Best Of Homespun Bloggers January 30th, 2005
Eric's Random Musings
Update on "Sad, but not Surprised"
There's been an ongoing discussion on Blackfive's blog related to the story of the Army Recruiter in Seattle who had to deal with angry students at the Seattle Central Community College. I posted on this, as did Blackfive and Sound Politics, as well as many others. In the course of the comments and discussion on this event on Blackfive's blog, one of his commenters, Carl Nyberg of Collective Interest, had this to say, in part:
The Bull Speaks!
What Our Enemies Fear Most
"Look here, America. See one of your native sons brought home as the Hero he is, and see his pride at being at the second Inauguration of his Commander-in-Chief."
Musing
Sticking with the (lack of) education theme
Andrew at Bound by Gravity has pointed out another significant failing of our education system. In addition to not teaching our students mathematics, apparently government schools are not teaching history either. One wishes that, solely in the case of our education system, Andrewÿs opening phrase was actually true. That is that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sadly however, in contemporary government schools, expecting a child, who is woefully unprepared to advance to the next grade level, to repeat history, or any other course or grade level, might damage their fragile self-esteem. We who exist in todayÿs PC and ÿsensitiveÿ world all know that self-esteem is far and away THE most important thing any child can take away from their education.
Respectful Insolence
Musings on the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: How I discovered Holocaust denial
I stared at the words on the computer screen, dumbfounded:
"They do not want to do it because it would show that at Auschwitz Nazis were conducting ETHICAL medicine and they want to keep the myths of the Holocaust alive!"
Just War Theory - Comparative Justice
Comparative Justice is the next test that must be met as part of Just War Theory in order for a war to be considered legitimate.
Comparative Justice is the concept that while neither side in a conflice is perfect, one is more in the right, and is more just than the other. Is the justice of our cause greater than theirs? Also, are the rights and values at state serious enough to justify war? When considering whether it is just for the United States to go to war against a perceived threat, the question is not whether we are perfect, it is whether we are more in the right than they are.
A Physicist's Perspective
Instapundit on Intelligent Design: He's wrong
Instapundit posted a photo of Mars which compared the sticker on a science textbook suggesting that evolution is just a theory and should be studied with a critical mind, with a sticker on a photo sent by the Mars lander suggesting that celestial bodies are just a theory and should be studied with a critical mind. I explain why the comparison is unfair and how the logic in the two cases is different.
MuD&PHuD
Self Defense Bill
A bill has been introduced into the US House of Representatives entitled: Citizen's Self Defense Act of 2005 (H.R. 47 (ih)). Here are links to the html, the pdf versions and to the summary. The purpose of this Bill is to:
Weapon of Mass Distraction
Forced Prostitution in Germany
Thanks to a new law in Germany, an unemployed young woman who refused to take a job at a brothel may lose her benefits.
Update on "Sad, but not Surprised"
There's been an ongoing discussion on Blackfive's blog related to the story of the Army Recruiter in Seattle who had to deal with angry students at the Seattle Central Community College. I posted on this, as did Blackfive and Sound Politics, as well as many others. In the course of the comments and discussion on this event on Blackfive's blog, one of his commenters, Carl Nyberg of Collective Interest, had this to say, in part:
The Bull Speaks!
What Our Enemies Fear Most
"Look here, America. See one of your native sons brought home as the Hero he is, and see his pride at being at the second Inauguration of his Commander-in-Chief."
Musing
Sticking with the (lack of) education theme
Andrew at Bound by Gravity has pointed out another significant failing of our education system. In addition to not teaching our students mathematics, apparently government schools are not teaching history either. One wishes that, solely in the case of our education system, Andrewÿs opening phrase was actually true. That is that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sadly however, in contemporary government schools, expecting a child, who is woefully unprepared to advance to the next grade level, to repeat history, or any other course or grade level, might damage their fragile self-esteem. We who exist in todayÿs PC and ÿsensitiveÿ world all know that self-esteem is far and away THE most important thing any child can take away from their education.
Respectful Insolence
Musings on the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: How I discovered Holocaust denial
I stared at the words on the computer screen, dumbfounded:
"They do not want to do it because it would show that at Auschwitz Nazis were conducting ETHICAL medicine and they want to keep the myths of the Holocaust alive!"
Just War Theory - Comparative Justice
Comparative Justice is the next test that must be met as part of Just War Theory in order for a war to be considered legitimate.
Comparative Justice is the concept that while neither side in a conflice is perfect, one is more in the right, and is more just than the other. Is the justice of our cause greater than theirs? Also, are the rights and values at state serious enough to justify war? When considering whether it is just for the United States to go to war against a perceived threat, the question is not whether we are perfect, it is whether we are more in the right than they are.
A Physicist's Perspective
Instapundit on Intelligent Design: He's wrong
Instapundit posted a photo of Mars which compared the sticker on a science textbook suggesting that evolution is just a theory and should be studied with a critical mind, with a sticker on a photo sent by the Mars lander suggesting that celestial bodies are just a theory and should be studied with a critical mind. I explain why the comparison is unfair and how the logic in the two cases is different.
MuD&PHuD
Self Defense Bill
A bill has been introduced into the US House of Representatives entitled: Citizen's Self Defense Act of 2005 (H.R. 47 (ih)). Here are links to the html, the pdf versions and to the summary. The purpose of this Bill is to:
To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such right.I obviously agree with the content of this Bill. However, the very existence of this piece of legislation provides yet another example of just how disturbingly distorted we have allowed our understanding of the 2nd Amendment to become. For those who don't recall the exact wording:
Weapon of Mass Distraction
Forced Prostitution in Germany
Thanks to a new law in Germany, an unemployed young woman who refused to take a job at a brothel may lose her benefits.
<< Home