GROWL. Apparently my apartment building is conducting an all-day fire alarm test, with very. loud. alarms. at random intervals throughout the day. So I’m going to the library. More later. In the meantime, Camassia has a good post up on gender and bullying, and there’s a lot of debate about fidelity and relationship models at MarriageDebate.com (with one long post from me). I’ll pitch in more there later, either today or tomorrow. Off to escape the klaxon of doom. Read more

EASILY AMUSED. Funniest complaint about comments-box fluctuations I’ve seen. Shea also asks about favorite books (not “best,” but favorite). Here are mine. You will notice a distinct skew away from “best,” but not, I think, entirely leaving that high ground. In order of how fast I call them to mind. Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Henry IV 1 & 2, and, like, pretty much everything else. Someday I’ll get it together to post my paper on... Read more

TOMORROW, when I can think again (I hope), I’ll post: comics reviews; final reply re same-sex marriage (I promise it will be short!); Poetry Wednesday; finally, the next episode of “What You Can Do for Your Country” (it’s already written but I’m too tired to type it in–yes, I am lazier than roadkill); and whatever else crosses my palm with silver and asks me to tell its fortune. Read more

ARGH! Want to do one more Amp/SSM-related post, on equality & the purposes of marriage, but can’t think of best way to do it now. Stay tuned. Read more

MY RELIGION AND OTHER THINGS YOU DON’T NEED TO SHARE TO AGREE WITH ME ABOUT MARRIAGE: Look, I’m Catholic. My religion says guys shouldn’t boff guys and girls shouldn’t boff girls. Obviously, that affects my view of same-sex marriage. But I do not think you need to share my faith or my moral assessment of homosexual acts in order to agree with me about SSM. If I thought that, I wouldn’t bother making secular arguments on this blog! I don’t... Read more

RECONCILING THE SEEMINGLY DISPARATE: More Ampersand and gender. He misconstrues my somewhat ironic suggestion that “marriage is how we reconcile the opposite sexes.” Amp writes, “I’m very sorry to hear that Eve, who is (I think) unmarried, has no close male friends nor any good relationships with any male relatives, and exists in a state of permanent war with all men. … “The point is, if I search for friends based on my interior life — my enjoyment of science... Read more

GENDER: Ampersand posts a fierce and heartfelt rebuttal of my blog comments (and possibly my JWR column?) on gender roles. He argues that supporting gender roles at all means fostering the kind of brutal enforcement of rigid gender roles that made his youth awful: “The belief that there is a correct ‘gender role’ which must be taught inevitably leads to child abuse, in my opinion.” I can definitely sympathize; it should be obvious that I think what happened to him... Read more

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE RESPONSES PART ONE: Jonathan Rauch responds; then Maggie Gallagher. Dave Tepper responds but misses what I meant w/r/t why it’s important to talk about sex, not just committed loving relationships, when we talk about marriage…. I genuinely do not think the SSM debate reduces to, or even needs to address, “Is sodomy A-OK?” But I can see that I was unclear about that. Hope to make my point clearer a little later today, when I respond to Ampersand’s... Read more

Blogwatch sat bathing by a stream where fairest shades did hide her…. Body and Soul: Mentally ill man dies naked and alone in jail after being arrested for panhandling. What more to say. Unqualified Offerings: Property rights in Iraq. Edward Gorey at Yale. GodSpy–new Catholic online mag. Sleek, has an article by Fr. (Msgr?) Lorenzo Albacete, looks intriguing though I haven’t had time to check it out. In insomnia-related news, I made the top picture on this page my desktop... Read more

IRAQNESS: Unqualified Offerings links to this really interesting discussion of the proposed Polish role in the rebuilding of Iraq, and how it fell apart. As he notes, there’s some discussion of the main post’s veracity (in comments here and here). The author of the initial piece comes out strongly in support of the war, and it’s being published on an Objectivist site, so there’s some potentially relevant background info. More on the rebuilding and information sources here (via Body and... Read more