Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Purchasing Stamps from the USPS

J. Bowen, from No Watermelons Allowed, was in need of a few stamps.  To satisfy this need, Bowen went to his local DC post office and transacted for said stamps.  They were Paul Robeson stamps.  Read this adventure in stamp purchasing here.

In light of Robeson’s commie sympathies, one can only think that the stamps were not self adhesive.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/11 at 07:01 AM
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It’s All in the Marketing, Isn’t It?

OH YEAH! CHRISTMOBILE, BABY! Batman has a car, why shouldn’t the real superhero have a car, right? If this marketing tactic works, you know the other religions are gonna want their own entries. I’m surprised Scientology hasn’t thought of this already. Some of your smaller religions, your Zoroastrianisms and whatnot, are in real need of the exposure. What with one thing and another, we could see the Buddhanator putting the Toyota Wicca Special into the wall by 2008.

Colby Cosh waxing eloquent in regards to Bobby Labonte’s No. 18 car being emblazoned with the logo of Gibson’s new film The Passion.  Vroom, Vroom, Vroom.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/11 at 06:47 AM
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Stupid People, Conservatives, Inconsistency and Chairs of Philosophy Departments

Micha Ghertner analyzes the hullabaloo surrounding hiring at colleges and businesses and the moaning cries for diversity.  From Micha’s post.

But inconsistency runs both ways. If it is inconsistent for conservatives to believe in institutionalized inequality of ideology but not of race or sex, then it is also inconsistent for left-liberals to believe in institutionalized inequality of race or sex but not of ideology.

Update:  Via PrestoPundit we are pointed to a David Horowitz column titled In Defense of Intellectual Diversity.  Horowitz is ”...the author of the Academic Bill of Rights,...” the aim of which is embodied in the title to Horowitz’s column.  And an interesting column it is.  I have one problem though, why do we need another law?  Laws change nothing, they only allow the cudgel bearers to enforce their interpretation of the law.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/11 at 06:38 AM
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Tuesday, February 10, 2004

More Michigan Dogooder Zaniness

It seems that the gay marriage issue isn’t the only item showing up on Michigan’s dogooder radar.  The professional jobholders ensconced in the state of Michigan’s capitol are introducing 16, yep, count em, 16 bills to “strengthen marriage.”  Here are the highlights of the bills.  The state is making Vegas look better all the time.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 06:16 PM
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Michigan’s Granholm Falls In Step

A few days ago I linked to a Jacob Sullum post at Reason’s Hit & Run which noted the idoicy of raising cigarette taxes as a treatment method to assist smokers in quitting.  It didn’t take long for Ms. Photogenic to hitch her little red wagon to this vice tax train.  Though in fairness, Granholm pointedly states that she wants to raise cigarette taxes to replace other stolen monies the state is losing for one reason or another.  From the article, which seems to show that this madness first mentioned by Sullum is spreading faster than the Asian flu.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday that her proposal to raise the state cigarette tax from $1.25 to $2 per pack will help make up for lost federal dollars and encourage people to stop smoking.

UPDATE - 01.22.2010 Link to mlive.com article from which Granholm quote was gleaned is dead.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 05:54 PM
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Rockets and Space

Here’s an interesting blog if you have any interest in reading about space and rockets.  It’s called Rocket Man Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 08:02 AM
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Unveiling Fallacies from the Mouth of John Edwards

Edwards spoke of joining what he called “two Americas” — one of privilege and another of want.

Though very common, the falseness of this argument is very frustrating. When - in the entire history of civilization - have we NOT had both privilege and want in any given society? (hint: never)

From a post by Jon Henke at Questions and Observations.

This post by Henke, in regards to a John Hawkins article, is also interesting reading.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 07:50 AM
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Understanding It

Vaclav Havel has penned a short essay for The Walrus titled Turning Profit Into Culture.  The essay itself is not available online, but Alina Stefanescu has posted a short excerpt from the essay, which I repost below, and also provides a short summation of her own.

“It’s worth stressing that entrepreneurship is above all about the creation of values, not about the accumulation of wealth. Of course, material gain—profit—is the force that drives the market economy, but it should be understood to a far greater extent as an essential instrument of human creativity, not as an end in itself.”

