Wednesday, June 30, 2004
www.bzangy.com
is the website/blog of jyoti mishra of white palace.
he's the guy who said i should write a book, and these blogs are a step in that direction. i should add this to the blog list next time i update the template.
is the website/blog of jyoti mishra of white palace.
he's the guy who said i should write a book, and these blogs are a step in that direction. i should add this to the blog list next time i update the template.
The center for constitutional rights has won rasul,
one of the three due process for prisoners of war cases decided monday. I forget which case is which, legal theory and howappealing and scotusblog have coverage.
Eugene Volokh wrote, what if 50,000 prisoners of war file habeus suits, as part of an insurgency tactic?
I had a mental response, but didn't write it down.
Now will baude, head cres-cat, takes the idea further.
Before i respond to will, here's what i was thinking about the volokh bit.
They have, filed habeus or 1983 actions, and that's why we have the prisoners litigation reform act.
In the 1960s people, especially african males, launched wars of national liberation against oppressive colonial regimes. Rhodesia became zimbabwe, South Africa transferred power to the anc, in Kenya the Mau-Maus ran riot. Black Hawk Down documents somalian stuggle against clintonism.
In the US, it's a little more complicated. It's mostly a cold war, a running skirmish. The african-identified combatants are actually a hydrid mixed race, part european, scots-irish decendents of william wallace, rob roy, michael collins. part indian, still living tribally and messed up on firewater. part african nationalist warriors. of the 2 million americans in prison, about half are prisoners of war in the stuggle for national liberation against the neo-colonial oppressors. free huey. [boondocks link goes here.]
now, i live in the hood, where my neighbors call me 'crazy gay dude' and resent my gentrification tendencies. one block north is insurgent-held territory. new york avenue is the dmz. sometimes the cold war heats up.
now, this isn't a black v white thing. we get along fine with the black church on the corner for example. it's a class struggle between the ghetto, the insurgents, and people who identify with the mainstream culture but can't afford the yuppie condos downtown or a move to the suburbs.
the insurgents, and some caught in the crossfire, end up in and out of jail, a combination of behaviors, poverty, and oppression. the jails are to the insurgent culture what colleges are to the middle class - training grounds and networking. both for the mau-maus and their neonazi counterparts. american history X.
torture, violation of legal rights, is the norm in jail, so each inmate has substantive claims potentially redressable by habeus or 1983. most are functionally illiterate as to legal procedure. but there are jailhouse lawyers, and in forma pauperis proceedings, and writs.
so federal courts, already overburdened with drug cases, most insurgency-related, and ambulence-chasing torts, due to bad faith by insurance companies which won't pay valid claims, and frivolous nuisancesuits against anyone with deep pockets, hire clerks to routinely dismiss the mounds of pro se cases, some of which are meritorious.
whew. i'm gonna respond to will later. my former partner, rj tavel, at freedomlaw.com, is fond of an out-of-print book, 'one just man', a fictional account of what if everybody asked for a jury.
in indiana, we have jury nullification built into the state constitution. rj's a www.fija.org activist.
all for now. must plan day.
one of the three due process for prisoners of war cases decided monday. I forget which case is which, legal theory and howappealing and scotusblog have coverage.
Eugene Volokh wrote, what if 50,000 prisoners of war file habeus suits, as part of an insurgency tactic?
I had a mental response, but didn't write it down.
Now will baude, head cres-cat, takes the idea further.
Before i respond to will, here's what i was thinking about the volokh bit.
They have, filed habeus or 1983 actions, and that's why we have the prisoners litigation reform act.
In the 1960s people, especially african males, launched wars of national liberation against oppressive colonial regimes. Rhodesia became zimbabwe, South Africa transferred power to the anc, in Kenya the Mau-Maus ran riot. Black Hawk Down documents somalian stuggle against clintonism.
In the US, it's a little more complicated. It's mostly a cold war, a running skirmish. The african-identified combatants are actually a hydrid mixed race, part european, scots-irish decendents of william wallace, rob roy, michael collins. part indian, still living tribally and messed up on firewater. part african nationalist warriors. of the 2 million americans in prison, about half are prisoners of war in the stuggle for national liberation against the neo-colonial oppressors. free huey. [boondocks link goes here.]
now, i live in the hood, where my neighbors call me 'crazy gay dude' and resent my gentrification tendencies. one block north is insurgent-held territory. new york avenue is the dmz. sometimes the cold war heats up.
now, this isn't a black v white thing. we get along fine with the black church on the corner for example. it's a class struggle between the ghetto, the insurgents, and people who identify with the mainstream culture but can't afford the yuppie condos downtown or a move to the suburbs.
the insurgents, and some caught in the crossfire, end up in and out of jail, a combination of behaviors, poverty, and oppression. the jails are to the insurgent culture what colleges are to the middle class - training grounds and networking. both for the mau-maus and their neonazi counterparts. american history X.
torture, violation of legal rights, is the norm in jail, so each inmate has substantive claims potentially redressable by habeus or 1983. most are functionally illiterate as to legal procedure. but there are jailhouse lawyers, and in forma pauperis proceedings, and writs.
so federal courts, already overburdened with drug cases, most insurgency-related, and ambulence-chasing torts, due to bad faith by insurance companies which won't pay valid claims, and frivolous nuisancesuits against anyone with deep pockets, hire clerks to routinely dismiss the mounds of pro se cases, some of which are meritorious.
whew. i'm gonna respond to will later. my former partner, rj tavel, at freedomlaw.com, is fond of an out-of-print book, 'one just man', a fictional account of what if everybody asked for a jury.
in indiana, we have jury nullification built into the state constitution. rj's a www.fija.org activist.
all for now. must plan day.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Ashcroft is in. Good v. evil, 5-4.
Scotus has more. Off to read it.
Scotus has more. Off to read it.
Monday, June 28, 2004
i haven't read rasul. apparently the court held, in a really mixed bag of concurrences and dissents, that rasul has been denied due process, in being denied a hearing.
my question is, are there any non-frivolous grounds on which to sue or charge bush as a war criminal? what court, which law? sounds like attempted confinement, maybe with a few battery charges in there if rasul was mishandled while unlawfully detained.
update: thanks to the clerk, i have learned the folks who won rasul were ray's cocounsel in the ohio supermax case, just upheld in 6th circuit, and just filed a suit against abu greib contractors. pdf
now that i've read the complaint, it's devastating. lots more there than the media bites had indicated.
my question is, are there any non-frivolous grounds on which to sue or charge bush as a war criminal? what court, which law? sounds like attempted confinement, maybe with a few battery charges in there if rasul was mishandled while unlawfully detained.
update: thanks to the clerk, i have learned the folks who won rasul were ray's cocounsel in the ohio supermax case, just upheld in 6th circuit, and just filed a suit against abu greib contractors. pdf
now that i've read the complaint, it's devastating. lots more there than the media bites had indicated.
yet another brilliant post from baude.
this one, about the social function of memes, starts with the meme
"thomas is scalia's yesman."
compare to the "marshall is brennan's yesman" meme.
