2014 Gay Games to be held in Cleveland

I have lived in Cleveland for over twenty years. I like the place even though in many ways it is a typical mid-western city and somewhat conservative in its outlook. In fact, Ohio was one of those states that passed a constitutional amendment effectively banning same-sex marriages in 2004. I would not have thought any city in Ohio to be at the forefront of liberal social values and so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the cities of Cleveland and neighboring Akron had jointly bid for and won the right to hold the next Gay Games in 2014. [Read more…]

What is a ‘well regulated militia’ and what is its purpose?

The comments to the previous post on the current gun control debate generated an excellent discussion with a lot of useful information both about the history of the second amendment and the characteristics of the various types of guns that are out there and the appropriate terminology to refer to them, a lot of which was new to me since guns are peripheral to my life and I haven’t paid much attention to the topic. [Read more…]

More on the unequal justice system

I have been highlighting the unequal treatment meted out by the Obama administration’s justice department, where extremely harsh treatment is given to low-level criminals and whistleblowers and hackers while those who commit massive damage to the financial system that cause immense hardship t many, and even acknowledge major wrongdoing, are given slaps on the wrist. It is telling that as yet, not a single high-level official in the financial sector has gone to jail, or even faced the threat of jail, for their actions. [Read more…]

Final part of NPR’s ‘Losing Our Religion’ series

NPR ended its weeklong series on the topic ‘Losing Our Religion’ on a weak note. (You can also see/hear part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.) In its last part, they interviewed a Methodist minister and a Catholic priest on what they thought of the increasing numbers of people leaving the church especially among the young and what might be done to get them back. (Note that the transcript is not complete and the audio has more.) [Read more…]

Reasonable gun rights and the constitution

You can expect the gun control debate to shift into high gear following president Obama’s recently announced proposals for gun control. I do not own a gun, have no intention of ever buying one, and have never even fired one (apart from an air rifle as a child). But I am not one who offers unqualified support for a total ban on gun ownership. I think a case can be made for the private ownership of some guns by some people who have a reasonable need of them and I have written on this topic earlier (see here and here). But what types of guns could be owned depends on what one means by ‘reasonable need’ and it is clear that there is a wide divergence of views on this. [Read more…]

Going out in style

I have left instructions that when I die I am to be cremated in the cheapest container allowed by law, a cardboard box if possible. Wasting money on a fancy coffin seems ridiculous. But there is a opposite trend in which people spend enormous amounts of money on the dead, which seems pointless since they are, after all, dead and won’t appreciate the gesture by their relatives. [Read more…]

Leaving office to ‘spend time with my family’

Washington is a town of euphemisms. When I read that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar had announced that he is leaving his cabinet post in March to “spend time with his family”, my first reaction was that he had been asked to leave for some reason or other, essentially fired from his post, and that he was being allowed to do so gracefully. [Read more…]