Here’s a draft of a problem that I’ll be including in the Obscenity chapter of my First Amendment textbook. Within about ten years, there will probably be software that can merge people’s photographs and voices with movies that depict someone else. This is of course often already done manually with photographs; but a sophisticated computer […]
Archive | June, 2004
Spicy fried anchovies:
I was having lunch yesterday at an Indonesian market / fast-food joint in Los Angeles (with, among others, Hanah Metchis, Brian Doherty, and Ted Balaker), and I bought a bag of spicy fried anchovies. Each item was literally one anchovy, spiced, fried, and covered with sesame seeds. They were actually quite tasty, more spicy and […]
9th Circuit Order in US v. OCBC:
Today, the Ninth Circuit has issued the following order in the medical cannabis case of U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative case that I argued last September: This matter was argued September 17, 2003. This court subsequently issued its decision in Raich v. Ashcroft, 352 F.3d 1222 (9th Cir. 2003), petition for cert. filed, (U.S. […]
The trouble with Bushims, Kerryisms, and Whoppers of the Week:
I’ve often criticized Slate‘s Bushisms and Kerryisms; and, as I suggest in the post below, Slate‘s Whopper of the Week column also deserves criticism, at least this week. Part of the problem, I think, is precisely that these are regular columns, with constant plots — not just constant subject matters (the war, the economy, or […]
A blast from the past:
From a Washington Times news story: Talking about education yesterday, Mr. Kerry also told the largely black crowd at the day care center that there are more blacks in prison than in college. “That’s unacceptable,” he said. “But it’s not their fault.” Rather than the inmates, the former Boston prosecutor blamed poverty, poor schools, a […]
Slate‘s Supposed “Whopper” of the Week:
Slate‘s Whopper of the Week column — intended to expose supposed “unambiguous falsehood[s]” by various people — had the following yesterday, under the headline “Oh, that letter to Congress linking Saddam and 9/11 …”: This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda. —President Bush, in an exchange with […]
Huh?
Right after posting about Spinsanity’s Kerryisms catch, I saw today’s Kerryism. Kerry was asked: Is the support for Roe v. Wade a critical point, a litmus test, for any court appointee you would make? Kerry answered: To the Supreme Court of the United States, yes. The Kerryism edited version, which I assume is supposed to […]
Kerryisms — translating truth into falsehood:
Slate‘s Kerryisms originally billed itself as “translat[ing]” Kerry’s quotes “into plain English” by stripping them of “caveats and pointless embellishments.” Now, if Spinsanity has done its factual research right, Kerryisms is translating Kerry’s quotes from truth into falsehood: Kerry’s original statement, from a February 9 broadcast of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” was the […]
Race discrimination in Australia:
Check out this article: A South Australian man with borderline intellectual capacity who robbed an elderly couple in the town of Port Pirie had his jail sentence reduced yesterday on the grounds of being an Aborigine. The South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal reduced Darren Clarke’s non-parole period from 23 months to 17 months and […]
More on why men don’t try hard to change themselves:
A couple of readers suggested that men might not invest much effort into trying to make themselves sexier because women don’t want men who are trying that hard to do that. Effortless sexiness is the sexiest of them all — and the self-consciousness needed for self-improvement is a turn-off. My former student Geoffrey Murry went […]
Pledge break:
Some blogs ask their readers for money to help operate the blog. That’s quite understandable, but we fortunately don’t need that — the real cost of running the blog is time, and that’s generously subsidized by various universities and state taxpayers. We’re in it for the eyeballs. (Yumm, eyeballs.) So if you like the blog, […]
Note about the poll on literal belief in Bible stories:
[THERE WAS A SERIOUS ERROR IN THESE SENTENCES]: [[A reader] points out that the ABC News PrimeTime poll I cited a few days ago — which seems to show that 60% of people believe the literal truth of the Biblical flood story, creation story, and Exodus story — had the fieldwork conducted by ICR, or […]
“Acknowledg[ing] the problems of Almighty God”:
A How Appealing reader points out this item about Chief Justice Rehnquist’s concurrence in the Pledge of Allegiance case: At page ten of his opinion, the Chief Justice purports to quote President George Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation as follows: Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the problems of Almighty God, to […]
Movies grouped by philosophical category:
Do you like both philosophy and movies? This web site lists the top philosophical movies of all time. The list is well thought out, though excessively American (where is Bergman’s Persona, for instance?). Even better, Jason Brennan groups movies by philosophical theme. His categories include skepticism/external deception, determinism, time travel, personal identity, philosophy of religion, […]
A Hollywood Education:
Just finished rereading A Hollywood Education, a collection of short stories by David Freeman; it must be the third or fourth time I’ve read it. I had long since lost my copy — I’m pretty sure I lent it out to someone and never got it back — and it’s out of print now, but […]