Tuesday, December 28, 2004

FOXNews.com - Politics - Kentucky Governor's Execution Order Draws Fire

This doctor is in trouble because people are alleging that signing death warrants as governor violates the tenets of the hippocratic oath to which he is pledged as a physician. The governor says that he's just doing his duty as governor. I believe both sides are right. It is reasonable for certain classes of people to relinquish their right to the performance of certain acts when they undertake other duties. The judge or other law enforcer who agrees to follow the law in his rulings doesn't rule contrary to the law when he finds the law unjust, rather he resigns the bench. This is because he is pledged to uphold the law. The military chaplain agrees to not bear arms to preserve access and immunity as a noncombatant under the laws of war, though he does not believe bearing arms is morally wrong. If, in extremis, he finds it neccesary to take up arms, he loses his clerical immunity. The physician is pledged to uphold life above other ends and therefore shouldn't participate in its deliberate taking. If the governor believes it is neccesary for him to take up governance of this sort, he must resign his license. If he views his practice of medicine vocationally, he must resign his governorship and allow someone to take over who can execute the laws.

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Sam: where did you go?
Jeanetta: well... the power button is next to the enter key....

Thursday, December 23, 2004

W. Thomas Smith Jr. on Christmas & War on National Review Online:

"On December 22nd, German officers, under a flag of truce, delivered a rather long-winded message from Lt. Gen. Heinrich von Luttwitz to General McAuliffe at Bastogne. The message, demanding the Americans surrender, appealed to the 'well-known American humanity' to save the citizens of Bastogne from further suffering. McAuliffe was given two hours to reply.

Having no intention of surrendering, McAuliffe was initially at a loss for words. One of his aides remarked that the general's first comment upon receiving the surrender demand might be wholly appropriate. McAuliffe agreed and penned his now-famous response to the Germans. It simply read, 'NUTS.'

The message was then delivered by American Col. Joseph Harper to a group of German officers waiting in nearby woods. Harper handed the note to one of the Germans who read it and then looked at Harper in confusion.

'What does that mean?' the German asked. 'Is this affirmative or negative?'

Harper responded, 'It means you can all go to hell.'"
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | "The Phantom of the Opera":

"Now it can be told: Although the press has connivingly led us to believe otherwise, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joel Schumacher are really pseudonyms for two 11-year-old girls from Allentown, Pa., who, disgruntled because their parents wouldn't buy them canopy beds, decided to sit down and write themselves a musical, darn it. And they'd make a movie out of it, too, just you wait and see. 'The Phantom of the Opera' is the long-awaited result."

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Biting your tongue is bad, especially when you do it really hard and employ a lower canine.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

The American Spectator:

Protesting the secularization of Christmas in Colorado:


"The December 4 Post story noted that local resident 'Steve Schweitzberger carried a basket with a tiny baby Jesus doll inside that had a paper teardrop falling from its eye. The baby came with a sign that read, 'It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.''"

Monday, December 06, 2004

James Taranto:

The Committee to Preserve What?
Lawyer Lawrence Teeter represents Palestinian terrorist Sirhan Sirhan, who murdered Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Teeter "has gone to court to stop the demolition of the hotel where the late senator was shot dead, saying that there is evidence in its walls that can prove his client innocent," Reuters reports from Los Angeles. "Attorney Lawrence Teeter claims the 60-year-old Sirhan was set up as a dupe in the 1968 assassination, despite shooting at Kennedy in front of witnesses."

It's this next part that really got our attention: "Joining Teeter in the suit are the Assassination Archives and Research Center and the newly-formed Committee to Preserve Assassination Sites." They've got a committee for everything these days.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Man Bites Fox

"Performance artist Mark McGowan, who counts among his feats pushing a peanut along the road to Tony Blair's Downing street home with his nose, has eaten a fox, in protest at the public fixation with a government ban on fox hunting," Reuters reports from London:

He described the roast fox, which he ate in public, as quite tasty, although he admitted to nearly vomiting at times. "It was a bit like rack of lamb," he told Reuters on Wednesday. "The trouble was the retching noises from the other people in the room."

There's nothing more annoying than people who can't stop coughing during a performance.


Noting that the fox hunting ban in England is only a ban on hunting foxes with hounds, it is still legal to hunt (and eat if one is so inclined) them with guns. The ban is sillyness to appease TB's back benchers, but I doubt the country people really have the power to resist it.

(Hit tip to James Taranto).
Still looking for a permanent job, because I didn't have one before. My current one is an internship which ends in mid-january (and only pays 50 dollars a day).

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Still looking for a permanent job. :(
So here's a return post for y'all. I've simplified the template post-election and post-baseball season and for simplicity's sake as well.