Posts by matt

Environmentalism is one of those crazy issues where the “conservative” position is the most progressive. “Liberal” environmentalists go on and on about the need to preserve the status quo, while “conservative” corporatists want to dash headlong into all manner of genetic experimentation and wildlife restructuring without considering the potential effects.

I started this article because I thought it might give me an insight into the mind of a moderate, someone who balances both sides. It’s about Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, a self-proclaimed rational environmentalist, who currently advocates for the genetic modification of food and against regulation of things like PVC production.

It’s an interesting article, but I didn’t come away thinking of Patrick Moore as a moderate, even though the article was quite sympathetic to him. He is not well-liked by environmentalists (a former Greenpeace director calls him a “corporate whore, an eco-Judas, a lowlife bottom-sucking parasite who has grown rich from sacrificing environmentalist principles for plain old money”). And he is apparently quite well-supported by organizations who probably don’t have the best interests of the planet at heart. So I take Moore’s brand of environmentalism with a heaping teaspoon of salt. But I’m also not very swayed by opponents of GM food.

Basically, I’m just confused.

Via Kevin McAuliffe’s MetaBlog II, I want to also take this opportunity to point out that the following sentence appears in an AP story:

“The ingenious album reconfigures the trippy Beatles rock to jibe with the Jay-Z’s rough acapella raps.”

I won’t even comment on the fact that Jay-Z now apparently requires an article before his name. (Oh wait.) But I will say, for the record, that it’s spelt “a cappella.”

Don’t be snarky. I know how “spelt” is spelt.

Kevin Drum and Robin were both philosophizing today about The Bachelorette and illusions of attachment. Robin, apparently, was taken in by the show; he believed for a few moments that there was real devotion forming. Then, one of the Bachelorette’s suitors proposed, and the thing was so insincere and hammy that the facade was shattered.

I actually think that real emotion does happen on these shows. I really believe that the contestants or whatever you call them feel “in love” by the end of it. Their version of “in love” is strange, synthetic, and fleeting, but it’s not imaginary. I would argue that the same thing happened in high school when I went away for a week or two for special programs and retreats and whatnot. I’ll never forget the NYLC in Washington, D.C., specifically, although this happened in micro all throughout high school.

A few hundred students attended the National Young Leaders Conference, but they split us up into groups of 20 or so for the week. We had field trips and learned about democracy and crafted bills and elected people and whatnot. By the end of the week, we were Frnds4Evr. This group of 20 people was just the tightest, most amazing, most meant-for-each-other group of buddies the world had ever seen, and these relationships would never die.

Oh wait.

Eight years after that week was over, I still remember Katie Sparnecht, and dancing with Pat Germann on the last night, and quietly wanting this Polish guy Dave Swaintek, who was not-so-quietly hooking up with this girl Ashley. I remember Mormon Will, and my soft-spoken friend Mike. I knew these folks for (I think) nine days. There was enough genuine attachment there that vivid pictures of these folks are stuck in my minds. But the friendships were strange, synthetic, and fleeting.

Hasn’t that ever happened to you?

Go! (Via MetaFilter.)

TODAY’S LUNCHTIME QUESTION: The Rocky Mountain Progressive Network has delivered a fidelity pledge to lawmakers supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment. To preserve the sanctity of marriage, the legislators must promise that they will not and have not cheated on their partners.

Say you’re a newspaper managing editor of a paper with unlimited resources. The executive editor comes up to you and says she’s got this idea for an investigation: How many senators are cheating on their spouses? A database of how much fidelity you can track down in the most hallowed chamber of Congress. You can use this information as you wish; perhaps cross-referencing it with those who’ve pledged to support the FMA, supposedly out of respect for the sanctity of marriage.

What do you say?

In case you’ve been hiding under a nipple disc, I’ll break the news to you: President Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage today.

I, for one, am quite glad.

See, people (e.g. our dear President) keep on tossing around these phrases — “activist judges,” “activist courts,” “judicial activism.” The words don’t much mean anything; an “activist judge” is for all intents and purposes one whose judgment you disagree with. In this case, the charge of “judicial activism” is the last refuge of a group of zealots bent on imposing its dominance over a minority. The will of the majority is being subverted!!, they say. Four judges in Massachusetts, five judges on the Supreme Court, two judges in California are all defying the desires of the people!!

Fortunately for civil rights in America, judges don’t represent the people, they represent the law.

Am I the only one who’s never seen WatchBlog? It’s three political blogs side by side, one blog edited by a Democrat, one by a Republican, and one by an Independent. Who knows, maybe I haven’t heard about it because it isn’t any good, but it’s an intriguing idea. Unfortunately, the giant three-column wall of text is pretty unreadable to me.

Psych!!

I will not see “The Passion.” Sounds like a pretty awful time. But, to complete my trifecta of utterly trivial posts, I just wanted to say that if Mel Gibson truly wanted to immerse Christians in an understanding of what Jesus suffered through before death, he wouldn’t have made a movie, he’d have made a video game.

For anyone who wants a really pretty free font, or for anyone who doubts they exist, try Gentium. It was made as part of the Master of Arts for Typeface Design at the University of Reading, and is free. It prints as pretty as it reads on screen, and the entire point of it is to have full language support. (Via Ask MetaFilter.)

There’s no reason for me to link to this story, other than taking yet another opportunity to point out that Camille Paglia is Cruella deVille. She is the scourge of all womankind and should be eaten by grues.