Archive for June, 2006

Playing Gods

Posted June 28, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Those interested in the ethics of genetic screening of embryos should head over to hyper-textual ontology or Technoprogressive, where Robn’s started an interesting thread. I’ve already started commenting in the h-t o thread, so I’ll just point you over there and encourage you to join in.

Burning Issues

Posted June 28, 2006 By Dave Thomer

So the Senate has once again attempted to pass a Constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to pass a law against burning the American flag, and this time it came up one vote short. I will repost the following excerpt from the linked article without comment: “Is this the most important thing the Senate could […]

Nightcrawling

Posted June 24, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Looks like there’s a release date for Pete Yorn’s next album, called Nightcrawler – August 29. And it looks like you can listen to a song from the album on Yorn’s myspace page. Sounds pretty good, pretty typically Yorn, and as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Drowning in Paper

Posted June 24, 2006 By Dave Thomer

So I’m breaking in a new shredder because I busted the old one. No fault of the older machine, a very nice model by Fellowes, but of the operator who forgot to check his junk mail to make sure there wasn’t one of those fake credit cards in it before he put it through the […]

Blogging Dewey: Reality-Based Discourse

Posted June 20, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Nick Shay has a series of posts on Democrats’ approach to political discourse and his suggestion for a new approach. He draws heavily on Dewey, James, and other pragmatists in the later osts, but it’s probably worth checking out the whole thing. Shay’s basic argument is that Democrats appear to be too focused on “discovering […]

Took Him Long Enough

Posted June 19, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel held a news briefing today to try and remove his foot from his mouth a few days after he tried to defend the legislative pay hike that got many Pennsylvania voters riled up enough to toss a bunch of legislators in the recent primary. “I stand here today to acknowledge […]

Not Arthur Frelling Dent

Posted June 13, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Small rant to get off my chest before I either go to sleep or do something constructive. Earl sent me a copy of The Anthology at the End of the Universe, a Benbella “Smart Pop” book devoted to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Books. I found the book kind of uneven, but I […]

Not the Cheesiest Post Ever

Posted June 11, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Growing up my mom always bought American cheese from the supermarket deli, so that’s what I’ve been used to eating on my burgers and sandwiches for the last 25 years or so. But recently I started noticing that the stuff I was getting from the deli counter was labeled American cheese product. A quick check […]

Blogging Dewey: Meditation from Hong Kong

Posted June 8, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Before I begin, I’m going to ask a favor. Let us assume for the sake of argument that commentator Thomas Brewton will continue to refer to Dewey from time to time, that Google News will pick up these references, and that the Dewey that Brewton refers to will bear only the slightest resemblance to the […]

Bad Political Theater

Posted June 7, 2006 By Dave Thomer

I know that doing things for show is a time honored political tradition. And sometimes it’s a valid technique to raise an issue or highlight a stance. But from all indications, Republicans’ efforts to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage isn’t just a political stunt, it’s an ineffective political stunt. The Amendment has failed […]