Brains: Well, She Turned Me Into A Newt!

[elfs]

Oklahoma School District Accuses Student Of Witchcraft

In one of those "What is this, the 16th century?" moments, Oklahoma School District 9 officials accused a 15-year-old girl of "casting spells" that caused a teacher's illness, and banned her from wearing any insignia or symbols that were not explicitly Christian.

Florida defies Supreme Court, enforces the Pledge of Allegiance

West Virginia vs. Barnette is a famous case in which the Supreme Court ruled that students could not be punished for failing to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The constitution does not requires oaths of its citizenry, and the conscience clause explicitly forbids such coercion. Well, Florida thinks it has a way around Barnette by saying students can be compelled unless they have a note from their parents. Let's hope the Supremes revisit and reaffirm Barnette, because otherwise we're one step further down the road toward requiring declarations of loyalty.

If you voted for Obama, you're supporting Paganism!

Michael Novak brings the crazy today with this observation:

President Obama recognizes no difference between the Jewish-Christian covenant between a woman and a man (a covenant that they will have and nurture children, if they are so blessed), and a civil contract between two persons of any sex, in order to set up a household of affection and sexual favors.

This is a relapse into paganism.

I have news for Novak: gay people have no problem finding sex outside of marriage. In fact, given his obsession with gay men and sex and, you know, the kind of sex gay man have, Novak ought to be advocating for gay marriage. (Link courtesy mundens, and in no way advocated by yours truly.)

Republican and Sex. Sex and Republicans.

I hate the whole stimulus bill. I really do. The case for 80% of it hasn't been made, and the correct solution to the infrastructure problem is a restructuring of the tax code for private parts of the infrastructure (like electricity and telecommunications) to make them more, not less, competetive, and to reconsider the local/federal interface for public infrastructure works like water and roads. Most of the bill is just crap.

But really, why do the Republicans immediately leap to and highlight the family planning and STD prevention funding in the bill? Those parts are tiny. Inappropriate in this bill, but also insignificant compared to the unpleasant trauma the rest of the bill will inflict on our national budget. What's up with that?

The Alluring Danger of Dilettantism

I've been puzzled by the popularity of the game Guitar Hero, for what seems to me like obvious reasons. It's like karaoke minus the trouble of having to hear the sounds you make. If you want a more interactive way to enjoy music, why not dance, or play air guitar? Or better yet, if holding a guitar appeals to you, why not try actually learning how to play? For the cost of an Xbox and the Guitar Hero game, you can get yourself a pretty good guitar. I assume I am missing the point of it, the competitive thrill, but I can't help but feel that Guitar Hero (much like Twitter) would have been utterly incomprehensible to earlier generations, that it is a symptom of some larger social refusal to embrace difficulty.

Complete Control: Nick Carr responds to the above

Distraction is the permanent end state of the perfected consumer, not least because distraction is a state that is eminently programmable. To buy a guitar is to open possibilities. To buy Guitar Hero is to close them.

As a side note, I would like to thank Alex Blumberg of All Things Considered for forcing me to explain things to my nine-year-old that she shouldn't have to yet know after he said, "Prescribing Keynesianism to some politicians is like prescribing crack to a coke addict."

Comments

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Damn, you're right. My feed reader is messed up.

[blaisepascal]

You aren't the only one. I saw the oklahoma witchcraft story on Pharyngula as well.

The case was also settled in 2006

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

See here. Righteous indignation about Brandi Blackbear seems to be all over the place, and I would very much like to know why someone is raising shit over a 10 year old dead case. I'm sure Ms. Blackbear would like for it all to be forgotten.