McIntyre is another case where Thomas and Scalia disagree radically. Baude's point is that proof by counterexample is ineffective if a position is held without respect to it's logic. maybe that's not his point. that's my point, which his post reminded me of. it is true that scalia and thomas, like brennan and marshall, often vote together. and scalia got there first, and probably has a stronger reputation. i prefer thomas, except when it comes to cases like hiibel.
now back to read the rest of the post. and maybe take a bath. looks like i won't get the motion for continuance in the mail today.
when i called the clerk's office to ask about the timing of the motion for continuance, they had left for the day - my computer clock was 10 minutes slow, and indiana time is weirdly different than dc time.
update on memes, and spam.
spam is, rightly, hated. when information wants to be free, you get what you pay for. but spam is not completely altogether worthless, although the costs of spam outweigh the benefits.
one of my hobbies, for many years, has been tracking the evolution of spam. in the old days, before email, i did this by snailmail.
my teddy bear, mr. g. t. bear, got on a business opportunties list.
this allowed me to sort out spam coming to the mailbox from my real mail.
that is also the story of why most of my email accounts list gtbear.
soon he was getting more mail than i was, from gullible people running get rich quick schemes. as a teddy bear, with a goal of someday owning a ferarri, he has a limited number of options, so the search for the elusive workable get rich quick scheme that could be run via the mail was fun, and resulted in a database for statistical analysis and market research. his main approach was to get the ex-wife and i to go to law school, but that hasn't worked out as planned.
it turns out the law has hazards for the undiagnosed clinically depressed.
anywoo, those same years saw important developments in the science of memetics.
today, i received a spam at my gmail [gtbear each-sign gmail dot com.]
it washelpfully labelled spam, and wasa variant on the nigerian spam, referencing zimbabwe, mugabe, holland.
yesterday i'd written a rant about the similarities between nigerian spam and james randi's offer of "one million dollars!" for anyone who can prove the existence of the paranormal.
i had a point here somewhere. oh yes. one of the few worthwhile aspects of the nigerian spam is that it holds entertainment value for some. i have a vague plan about organizing spammer safaris, where one goes to nigeria to bag a spammer for the sport of it. no actual trips planned until the nigerian government assents, and i haven't asked. another vale of such spam is that it provides data on memetic evolution. the population of the meme grows and shrinks as it finds food, suckers, and doesn't get killed off by predators. in the us, the first spammers have been sentenced to jail. this encourages spam to move offshore to brazil or china, where spammer hunters may be able to operate with fewer constraints. another value of spam is that it innoculates the mark, hardening the target. a consumer who learns that the nigerian spammer is not his friend, may someday make that grand intuitive leap and see the cat, as henry george calls it, may learn not to fall for the social security ponzi scheme, the speed trap, the microsoft upgrade hustle, the federal reserve note scam, the draft, compulsory education, or the other little tricks most of us fall for every day.
they may awaken to robert paul wolff's philosophical anarchism, which says there are no governments, only rulers. what pose as "governments" are bullies running the long con. when the mark wises up, they are still bullies, but forewarned is forearmed.
this one, about the social function of memes, starts with the meme
"thomas is scalia's yesman."
compare to the "marshall is brennan's yesman" meme.
McIntyre is another case where Thomas and Scalia disagree radically. Baude's point is that proof by counterexample is ineffective if a position is held without respect to it's logic. maybe that's not his point. that's my point, which his post reminded me of. it is true that scalia and thomas, like brennan and marshall, often vote together. and scalia got there first, and probably has a stronger reputation. i prefer thomas, except when it comes to cases like hiibel.
now back to read the rest of the post. and maybe take a bath. looks like i won't get the motion for continuance in the mail today.
when i called the clerk's office to ask about the timing of the motion for continuance, they had left for the day - my computer clock was 10 minutes slow, and indiana time is weirdly different than dc time.
update on memes, and spam.
spam is, rightly, hated. when information wants to be free, you get what you pay for. but spam is not completely altogether worthless, although the costs of spam outweigh the benefits.
one of my hobbies, for many years, has been tracking the evolution of spam. in the old days, before email, i did this by snailmail.
my teddy bear, mr. g. t. bear, got on a business opportunties list.
this allowed me to sort out spam coming to the mailbox from my real mail.
that is also the story of why most of my email accounts list gtbear.
soon he was getting more mail than i was, from gullible people running get rich quick schemes. as a teddy bear, with a goal of someday owning a ferarri, he has a limited number of options, so the search for the elusive workable get rich quick scheme that could be run via the mail was fun, and resulted in a database for statistical analysis and market research. his main approach was to get the ex-wife and i to go to law school, but that hasn't worked out as planned.
it turns out the law has hazards for the undiagnosed clinically depressed.
anywoo, those same years saw important developments in the science of memetics.
today, i received a spam at my gmail [gtbear each-sign gmail dot com.]
it washelpfully labelled spam, and wasa variant on the nigerian spam, referencing zimbabwe, mugabe, holland.
yesterday i'd written a rant about the similarities between nigerian spam and james randi's offer of "one million dollars!" for anyone who can prove the existence of the paranormal.
i had a point here somewhere. oh yes. one of the few worthwhile aspects of the nigerian spam is that it holds entertainment value for some. i have a vague plan about organizing spammer safaris, where one goes to nigeria to bag a spammer for the sport of it. no actual trips planned until the nigerian government assents, and i haven't asked. another vale of such spam is that it provides data on memetic evolution. the population of the meme grows and shrinks as it finds food, suckers, and doesn't get killed off by predators. in the us, the first spammers have been sentenced to jail. this encourages spam to move offshore to brazil or china, where spammer hunters may be able to operate with fewer constraints. another value of spam is that it innoculates the mark, hardening the target. a consumer who learns that the nigerian spammer is not his friend, may someday make that grand intuitive leap and see the cat, as henry george calls it, may learn not to fall for the social security ponzi scheme, the speed trap, the microsoft upgrade hustle, the federal reserve note scam, the draft, compulsory education, or the other little tricks most of us fall for every day.
they may awaken to robert paul wolff's philosophical anarchism, which says there are no governments, only rulers. what pose as "governments" are bullies running the long con. when the mark wises up, they are still bullies, but forewarned is forearmed.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
1) over at http://ballots.blogspot.com i've written
a thing about michael moore and his nemesis david bossie, so check it out, eh?
