Just a Gwai Lo

Garry Wills (reviewing Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter): “the anti-life movement that calls itself pro-life protects ignorance by opposing family planning, sex education, and informed use of contraceptives, tactics that not only increase the likelihood of abortion but tragedies like AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The rigid system of the "pro-life" movement makes poverty harsher as well, with low minimum wages, opposition to maternity leaves, and lack of health services and insurance. In combination, these policies make ideal conditions for promoting abortion, as one can see from the contrast with countries that do have sex education and medical insurance.”

Timothy Noah on George W. Bush's anti-Dred Scott rant: “What was the meaning of this borderline-incoherent ramble? Apparently, it was an invisible high-five to the Christian right. "Google Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade," various readers instructed me, and damned if they weren't on to something. To the Christian right, "Dred Scott" turns out to be a code word for "Roe v. Wade." Even while stating as plain as day that he would apply "no litmus test," Bush was semaphoring to hard-core abortion opponents that he would indeed apply one crucial litmus test: He would never, ever, appoint a Supreme Court justice who condoned Roe.”

For an argument that the Supreme Court should not have taken on Roe v. Wade on as a case in the first place, see Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America by Jonathan Rauch. He says that the states should have experimented with abortion laws before having a national policy on it, just as the states should decide gay marriage law before the Supreme Court does.

• Tim Bray: “Every time I open the pages, I get a little thrill at the thought that I'm reading words written two and a half millenia ago.” I've been getting the same thrill, having read a few "classics" for class. And this after thinking that reading the classics was a waste of time, since we're swimming in a Western culture that constantly references it. Bray is talking about Herodotus, and I think I prefered Thucydides, both in style and content. Bray talks in the end about Herodotus that it's tempting to draw parallels to current events, but that it doesn't have much mileage. Worth checking out if you want a brief taste of one of the classics.
• George Lakoff argues that liberals and progressives have to change how they frame the debate. I'll admit to being seduced by the rhetoric of conservatism (a few years of reading The National Post, especially in its early days, was all it took). My dad is reporting some success in changing the culture of responses to industrial accidents: instead of emphazing that safety is a good thing—when companies hear, coming from a union, that safety is a good thing, the companies start to wonder as to the ulterior motive of the unions—my dad is trying to popularize the slogan "unsafe is unacceptable", unacceptable to all involved.
• But She's a Girl links to a program to get your life back into balance.
• Why Your Wife Won't Have Sex With You: who knew there was so much to talk about on that subject?
• There's no "birth" in partial-birth abortions. This applies to all polls: “I'd like to know how many of the people who answered that question understood exactly what they were being asked about.”

Barbara Kay on T-shirts with political slogans:

T-shirt messaging is such an efficient communications shortcut that I was halfway to thinking these were my kind of people, when the more attractive and dominant of the two women said: "... and the first thing I ask anyone I date is if they are pro-choice. If he is, great. If not, out he goes ... ." This statement was accompanied by an air-shovelling gesture, a pantomime of the hapless pro-life suitor's swift ejection into the void. The others nodded endorsement for her policy.

She was eavesdropping on a conversation in a public place, which, if I'm not reading a book or, far rarer, having a conversation with someone, is something I do all the time on the bus. It's hard, though, because for me to be able to listen in closely, I have to be maintaining eye contact, and maintaining eye contact is a pretty obvious signal that you're eavesdropping.

In the next paragraph, she makes a good point and then makes a very bad one.

At that point they were no longer my kind of people at all, but the very opposite: dogmatic ideologues resisting compromise on a divisive social issue. I wondered if, when she isn't campaigning against casinos, Ms. Pro-Abortion ("choice" doesn't cut it for me) wears her other opinions on her sleeve, chest or back. Given the militancy on abortion that I overheard, it's quite likely that she has an entire "issues" wardrobe.

Emphasis added. Sorry, nobody other than the criminally insane is "pro-abortion", which (at least to me) means one favours aborting every pregnancy. It's like that bit on The Simpsons, when Kang, the alien, took the form of Bob Dole in the 1996 Presidential election:

Abortions for all! [crowd boos]
Very well, abortions for none! [crowd boos]
Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others! [crowd cheers]

So anyway, that little bit ruined an otherwise good article on how political slogan t-shirts discourage dissent rather than encourage it.

Clearing out bookmarks (most-recently-read links at top; post gets moved to top as it gets updated):

• How To Win At The Dating Game by Jennifer Good: two things wrong. a) off the bat dating is conceptualized as a game and b) this quote: “if you truly wish your dating experiece to be successful, treat it as you would a job or an important project.” See? That's exactly what I'm talking about. If it feels like work, I'm not interested.
• Dad's Sad, Mad: Too Bad: Why dads don't count when it comes to abortion by Dahlia Lithwick: in line with my views on my abortion, i.e. it's not—and can never be—my decision.
• Bad Asian Girl (advice from Cary Tennis): Asian girl complains about her conservative parents. Tennis tells her to take a number.
• One hundred girls for every boy by Theresa Rusho: the author's alma mater is the same as a friend's, but to be honest, I forgot what I was searching for when I found the article. Also: reader responses.
• The Counterterrorist Myth: A former CIA operative explains why the terrorist Usama bin Ladin has little to fear from American intelligence by Reuel Marc Gerecht. Evidently published a couple months before Sept. 11, 2001.
• The Rise of Complex Terrorism By Thomas Homer-Dixon
• Among the Bourgeoisophobes: Why the Europeans and Arabs, each in their own way, hate America and Israel by David Brooks: “America [...] is the land of Bart Simpson, boy bands, boob jobs, and 'Baywatch.'”.
• Defusing nuclear terror: interesting article on the Nuclear Emergency Search Teams, and some of the bureaucratic problems emerging from a test run of a nuclear terrorist scenario.
• How NOT to Talk: I'm guilty of some of those, but I forget which ones.
• The New Criterion: bookmarked for the longest time because I thought I'd read the articles at some point. I was wrong.
• Tools - Jobs, Workers, Training and Careers: contains a link to Job Alert, which I thought I'd use. I was wrong.
• The Poutine, She's Delicious: lots of poutine-related links.
• The Cyber-nerds Guide to Dating: not really useful, since I don't really care anymore. There is also a /. article with links to dating for dorks.