Monthly Archives: April 2009

Should There Even Be Hate-Crime Laws?

Posted on April 29, 2009 by arensb

Congress is currently considering the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act. On the face of it, hurting someone for being gay/black/left-handed/whatever is a terrible thing, so it should be illegal. But hurting … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

iReligion 2.0

Posted on April 28, 2009 by arensb

The Telegraph reports that Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland’s Roman Catholics, has urged social network users to start sending daily prayers by text, Twitter or e-mail. This, of course, could be the start of something huge: if tweeted … Continue reading →

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Hello, Playlist!

Posted on April 27, 2009 by arensb

Because I haven’t done one in a while, and because I still have some DJ cred to demolish. Say Hello, Laurie Anderson Hello City, Barenaked Ladies Hello Radio, They Might Be Giants Hello, Hooray, Alice Cooper Greetings From A Dead … Continue reading →

Posted in :-) | Tagged | 2 Comments

Just A Little Bit of Planning

Posted on April 25, 2009 by arensb

One thing I’ve noticed about my code is that an awful lot of the comments are of the form call_some_function(); // XXX – Error-checking (where XXX is an easily-grepped marker for something that needs to be fixed.) The proximate reason … Continue reading →

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Open Thread

Posted on April 22, 2009 by arensb

Particularly for anyone who wants to contact me after the The Case for Christ talk at UMD, but go ahead and say what you like. Unless you’re a spammer, in which case FOAD.

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Why Gay Marriage Is Exclusionary

Posted on April 20, 2009 by arensb

The reason I read Catholic League releases is that BillDo’s stage persona, that of the hypersensitive apoplectic paranoiac stamping his little feet is amusing. Lately, though, he’s been in a bit of a slump, his tirades not quite over the … Continue reading →

Posted in :-), Politics, Religion | Tagged , | 2 Comments

NOM Ad Parody

Posted on April 20, 2009 by arensb

$NOM_ad =~ s/gay/interracial/ == I think this perfectly illustrates what’s wrong with the original NOM ad. (HT Cyde Weys.) (PS: Amusingly enough, the song that was playing when I got this link was Foreigner’s I Want to Know What Love … Continue reading →

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Secular Bible Study: The Book of Joshua

Posted on April 18, 2009 by arensb

I’m leading Secular Bible Study today, so here are my notes on the book of Joshua (org-mode version). More details later, hopefully. Update, Sat Apr 18 17:42:26 2009: Well, that went pretty well, I thought. I didn’t get to give … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Religion, Things I've Learned | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Legal Markup Language

Posted on April 16, 2009 by arensb

Today at work, I had to sign some legal papers. They were pretty standard “I have read the attached policy and agree to be bound by it” stuff that all of us Full-Time Employment Units have to sign once a … Continue reading →

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Discovery of the Day

Posted on April 12, 2009 by arensb

The book of Proverbs is funnier if you add “in bed” at the end of every verse. For instance: 1:8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 12:18 Reckless words pierce like a … Continue reading →

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