Ever wonder what legal Hispanic immigrants to the United States think about illegal immigration? Fox News asked a few:
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Hyperlink Test
Calvin Freiburger Online’s new home.
Introducing CFO 2.0
I’ve been away from the blogosphere for a while. College responsibilities have taken center stage for the past couple months, and the times I did try to post anything more than a video or a few words, Blogger.com has been less than cooperative. But I’m happy to announce that the blogging will resume in earnest, at CFO’s new home, WordPress! My Blogger posts will still be available here, but from now on, all my new material will be posted at rightcal.wordpress.com!
Right-to-Life Alert
Wisconsin Right to Life is asking for your support in signing a petition against Madison Surgery Center’s desire to begin performing late-term abortions, and against subsidizing them with patients’ fees.
"Truthers to the left of me, truthers to the right"
“I believe Trig was born to Sarah Palin. I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. I believe fire can melt steel and that bin Laden’s jihadi crew — not Bush and Cheney — perpetrated mass murder on 9/11. What kind of kooky conspiracist does that make me?”
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Good News: "Hannity & Colmes" to Suck 50% Less
The bad news, of course, is the improvement will only last until Fox News finds someone to replace Alan Colmes (assuming, of course, they don’t opt for The Hannity Factor…).
Hypocrisy? Nope
In response to my last post, a previously-banned commenter submitted a link to a WorldNetDaily article about the American Family Association’s successful efforts to pressure McDonald’s out of supporting the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. His point (delivered ever-so-charmingly, of course) was apparently that our side does it too, so what right do you have to complain?
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There’s a big difference, though, and a pretty obvious one. AFA organized a boycott. They spread awareness of McDonald’s policies to which they objected, and persuaded people to do business elsewhere. In contrast, eHarmony’s critics threatened them with litigation, backed by the Attorney General of the state of New Jersey. The McDonald’s case was ultimately resolved by McDonald’s own customers making clear what they expected out of a business to which their hard-earned money was going, whereas, in the eHarmony case, one man decided to use the force of law to bludgeon them into submission. If you can’t see any difference here, you really need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
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There’s a big difference, though, and a pretty obvious one. AFA organized a boycott. They spread awareness of McDonald’s policies to which they objected, and persuaded people to do business elsewhere. In contrast, eHarmony’s critics threatened them with litigation, backed by the Attorney General of the state of New Jersey. The McDonald’s case was ultimately resolved by McDonald’s own customers making clear what they expected out of a business to which their hard-earned money was going, whereas, in the eHarmony case, one man decided to use the force of law to bludgeon them into submission. If you can’t see any difference here, you really need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
eHarmony Surrenders to Gay Mafia
Thugs, dirty thugs. I don’t want to EVER hear another liberal pay lip service to freedom:
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Online dating site eHarmony will create a service for same-sex matching in a settlement of a 2005 complaint that the company’s failure to offer such a service was discriminatory.
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Under terms of the agreement with the New Jersey attorney general’s office, eHarmony Inc. will start the service, called Compatible Partners, by March 31.
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“With the launch of the Compatible Partners site, our policy is to welcome all single individuals who are genuinely seeking long-term relationships,” said Antone Johnson, eHarmony vice president of legal affairs.
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The company and its founder, Neil Clark Warren, admit no wrongdoing or liability.
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“Even though we believed that the complaint resulted from an unfair characterization of our business, we ultimately decided it was best to settle this case with the attorney general, since litigation outcomes can be unpredictable,” eHarmony attorney Theodore B. Olson said.
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Under the settlement’s terms, eHarmony will post photos of successful same-sex couple matches on the company’s Web site and in promotional material. The company has also agreed to revise statements on its Web sites, handbooks and other publications to indicate that it does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
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The settlement also requires eHarmony to pay plaintiff Eric McKinley $5,000 and to pay the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights $50,000 to cover administrative expenses.
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I have an idea: why don’t we make a list of all the gay dating sites out there, and start pressuring them, under threat of litigation, to start catering to straight romances as well? Answer: because we understand that they’re not our websites & businesses. Too bad the other side of the spectrum doesn’t share that respect for liberty, and that the folks at eHarmony weren’t willing to fight for their rights.
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Online dating site eHarmony will create a service for same-sex matching in a settlement of a 2005 complaint that the company’s failure to offer such a service was discriminatory.
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Under terms of the agreement with the New Jersey attorney general’s office, eHarmony Inc. will start the service, called Compatible Partners, by March 31.