2) at volokh i saw barnett making a reference to hayek and the great society, and i nearly choked on my coffee.
in eric goldman's book on lbj, lbj changes goldman's "the good society" to "the great society", in what became a buzzword for a package of consitutive commitments a la the new deal, the fair deal, the raw deal, the new deck.
did lbj rip off, and pervert, the phrase from hayek? looks that way. classic lbj.
this essay from lewrockwell.com has more. this is the first thing i've seen from that site i liked; i usually dismiss rockwell as a wingnut. takes one to know one.
rothbard i don't mind.
um, would i get in trouble for thinking it's funny that a power struggle at the washington times is between guys named joo and kwak?
cato link on great society.
richard epstein on hayek, orwell, lbj, great society.
Yet simultaneously, Hayek was prepared to accept, perhaps too naively, the modern social democrat program whereby the state was to supply health, employment and old-age insurance, without once asking how the provision of these minimum rights could distort the operation of decentralized markets for which he is so justly praised. In the end, Hayek is rightly remembered most for his trenchant criticisms of central planning, and not for his incomplete vision of a constitutional or political order.
interesting - we've (the libertarian blogoverse) been critiquing epstein for the same sort of reasons.
Good Conduct in a Great Society:Adam Smith and the Role of Reputation
by
Jeremy Shearmur and Daniel B. Klein
dklein@scu.edu
article on reputation capital ['wuffie']. dcline joke omitted.
footnote one connects the great society to the good society to the open society which leads directly to George Soros.
a thing about michael moore and his nemesis david bossie, so check it out, eh?
2) at volokh i saw barnett making a reference to hayek and the great society, and i nearly choked on my coffee.
in eric goldman's book on lbj, lbj changes goldman's "the good society" to "the great society", in what became a buzzword for a package of consitutive commitments a la the new deal, the fair deal, the raw deal, the new deck.
did lbj rip off, and pervert, the phrase from hayek? looks that way. classic lbj.
this essay from lewrockwell.com has more. this is the first thing i've seen from that site i liked; i usually dismiss rockwell as a wingnut. takes one to know one.
rothbard i don't mind.
um, would i get in trouble for thinking it's funny that a power struggle at the washington times is between guys named joo and kwak?
cato link on great society.
richard epstein on hayek, orwell, lbj, great society.
Yet simultaneously, Hayek was prepared to accept, perhaps too naively, the modern social democrat program whereby the state was to supply health, employment and old-age insurance, without once asking how the provision of these minimum rights could distort the operation of decentralized markets for which he is so justly praised. In the end, Hayek is rightly remembered most for his trenchant criticisms of central planning, and not for his incomplete vision of a constitutional or political order.
interesting - we've (the libertarian blogoverse) been critiquing epstein for the same sort of reasons.
Good Conduct in a Great Society:Adam Smith and the Role of Reputation
by
Jeremy Shearmur and Daniel B. Klein
dklein@scu.edu
article on reputation capital ['wuffie']. dcline joke omitted.
footnote one connects the great society to the good society to the open society which leads directly to George Soros.
Friday, June 25, 2004
sunnstein on my shoulder, part 2.
this continues a thread about cass sunnstein, chicago lawprof guest blogger at volokh.
post title is from a song by a busker i met in boulder:
sunshine on my shoulder ... gives me sunburn.
sunshine in my eyes ... can make me blind
3 years of hell joins the fray with useful commentary.
i didn't find the source for social security i was looking for, but from here, here are some whaddayacallems, constitutive commitments.
Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. [irs]
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. [federal reserve]
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. [highways airports mass transit]
10. Free education for all children in public schools.
this continues a thread about cass sunnstein, chicago lawprof guest blogger at volokh.
post title is from a song by a busker i met in boulder:
sunshine on my shoulder ... gives me sunburn.
sunshine in my eyes ... can make me blind
3 years of hell joins the fray with useful commentary.
i didn't find the source for social security i was looking for, but from here, here are some whaddayacallems, constitutive commitments.
Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. [irs]
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. [federal reserve]
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. [highways airports mass transit]
10. Free education for all children in public schools.
word for the day - Coruscantian
No idea what it means. 'The Coruscantian imperative of the pillars is offset by the toe-nibbling of the ducks.'
That reminds me, 5 today, a bike tour. The new korean war memorial in indy is nice, with it's samples of letters home from the troops. but the object of the bike tour is to show what used to live in these spaces now given over to public edifices.
i missed the solstice capture the flag batchelor party somebody had downtown last night. went to dinner with my asperger's syndrome friend instead.
No idea what it means. 'The Coruscantian imperative of the pillars is offset by the toe-nibbling of the ducks.'
That reminds me, 5 today, a bike tour. The new korean war memorial in indy is nice, with it's samples of letters home from the troops. but the object of the bike tour is to show what used to live in these spaces now given over to public edifices.
i missed the solstice capture the flag batchelor party somebody had downtown last night. went to dinner with my asperger's syndrome friend instead.
negative goat flow
at http://ballots.blogspot.com, i'm working on a story
about how the FEC complaint against Farenheit 9/11's ads,
violates moore's free speech rights.
hasen has the complaint up in .pdf. it includes a disclaimer complaint, and as my readers know i believe disclaimer rules are unconstitutional under mcintyre, even after hiibel.
the new york times reports,
as cited on www.michaelmoore.com
Besides, it may turn out that the most talked-about moments in the film are the least impeachable. Mr. Moore makes extensive use of obscure footage from White House and network-news video archives, including long scenes that capture President Bush at his least articulate. For the White House, the most devastating segment of "Fahrenheit 9/11" may be the video of a befuddled-looking President Bush staying put for nearly seven minutes at a Florida elementary school on the morning of Sept. 11, continuing to read a copy of "My Pet Goat" to schoolchildren even after an aide has told him that a second plane has struck the twin towers. Mr. Bush's slow, hesitant reaction to the disastrous news has never been a secret. But seeing the actual footage, with the minutes ticking by, may prove more damaging to the White House than all the statistics in the world.
