Some things Amp was reading yesterday

I meant to post this yesterday, but didn’t end up having time… I’m afraid I’ve also lost the source links to most of these, so apologies to everyone I should credit but didn’t.

• In The Antichrist of North Carolina, Barbara Ehrenreich describes her brief stint as a famous commie after the University of North Carolina assigned her book Nickeled and Dimed to incoming students.
• Body and Soul muses about “cruelty lessons” – how easy it is to become numb. (And why the hell hasn’t it been a giant story that Bush has been using a no-fly list to harass anti-war protesters?) Jeanne’s post also draws extensively from an essay by the incredible Sara Roy.
• For only $20, you can have a minor celebrity (a Star Trek actor, say, or the guy who starred in American Werewolf in London) phone you or a friend. For thirty bucks, you can have them leave a message you’ve written on a friend’s answering machine. In other news, our civilization is so in decline.
• Jack Balkin (of the blog Balkinization) criticizes Justice Scalia’s committment to the theory of originalism, which comes and goes depending on how convenient originalism is to Scalia’s conservative politics. “And all the while he insists that people who disagree with him are making illegitimate arguments, and are imposing their personal preferences on the Constitution.”
• Hans Zeiger, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout, writes that the ACLU ruined “Boy Scout camp” by pointing out that it’s illegal for an organization that discriminates against atheists and gays to run a camp on San Diego’s public property. My feeling is, yay ACLU! If the Scouts don’t like it, they’ve got a simple solution available – stop discriminating.
• According to a BBC report, Anna Diamantopoulou, the European “social affairs commissioner,” is considering outlawing gender discrimination in insurance rates. This would help men in some cases (car insurance), and help women in other cases (health insurance, pension annuities).
• Sometimes I forget that “Comic Book Store Owner” on The Simpsons isn’t an exaggeration. Check out this list of questions enraged Battlestar Galactica fans asked Ronald Moore, the producer of an upcoming new Battlestar Galactica series.
• For folks interested in reading more same-sex marriage discussion, Noli Irritare Leones has collected some links for you. Also, don’t miss this Eugene Volokh post arguing in favor of gay marriage, and this interesting Debitage post bouncing off some of the discussion here on Alas.
• The Right Christians has a really fascinating post about the confirmation of gay bishop Gene Robinson. He (she?) argues persuasively that Robinson’s confirmation is just the latest step in a decades-old process of increasing openness. (If the permalink doesn’t work, scroll down to “Been There, Done That” on August 6).
• While you’re at the Right Christians, read through the Progressive Theory of Everything, which argues that progressives need to start appealing, in our thought and our rhetoric, to a “nurturing parent” theory of politics, in order to counter the right-wing “strict father” appeal. It sounds silly summed up that way, but it’s pretty interesting stuff.
• Oh, gross! Yet fascinating and sometimes oddly beautiful. Check out “Another Day at the Office,” a photo blog by a professional medical photographer, featuring close-ups of human insides. I found the opened-up hand particularly compelling. Via Boing Boing.
• Yule Heibel links to an article which describes a spatial demonstration of income inequality in America. “95% of Americans get to live within a 43-mile stretch of each other in Kansas, while the top CEOs get to live in Kabul, Afghanistan.”
• This article in Nature points out that people who easily “catch yawns” from other people, are also generally more empathetic and self-aware. The article also features a hilarously lame “just so” evolutionary theory: “Contagious yawning may have helped our ancestors to coordinate times of activity and rest. ‘It’s important that all group members be ready to do the same thing at the same time,’ Baenninger says.”
• The Dead Man Eating Weblog lets us know what condemned killers choose for their last meals. Oddly interesting for a few minutes. Via Lumpley
• This Tohu Bohu post in favor of Affirmative Action – and arguing that “fairness” must be judged on a macro scale, not based on single events – is really excellent.
• A book review of The Armchair Economist at Defective Yeti mentions the economist’s opinion that the best way to keep drivers safe is to get rid of seatbelts and “install sharp spikes on their steering wheels.”
• Groupthink Central quotes from a Salon article showcasing the worst of the worst at a young Republican convention.

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