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“With the launch of the Compatible Partners site, our policy is to welcome all single individuals who are genuinely seeking long-term relationships,” said Antone Johnson, eHarmony vice president of legal affairs.
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The company and its founder, Neil Clark Warren, admit no wrongdoing or liability.
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“Even though we believed that the complaint resulted from an unfair characterization of our business, we ultimately decided it was best to settle this case with the attorney general, since litigation outcomes can be unpredictable,” eHarmony attorney Theodore B. Olson said.
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Under the settlement’s terms, eHarmony will post photos of successful same-sex couple matches on the company’s Web site and in promotional material. The company has also agreed to revise statements on its Web sites, handbooks and other publications to indicate that it does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
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The settlement also requires eHarmony to pay plaintiff Eric McKinley $5,000 and to pay the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights $50,000 to cover administrative expenses.
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I have an idea: why don’t we make a list of all the gay dating sites out there, and start pressuring them, under threat of litigation, to start catering to straight romances as well? Answer: because we understand that they’re not our websites & businesses. Too bad the other side of the spectrum doesn’t share that respect for liberty, and that the folks at eHarmony weren’t willing to fight for their rights.
Principled & Productive National Discourse, or a Culture of Grievance-Mongering?
Here we have another profile in sleaze from the Atheist Ethicist. Today the object of his ire is a column by the American Spectator’s Melanie Phillips, who argues:
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I see this financial breakdown, moreover, as being not merely a moral crisis but the monetary expression of the broader degradation of our values – the erosion of duty and responsibility to others in favour of instant gratification, unlimited demands repackaged as ‘rights’ and the loss of self-discipline. And the root cause of that erosion is ‘militant atheism’ which, in junking religion, has destroyed our sense of anything beyond our material selves and the here and now and, through such hyper-individualism, paved the way for the onslaught on bedrock moral values expressed through such things as family breakdown and mass fatherlessness, educational collapse, widespread incivility, unprecedented levels of near psychopathic violent crime, epidemic drunkenness and drug abuse, the repudiation of all authority, the moral inversion of victim culture, the destruction of truth and objectivity and a corresponding rise in credulousness in the face of lies and propaganda — and intimidation and bullying to drive this agenda into public policy.
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Alonzo, in his Herculean struggle against “anti-atheist bigotry,” responds with an analogy to scapegoating Jews for society’s problems, which “had some very ugly consequences” (I seem to recall a term for this sort of thing—I guess it only applies to them there pro-life yahoos…), a claim that Phillips’ words are “trying to promote hatred and bigotry of” atheists (predictably, he doesn’t bother to actually assemble a case that her words constitute anything of the sort; he just assumes it as a given), and whiny outrage that she isn’t “fighting for her job.”
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Once again we see that our hero’s casual acquaintance with truth (or just sloppy reading skills; take your pick) strikes again. Look back at Phillips’ column, and you’ll see she talks specifically about “militant atheism” (geez, she even put it in quotes), and goes on to explain what she means by that—a specific mindset, a specific strain of atheism. As I’ve said before, public consideration of atheism’s (or any religion’s, for that matter) intellectual and moral merits is not bigotry, because religious belief and lack thereof are prisms through which we see the world, with ramifications relevant to society. Clearly, Phillips was not blaming the average skeptic for the financial breakdown; she was making the point that the expansion of a particular mentality in society has had a detrimental effect.
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I see this financial breakdown, moreover, as being not merely a moral crisis but the monetary expression of the broader degradation of our values – the erosion of duty and responsibility to others in favour of instant gratification, unlimited demands repackaged as ‘rights’ and the loss of self-discipline. And the root cause of that erosion is ‘militant atheism’ which, in junking religion, has destroyed our sense of anything beyond our material selves and the here and now and, through such hyper-individualism, paved the way for the onslaught on bedrock moral values expressed through such things as family breakdown and mass fatherlessness, educational collapse, widespread incivility, unprecedented levels of near psychopathic violent crime, epidemic drunkenness and drug abuse, the repudiation of all authority, the moral inversion of victim culture, the destruction of truth and objectivity and a corresponding rise in credulousness in the face of lies and propaganda — and intimidation and bullying to drive this agenda into public policy.
