Today's Links 2005 07 06 Wednesday

Don't forget to send me your submissions for the next Carnival of Liberty!

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Unrepentant Individual has a post on another Kelo problem. This seems punitive to me. Were it a criminal activity to opposed the city through the courts, this might be reasonable. But instead of holing up with their assault rifles, Kelo et al fought the city in a court of law. Whether the taking was legal was the issue under discussion, not whether the city had the armament to make it happen.



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Resistance Is Futile has a good piece on who you trust: the naysayers or the Troops who are there.



Hat tip: Target Centermass



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Eric's Grumbles has a piece on how individual rights may not be dead.



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Angry In The Great White North has a piece on a foolish politician (now there's a phrase out the Department of Redundancy Department) who manages to be surprised that in order to maintain membership in the church he's got to actually act in accordance with the church's beliefs.



Ya Think?



Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a religion. The leaders and other members have the right not to include people who cannot abide the tenets. The religion may be weaker or stronger as a result, but that is their choice. It's not as if you've got to be a Catholic or a Lutheran or a Muslim to succeed in life. Religious affiliation can provide a lot of secular benefits - a politician who is a member of a certain religion finds it easier to garner votes from fellow believers, for example. But it is quite reasonable for the religion to require you to live the life in order to reap the benefits.



This is one of the reasons I've never been a member of an organized religion. It'd be a great place to network, socialize, etcetera. But there's that not so little catch in there that you must actually believe as they do and act in accordance with their tenets, and I cannot in good conscience join a religion where I do not share their beliefs. I have a lot of respect, even admiration, for those that actually practice religion in a way that benefits the world. But all I have for the fakers and takers is contempt.



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Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey has a short Ode to the Scantron, with which I agree.



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Q and O has a worthwhile fisking of the Plame situation.



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Ann Althouse has a worthwhile debunking of an affirmative action meme, as well as talking about How to defeat Borking



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Roger L. Simon has great commentary on a New York Times piece about problems in Africa.





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Chrenkoff chimes in with Insurgents do the darndest things! (aka exercises in creative stupidity)



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Dean's World has a piece on The Swedish Situation. I honestly don't see this turning around, partly because few have the will or even publicly recognize it as a problem to be dealt with, and those who do have to the will and ability to recognize facts are shackled.



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Dante's Inferno Test puts me in Limbo according to Christian doctrine.



Hat tip: Evolution



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Carnival of Vanities is up at Conservative Friends

Especially recommended:

Problems at the Nature Conservancy