Current Affairs

The NYT this morning has run a story about a former prison inmate's lawsuit against prison officials. The suit alleges that the officials violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment by refusing to protect him. I try to keep this site reasonably urbane,

Galveston Island has many (hundreds?) of "stilt" homes. These are luxurious homes built off the ground. They rest on huge concrete stilts. The elevation allows water to run underneath them. I wonder how they're faring today? I don't think the picture below "does

This is good, but did you arrest the Communists in Beijing that set up the policy that resulted in these abuses? > Several Chinese health workers have reportedly been arrested or sacked over claims that they forced people to have abortions or sterilisations. > China's state-owned media

The Washington Post is snickering about the FBI's renewed attempt to stomp on obscenity. It's the standard approach: (1) Indicate that porn has become a huge priority for the FBI, (2) contrast it with a more important issue (here, the need to defend the country against

Interesting piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education. I distrust any analysis that divides people into two classes, but such an approach is often useful to understand a new way of understanding something. > Clarke divides people into probabilists and possibilists. Much modern scientific and governmental policy about disasters, he

I don't often have a chance to link to Alan Dershowitz or the other leftwing fanatics at The Huffington Post (this promising blog that I thought might give a balanced look at things has become relentlessly leftist). But this was a good one: > [An Amnesty International] report

> More women – particularly those in their late teens and 20s – are experimenting with bisexuality or at least feel more comfortable reporting same-sex encounters, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050915/ap_on_go_ot/