The Blog with No Name

About three months ago I read John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. It was brought to my attention by numerous references over at Instapundit, and after hearing enough positive things about it I decided to read it. I actually purchased a hardcover copy off of Amazon. I’m finding that blogs have enormous persuasive power with me when it comes to music, movies, and books. If a blog I read and respect has positive comments about something, I almost always make an effort to at least check it out online.

Old Man’s War is Scalzi’s first foray into science-fiction, and he makes a pretty good showing for himself. The main premise behind the story is in the future the human species has expanded far beyond Earth but is locked in unending mortal combat with alien species, grabbing as many star systems as possible. In this future, the soldiers are not the youth but the old. Through a variety of high-tech bodily upgrades and enhancements each person is transformed into a super-human soldier equipped with stronger muscles, a brain computer, and ramped up sensory perception. Of course, the soldiers are then trained to be the ultimate killing machine so that they might, just might, have a chance to survive when fighting aliens. And the aliens in Old Man’s War are vicious and merciless. The reader follows the hero of the book from the time he first enlists at 75, through training, numerous battles, and finally to the last epic battle to capture a devastating piece of alien technology.

As a nerd, I really enjoyed reading this book, which was proven by the fact that I read it in 8 hours and on top of my school readings. The technology described in the book has a lot of wow factor. Many times I felt the way I did when I read the first chapter of Starship Troopers. There are some really cool toys in future, and I want them. For me, the universe of the book is the best part about it. Everything from the technology to the aliens to the environments were fun to read about. And that’s what science-fiction is about right? Fun? I think so. I just want a gripping plot that propels me from Point A to Point B. As long as it does that I can overlook other short comings in the story.

Scalzi’s writing style isn’t anything to write home about, but I don’t read science-fiction for the superb writing. But I have a soft spot for Scalzi anyway. He blogs, has an iMac, and gave free electronic copies of Old Man’s War to the troops. This guy is cool and his books are cool too. I’ll definitely be picking up the sequel to Old Man’s War.

I now have OS X 10.4 Tiger installed on both my laptop and desktop. I backed up all my important stuff before I did the upgrade, which is always a smart thing to do. The install went quickly and smoothly. No problems yet except that my virtual desktop app is busted in Tiger. I miss my 3 desktops. There are a lot of nifty features, and of course Dashboard is as cool as I thought it would be. In fact I’m making this post from a Dashboard widget. See:

Counting the final paper I wrote, I’ve finished 3 of 4 finals. Today I did my con law final, which it seems nearly everybody struggled with. I think I put it well when I bungled my metaphors, as I often do, and said, “It’s all bridge under the water now.”

That’s right. It’s a bridge under the water.

Only have contracts in a week. . .

I never thought I’d do this, but I’m linking to Daily Kos. My dear friend Kyle sent me the link for this very interesting, though long, diary post about coal mining. The author spends a good deal of time establishing his bona fides before he launches into his discussion of the coal mining industry. He expresses some concern that he might lose his job for what he is says, but I think this is a little overwrought. I don’t think he wrote anything especially damning. But then again, maybe the bosses of coal mining are especially vindictive.

Everybody knows that strip mining is an ugly, polluting business. At least that’s the common wisdom of the day, but apparently this is incorrect. Today coal mining operations are very careful about repairing what they destroy:

Reclamation is meticulous, so well done I don’t even expect you to believe it. In a typical situation, the topsoil and a good part of the subsoil are removed from the area and stored before mining begins. Large surface rocks that are part of the natural landscape are also removed. A biological census determines the species mix for every acre of land to be mined. When mining is complete, the surface is returned to a condition as close as possible to the original contours. Streambeds are replaced layer by layer. Topsoil is restored. Those surface rocks are put back just where they were. A plant mix that hits the original species mix down to the most esoteric weed is put in place. In fact, the mining industry keeps several greenhouses in business to produce everything from twisted pinyon pine to herbs that are sacred to Hopi healers. The reclamation is, by far, the most expensive cost in surface mining. The people involved are almost to a person folks with degrees in wildlife biology, fisheries, agriculture, and related fields. These people think of themselves as environmentalists. They’re good at their work. The results are nothing less than amazing.

I can guarantee you, absolutely guarantee, that if I put you in a surface mining area of Wyoming or New Mexico or Arizona, you would not be able to tell me what land had been mined, and what land had not. I know you still don’t believe it. But I tried.

Frankly, I found this to be almost unbelievable. It’s hard for me to imagine that this actually happens. In my mind strip mining goes hand in hand with vast “otherworldly” deserts completely devoid of life, not completely restored forest vales.

Also the days of cave-ins, black lung, and other dangerous work conditions are gone. Now, coal mines don’t use dynamite, have ventilation systems that rival office buildings, and are much safer than many other jobs. Meanwhile, coal power plants have only gotten cleaner even as they increased output. The amount of pollutants coal plants pump into the air is a tiny fraction of what it was in the 1970’s.

But there is a catch to all of this, and this is what’s wrong with the coal mining industry:

The coal industry has done all those neat things. They’ve made it safer. Made it cleaner. Reclaimed the land. Why did they do it? Because we friggin’ made them do it, that’s why.