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/true911.html
has flash video of the goat incident, although with annoying liberal commentary.
www.mypetgoat.com has more.
ebert
note to self - get uninterupted power supply - power went out durung this post and i had to re-do it.
at http://ballots.blogspot.com, i'm working on a story
about how the FEC complaint against Farenheit 9/11's ads,
violates moore's free speech rights.
hasen has the complaint up in .pdf. it includes a disclaimer complaint, and as my readers know i believe disclaimer rules are unconstitutional under mcintyre, even after hiibel.
the new york times reports,
as cited on www.michaelmoore.com
Besides, it may turn out that the most talked-about moments in the film are the least impeachable. Mr. Moore makes extensive use of obscure footage from White House and network-news video archives, including long scenes that capture President Bush at his least articulate. For the White House, the most devastating segment of "Fahrenheit 9/11" may be the video of a befuddled-looking President Bush staying put for nearly seven minutes at a Florida elementary school on the morning of Sept. 11, continuing to read a copy of "My Pet Goat" to schoolchildren even after an aide has told him that a second plane has struck the twin towers. Mr. Bush's slow, hesitant reaction to the disastrous news has never been a secret. But seeing the actual footage, with the minutes ticking by, may prove more damaging to the White House than all the statistics in the world.
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/true911.html
has flash video of the goat incident, although with annoying liberal commentary.
www.mypetgoat.com has more.
ebert
note to self - get uninterupted power supply - power went out durung this post and i had to re-do it.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
we can't all fit on the bus.
we're all bozos on the bus.
update: after a few tries, i was able to register and post a comment at volokh. a guest poster has enabled comments to his posts; the regular conspirators choose not to. for a mega-popular blog like volokh, selectively enabling commentsseems wise; it is the approach wil at wwdn is using.
What i'm hearing, if i remember right, is that you are both a literalist and a libertarian. I could make some guesses about your meyer-briggs score, what the advocates for self-government call a 'green card.' i suspect that your teacher, a government agent, did not share the same world view. How did she -feel- about the size of the bus? What behavioral outcomes could be predicted by her verbal cues? How was the bus size issue resolved? If, as libertarian literalists, we are going to conquer the world, or at least find our place in it, we need to learn a bit about how the other team plays. -arbitray aardvark.
[will sees volokhian comments as harbingers of doom.]
this was a comment that didn't post at volokh.
we're all bozos on the bus.
update: after a few tries, i was able to register and post a comment at volokh. a guest poster has enabled comments to his posts; the regular conspirators choose not to. for a mega-popular blog like volokh, selectively enabling commentsseems wise; it is the approach wil at wwdn is using.
What i'm hearing, if i remember right, is that you are both a literalist and a libertarian. I could make some guesses about your meyer-briggs score, what the advocates for self-government call a 'green card.' i suspect that your teacher, a government agent, did not share the same world view. How did she -feel- about the size of the bus? What behavioral outcomes could be predicted by her verbal cues? How was the bus size issue resolved? If, as libertarian literalists, we are going to conquer the world, or at least find our place in it, we need to learn a bit about how the other team plays. -arbitray aardvark.
[will sees volokhian comments as harbingers of doom.]
this was a comment that didn't post at volokh.
uh oh. just when i was about to get some actual work done, fresh supreme court opinions.
i could -use- that in my motion for extention of time; the brief had to be revised in light of hiibel
i am tempted to wait a day till they come out in non-pdf format.
briefverts:
update: the cheney case is important for separation of powers. it upholds executive privilege, on facts milder than u.s v. nixon or clinton v jones. it will be a landmark.
another case seems to have upheld 100 wrongful death sentences, in which judges rather than juries decided to kill. i'll need to read it before criticizing, but yikes.
word for tomorrow - apprendi-land.
i could -use- that in my motion for extention of time; the brief had to be revised in light of hiibel
i am tempted to wait a day till they come out in non-pdf format.
briefverts:
update: the cheney case is important for separation of powers. it upholds executive privilege, on facts milder than u.s v. nixon or clinton v jones. it will be a landmark.
another case seems to have upheld 100 wrongful death sentences, in which judges rather than juries decided to kill. i'll need to read it before criticizing, but yikes.
word for tomorrow - apprendi-land.
comment allez-vous
On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 11:59:22 -0500, baude@uchicago.edu
wrote:
>
> if i knew of an efficient, sensible, and polite way to let only intelligent
> people post comments on crescat, i would seriously consider it.
i replied:
this is related to another discussion i'm involved in -
does everybody in the anarchist bookstore collective get equal say, or
do the people who show up for their shifts and wash the dishes get
extra input?
slashdot is the canonical model of automated reputation capital
commenting, but i admit i've never
figured it out, and only go to slashdots threads when some trusted
person links to them.
here's how i would do it at crescat, if it were up to me.
1) advertize for a flunky, a human who would scan comments, and toggle
a switch to make the astute ones visible. the others stay invisible.
ok, multiple flunkies; this model works well for hotornot.com.
volunteer mods scan new pics for tos violations. it works pretty
well.
a different approach is micropayments - it costs $1,
paypal e-gold or amazon, to post a comment, but if the readers vote
'that comment didn't suck', you get credit of $1 for your next
comment. $1 is arbitrary it could be $10 or $100, depending
how adverse you are to comments.
these schemes are relatively easy to implement, given the number of
code jockeys who are fans of your site.
you could then license or give away the model,
using copynorms but not patents.
cordially,
an arbitrary aardvark.
- Show quoted text -
effecient and sensible. i lack sufficient understanding of your human culture to assess the 'polite' aspect.
On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 11:59:22 -0500, baude@uchicago.edu
>
> if i knew of an efficient, sensible, and polite way to let only intelligent
> people post comments on crescat, i would seriously consider it.
i replied:
this is related to another discussion i'm involved in -
does everybody in the anarchist bookstore collective get equal say, or
do the people who show up for their shifts and wash the dishes get
extra input?
slashdot is the canonical model of automated reputation capital
commenting, but i admit i've never
figured it out, and only go to slashdots threads when some trusted
person links to them.
here's how i would do it at crescat, if it were up to me.
1) advertize for a flunky, a human who would scan comments, and toggle
a switch to make the astute ones visible. the others stay invisible.
ok, multiple flunkies; this model works well for hotornot.com.
volunteer mods scan new pics for tos violations. it works pretty
well.
a different approach is micropayments - it costs $1,
paypal e-gold or amazon, to post a comment, but if the readers vote
'that comment didn't suck', you get credit of $1 for your next
comment. $1 is arbitrary it could be $10 or $100, depending
how adverse you are to comments.
these schemes are relatively easy to implement, given the number of
code jockeys who are fans of your site.
you could then license or give away the model,
using copynorms but not patents.
cordially,
an arbitrary aardvark.
