Civil disobedience in Hazzard County

Last updated on: July 16, 2012 at 11:57 am By Fred Clark

Civil disobedience is a powerful tool for opposing, exposing and correcting unjust laws. The problem with civil disobedience, though, is that it cannot be applied in every situation or to every unjust law. Some unjust laws do not require direct civil obedience and, therefore, cannot be readily disobeyed. Let’s consider a couple of hypothetical examples to illustrate that. Scenario 1: Where civil disobedience works Boss Hogg passes a law forbidding anyone from picking up trash along the highway in Hazzard... Read more

Whispering in church

Last updated on: July 16, 2012 at 1:46 am By Fred Clark

“I then considered it as merely the ravings of a maniac no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.” “For men’s religion to God is between God and themselves. The king shall not answer for it. Neither may the King judge between God and men. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.” “We are not talking about a... Read more

Stray thoughts …

Last updated on: July 15, 2012 at 2:21 pm By Fred Clark

Roy Moore may be the stupidest man ever to don a robe in Alabama. And Alabama has a long history of stupid men in robes. Moore may even be dumb enough to one day be awarded “Statesman of the Year” honors from Florida’s Sarasota Republican Party. The Slacktiverse just posted a terrifically handy collection of links to “documents central to the functioning of our own and other countries.” This “Political Documents 101” post is one of those things you should... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: July 15, 2012 at 11:01 am By Fred Clark

Andrew Brown: “What made the creationist footprints in the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre?“ There is something uniquely dispiriting about young Earth creationism. It’s not just that it’s wrong — and wrong in ways that were entirely apparent to intelligent Christians in the 1860s, let alone the 1960s — but that it needs such a mountain of futile effort to maintain even the shadow of plausibility. It’s like pretending that George W. Bush wrote the works of Shakespeare. If the YECs... Read more

Sunday favorites

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 6:59 pm By Fred Clark

Luke 14:12-14 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the... Read more

Notes from the new Gilded Age

Last updated on: July 14, 2012 at 12:45 pm By Fred Clark

Erik Loomis argues that America is “Headed Back to the Robber-Baron Era,” writing that “We are recreating the Gilded Age, a period when corporations ruled this nation, buying politicians, using violence against unions and engaging in open corruption.” The donors at Mitt Romney’s Hampton’s fundraiser sure seemed to agree with Loomis — excepting, of course, that they think a return to the Gilded Age would be a good thing. A new Gilded Age might spare them the tyrannical horror of... Read more

‘Very big, indeed’

Last updated on: July 13, 2012 at 11:19 pm By Fred Clark

“The knock at Sherri Dukes’ front door came years after her late husband, Lee, confided his secret to her: that he had seen the ghost of a studious black man seated at their bedroom desk.” “I’m a bit flummoxed as to how people with less than 25 euro a week are supposed to stimulate demand. Maybe they should be fired more.” “The vast wealth that Wal-Mart is sucking out of our communities is not put back into our communities.” “To... Read more

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion await their asbestos moment

Last updated on: July 13, 2012 at 7:49 pm By Fred Clark

If you watch late-night television, you’re bound to see plenty of commercials for law firms soliciting clients for their big class-action suits involving asbestos and mesothelioma, or targeting those who’ve suffered side effects from a wide array of popular medicines. I will take it as a sign that America is getting better when I start seeing ads like that going after Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Those are the big credit-rating agencies — the unelected, unaccountable Fourth Estate of American government.... Read more

NRA: Paper jam

Last updated on: July 13, 2012 at 5:09 pm By Fred Clark

Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist, pp. 24-33 Here’s what happens in these pages: Buck details the specs of his spiffy new SUV; Rayford wallows in self-pity; Jerry Jenkins belatedly tries to claim Loretta as his character; and the authors spend five pages printing out a document. This, again, is what follows immediately after the perhaps-nuclear devastation of New York, London, Washington, Chicago and other cities that remain unnamed because neither the authors nor their characters are the least bit curious... Read more

Somewhere in America tonight, just before midnight …

Last updated on: July 13, 2012 at 8:50 am By Fred Clark

It’s Friday the 13th. Time for a visit. It’s not widely discussed. Those who have witnessed it firsthand are, for obvious reasons, reluctant to talk about it. These aren’t stories they are eager to tell. But one hears whispers, rumors, stories told by the friends of friends. And those whispers, rumors and stories are too numerous and too eerily similar to be dismissed. Something is happening. Something, it seems, happens every Friday the 13th, just before midnight. The stories begin... Read more