. . .

Every evidence is that they can mine coal safely, they can mine coal without destroying the land, and they can clean up emissions. They can make a profit at it, too, as the major companies are breaking all records while meeting these requirements.

But they won’t lift one damn finger unless we make them. Without regulation, they would backslide in a heartbeat, and without more regulation, they won’t take another step.

While this isn’t surprising to me in the least it is saddening. I believe our system of economics is the most viable system in use today, but one of the great costs of capitalism is the devaluation of morals and values. Of course many, perhaps most, businesses are ethical and moral in a general sense, but there are businesss that by their very nature make it easy to dispense with the ethics in favor of the profits. So even though I’m usually opposed to governmental regulation of the economy I do realize that because of human nature it is required in some situations. I think the regulation of coal mining provides a good example of governmental regulation gone right.

Today I did some studying outside while at campus, and I took a quick walk around the campus to check out all the goods Willamette had to offer (not a lot). Along the way I snapped some pictures.

This is the sweetest piece of grass on campus:

Some ducks were sleeping in the shade along the creek that flows through campus:

Here’s a shot of the main area the undergrads hang out. That’s the student union and administrative building in the background. Note the signs . . . obviously a product of a fine liberal education.

You can see the Oregon State capitol with it’s golden dude from campus:

Here’s the main entrance of the law building. Inside lurks indescribable evil. It is a training ground of lechery, debauchery, illicit relations, carnality, and legality!

And finally, my favorite, even on beautiful spring days some people can be depressed and full of angst:

Larger versions of most of these can be found at my gallery.

While researching for the final paper of my lawmaking process class, I discovered some interesting bits of information that ultimately changed my position on the current judicial nomination/filibuster brouhaha. My opinion on the matter before doing my research was pretty similar to the position taken in this National Review editorial: the Republicans can change the rules with a really lame move, but they definitely shouldn’t. This post is going to be long and probably pretty boring as it will essentially be my paper highly condensed. For those who care about this issue, click to proceed.

(more…)

I have faith that someday we will no longer have to buy sympathy cards.

Bob thinks the comic Ziggy must go. I wholeheartedly agree. What comic do you think needs to go? The all new and improved Poison Picker awaits your decision . . .

I still have two more weeks of school left. Three tests over two weeks. Sounds easy huh? I wish.

I turned in that paper with 5 minutes to spare. I guess I just started too darn early. I would have had even more time to spare if Word hadn’t crashed just as I was finishing up one last paragraph that I was adding for clarity. So, I had to retype that with only 15 minutes left to finish it, print it, and run it up stairs. It ended up being 27 pages long. The target goal was 25 pages, so this is one of the very few papers when I actually went longer than I had to. I consider myself to be a pretty concise writer, so it’s really rare I write more than the minimum necessary.

This was also probably one of the first persuasive papers I wrote that changed my own mind. Before writing this paper I thought the filibuster was A Good Thing and shouldn’t be changed. Now, I’m pretty convinced that it is a A Bad Thing, and there’s a very strong case to be made for a general filibuster reform regardless of the current partisan conflict over it. I’ll get a post up on what changed my mind and some comments on the common misconceptions plauging the current debate.

Tomorrow is my last day of classes for the first year of law school. I only have one class, and it’s a review session that could be as short as 15 minutes, depending on student’s questions. Unfortunately, I have a long paper due at 5 pm tomorrow. Today my classmates who know about my severe procrastination habit were asking me if I had started yet. Of course I had! Though I didn’t tell any of them how far I had gotten (not very far). Somehow it got out amongst my classmates that I did all my memos the night before they were due, so they ask me how I did it. I just tell them I’m a slave to the last minute and I’m not afraid of all-nighters. I’m sure they all write me off as one of those who sets the low end of the curve. Yeah, well somebody’s gotta do it! Har har. Look, I’ve tried to do work early. I just cannot do it. It’s like an impossibility for me to get anything done before The Last Minute. I will do just about anything to to avoid doing the thing I’m supposed to do. I’ll do dishes! I’ll clean my room! I’ll tinker with my blog! I’ll stare at my computer! Anything! Anything but the Assignment! My parents did their best to instill in me the work ethic of “work before play”, but I think that part of my character was coated with teflon.

Anyway, I got this paper almost licked. Compared to my appellate brief, this thing is a breeze to write. Writing the appellate brief was like trying to squeeze blood from a brick, but the only blood that flowed was the blood I sweated. But for this paper, things are different. Earlier today I was pumping out about 2 pages an hour. Things have slowed down since then, but I basically know what I’m going to say for the rest of the paper. Besides, I have like 17 hours to finish it. Not a problem. Here’s a little known piece of our history I discovered during my research. I find it remarkable.

