Some stuff Ampersand is reading lately.

• Kip at Long Story; Short Pier warms my geeky heart with the best geek-media news I’ve heard in a while: there will be a Firefly movie. If we’re lucky, the movie will be so successful that they’ll make a TV show out of it… Two good links from Kip’s post: An article about Firefly (the TV series) from a cinematography magazine, and Tim Minear’s description of the final days of shooting the TV show.
• Lawrence Solum’s blog has an absolute must-read post about the Democrats’ successful filibuster of Miguel Estrada. I don’t agree with Lawrence politically (in particular, it seems odd how he criticizes the democrats for putting ideology into the nomination process, but mostly ignores how the White House does the same thing), but who cares; his expert discussion of how Senate rules effected the strategy Democrats and Republicans took in the nomination fight is entertaining and educational.
• Julian Sanchez (of the excellent blog Julian’s Lounge) has a good article in Reason magazine explaining that yes, the Patriot Act is something to be frightened of. My favorite line: Lowry’s demand amounts to: “Show me just one classified, top-secret abuse of power!” As such, the request is disingenuous at the very least.
• It turns out I’m the 667,969,152nd richest person in the world – which means that I’m wealthier than 88.87% of humanity. Having that little factoid in the back of my head should make me feel guiltier the next time I whine about not being able to afford… well, anything. On the other hand, it blows enormous chunks in the theory that wealth follows merit, doesn’t it? (Seriously, I’m the laziest, least productive person I know.) Check out Global Rich List to find out where you stand. (Via The Fifty Minute Hour).
• Speaking of The Fifty Minute Hour, check out this post taking down Jonah Goldberg’s latest anti-gay-marriage rationalization. Nicely done.
• Julie Hilden – an novelist and attorney with a specialty in the first amendment – argues that anti-discrimination law should be expanded to cover the hiring of contract workers. So, for example, magazines like The New Yorker (which favor male writers overwhelmingly) might be subject to lawsuits.
• The Oregonian has an article up about a landmark I often stare at out of the bus window on my way home: the gigantic rotating loaf of bread (eight feet high and twenty-five feet long). Best fact about the giant loaf of bread: normally it rotates at a slow, stately 4.5 revolutions per minute. During storms, however, they turn the motor off and just let it whip around in the wind like a weathervane. (Via Aaron in Little Beirut).
• Grim Amusements points out that the recently-signed Prison Rape Elimination Act – whie a step in the right direction – is underfunded and toothless, and thus unlikely to do anyone much good. (Via Crooked Timber).
• Excellent Tapped post – mostly quoted from this David Greenberg article – explains why the press’s wish to appear “objective” makes big, important lies easier for politicians to get away with, while genuinely trivial questions (such as John Kerry allowing folks to assume that he’s Irish) are covered enthusiastically.
• If you’re ever chased by zombies, go run back and forth in the alleyways for a while. It won’t save you in the long run, but it’ll let you survive a bit longer before your brains become a happy meal for zombies. At least, that’s the lesson I learned playing with this simulator. (Via Lumpley).
• I want to put up this link to the audio of the Democratic candidate’s debate, so if I feel like it later I can go listen to it. Haven’t bothered yet, though.
• Forget the ten commandments: the really interesting issue in Alabama is the attempt to raise taxes – especially taxes on the wealthy – in order to improve schools for poor kids. (Currently, Alabama’s tax system is incredibly regressive – poor families pay two or three times as high a percentage of their income into taxes as wealthy families do). What’s fascinating about this is that the movement is being spearheaded by conservative Christians, who are taking seriously Jesus’ instructions to bring justice to the poor and say Alabama’s current tax code is sinful. The American Prospect has a good article on the subject, and PBS has an interview with movement founder Susan Hamill. (Both links via Making Light). From the PBS interview:
  What I develop is that these principles are ironclad — that you can’t abuse the poor or your community is not godly; it’s something else. It’s based on Mammon, based on market values that only value money, based on values that are not Christian. If your community basically has an infrastructure where the child born poor has no chance, you are not consistent with the values in the Scripture.

  The tax referendum on September 9th will probably lose, but Professor Hamill says the fight will go on. Meanwhile, just because the strategy hasn’t worked in Alabama (yet) doesn’t mean it couldn’t work in other, less strongly anti-tax states… Progressives need to watch this carefully. Aligning our desire for social and economic justice with the Bible is one of the most hopeful – and ignored – strategies the left could be using.

• I’ve never read NewsSkim before. It aint’ all PC, but it made me laugh aloud more than a couple of times. (Via Crooked Timber.)
• Conceptual Guerilla has a good suggestion for the next time you hear a Republican deride “big goverment liberals”; start talking about “cheap labor conservatives.” That one concept – cheap labor – is all you need to keep in mind to understand all of right-wing ideology, or so Conceptual Guerilla argues. Check out “Defeat the Right in Three Minutes,” and also CG’s blog.
• Even in cases where DNA evidence proves that an innocent has been wrongly convicted, Prosecutors – whose egos, self-image or career prospects are on the line – often refuse to admit that they prosecuted an innocent person. This FindLaw article proposes that the original prosecutor of a case should not be the prosecutor who decides if the case can be re-opened; instead, independant committees within DAs offices should decide such cases. Seems like a good idea to me.
• Esquire magazine has put up a complete archive of all its covers since the magainze began in 1933. It’s kinda fascinating, watching how the magazine’s cover conventions change from decade to decade. (Via Scrubbles).

.