Ben's Blog

Ben Commented on Sabbatical Due by TheraP

2008-11-25T22:26:11Z

Fond wishes to you and your family. Hope you come back feeling refreshed.

Ben Commented on Bush Was at Ft Campbell - Did you Know That? by coonsey

2008-11-25T21:21:19Z

Well, since he runs the Senate and all that…

Ben Commented on Obama To Hold Third Presser On Economy by Eric Kleefeld

2008-11-25T21:19:33Z

Well, if you do it again, I'll kill your father and, wait, no … don't press that button!

Ben Commented on Obama To Hold Third Presser On Economy by Eric Kleefeld

2008-11-25T21:08:51Z

Oedipal issues? It seems more like he had anti-Oedipal issues (not to be confused with antipodal issues such that Spain and New Zealand might have). He wanted to revenge his father, not to kill him.

Ben Commented on The Nature of Change by FlyOnTneWall

2008-11-25T21:00:12Z

Pretty much all browsers (even that crapulent one known as Internet Explorer) have the ability to create these things called "bookmarks" that allow you to do just that.

Ben recommended The Nature of Change by FlyOnTneWall

2008-11-25T15:40:29Z

Ben recommended Overuse of "Lame Duck"... How about "Lame Ass"? by OldenGoldenDecoy

2008-11-25T18:20:30Z

Ben Commented on Bush Was at Ft Campbell - Did you Know That? by coonsey

2008-11-25T20:53:34Z

Minor nit-pick: in theory, the President cannot declare war.

Of course, in practice, we all know what can happen.

Ben Commented on Obama: No Midnight Train to Georgia? by Desidero

2008-11-25T20:46:20Z

Yeah, the "time" excuse wouldn't hold water, anyway. After all, I recall someone stating that Presidents should be able to multitask. ;)

Ben Commented on Obama: No Midnight Train to Georgia? by Desidero

2008-11-25T20:44:46Z

Good point on the voting already having started. It makes the b-ball theory less plausible. And I agree about not having much respect for the no stains approach. I really hope that's not the case. (Of course, we may never know for sure. In that case, I'll choose to believe the best—that it was a request from Martin because of fear that it would hurt more than it would help.)

Ben Commented on Bush Was at Ft Campbell - Did you Know That? by coonsey

2008-11-25T20:35:51Z

Another test… (sorry coonsey)

Ben Commented on Bush Was at Ft Campbell - Did you Know That? by coonsey

2008-11-25T20:34:14Z

Testing…

Ben Commented on Bush Was at Ft Campbell - Did you Know That? by coonsey

2008-11-25T20:33:39Z

I think coonsey needs a little action in his blog post above…

Ben recommended Obama: No Midnight Train to Georgia? by Desidero

2008-11-25T19:29:24Z

Ben Commented on Obama: No Midnight Train to Georgia? by Desidero

2008-11-25T20:24:42Z

I would hope it's not because of a fear of losing political capital or looking partisan that he's not going, or even because of a lack of time. I've got two theories:

(1) He's doing his usual basketball politics: fake right, then go left. I.e., he might still go yet, and because everyone's been talking about how he's not going (but he's said no such thing), it generates a nice news cycle or two. Free press. Full court press, at that.

(2) As Chris Brown suggests above, Martin doesn't think Obama's appearance would be helpful. After all, Obama didn't carry Georgia.

As for him risking political capital, I think that's a very short-sighted way of looking at it. The risk of temporarily losing political capital (who'd really remember this loss even a year from now?) versus the reward of getting another Senate seat seems to heavily favor taking a chance, if it's thought to be helpful.

Ben Commented on Letter to a Prop 8 supporter by IT

2008-11-25T13:36:58Z

Is there more than one Journal Of Religion and Science? I went to Wiley's page for them, and Volume 7 appears to have been published in 1972, not 2005…

Ben Commented on Defending Detroit (update) by Donal

2008-11-25T13:09:43Z

The Washington Post’s car guy, Warren Brown, slams the punditocracy, saying the fault is not in our auto industry, but in ourselves:

…

We have no such government-industry cooperation in the United States.

But isn't that at least partly the fault of the lobbyists employed by the auto industry? They've been fighting sensible government input for as long as I've been alive. Having grown up in Georgia, it's amazing the amount of demonization that I heard CAFE standards get. Yet, our failure to make these even more stringent is at least part of the reasons the big 3 are falling behind, IMO.