In 1908, Senator Robert Lafollete began filibustering a currency bill, which he suspected was a power grab by the rich. During his eighteen hours holding the floor in the stifling heat of the Senate chamber, including an all-night speech made necessary by a parliamentary ruling that prohibited him from using quorum calls to get a moment’s rest, LaFollette sustained himself with turkey sandwiches and eggnog from the Senate restaurant. After taking a large swallow from a particular glass of eggnog, he rejected it as adulterated. And indeed it was; the glass was laced with enough ptomaine to kill him. The ptomaine he had swallowed made him quite ill, but he managed by forcing roll calls to escape for a few minutes of respite, and he continued his speech for another eight hours. The filibuster was ultimately lost when Senator Gore, who was blind, yielded the floor as prearranged to a colleague, who, unbeknownst to Gore, had just stepped out to the cloakroom.

Earlier today I realized I’m going to have a huge rant post after I finish finals. I have a lot of bile to spill about law school, and, since this blog is my cathartic muse, it’s all going to end up here. Well, the stuff that’s fit to print will anyway.

The President of my alma mater is a little miffed he wasn’t chosen as the next Pope, but he was inspired to invite Ann Coulter, a Time magazine covergirl, to SPU’s campus. However, Ms. Coulter had some misgivings:

Inspired by Ratzinger’s conservative ways, I decided to bring Ann Coulter to our beloved Campus. She said she’d melt if she went this far into a liberal city like Seattle. So instead she is going to send a test clone to see if levels of liberalism are safe for her here.

So, good ole’ Phil Dawg is trying to put her fears to rest by enrolling a clone of Ann Coulter. Hmm . . . I knew there was a reason I was chanting “By the power of Grayskull!” all day.

A new pope has been selected. I wonder how many apopalyptic Protestants are already trying to figure out how his name adds up to 666 (or 999 if you’re really hip) and denouncing him as the capital-A Anti-Christ.

UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for people to start bemoaning the choice of the conclave. Apparently the new pope, who is 78, is too conservative and will continue the Chruch’s teachings on birth-control, abortion, homosexuality, etc. God forbid the new Pope from standing up for tradition and core beliefs!

I’m not Catholic. Indeed, much of my education could be called anti-Catholic, and my doctrinal beliefs are probably the farthest one can get from current Catholic doctrine while still being Christian. I disagree with their doctrines, I’m wary of their rites, and I laugh at their funny hats. This is why I choose to be a Protestant and refuse to get my boxers in a bunch if I don’t agree with the Pope. I suppose this situation is similar to the selection of Dean for DNC chair. I disagree with his doctrines, I’m wary of his rites, and I laugh at his funny quotes. But this is why I’m not a Democrat, and I don’t care he’s the chairman.

UPDATE 2: Behold the latest cover of The Sun. Pretty inflammatory, huh? The Hitler Youth part, which seems to be common knowledge now, refers to the brief time when Ratzinger was in Hitler Youth. But James Na at Guns and Butter Blog points out an article in the Times of India that should make his Hitler Youth stint a non issue. At the very end of the article it explains:

He joined the Hitler Youth aged 14, shortly after membership was made compulsory in 1941.

He quickly won a dispensation on account of his training at a seminary.

“Ratzinger was only briefly a member of the Hitler Youth and not an enthusiastic one,” concluded John Allen, his biographer.

Just remember that when somebody says the Pope is an ex-Nazi. The real story is when he was a teenager he was forced into Hitler Youth, and he got out quickly because he was a man of the cloth. I do suspect this interesting tidbit will fuel the fiery imaginations of the Protestants I originally was wondering about.

On another note, as discussed in the comments, one of the perplexing things about Ratzinger’s appointment is his age. At 78 he seems destined to be a mere placeholder Pope until the rest of the Catholic leadership figure out what they really want to do. However, back in 1958 Pope John XXIII was appointed to the papacy when he was 77. What did he do? He convened Vatican II, which is probably the single most important event in the Catholic Church’s history in the past couple of centuries. Another cool thing that Pope John XXIII did was he excommunicated Castro. So, maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to write off Pope Benedict XVI as a placeholder Pope.

Okay, I’m taking another crack at solving my long standing comment issue. I’ve re-enabled comments to go through without the Steve’s Super Awesome Stamp of Approval. I grabbed a new version of a file from a nightly of WordPress. Let’s see if it works.

What should be happening is that commentor’s with previously approved comments get automatic approval on new comments. N00b’s comments get flagged for moderation and don’t appear until they get the SSASoA. To do this, WordPress checks the email address you enter, so if you don’t want to have you comment approved by me, keep using the same email address.

“We need to kick the money changers out of the temple and restore moral values to America.” — DNC Chair Howard Dean in a speech in Florida.
Now, just think if a Republican had said this. Undoubtedly he would have been branded a theocrat who was hell-bent — haha! — on tearing down the walls between church and state. How dare he even think about forcing his morals on us! There’s no temple! It’s a public square!

In light of some of Dean’s other comments I think it’s safe to say the Religious Right now have control over the Far Left.

(via The Corner)

An interesting post over at the Volokh Conspiracy reveals the dark underbelly of the Supreme Court. It starts with Justice Blackmun’s heavy reliance on clerks to write his opinions, leaving only cite checking for him to do. It also shows some of the viciousness of one of Blackmun’s clerks to other justices.

Just goes to show that even in the rarified, lofty perches of our Highest Court there is gritty dirt to be found.