Sorry, your score only qualifies you for a slingshot.

Something I hadn't given much thought to until it was mentioned in passing in this DCist post on the Heller ruling: if it's unconstitutional to require literacy tests for voting, should it be unconstitutional to require a written test for gun ownership?

Police Files

Cops (at least in D.C.) have been known to kick prone, submissive suspects in the groin. Police in other jurisdictions steal, extort, and arrange gladiator games by forcing gangs to fight each other.

Unrelatedly: two concepts I hadn't heard of before: circumstantial innocence and optical intercourse. The former appears most vulnerable to the criticism that wanting to think about something and wanting to actually do that thing are extremely different; the latter also conflates desire with action.

Fame: SO edition

Steve is in the NYT today!

The article highlights how dumb the plaintiffs were:

Brenda Stanhouse, who bought the game for her son, 15 years old at the time, said in a deposition that she did not know that a player in the game could “stomp to death innocent pedestrians.”

She also did not know that the game included prostitutes, that players could kill policemen or that “a player in the game can kill innocent pedestrians and steal money from them.”

“I’m aware that there is killing in the game,” Ms. Stanhouse said in the deposition. “I wasn’t aware of the stealing.”

The game is called Grand Theft Auto. * facepalm *

That the plaintiffs claim not to have been aware of the other sexual elements of the game partially undermines the article's premise that this is somehow motivated by parents' concern about sex and not violence.

Most Overrated Books?

These are the kind of books that I utterly loathe.

I importuned a bunch of writers and hacks about books they had read that now, when mentioned, make the red mist descend. Books that made them angry just thinking about them; that were once clotted with extravagant critical praise, like the butter surrounding the tiny crustaceans in the potted shrimp at White’s club, or that sort of sprang from the collective consciousness of the metropolitan elite of the time and that everybody felt they had to read. And that, from either category, we now realise are close to worthless.

This is another reason I am reluctant to read contemporary fiction. There's been no shaking out of the genuine masterpieces from the empty, trendy also-rans.

Help Blind Russians

This organization supports blind students and professionals in Russia. For only $30, you could buy a cane for a needy blind person.

The organization itself could use some help, too:

The MN Adamov Memorial Fund was registered as a nonprofit corporation in Massachusetts in 2005. It is not a Federal tax-deductible organization yet. (It will cost almost $1000 for that, and that's not how we want to spend the money--unless you are a lawyer who will help us pro bono.)

It is not an area of the law that I’m familiar with, but maybe publicizing their need will make it more likely that someone knowledgeable will help.

Dos and Don'ts: Police Files Edition

Is it reasonable to repeatedly kick a prone, submissive suspect in the groin? The D.C. Circuit says no.

Striking the groin is the classic example of fighting dirty. From the schoolyard scrapper to the champion prizefighter, no pugilist takes lightly the threat of a hit below the belt. What's more, Bruce supposedly kicked a man while he was down, hard enough to produce bloody urine. Although the constable surely has authority to use physical force in effecting an arrest, there are gradations of appropriate violence. A kick to the groin tends toward the vicious end of that scale. We have no trouble finding that Bruce's repeated kicks to Johnson's groin were a serious intrusion on his Fourth Amendment interests.

Next, we consider the countervailing governmental interests. An officer in Bruce's position has a legitimate and substantial interest in apprehending an armed suspect and protecting himself and the public from possible harm. Although these are weighty interests, it is not clear how kicking Johnson in the groin furthered either of them. (citations omitted)

I have a feeling that this case never would have seen the light of day had the kickee been a regular guy, not an off-duty cop.

Houston: Threat or Menace?

Paul Gowder, on the city of my birth:

Houston? Houston is the worst place in the world, a sprawling, ugly, traffic-laden, polluted, Republican hellmouth.

Unlike most of the country, Houston is doing pretty well right now. It still gets no love, though. Nobody writes poems about Houston.

The smog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over a sea of traffic
on Highway 90
and settles in.

. . . doesn't have that ring.

Goffman, Blogging

On writing, self presentation, and the internet:

Recourse to a backstage area is only one of a number of techniques by means of which performers may make the task of self-presentation more manageable. ...

I think that in fact there are no backstage areas online. On the internet, everything is a front, yet the stress and strain of maintaining a constant and universal front is so great that many performers on the internet make a show of abandoning the standards conventionally associated with a front. On the internet, the audience is with you too often, and sees you from too many angles, for you to pull any wool over their eyes, so the safest way to present yourself is by underselling. No intimacy comes with this deshabille, however. The environment remains dangerous. One skips through no-man's-land in one's pyjamas, as it were. If we live on the internet, as Keith suggested by the title he chose for tonight's event, then we keep ourselves as slovenly there as if we were backstage, yet feel as isolated and as trapped within our shells as if we were in front of the footlights....

Goffman writes that when a performer is publicly discredited, "the members of the audience may discover a fundamental democracy that is usually well hidden." That sounds like a boon, but it may be worth keeping in mind that the most powerful CEOs and politicians in America not only do not blog, they do not even use email. There is accordingly a limit to the internet's revolutionary potential.

I think this underestimates the potential of the net. It's not necessary for Barack Obama or John McCain to blog. If people around them--people who see them "backstage"--blog, then roughly the same thing is accomplished. (It's not as effective, since we don't see everything, and have no access to their unspoken opinions or motivations, but for that reason it may have more of an impact, since they are subject to the bloggers' interpretations and subjective perceptions and thus are at their mercy, unless they provide that inner access--almost blogging by proxy.)

Note to self

Check gauge before knitting entire first sock. Your socks will fit better.

