16 May 2007

a free people should be free to eat cake.

Is it wrong -- or, you know, uncomfortably right-wing; you say "tomato" -- of me to be kind of unhappy about the trans fat ban in Montgomery County?

I mean, I don't disagree that trans fats are bad. So are a lot of things, right -- but whereas driving too fast (for example) endangers not just me but many, many other people, consuming trans fats is a one-victim arrangement, like wearing six-inch heels. I kind of don't want the government regulating what I can eat any more than I want them regulating how I can dress. I want, ultimately, to be trusted to take care of myself; and, along with that, I want the freedom not to take care of myself if that's the choice I make, because it's my business, dammit.

Of course there are lots and lots of our fellow citizens who, given the opportunity, do not take care of themselves, and I get that this measure (and the ones like it in New York and Philadelphia) is meant to make up the difference there. But see above re: freedom. Also, though, I get that a regulation on the restaurant and prepared-food industry is not a regulation on what the citizens are allowed to eat. That's really what makes this thing okay with me, to the extent that it's okay. Restaurants and bars are not allowed (not supposed, anyway) to serve alcohol to people who appear already to be drunk; but people are allowed to get drunk on their own, right. Likewise, I suppose, now restaurants in New York and Philly and MoCo are not allowed to serve artery-clogging food to people who are already in danger of giving themselves a heart attack (which is all of us); but people are still allowed to eat shortening with a spoon, I guess, if they choose.

How about a law banning tanning salons, then, eh? Skin cancer is bad, bad, bad. And people are still free to lie out in the genuine sun if they want. (And so on.)

12 May 2007

red rover, red rover, let jesus come over

So the president of the Evangelical Theological Society has resigned in order to (re)join the Catholic church.

This has sent Christendom (or, you know, the evangelical community in the US -- I doubt a lot of the rest of the theological world cares much, but I really wanted to use the word "Christendom") into a tizzy. One professor at a seminary called it "a sad day for all the sons and daughters of the Protestant Reformation". But the reason I bring it up is that the WaPo article linked above includes the following paragraph:
Beckwith is not the first, or even the most prominent, evangelical to switch to Catholicism in recent years. Others include Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), theologian Scott Hahn and the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the journal First Things. On the other side of the equation, the Catholic Church has been losing droves of ordinary worshipers to the Pentecostal form of evangelicalism, particularly in Latin America.
Makes a decent point, I think, which is that there's mobility in both directions; but what I especially like about this graf is the word "equation". Not "chasm" or "schism" or even "divide" or "aisle" -- equation, y'all. That's my clever staff writer. That's my clever editor.

03 May 2007

this'll be the part where it comes around, i think.

Step 1: AutoAdmit, apparently originally a law-school-oriented message board, becomes a -- well, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and not in the fun way where you might run into Harrison Ford in the pub. Racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, and other unpleasant -isms get way out of hand, which is ugly; individual students are targeted and identified by full name, e-mail address, and home phone number, which is dangerous and unacceptable. A long, difficult entry on the subject is here.

Step 2: The Washington Post runs an article about the site. In particular, note that women students are concerned that their professional futures are being compromised by the entirely involuntary association of their names -- association that in many cases continues despite their repeated protests -- with the place.

Step 3: One of the young men responsible for the boards, a third-year law student, resigns from his executive directorship at AutoAdmit in the wake of the WaPo article.

Step 4: The firm he was going to work for rescinds its offer anyway.

Step 5: Karma smiles a grim smile and re-holsters the pea shooter.