July 23rd, 2008

D.C. continues to trample on civil liberties

Reason Magazine, in an column called Excuse Me While I Get My Gun, reviews Washington D.C.’s continued attempt to thwart Americans’ right to self-defense. I see that Congress is abdicating its Constitutional power to govern the nation’s capitol.

I suppose that’s because Congress if full of fascists who want to unconstitutionally strip Americans of all their rights.

July 23rd, 2008

Confederate Yankee: Mac & P.C.

Why can’t real debates be this entertaining?

July 21st, 2008

New Belgium Brewing and Elysian to work together

Charlie Papazian, the Beer Examiner, reports that New Belgium Brewing and Elysian are going to begin to brew on each others’ premises.

July 21st, 2008

Chemical breakthrough turns sawdust into biofuel

Cool: Chemical breakthrough turns sawdust into biofuel.

Please, sir, can I have some more?

July 20th, 2008

39 years ago

Man first landed on the moon. That was a great accomplishment.

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But the fact we haven’t been back in 36 years is simply a travesty.

July 18th, 2008

Orion spaceship missing NASAs mark

Florida Today is reporting that the Orion spacecraft is too heavy, and that NASA will be missing their target launch date.

July 18th, 2008

JibJab

I just watched the new JibJab video, and despite all the people saying they liked it, I just found it kind of blah.

July 18th, 2008

Cool photos: Jupiter’s Red Spot chews up and spits out a storm

Discover Magazine has an article with cool photographs of Jupiter’s Red Spot chewing up and spitting out a storm.

July 18th, 2008

Moon transits Earth

Check out this QuickTime™ animation of the Moon making a transit of the Earth. The animation is a composite of photographs of the Earth taken by the Deep Impact spacecraft conducting its EPOXI mission. The animation is courtesy of NASA

July 17th, 2008

For those who may be curious…

For those who may be curious, yes. Yes, I did watch Rush on The Colbert Report last night.

Here’s a video of some of the show’s hype:

And here’s a video of Alex, Neil, and Geddy talking to Stephen and then playing “Tom Sawyer”:

July 15th, 2008

Fat Tire

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I tried New Belgium’s Fat Tire Amber Ale for the first time last night. It had a very strong, very pleasant floral hop aroma, but there was very little bitterness to the taste. The copper-colored brew had a smooth, substantial mouthfeel, and a simple but not unpleasant taste. I quite liked it.

I drank one of those 22 oz. “bomber” bottles. I had rather disturbing dreams last night.

July 15th, 2008

Welcome to the police state

Brendan Loy has a good blog post about the Tennessee man arrested for “unlawful photography” after photographing cop on public highway.

I hope Mr. Conover has a really good lawyer. The unnamed sheriff’s deputy, and the Johnson County sheriff’s office, need to be held accountable for their crimes.

July 14th, 2008

Ezra Levant calls on Congress to put Canada on the watch list of human rights abusers

Levant to Congress: put Canada on the watch list of human rights abusers.

An excerpt:

In other words, Canadian human rights commissions — secular government organizations — are prosecuting religious fatwas. It’s a soft jihad against any criticism of radical Islam. It’s called “lawfare”, and it’s a greater danger to our western values of freedom, religious pluralism and the separation of church and state than the hard jihad of terrorism is. Even if targets like Maclean’s eventually “win”, they lose; the process is the punishment – and the chill affects everyone else.

Canadian human rights commissions, however, are not respectful of the sensitivities of all religions. Less politically correct faiths are regularly prosecuted by them. This May, an Alberta pastor named Stephen Boissoin was given a lifetime gag order, never to say anything critical of homosexuality – not in a church sermon, not even in private e-mails. As well, in what can only be called a Maoist verdict, he has been ordered to renounce his religious beliefs, and to publish a self-denunciation in the local newspaper.

This is Canada we’re talking about. Not Iran, not China, not Cuba.

It’s a good column. Read the whole thing.

July 14th, 2008

The end of an era

Anheuser-Busch being sold to InBev for $52B - Yahoo News

July 11th, 2008

St. Benedict of Nursia, Patron of Europe and Father of Western Monasticism

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Almighty and everlasting God, your precepts are the wisdom of a loving Father: Give us grace, following the teaching and example of your servant Benedict, to walk with loving and willing hearts in the school of the Lord’s service; let your ears be open to our prayers; and prosper with your blessing the work of our hands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Update: Here’s a link to Pope St. Gregory the Great’s Hagiography of Benedict (Book II of the Dialogues).