christian conservative and left-wing NGOs have been allying behind some human rights legislation.
  • The Austrailian Democratic Party is demanding 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, plus subsidized child care, for Mother’s Day. I hope they get it.
  • The Portland Communique reports on Oregon’s unemployment rate – at 8%, it looks likely that we’re still number one in the nation. Here in Portland, it’s 8.5%. Whoopie.
  • Emma at The Oregon Blog points out that the Pacific Green Party desperately needs a new webmaster – their site hasn’t been updated in months. C’mon, folks, this is embarassing.
  • Genuinely excellent post from Kieran Healy on why there are relatively few women in philosophy departments.
  • Sometimes I envy the British; wouldn’t it be cool to have a House of Lords? Politics in the Zeros quotes from a transcript in which the Lords discuss where the term “spam” came from.
  • Making Light links to the very practical “How to Create a Golum from the Comfort of Home” website. A sample, from their FAQ::

    Can my golem be tried as an adult?
    Contact your local authorities for the laws concerning golems. You may be considered liable for any destruction of property caused by the golem should you lose control of it at any point.

    Will God be pissed that I’m creating golems?
    Creation of a golem is a special case. Only the most righteous of believers are allowed to create them. Some say that only those who are near to God and his wisdom will be able to follow the ritual to completion. So no, God shouldn’t be pissed.


  • Big Fat Blog links to this story from Detroit – a fat man was turned away from a hospital because their “operating tables can only accommodate a maximum weight of 350 pounds.” He died on route to another hospital. Yeah, that makes sense; goodness knows that in America, hospitals can safely assume they’ll never have to treat very fat patients.
  • Also from Big Fat Blog, a CDC study finds that parents are more likely to think their little girls are too fat than their little boys. No surprise there.
  • As Trish Wilson asks, why are the major media so desperate to make it seem that there was a huge crowd of jubilant Iraqis present when the big stone Saddam was toppled? Trish links to this appalling Memory Hole piece showing how an Evening Standard cover photograph was altered to make a crowd larger than it actually was.
  • Bouncing off an earlier post of mine, Trish points out that conservatives routinely say horribly sexist things about men (men are inherently violent, need women’s “civilizing” touch, etc), that – were feminists to say the same things – would get feminists branded “man-bashers” and the like.
  • The Early Days of a Better Nation discusses why American politics are so, well, dumb. (Via BlueHeron).

    America: a country where ridiculous proportions of the population believe they were created by god, abducted by aliens, and attacked by Iraq. Also where some people believe that someone who burns a paper drawing of a US flag is as good as asking to be crushed under a bulldozer. It’s not just the Right. Every political persuasion in the US contains many more stupid people than it or its equivalent does in Europe.

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5 Responses to What Ampersand is reading today

  1. John Isbell says:

    I think stupid people, like smart people, are pretty much evenly distributed around the globe. However, I do think there are lots of misguided and ill-informed people in the US, a greater fraction than in many other countries, and ill-informed often about more important issues (like evolution, or who attacked the US). And that there may be more people here happy to keep it that way and able to do so.
    Talkleft has a link for a form letter campaign supporting the prison rape legislation.

  2. Tara says:

    Regarding golems – I’m almost positive there is actually halacha about them. I remember seeing some in an 19th century law code – the Rama’s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch (earlier) – I forget what it’s called. I don’t remember what it said though.

  3. Hart says:

    what the suffering Negro was to civil-rights marchers

    Derbyshire’s most amusing quote. He dismisses the civil rights movement so easily and so out of hand–proving what he has in common with his country-cousin conservative bretheren.

  4. Steve says:

    On understanding stupidity, read Robert Silverberg’s book. Stupidity and Intelligence are not mutually exclusive. Stupidity is the lack of ability/skill to discern when and how to apply your intelligence. Our education system focuses on rote learning (trivia), rather than teaching people to use critical thinking skills, the scientific method. Read about innumeracy to understand why. It’s not that we americans are idiots, we have a stupid, yet intelligent education system that produces stupid, yet intelligent people.
    Get it?

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