- Show quoted text -
effecient and sensible. i lack sufficient understanding of your human culture to assess the 'polite' aspect.
sunnstein on my shoulder
guido has been getting flack for comparing bush to mussolini.
i'll go further - i'll compare sunstein to roosevelt.
this is a rant. feel free to cry godwin.
i'm feeling cranky. noisy neighbors, dental pain, can't sleep, i get irritable.
first, i'll critique roosevelt, then sunnstein.
the roosevelt dime, which used to be made of silver before lbj debased the currency, has roosevelt on one side, and the fasces on the other. the fasces are a bundle of rods symbolizing roman law - the law that killed jesus, slew the druids, but couldn't beat the scots. roosevelt, and his partner stalin, symbolize the twentieth century drive to totalitarianism. it would be too easy to criticize stalin, who was ne culturna, uncouth, naked aggression. roosevelt's brand of faces had better apologists, flacks, p.r. Sunstein is one such.
What chomsky calls the manufacture of consent.
first, the quote is nothing like a haiku - maybe he means koan.
second, roosevelt's big lie is the one sunstein repeats - that property rights do not exist until goverment chooses to dole them out. this view rejects the idea that we are endowed by our creator with certain rights, among which are life liberty and pursuit of happiness. in rejecting this foundation of organic law, the rooseveltists pulled off a coup, overthrowing american government, replacing it with a platform of social security and other planks straight from the communist manifesto.
third, roosevelt's communist four freedoms, an attempt at asserting positive rights, and thus undoing all negative rights, that is to say liberties, is not a 'second" bill of rights. the 1689 english bill of rights, incorporated into american common law, would be the first. that's where we get the right to bear arms, for example. then came the new hampshire bill of rights, followed soon by virginia. each state has one, and they are, if unknown and unenforced and routinely waived, much stronger than the better known federal bill of rights.
so not second but perhaps 49th or so. i get annoyed at taxpayer's bills of rights, arbi's customers bills of rights, yak-herders bills of rights, etc., that are little more than marketing documents, cheapening and debasing the idea of what a right is. rights are both legal claims, and gifts from god. roosevelt sought to dethrone god-given rights and replace them in his own image. sunstein worships this graven image. in the sunstein cosmos, government is allpowerful, all-knowing, and all good. only man's fallibility, in voting republican, can screw up this utopia.
a key insight, often missed, is that markets and ecologies work the same way.
ecologies did not wait for governments to enact them. any claim that law predates markets had better define its terms carefully, because i am sceptical.
now, i agree that rights should be evaluated by their consequences, although we should be humble in realizing our understanding of those consequences is very imperfect. consequential evaluation is a way to check your work and debug your program. indepentent auditors are needed, since there are powerful motives at work to game the system and rob the pension fund. that's one reason to opt for rule-utility over act-utilty. mill's on liberty spells out the rules pretty well.
(jim at vice squad and i cordially disagree about whether on liberty was written by harriet taylor mill.)
all for now.
guido has been getting flack for comparing bush to mussolini.
i'll go further - i'll compare sunstein to roosevelt.
this is a rant. feel free to cry godwin.
i'm feeling cranky. noisy neighbors, dental pain, can't sleep, i get irritable.
first, i'll critique roosevelt, then sunnstein.
the roosevelt dime, which used to be made of silver before lbj debased the currency, has roosevelt on one side, and the fasces on the other. the fasces are a bundle of rods symbolizing roman law - the law that killed jesus, slew the druids, but couldn't beat the scots. roosevelt, and his partner stalin, symbolize the twentieth century drive to totalitarianism. it would be too easy to criticize stalin, who was ne culturna, uncouth, naked aggression. roosevelt's brand of faces had better apologists, flacks, p.r. Sunstein is one such.
What chomsky calls the manufacture of consent.
first, the quote is nothing like a haiku - maybe he means koan.
second, roosevelt's big lie is the one sunstein repeats - that property rights do not exist until goverment chooses to dole them out. this view rejects the idea that we are endowed by our creator with certain rights, among which are life liberty and pursuit of happiness. in rejecting this foundation of organic law, the rooseveltists pulled off a coup, overthrowing american government, replacing it with a platform of social security and other planks straight from the communist manifesto.
third, roosevelt's communist four freedoms, an attempt at asserting positive rights, and thus undoing all negative rights, that is to say liberties, is not a 'second" bill of rights. the 1689 english bill of rights, incorporated into american common law, would be the first. that's where we get the right to bear arms, for example. then came the new hampshire bill of rights, followed soon by virginia. each state has one, and they are, if unknown and unenforced and routinely waived, much stronger than the better known federal bill of rights.
so not second but perhaps 49th or so. i get annoyed at taxpayer's bills of rights, arbi's customers bills of rights, yak-herders bills of rights, etc., that are little more than marketing documents, cheapening and debasing the idea of what a right is. rights are both legal claims, and gifts from god. roosevelt sought to dethrone god-given rights and replace them in his own image. sunstein worships this graven image. in the sunstein cosmos, government is allpowerful, all-knowing, and all good. only man's fallibility, in voting republican, can screw up this utopia.
a key insight, often missed, is that markets and ecologies work the same way.
ecologies did not wait for governments to enact them. any claim that law predates markets had better define its terms carefully, because i am sceptical.
now, i agree that rights should be evaluated by their consequences, although we should be humble in realizing our understanding of those consequences is very imperfect. consequential evaluation is a way to check your work and debug your program. indepentent auditors are needed, since there are powerful motives at work to game the system and rob the pension fund. that's one reason to opt for rule-utility over act-utilty. mill's on liberty spells out the rules pretty well.
(jim at vice squad and i cordially disagree about whether on liberty was written by harriet taylor mill.)
all for now.
re-cursing: PINE is not ELM.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
the staff and management of the arbitrary aardvark would like to take this opportunity to say, heck yeah, we do condone bonfires on the summer solstice.
who's this sinjin guy? speaking of guys, i seem to have missed guy fawkes day, or was it flag day?
who's this sinjin guy? speaking of guys, i seem to have missed guy fawkes day, or was it flag day?
