Self-plugging Jonathan

If you've been wondering why I haven't been blogging much, it's because I've been busy. If you're wondering why I've been busy, there are really two excellent reasons. One is that Elsie was visiting this past weekend. The other is the subject of this post. I'll be appearing as Sir Despard in the MIT Gilbert & Sullivan Players' production of Ruddigore next month. Come see me if you want and are able. Friday November 7, 8pm Saturday November 8, 8pm Sunday November 9, 2pm Thursday November 13, 8pm Friday November 14, 8pm Saturday November 15, 2pm Despard suits me well, I think. It's a good role. It also increases my appreciation of Ken Sandford, who really mastered some very diverse roles in his time.

Why, yes, I am wrong.

I observed in my last post with some surprise that my blog is the first google hit for "Alistair Norcross". There was surprise involved because "Alistair Norcross" was intended by me to denote the full name of one of my philosophy professors at Rice -- a person who has things like a personal web site and a job in a philosophy department. However, Juan, in a comment to my last post, correctly suggested that "Alistair Norcross" is not the name of anyone at Rice -- or, as far as I can tell, of anyone at all. The person I'd attempted to reference is actually named "Alastair Norcross," and unsurprisingly, as of this moment, my blog is neither first nor anywhere on the google hit list for that term. Perhaps this fact will change in the near future, now that I've posted an instance of the correct spelling of Alastair Norcross's name. My apologies to Professor Norcross. (In my defense, the only other person I know whose first name is homophonous with "Alastair" spells his name "Alistair Donkin.")

As long as they find me

The following are some google searches which yield links that people -- other than me -- have used to reach my blog.

• 3rd hit: scanlon contractualism
• 1st hit: Alistair Norcross
• 4th hit: ponytail haircut (3 hits!)
• 4th hit: Jonathan Ichikawa
• 8th hit: point of view of ethical theorizing
• 22nd hit: snape "regular basis" (German!)

Whee.

Let's get smiting

The following is quoted from a CNN story:

Defense Secretary Donald H . Rumsfeld and the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff publicly defended a new deputy undersecretary of defense of intelligence with a reported penchant for publicly casting the war on terrorism in religious terms. Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, whose promotion and appointment was confirmed by the Senate in June, has said publicly that he sees the war on terrorism as a clash between Judeo-Christian values and Satan, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. Appearing in dress uniform before a religious group in Oregon in June, Boykin said Islamic extremists hate the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christians. ... And the enemy is a guy named Satan."

Right now, I don't have time to go into this in detail. Or the stomach. I'm disgusted.

Oonga Boonga?

I think I'm deciding that the Brown Daily Herald is an odd publication. I don't quite understand it. Today isn't the first time I've read a BDH story that made a very surprising claim that it didn't treat as surprising. Today's story is about politics in one of my home states, Michigan. So back in Michigan, there's a conservative state representative from Kalamazoo named Jack Hoogendyk who found out that Michigan has some liberal public universities. He's taken a look at the titles of courses that those schools offer, and he's decided that some of them are inappropriate uses of public funds. The University of Michigan's ENGL317 Section 002, "How to be Gay", seems to be the worst offender to Hoogendyk, but he's put together a much more impressive -- and indeed, surprising -- list. A story from the Central Michigan University paper indicates that among allegedly objectionable classes there are HUM 430: Self and Identity in American Life, and SOC 411: The Family. But that's a digression. I'm here to talk about arguments against "How to be Gay". Of course there's the usual anti-gay rhetoric. "We're indoctrinating deviant lifestyles," "homosexuality erodes traditional family values," "a majority of Michiganders (god do I hate that word) think homosexuality is wrong," etc. But the BDH story also includes some much less usual anti-gay rhetoric. Here, it quotes Gary Glenn, director of the American Family Association of Michigan:

['How to be Gay'] "legitimizes behavior that literally puts the lives of young people at risk," Glenn continued, adding that homosexuality was a lifestyle choice, as opposed to race, which was unchangeable. "There are no former African Americans," he said.

Emphasis and clarificatory block-quote by me. Avoid the temptation to argue with the second claim, and focus on the first one. I've helped you by italicizing it. What's Glenn talking about? Is he worried that gay men might become the victims of hate crimes? And why would the BDH print a statement like that without giving it a little bit of background, or context, or justification, or refutation, or anything? Like the Patriot Act story, linked above, I haven't found any other news source reporting this feature of the story. This time, of course, the surprising statement is a quotation, and so I have to conclude it actually occurred. But seriously, folks: huh????

A thousand words

The insertion of a single word will do it

Let it stand that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of TRUE speech..." A couple months ago, I read about Irwin Schiff, a colorful character most notable for the insistent position that the federal income tax is merely voluntary. He's published many books and given many lectures on the subject. He's also gone to jail twice for tax evasion. But early this year, a Nevada district court issued a very limiting restraining order (pdf) against Schiff. The court order forbids Schiff from distributing his latest book, Federal Mafia: How the Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes. It also forbids him from speaking publicly about the income tax and from helping anyone prepare a return. (Of those three requirements, only the last, I think, is conceivably constitutional.) Most shockingly of all, the order requires Schiff to turn over the names of all his previous customers to the federal government. Schiff refused to turn over the names and was facing contempt of court and more jail time when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the order and is now planning to consider (1) whether Schiff can be required to turn over four years' worth of customers' names, and (2) whether a federal judge can ban the sale of the book. Apparently, in the meantime, the book is available for sale once again. For the curious, check out Schiff's horrible web site, with lots of grandiose rhetoric (as well as the first chapter of the book available for download). I really feel like this is one of those issues where the clearest and most convincing argument for the correct viewpoint is a statement of the facts. Schiff believes, or at least alleges to believe, that the IRS code has no language mandating the payment of U.S. federal income tax. He's written numerous books explaining the reasoning behind his beliefs, and outlining a method to avoid paying them. The government disagrees with Schiff's legal theory. The injunction, linked above, explains the government's rationale for its position that U.S. citizens are legally required to pay income taxes. That's really about all it does. Apparently, Schiff is prohibited from expressing his position because it is false. Which, of course, it surely is -- I'm not trying to argue that the guy isn't a crackpot. But since when does the U.S. government prevent private citizens from expressing false beliefs?