Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Casey Sheehan

In case you were wondering what kind of guy Casey Sheehan really was, read this post by BlackFive. Only a fellow warrior can possibly understand what must have gone through that young man's head as he volunteered to go into the thick of it. His story and the others like it should be getting press coverage and not his mother's break from reality. It's a better story.

God bless them every one.

posted by mailgeek @ 6:28 PM 0 comments

Monday, August 22, 2005

2 different Americas

There is the America we live in, work in, pay taxes in, and raise families in, and the one that people like the friends of Hunter Thompson whose memorial after his suicide included...

Thompson's ashes were blasted into the night sky in an explosion, according to reports.

...

The guests gathered in a pavilion next to the platform. Inside were blow up sex dolls and a mask of Thompson's arch enemy, late President Richard Nixon.

Any guess which famous politician graced this most somber event? I would guess John Kerry was right at home among these wackos that live in the "other America".

Read the whole thing at wnd.com.

posted by mailgeek @ 7:26 PM 0 comments

Court rules atheism a religion

Well, duh! Actually this WorldnetDaily article (author not obvious to me) argues that it isn't. I went to Webster's online.

Etymology: Middle English religioun, from Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back -- more at RELY
1 a : the state of a religious (a nun in her 20th year of religion) b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

In the strictest sense this definition does not apply, but our friends at Webster almost always have more than one.....
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

Those sound like they all fit to me. Secular Humanism would actually be a better definition of most atheists' religion, but everyone has a set of beliefs irrespective of whether they come from a supreme being(s) or not.

The court ruling is interesting regardless of which side of this little argument you fall into..... and probably has serious implications if it is not overturned.

posted by mailgeek @ 7:10 PM 0 comments

US backs down on Islamic law in Iraq constitution

This does not look good.

posted by mailgeek @ 7:09 PM 0 comments

2 classes of passengers at the airport?

Becky Akers at LewRockwell is the first I have seen of the "press" getting a clue about the implications of letting politicians skip security at our airports. It may be a bit over the top, but if the NYT and others don't get a clue and report this angle soon they have no business in the business.

posted by mailgeek @ 7:06 PM 0 comments

Myles Brand begins to ruin another org

I knew it wouldn't be long before Myles Brand tried to ruin the NCAA the same way he did my university. I was a student at IU when he came to town strongarming everyone with his particularly twisted sense of PC. The national press covered his fight with Coach Knight and his ruining of a major player in NCAA Division 1 basketball. What they did not cover was the ruining of many academic programs which fell, no plummeted, out of the top 10 in the nation under his PC rule.

Hopefully the guts to challenge him will spread from Charles Kupchella at the University of North Dakota to many of his peers. His arguments in the article quoted are really hard to argue with. Read the whole thing.
Is it the use of the names of tribes that you find hostile and abusive?

Not long ago I took a trip to make a proposal to establish an epidemiological program to support American Indian health throughout the Upper Great Plains. On this trip I left a state called North Dakota. (Dakota is one of the names the indigenous people of this region actually call themselves.) I flew over South Dakota, crossing the Sioux River several times, and finally landed in Sioux City, Iowa, just south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The airplane in which I traveled that day was called a Cheyenne.

I think you should find my confusion here understandable, since obviously if we were to call our teams “The Dakotans,” we would actually be in more direct violation of what apparently you are trying to establish as a rule, even though this is the name of our state. This situation, of course, is not unlike that faced by our sister institution in Illinois.

posted by mailgeek @ 6:48 PM 0 comments