[cue maniacal laughter]
Sunday, June 20, 2004
sunday morning musings.
the house next to mine has been vacant for 5 years since the owner died. ordinarily that's a blessing, quiet-wise.
about once a year some guy comes by with a weed whacker, and today's the day. currently i'm not drinking, so this isn't a hangover. it's just noise too early.
when i moved to this town - america's biggest small town - about ten years ago, i had a feeling there was more to it just under the surface. www.indianapolishardcore.com was the missing ingredient. found it last night googling for www.solidaritybooks.com. can i get my ten years back? today they have a breadnotbombs lunch downtown and tonight a punk show for the location of the anarchist bookstore. note to self - bring ear plugs.
cool tools is a site plugged by tyler cowan, a conspirator plugged by jim at vice squad.
a brief look at cool tools validates that the tools are cool, in the way that tyler looks for. tyler, i think, is extropian without knowing it - he keeps pointing out ways that what we think we know is rooted in the technology of yesterday, and is being swept away by the technology of tomorrow.
cool - tool cooperatives at libraries. i remember discussing tool cooperatives 15 years ago, but not getting past talking. uncool - the tool cooperatives cool tools points to are funded by organized crime subunits, berkeley, oakland, etc.
cool/uncool - the ipal portable jukebox. sonic pollution devices for attention craving juvenile chimps. the boombox of the 21st century.
cool? compact flourescent bulbs coated with titanium dioxide that destroy odors. i don't get the science, but it's a catalyst?
i remember when hunter and amory lovins showed me a compact flourescent in 1981 and said "these are going to change the world!"
finally, they are $3 at sam's club, and i installed some yesterday,
as the ones i got 5 years ago have broken or wandered off.
titanium dioxide is dirt cheap on the moon - it's a component of moon rock dust.
cool! i could market these bulbs to stoners.
cool: merck home medical bible free online.
uncool: merck tortures puppies and bunnies, and helps the drive to chimp extinction.
cool: the innovator's dilemma. explains what i was trying to say above, about how technology is sweeping out the old in unknowable ways.
cool: a framework for understanding poverty.
explains how the social organization of the poor and middle classes and the rich are different.
uncool: at $22 at amazon, i don't see this becoming a best seller in the hood. but, i spoze someone could request a review copy, write an article for the 'zines... information wants to be free, and cheap, but with the infosplosion one can't read everything.
[test to see if this double-posts - it triple-posted, fixed.]
also cool was going to bread not bombs downtown. channel 13 showed up, so the health department might be there next week.
gwen and the cute guy in the durritti [durrutti?] tshirt and i raced around and played with their dogs while mentally ill people and bums (i include myself) came by for food and good company. they weren't the same people from the anarchist bookstore benefit tonight.
update - it's an incestuous little world - gwen used to go out with the guy from the gender discussion group who has started a cool bikeblog.
the house next to mine has been vacant for 5 years since the owner died. ordinarily that's a blessing, quiet-wise.
about once a year some guy comes by with a weed whacker, and today's the day. currently i'm not drinking, so this isn't a hangover. it's just noise too early.
when i moved to this town - america's biggest small town - about ten years ago, i had a feeling there was more to it just under the surface. www.indianapolishardcore.com was the missing ingredient. found it last night googling for www.solidaritybooks.com. can i get my ten years back? today they have a breadnotbombs lunch downtown and tonight a punk show for the location of the anarchist bookstore. note to self - bring ear plugs.
cool tools is a site plugged by tyler cowan, a conspirator plugged by jim at vice squad.
a brief look at cool tools validates that the tools are cool, in the way that tyler looks for. tyler, i think, is extropian without knowing it - he keeps pointing out ways that what we think we know is rooted in the technology of yesterday, and is being swept away by the technology of tomorrow.
cool - tool cooperatives at libraries. i remember discussing tool cooperatives 15 years ago, but not getting past talking. uncool - the tool cooperatives cool tools points to are funded by organized crime subunits, berkeley, oakland, etc.
cool/uncool - the ipal portable jukebox. sonic pollution devices for attention craving juvenile chimps. the boombox of the 21st century.
cool? compact flourescent bulbs coated with titanium dioxide that destroy odors. i don't get the science, but it's a catalyst?
i remember when hunter and amory lovins showed me a compact flourescent in 1981 and said "these are going to change the world!"
finally, they are $3 at sam's club, and i installed some yesterday,
as the ones i got 5 years ago have broken or wandered off.
titanium dioxide is dirt cheap on the moon - it's a component of moon rock dust.
cool! i could market these bulbs to stoners.
cool: merck home medical bible free online.
uncool: merck tortures puppies and bunnies, and helps the drive to chimp extinction.
cool: the innovator's dilemma. explains what i was trying to say above, about how technology is sweeping out the old in unknowable ways.
cool: a framework for understanding poverty.
explains how the social organization of the poor and middle classes and the rich are different.
uncool: at $22 at amazon, i don't see this becoming a best seller in the hood. but, i spoze someone could request a review copy, write an article for the 'zines... information wants to be free, and cheap, but with the infosplosion one can't read everything.
[test to see if this double-posts - it triple-posted, fixed.]
also cool was going to bread not bombs downtown. channel 13 showed up, so the health department might be there next week.
gwen and the cute guy in the durritti [durrutti?] tshirt and i raced around and played with their dogs while mentally ill people and bums (i include myself) came by for food and good company. they weren't the same people from the anarchist bookstore benefit tonight.
update - it's an incestuous little world - gwen used to go out with the guy from the gender discussion group who has started a cool bikeblog.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
reagan, vegetables, abortion.
this is a placeholder for a rant about how i feel about abortion today. been pondering a thread over at alas a blog.
all very clear in my head right now, but i might never get it written down.
why does killing fetuses matter? how is a fetus like ronald reagan, in his later stages of alzheimers?
who is an other, for the puposes of the kantian imperitive,
treat others as you would have them treat you?
the solipcists' convention: do other exist?
eli weisel, in "night", writes about a crazy guy, asort of holy man or village idiot, who had introduced young wesel to kabbala, jewish mysticism sort of like sufism or zen. then he goes away and comes back with stories of terror and holocaust, only he isn't believed, being the village idiot.
weisel's jouney from transylvania to auschwitz and buchenwald
has helped us understand, but we have no one to tell the stories of the millions of unborn babies turned into burnt offerings. should i care?
in jail, someone was asking why i couldn't eat the murdered animals they tried to serve us as if it were food.i told the story of the day i was 6 that i spent with my hand caught in a muskrat trap. i've known what it is to be a trapped animal.
jail was so unendurable for me exactly because it was like being 6 again, like being 4 again, in that photo where my father is trying to get me to hold still for the camera and i can see myself inwardly screaming 'let me go!'
i was 17 when i got away, and being in jail for three weeks brought so much of it back.
maybe i'm autistic. i don't like being restrained, or having my personal boundaries transgressed. other people don't seem to see why this would be a problem.
i have trouble making myself understood.
there's something about abortion that bothers me.