Unrelatedly: I just bought some custom clothes over Ebay. (Like this, but cheaper.) It is sort of depressing to send measurements to Asian tailors.

waist [redacted] inches is your natural waist above belly button right? Many of my customers mistaken the low waist due to wearing low rise pants and skirts, so i have to make sure.. natural waist is smallest part of body above belly button.

Nope, that's just how big it is. This is even worse than shopping in Japan.

Twins?

Snape has a long lost brother!

Off-Label EC?

If mifepristone is the best form of emergency contraception, with fewer side-effects and better efficacy, and it is already FDA-approved for other uses, what is stopping doctors from writing off-label prescriptions for it to be used as EC? (Update: besides the fact that it has to be administered by the doctor?)

"A- is the mark of entitled mediocrity."

This is sort of an insufferable article, but that doesn't mean that the author is wrong about the disadvantages of an elite education. Many of the themes of J.K. Rowling's Harvard commencement address are echoed. (via)

Disney Teaches Men About Hotness

Timothy Sandefur points out that much of what guys need to remember about male hotness can be summed up in a few lyrics from Mary Poppins:

You’d never think of pressing
Your advantage
Forbearance is the hallmark
Of your creed....

You have to be strong enough to have an advantage, but gentlemanly enough to never even seem as if you would press it. To this, add a dollop of casual openness to sensual pleasure and blend.

(Sandefur also muses on how women can be hot with greater ease because we're shooting at more targets. This is the only target I am shooting at.)

Everything we've discussed so far has been about heterosexuals. I'm sure there are some interesting variances on these themes in same-sex relationships, but I'm reluctant to generalize without experience in the area.

50 Book Challenge: A Confession

I have read 50 books.

I just haven't reviewed them. In fact, I am so far behind on my reviews that I have started to forget what I've read. I'm debating embracing some kind of incredibly laconic, word-limited gimmick to allow me to actually review the books in question. Is this cheating? I'm dying here, people.

O zorn!

WHY?

Dear Amber,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

I am on the 6-at-a-time plan. Switching to two 3-at-a-time accounts for Steve and me will net Netflix -$2. Please don't make me do that, guys.

Life is Pain, Highness.

This is horrifying. Guys, there are so many petite ladies out there who would love to be with you. I can almost understand it for the sub-5' male set, but for someone 5'6"? 5'8"? Even in stiletto heels, there are plenty of women shorter than that. (And of course the whole idea that you have to be taller than your lady is sexist nonsense.)

If you want to be crass about it: Research indicates that women will broaden their dating prospects if you have more money--wouldn't $200,000 put a sizable dent in your love handicap? If an extra inch of height is only worth $1,000 per year in additional wages, is it likely that the impact on discrimination in the workplace will make this stuff pay for itself?

N.B. The average height for American men in the Details piece errs on the high side of the actual average. This seems to ring true; the average American man is 5'9" but says he's 5'10".

Summer Reading

Some people on Unfogged got into a discussion of high school books and I looked up the summer reading lists for my old school district to see what they have kids reading these days.

A lot of the curriculum appears to be the same (A Separate Peace! Bleargh!), but what I find vaguely disquieting is that the summer reading requirements for the same course vary from school to school in a way that correlates rather closely with the composition of the student body.

For example, these books are required summer reading for the AP or pre-AP courses at the district's wealthiest school: Rebecca; Alas, Babylon; Lord of the Flies; 1984; Interpreter of Maladies; Slaughterhouse-Five; Poisonwood Bible; Crime and Punishment.

The same courses at the district's poorest school require: Anthem; Light in the Forest; Black Boy; 10 op-eds from news publications; Poisonwood Bible; Candide; plus two more selections that they didn't bother to announce.

Anyway, this is your opportunity to vent about terrible books you were forced to read (or wonderful books that were ruined for you by being forced to read them) or to bash my suburban school district.

Bloomsday, Trekkies, and Grown Women in Wizard Robes: A Common Thread?

An interesting question on fandoms and how they arise:

Bloomsday is fannish behaviour. It’s the same sort of thing as a Star Trek convention. Most authors don’t attract a fandom. There are exceptions: Conan Doyle and Jane Austen come to mind. But Ulysses? True, it’s a limited fandom — I don’t think anyone’s ever written Ulysses fanfic — but it’s a genuine fandom, and I’d like to know what there is about Joyce or Ulysses that permits it.
...
Re-enactment isn’t necessary for fandom. I don’t think it’s something prompted by detail either. Conan Doyle tells us very little about Sherlock Holmes (and even less about Dr. Watson) but there is a distinct Holmes fandom. On the other hand, you could probably conduct a whale hunt using Moby-Dick as a guide, but I know of no society, “The Shipmates of the Pequod.”

I've never been a big Joyce fan (too attached to plot, and I find wordplay for its own sake wearying). Why does Ulysses capture the imagination so? This is sort of a Henry Jenkins question, but it's been a while since I immersed myself in that particular scholarly pool.

Random Roundup

Bizarre Japanese Wii game.

Cute science tee shirts.

How to tone your thighs.

"When I get bored I smear peanut butter all over the dogs' faces and watch them lick it off each other."

Steve, Speciesist.

Me: Doesn't this cat look like Lily?
Steve: No, not really. That cat is much lighter.
Me: But it has the same markings, blue eyes, cinnamon-colored muzzle and pink nose. It is lighter than she is but they look somewhat alike.
Steve: All cats have markings and noses! That doesn't mean anything. If I put Lily in a pound with 200 other cats you would not be able to find her.
Me: You are just racist against cats. "Blah blah, all cats look alike! They're just a bunch of barfing animals!"