Ben recommended Defending Detroit (update) by Donal

2008-11-24T14:59:45Z

Ben Commented on Letter to a Prop 8 supporter by IT

2008-11-25T12:08:08Z

I think that those who are so engaged with God in a negative way are a lot closer to the Kingdom than those who never think about God at all.

And that's probably the most insulting thing she could have said to him. ;)

(No, not really. I think she does sincerely realize that Dawkins is also searching for the truth, just as us atheists would be wise to remember that the same holds true for many Christians, Muslims, et al.)

Ben Commented on Reframing gay rights as gender equality by Ben

2008-11-25T11:57:06Z

Hey, I'm narcissistic enough that I occasionally check in on my old blogs, especially if they're the last one I've written. (I'm thinking about writing a new one about how "Too big to fail means too big to exist" on our failure to do trust-busting any more, and how such measures could get incorporated into any bail-outs.)

Anyways, to your point: I absolutely agree. Of course, this will not please many of those Prop 8 supporters one lick, because it's not hard to find a church that will marry homosexuals, at least not in places like San Fran or Charlottesville.

Wait: no kids? That was grounds for divorce? Am I correct in assuming that the woman invariably got blamed for it?

Ben Commented on Letter to a Prop 8 supporter by IT

2008-11-25T11:37:54Z

For those interested in reading more, here's an article from The Atlantic on Homosexuality and Biology (1993).

Ben Commented on Letter to a Prop 8 supporter by IT

2008-11-25T11:28:52Z

Thanks, although I will say that it's possible to find a certain cowardice in my proposal from the 14th. Rather than tackling the argument head on, I'm looking for a work-around that ignores the fact that it really is homosexuals that are being deliberately discriminated against.

Ben Commented on Letter to a Prop 8 supporter by IT

2008-11-25T11:24:26Z

Well, it depends on what you mean by "atheism", I suppose. He does talk about the deep spirituality that he finds in astronomy in a way that I find very moving. He's also talked to Dawkins about there being better ways to convince an audience than being insulting, even if what one says is perfectly true.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is my hero. :)

Ben Commented on Poll: More Think Obama Won't Be Able To Do Much To Improve The Economy by Greg Sargent

2008-11-24T22:40:11Z

Yeah, I also try to refer to her as Senator Clinton, since that removes any ambiguity while retaining the professional tenor. It's reasonable to claim that it's unprofessional to use her first name, but to claim that it's offensive to refer to her by her first name seems a bit of a stretch, all things considered.

Ben Commented on Letter to a Prop 8 supporter by IT

2008-11-24T22:37:19Z

No, it's not the same situation, but I still think that if you just stop replying to her, she'll stop accusing you of cyberstalking.

I agree that it's a pretty serious claim, albeit a somewhat imprecise one as the various definitions here attest to, and unless you're actually engaging in some of those acts, it's not right of her to use that term.

That said, you've made it clear that you reject her claim that you've been stalking her (and I'll note here that she used the much less insulting word of "following"), and she's made it clear that, regardless of what one calls it, she doesn't want you responding to her. If you choose to continue to do so, that's your prerogative. However, I don't think she's going to change her opinion about wanting your opinion, so as a reply to her, it's probably not furthering the goal of open discussion.

For the record, I'm "following" both of you and have been for a while, so I've seen a lot of the comments that have gone back and forth and have mostly tried to stay out of it. I'll do so again, unless you actually want my further opinion on this.

Ben Commented on Poll: More Think Obama Won't Be Able To Do Much To Improve The Economy by Greg Sargent

2008-11-24T22:24:13Z

I think the first name usage is primarily due to one thing: there's another famous Clinton still active on the stage, and I'm not aware of any other famous person named Hillary—at least not who's running in the same circles. (No offense intended, Hilarym.)

From that one thing flows a second: it's how she referred to herself during her campaign—Hillary '08 and all that.

Ben Commented on Letter to a Prop 8 supporter by IT

2008-11-24T22:09:30Z

I think Diet's point is not that they're not bigots (they clearly are), but that calling them bigots tends to prevent them from listening to anything else you're going to say.

It's the difference between Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson, and how they discuss atheism.