it might have something to do with treating a person as a thing. i have the same trouble with, say, hamburger. to the other guy, the hamburger is a thing. to me, it's the corpse of a person, and needs a decent burial so that its spirit doesn't haunt me, stalking me in the dreamtime.
i am, i guess, more attuned to the suffering of others, some others anyway, than some other people are.
my diagnosis is major depression.
i cope by avoiding stressful situations and activities.
i try to create a zone of safe space around me, a barrier to the outside world with its violence. not too effectively lately.
some, reading this, see only the ravings of a madvark. some might see the glimmer of where i'm coming from.
update: here's monique with an opposing viewpoint.
this is a placeholder for a rant about how i feel about abortion today. been pondering a thread over at alas a blog.
all very clear in my head right now, but i might never get it written down.
why does killing fetuses matter? how is a fetus like ronald reagan, in his later stages of alzheimers?
who is an other, for the puposes of the kantian imperitive,
treat others as you would have them treat you?
the solipcists' convention: do other exist?
eli weisel, in "night", writes about a crazy guy, asort of holy man or village idiot, who had introduced young wesel to kabbala, jewish mysticism sort of like sufism or zen. then he goes away and comes back with stories of terror and holocaust, only he isn't believed, being the village idiot.
weisel's jouney from transylvania to auschwitz and buchenwald
has helped us understand, but we have no one to tell the stories of the millions of unborn babies turned into burnt offerings. should i care?
in jail, someone was asking why i couldn't eat the murdered animals they tried to serve us as if it were food.i told the story of the day i was 6 that i spent with my hand caught in a muskrat trap. i've known what it is to be a trapped animal.
jail was so unendurable for me exactly because it was like being 6 again, like being 4 again, in that photo where my father is trying to get me to hold still for the camera and i can see myself inwardly screaming 'let me go!'
i was 17 when i got away, and being in jail for three weeks brought so much of it back.
maybe i'm autistic. i don't like being restrained, or having my personal boundaries transgressed. other people don't seem to see why this would be a problem.
i have trouble making myself understood.
there's something about abortion that bothers me.
it might have something to do with treating a person as a thing. i have the same trouble with, say, hamburger. to the other guy, the hamburger is a thing. to me, it's the corpse of a person, and needs a decent burial so that its spirit doesn't haunt me, stalking me in the dreamtime.
i am, i guess, more attuned to the suffering of others, some others anyway, than some other people are.
my diagnosis is major depression.
i cope by avoiding stressful situations and activities.
i try to create a zone of safe space around me, a barrier to the outside world with its violence. not too effectively lately.
some, reading this, see only the ravings of a madvark. some might see the glimmer of where i'm coming from.
update: here's monique with an opposing viewpoint.
Friday, June 18, 2004
placeholder for a post on positive goat flow
meanwhile, here's a not very work-safe link she's sort of goat-like, eh?
meanwhile, here's a not very work-safe link she's sort of goat-like, eh?
Thursday, June 17, 2004
journalists' privilege, volokh, and the new york times.
A volokh post takes offense at some reporters, at reuters and the new york times, resisting being compelled to testify at a trial.
volokh is wrong, and the reporters, and their attorney, floyd abrams, are right, and i think it's worth discussing. at the moment i'm too tired to work, too hot and anxious to sleep, so i'm blogging. one of the interesting things about bloggers is that they are journalists who don't identify as journalists. volokh is one of the best, one of three blogs i read daily. (hasen, volokh, crescat.)
in volokh's world (i'm exaggerating his position for effect) journalists can be press-ganged into the service of government intelligence at any moment.
the ethical jounalist would begin an interview like this: hi, i'm mike from the jonesboro spin. i'd like to ask you about the smith case. you have the right to remain silent. anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. do you understand these rights?
in such a world, fewer sources will talk to the press.
volokh was once a software designer, then lawyer, then law journalist then blogger.
i'm not sure software designers have professional ethics in the same way lawyers and mainstream journalists do, although there's an ethical culture
reflected in e.g. reno or the open source movement.
in j-school, we were indoctrinated into a world view that a reporter protects her sources, that doing so is the essence of free press protected by state and federal constitutions and the common law, that these rights are imperfectly recognized by the courts, and every journalist should have a suitcase packed and be ready to go to jail on this point if needed.
i liked that part, and have lived by it. we were also indoctrinated in a false myth of objectivity, which the blogoverse has overthrown. as bloggers, we write about what we choose, putting our reputation capital ("wuffie") on the line every time, but with no editor-in-chief or publisher to answer to.
as a lawyer, i've been in the position of being found in contempt of court rather than reveal a privileged attorney-client communication. i cited my state constitutional right to free speech and my right to be free from self-incrimination and that the statute applied only to parties (i was a non-party witness) but none of that worked. these journalists were in a similar boat.
there are also aspects of involuntary servitude and liberty interests in tension with one's duty to the court.
volokh sees the duty to assist the court (let's, perjoritively, call this the snitch duty) as higher than the journalist's duty to discover truth by protecting sources (say, for example, deep throat, or whoever told drudge about the blue dress.) here, he points out, the remarks were intended for publication.
however, the source also knew about, and may have relied on, the hearsay rule, which would prevent her remarks from being admissable. she also would have relied on the integrity of the new york times, which hires people like floyd abrams to protect their sources in court. she didn't go to the weekly midnight star. disclaimer - i'm a former contractor for the times - the times bought me my first tangeray (sp) back in the 70s. and i've known volokh for years via various listservs. this time, the times is right, volokh is wrong. that is rare enough, in a man bites dog sort of way, that i decided to write about it.
not as sexy a piece as his discussion of what makes men sexy, but journalists ethics is a hot button for me. i became a lawyer as part of a search for a way to get paid to be an ethicist. so far, it isn't working, but the continuing quest is fun.
if there's something wrong about the duties of the press interfering with the operation of the court system, perhaps the remedy is to revise the 57 exceptions to the hearsay rule, rather than try to compel journalists to act unethically. in thinking about the hearsay rule, why we have it, what exceptions we allow, we might even discover that there is some good reason to allow the journalists to act as they have, and exclude the testimony. i am not an expert on rules of evidence; i don't take a case to hearing without stipulations of fact, so i'll take no position on how the hearsay controversy should be resolved, except that it can be done without infringing the reporters' freedom of the press. -30-
A volokh post takes offense at some reporters, at reuters and the new york times, resisting being compelled to testify at a trial.