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 07:33 AM
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“Sick Irony” or Par for the Course

Mike Tennant, at Strike the Root, notes that an individual who disputes paying taxes is more apt to be punished, unjustly in my opinion, than an individual with a rap sheet a mile long who has now allegedly killed a little girl.  Tennant rhetorically asks the following question and supplies his own answer.

Why was this guy on the loose, while the guy who just wanted to keep what he’d earned was locked up?

The State knows where its priorities lie.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 07:21 AM
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Republicans and Democrats are both Frauds

Richard Nikoley has penned an short essay in response to feedbacks on an earlier post which was titled Fraud or Dishonesty: Take Your Pick.  I decline either.

From the response.

In plain English: America was born of a moral foundation based on individuality and freedom, the direct and unavoidable consequence of which was capitalism, and the direct and unavoidable consequence of which was wealth—an uplifting of the average man to heights utterly undreamed of in all of his history. “Democracy” had not one thing to do with it. Democracy is the antithesis of capitalism, and serves only as a looting mechanism, whereby clever Democrat politicians stir up hate and envy against the hands that feed in order to extort an unearned livelihood. Because business-people are by nature bottom-line thinkers, they realize that rather than fight, it is usually easer just to pay off the moochers and get back to work. The leeches are happy with such as an arrangement, as it means they can make their rounds again and again, like an ATM machine.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 07:03 AM
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Dogma - When You Can’t Think for Yourself

If the Catholics watch that film, they better watch it with their minds attuned to the rulings of the Catholic church.  And don’t think for a minute that the church doesn’t have a dogma for the way the faithful are supposed to think about this subject.  Just in time for the release of The Passion, the Catholic church is issuing a 150 page booklet to ensure the Catholics are all on the same page.  The booklet is titled The Bible, the Jews and the Death of Jesus.  Get your copy now, before its run up the bestseller list.

From the first paragraph of the linked article.

Fearful that Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” will revive age-old tension between Christians and Jews over the death of Jesus Christ, U.S. bishops are issuing strict instructions on how Catholics should view the crucifixion.

Those darn Catholics, you never can be quite sure when they’re going to cross the line.

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 06:28 AM
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Diploma Mills

Here’s the headline, as it appears in the New York Times.  Study Says U.S. Should Replace States’ High School Standards.  The study is the work of three organizations, the American Diploma Project, Achieve.org, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

I didn’t spend much time reviewing the, I’m sure, august staffs of the above organizations, but based on their dogooder goals, I’d wager most of the staff members are ex-teachers or administrators diligently working together to maximize the power of the schools with the stick of the state.  Reading the NYT column though, I did notice the project did get one thing right,

The report charges that employers and postsecondary institutions “all but ignore the diploma, knowing that it often serves as little more than a certificate of attendance,” because “what it takes to earn one is disconnected from what it takes for graduates to compete successfully beyond high school.

Via the Mises Economics Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/10 at 06:01 AM
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Monday, February 09, 2004

“These thoughts were inspired by reading some of the obituaries of Helmut Newton,...”

The title to this post is taken from a column by Peter Aspden published in the Financial Times.  The title to the column is The Revolver: Much taboo about nothing.

The first three sentences.

Ever heard the one about the gardener, three nuns and a dog? You will soon, and it is every bit as depraved as it sounds. The question is leading the promotional campaign to advertise a new film, The Good Old Naughty Days, due to be released in Britain next month.

Also via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/09 at 10:20 AM
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“Newfangled Linguistics”

The list of terms—which have hotly contested definitions—goes on: “FTM” for female to male, “MTF” for male to female, “boydyke,” “trannyfag,” “multigendered,” polygendered,” “queerboi,” “transboi,” “transguy,” “transman,” “half-dyke,” “bi-dyke,” “stud,” “stem,” “trisexual,” “omnisexual,” and “multisexual.”

Sheesh.

From an article at SFGATE.com via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/09 at 10:04 AM
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I Guess I Must Visit My Local Book Reseller

In a recent post at Selling Waves, Shonk shared a quote from G.K. Chesterson’s book The Ball and the Cross.  This morning, at the blog Gene Expression, Thrasymachus shares a quote from Chesterton’s book What I Saw in America.  My stack of “to reads” must continue to grow.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/09 at 07:17 AM
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