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Alonzo, in his Herculean struggle against “anti-atheist bigotry,” responds with an analogy to scapegoating Jews for society’s problems, which “had some very ugly consequences” (I seem to recall a term for this sort of thing—I guess it only applies to them there pro-life yahoos…), a claim that Phillips’ words are “trying to promote hatred and bigotry of” atheists (predictably, he doesn’t bother to actually assemble a case that her words constitute anything of the sort; he just assumes it as a given), and whiny outrage that she isn’t “fighting for her job.”
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Once again we see that our hero’s casual acquaintance with truth (or just sloppy reading skills; take your pick) strikes again. Look back at Phillips’ column, and you’ll see she talks specifically about “militant atheism” (geez, she even put it in quotes), and goes on to explain what she means by that—a specific mindset, a specific strain of atheism. As I’ve said before, public consideration of atheism’s (or any religion’s, for that matter) intellectual and moral merits is not bigotry, because religious belief and lack thereof are prisms through which we see the world, with ramifications relevant to society. Clearly, Phillips was not blaming the average skeptic for the financial breakdown; she was making the point that the expansion of a particular mentality in society has had a detrimental effect.
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Right or wrong, it’s not bigotry, but a debatable sociological proposition based on her worldview and observations. Any punk with a keyboard and an Internet connection can call those with whom he disagrees names, or wish their careers were in jeopardy. It takes another kind of man entirely to engage an argument head-on.
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But the Atheist Ethicist, it would seem, is interested in no such thing. He’s not interested in what Melanie Phillips actually said, but in grievance-mongering. According to the Alonzo Fyfe standard, it’s apparently not possible to criticize any aspect of atheism, any sub-group or sub-mindset within atheism, and not have it seen as bigotry against the entire atheist community. The state of public discourse in this country is already abysmal; the last thing we need is this sort of thing corrupting it further still.
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But the Atheist Ethicist, it would seem, is interested in no such thing. He’s not interested in what Melanie Phillips actually said, but in grievance-mongering. According to the Alonzo Fyfe standard, it’s apparently not possible to criticize any aspect of atheism, any sub-group or sub-mindset within atheism, and not have it seen as bigotry against the entire atheist community. The state of public discourse in this country is already abysmal; the last thing we need is this sort of thing corrupting it further still.
Around the Web
Yes, thanks to the ol’ college grindstone, blogging has been, and will probably continue to be, a little on the light side. But I’ll still try to update every now and then.
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It would appear Barack Obama has executive experience after all—an 8-year stint as director of the Joyce Foundation. David Hardy dissects the organization’s attacks on the Second Amendment during Obama’s tenure.
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The vile Alan Colmes (who received a well-deserved berating at the hands of Dick Morris the other night) has stumbled across the story of Greg Howard, a Florida middle-school teacher who told his students that Obama’s “Change” tagline was an acronym for “Can you Help a N***** Get Elected.” Howard has betrayed the public trust, is unfit to educate the community’s children, and should be fired. Period. Not that the Left will recognize intellectual consistency, or abandon their double-standards on public-school propagandists.
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More evidence that Michelle Obama is going to be just a terrific First Lady.
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Peggy Noonan isn’t sure who she’s voting for. Sorry, Peggy. We’ll have to ask you to turn in your Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy ™ membership card and decoder ring.
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The UW Madison Marching Band “has been suspended while allegations of hazing, alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct are investigated.” I did competitive marching band in high school, and almost went to Madison. While I miss marching, I’m gladder than ever that I chose Hillsdale instead.
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Guess the Obamas knew Bill Ayers a little better than they claimed (just don’t tell anyone about it. What are you, a racist?).
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The vile Alan Colmes (who received a well-deserved berating at the hands of Dick Morris the other night) has stumbled across the story of Greg Howard, a Florida middle-school teacher who told his students that Obama’s “Change” tagline was an acronym for “Can you Help a N***** Get Elected.” Howard has betrayed the public trust, is unfit to educate the community’s children, and should be fired. Period. Not that the Left will recognize intellectual consistency, or abandon their double-standards on public-school propagandists.
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More evidence that Michelle Obama is going to be just a terrific First Lady.
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Peggy Noonan isn’t sure who she’s voting for. Sorry, Peggy. We’ll have to ask you to turn in your Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy ™ membership card and decoder ring.
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The UW Madison Marching Band “has been suspended while allegations of hazing, alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct are investigated.” I did competitive marching band in high school, and almost went to Madison. While I miss marching, I’m gladder than ever that I chose Hillsdale instead.
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Guess the Obamas knew Bill Ayers a little better than they claimed (just don’t tell anyone about it. What are you, a racist?).
Conservative Standards 