volokh is wrong, and the reporters, and their attorney, floyd abrams, are right, and i think it's worth discussing. at the moment i'm too tired to work, too hot and anxious to sleep, so i'm blogging. one of the interesting things about bloggers is that they are journalists who don't identify as journalists. volokh is one of the best, one of three blogs i read daily. (hasen, volokh, crescat.)
in volokh's world (i'm exaggerating his position for effect) journalists can be press-ganged into the service of government intelligence at any moment.
the ethical jounalist would begin an interview like this: hi, i'm mike from the jonesboro spin. i'd like to ask you about the smith case. you have the right to remain silent. anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. do you understand these rights?
in such a world, fewer sources will talk to the press.
volokh was once a software designer, then lawyer, then law journalist then blogger.
i'm not sure software designers have professional ethics in the same way lawyers and mainstream journalists do, although there's an ethical culture
reflected in e.g. reno or the open source movement.
in j-school, we were indoctrinated into a world view that a reporter protects her sources, that doing so is the essence of free press protected by state and federal constitutions and the common law, that these rights are imperfectly recognized by the courts, and every journalist should have a suitcase packed and be ready to go to jail on this point if needed.
i liked that part, and have lived by it. we were also indoctrinated in a false myth of objectivity, which the blogoverse has overthrown. as bloggers, we write about what we choose, putting our reputation capital ("wuffie") on the line every time, but with no editor-in-chief or publisher to answer to.
as a lawyer, i've been in the position of being found in contempt of court rather than reveal a privileged attorney-client communication. i cited my state constitutional right to free speech and my right to be free from self-incrimination and that the statute applied only to parties (i was a non-party witness) but none of that worked. these journalists were in a similar boat.
there are also aspects of involuntary servitude and liberty interests in tension with one's duty to the court.
volokh sees the duty to assist the court (let's, perjoritively, call this the snitch duty) as higher than the journalist's duty to discover truth by protecting sources (say, for example, deep throat, or whoever told drudge about the blue dress.) here, he points out, the remarks were intended for publication.
however, the source also knew about, and may have relied on, the hearsay rule, which would prevent her remarks from being admissable. she also would have relied on the integrity of the new york times, which hires people like floyd abrams to protect their sources in court. she didn't go to the weekly midnight star. disclaimer - i'm a former contractor for the times - the times bought me my first tangeray (sp) back in the 70s. and i've known volokh for years via various listservs. this time, the times is right, volokh is wrong. that is rare enough, in a man bites dog sort of way, that i decided to write about it.
not as sexy a piece as his discussion of what makes men sexy, but journalists ethics is a hot button for me. i became a lawyer as part of a search for a way to get paid to be an ethicist. so far, it isn't working, but the continuing quest is fun.
if there's something wrong about the duties of the press interfering with the operation of the court system, perhaps the remedy is to revise the 57 exceptions to the hearsay rule, rather than try to compel journalists to act unethically. in thinking about the hearsay rule, why we have it, what exceptions we allow, we might even discover that there is some good reason to allow the journalists to act as they have, and exclude the testimony. i am not an expert on rules of evidence; i don't take a case to hearing without stipulations of fact, so i'll take no position on how the hearsay controversy should be resolved, except that it can be done without infringing the reporters' freedom of the press. -30-
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
www.soulforce.org
today i was downtown riding my bike sort of randomly.
a well-dressed young man tried to hand me a pamphlet. i assumed it was along the lines of a jack chick tract. i glanced at it, started to hand it back. i was puzzled by their sign, help stop spiritual violence. 'ok, i'll bite. what's spiritual violence?'
he explained they were there protesting [contesting?] the anti-gay positions of the southern baptists, who were meeting in the convention center across the street. light began to dawn, although it took awhile.
i started to listen to the songs they were singing, and dumpster dived some of their literature that people were throwing away, and reading it.
their tshirts said www.soulforce.org, and some had pictures of gandhi and king. i circled the block and came back, and had a few questions for one of them, a yummy cute boy from oberlin. 'soul force - is that satyagraha?' yep. 'hey! you guys are into what i'm into!' gradually i joined the circle, and then went for sushi with cute boy #1, his cool sister, their dad, cute boy #2, cute girl #2, and some guy. i had the usual, edamame, green tea, kappa roll. cute boy #2 wouldn't let me buy him dinner, and he got away, but we had fun. we did a rainbow vigil with glowsticks and sang baptist folk songs,
we shall overcome, that sort of thing. we had a stategy meeting at the comfort inn, and talked about doing 'equality rides' to fundy colleges like wheaton college, where coming out means getting kicked out. i offered to help with legal support, since they expect to get arrested doing this. i'd brushed up my connections with lambda legal just a few days ago. i might also want to run this by wil wheaton.
i'm off now to check out the website.
i don't know yet if this is just the spiritual equivalent of a one night stand, or if i've found a church. i've been reading
"the artist's way: discovering and recovering creativity",
and it warned me to expect serendipity.
today i was downtown riding my bike sort of randomly.
a well-dressed young man tried to hand me a pamphlet. i assumed it was along the lines of a jack chick tract. i glanced at it, started to hand it back. i was puzzled by their sign, help stop spiritual violence. 'ok, i'll bite. what's spiritual violence?'
he explained they were there protesting [contesting?] the anti-gay positions of the southern baptists, who were meeting in the convention center across the street. light began to dawn, although it took awhile.
i started to listen to the songs they were singing, and dumpster dived some of their literature that people were throwing away, and reading it.
their tshirts said www.soulforce.org, and some had pictures of gandhi and king. i circled the block and came back, and had a few questions for one of them, a yummy cute boy from oberlin. 'soul force - is that satyagraha?' yep. 'hey! you guys are into what i'm into!' gradually i joined the circle, and then went for sushi with cute boy #1, his cool sister, their dad, cute boy #2, cute girl #2, and some guy. i had the usual, edamame, green tea, kappa roll. cute boy #2 wouldn't let me buy him dinner, and he got away, but we had fun. we did a rainbow vigil with glowsticks and sang baptist folk songs,
we shall overcome, that sort of thing. we had a stategy meeting at the comfort inn, and talked about doing 'equality rides' to fundy colleges like wheaton college, where coming out means getting kicked out. i offered to help with legal support, since they expect to get arrested doing this. i'd brushed up my connections with lambda legal just a few days ago. i might also want to run this by wil wheaton.
i'm off now to check out the website.
i don't know yet if this is just the spiritual equivalent of a one night stand, or if i've found a church. i've been reading
"the artist's way: discovering and recovering creativity",
and it warned me to expect serendipity.
i've figured out how to add permalinks and comments, but i'll have to rebuild the blog to do it, so not yet.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Back from hiatus.
