http://www.takimag.com/blogs/TPiatak.xml The Online Magazine for Independent Conservatives, edited by Taki Theodoracopulos en TPiatak@takimag.com Copyright 2008 2008-05-16T01:06:01-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/judicial_tyranny_lives/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/judicial_tyranny_lives/#When:01:06:01Z The news that the California Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, has decided to overturn the law enacted by the voters of that state limiting marriage to its historical definition has a depessingly familiar ring.  Time and again, judges have misused their authority and usurped power from the legislature to decide political issues in favor of the left.  This ruling is particularly absurd.  Not only would the framers of the California constitution been horrified at the suggestion that what they had enacted would one day mandate legal recognition of homosexual marriage, the American people have repeatedly expressed their outrage at this … 2008-05-16T01:06:01-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/i_confess_i_dont_understand_why_some_atheists_are_so_angry/ http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/i_confess_i_dont_understand_why_some_atheists_are_so_angry/#When:23:04:00Z In response to my recent piece on science and religion, one of the commenters, GM, took me to task:  “you may want to consider and ask why atheists seem angry.  There’s no indication that you understand why.” I have to confess, GM was right:  I do not understand why some atheists are so angry. I have no trouble understanding that some people cannot give intellectual assent to faith, and I have long known atheists and agnostics.  But none of the atheists and agnostics I know are angry.  In fact, they respect the role Christianity played in creating our civilization and plays … Religion 2008-05-10T23:04:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/darwin_alone_is_not_enough/ http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/darwin_alone_is_not_enough/#When:22:55:00Z Ben Stein’s movie Expelled has generated lots of commentary, most of it negative.  Many have claimed that it is obscurantist and hostile to science, a veritable first shot in a wider war against knowledge.  Despite employing the same type of techniques that garnered Michael Moore an Oscar (and much critical acclaim), it has a 9% positive rating at rottentomatoes.com, the sort of rating generally earned only by slasher films and the like.  Curious about a movie that has generated such hostility, I went and saw it, and discovered an effective polemic that, while propagandistic and one-sided, also provided food for thought.  … 2008-05-04T22:55:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/mamas_dont_let_your_babies_grow_up_to_be_yalies_part_two/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/mamas_dont_let_your_babies_grow_up_to_be_yalies_part_two/#When:18:51:00Z According to Charles Lane’s op-ed in today’s Washington Post, Aliza Shvarts has refused to acknowledge in writing that her “art” project was all a lie, and hence it was not displayed by Yale.  In fact, she insisted that she had inseminated herself and sought to induce miscarriages, but admitted that she did not know if she was ever pregnant.  Shvarts’ intent, apparently, was to subvert Aristotle and Aquinas.  She wanted to “assert that often, normative understandings of biological function are a mythology imposed on form.  It is this mythology that creates the sexist, racist, ableist, nationalist and homophobic perspective, distinguishing what … 2008-05-03T18:51:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/good_triumphs_over_evil/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/good_triumphs_over_evil/#When:01:36:00Z Well, DC might have a lot of my tax dollars, but at least we Clevelanders have LeBron James.  ”Overrated” indeed. 2008-05-03T01:36:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/where_are_the_peasants_with_pitchforks/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/where_are_the_peasants_with_pitchforks/#When:15:16:00Z Tim Carney has a very interesting piece today on how the enormous growth in governement has transformed the D C metro area into the country’s wealthiest.  One revealing statistic:  the average government employee now makes more than the average private sector employee.  As Carney points out, the rest of the country is taxed to support the wealthy enclaves around D C that have benefited from the sustained growth in government, and Republican rule has done nothing to slow this growth down, much less reverse it. One of the historic strengths of America has been that we did not have one city … 2008-05-02T15:16:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/voltaire_our_hero/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/voltaire_our_hero/#When:01:11:00Z John Derbyshire is an estimable man and a terrific writer, but alas, being human, he is not always right.  Evidence of this came today with his strange admiration for Voltaire, a man who “was fanatical only in his hatred of fanaticism” and who was “a much better, much more admirable man than any of those who hated him.” Indeed, Derbyshire asks us to sympathize with Voltaire on account of “the opposition faced by a curious and intelligent person like Voltaire under France’s ancien regime.” Really?  Voltaire hated more than fanaticism--he hated the Catholic Church.  Pre-revolutionary France was able to accommodate many … 2008-05-01T01:11:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/israel_first_again/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/israel_first_again/#When:19:52:00Z Over at NRO, Andrew McCarthy wonders why John McCain is willing to attack Obama over Hamas’ unsolicited endorsement of Obama, while declaring attacks on Obama based on Obama’s voluntary 20 year membership in Rev. Wright’s church off-limits.  A fair question. The answer, which you won’t see at NRO, is that McCain knows that it’s perfectly safe to attack Obama over Hamas, and that he can even let surrogates insinuate that Obama is “anti-Semitic,” but that attacks over Rev. Wright carry the considerable risk of being deemed “racist.” McCain knows that it is always safe to be seen as a supporter of … 2008-04-27T19:52:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/the_march_of_progress/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/the_march_of_progress/#When:19:38:00Z Apparently, the principal problem with Hollywood movies today is that there is not enough nudity.  A. O. Scott, writing in today’s New York Times, interrupts a generally positive review of “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” to complain that “the movie loses some credibility when it declines to show the full extent of its’ stars eventual participation in the festivities.  Dudes, if the dude in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ could put his business up on the screen, then so can you.” Indeed, the director of “Sarah Marshall,” Judd Apatow, is quoted as boasting in the April 16 Los Angeles Times that … 2008-04-25T19:38:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/american_protectionists_unite/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/american_protectionists_unite/#When:22:32:00Z Given the number of you who commented on my piece on free trade, I thought some readers would also enjoy the website of the American Protectionist.  The people behind this website are friends of mine here in Cleveland, but they are also grassroots activists who are well versed in American history and Austrian economic theory.  Check it out. 2008-04-17T22:32:00-05:00