AriArmstrong.com

Face Gets Momentum

2009-11-12T16:31:00.003-07:00

Last night Face performed at the Boulder Theater. I've said it three or four times before, and I'll say it again: last night was their best performance I've seen.

You can listen to clips from their latest album, Momentum, which they released at the concert.

Interestingly, Face has cancelled all of its December holiday shows. Their web page currently claims, "Face will be out of town in December: More details coming soon!" It'll be interesting to see what the band has cooking.

I've been enjoying Face's performances now for several years, and I'm pleased to see the band continue to meet success. Their sound gets better and better.

Back in 2005 I wrote, "Saying that Face is an 'a cappella group' is sort of like saying Jimi Hendrix is a 'guitar player.' It's true, but it doesn't really get the point across. Face rocks." Seriously, give them a try.

Their performances are heartfelt and personable. Last night the band brought up two former members to sing signature songs. They recounted a bit of their history together in between songs. The new album reveals the group's talent as arrangers and singers, but a big reason they have been so successful with word-of-mouth promotion is that audiences really enjoy sharing time with them.

The band also announced the successful birth of a member's new baby just days ago. As Pamela White wrote for Boulder Weekly, the wife of one of the band members carried to term another couple's baby. So congratulations on all counts.

Amazing Primal Pancakes

2009-11-08T15:52:00.002-07:00

Somebody recommended Rick's Primal Pancakes, and they are absolutely amazing. These are honestly the best pancakes I've ever eaten. I think it's something about the flavors of the coconut with the almond.

I used the recipe as listed, except I doubled it. The given recipe consists of 1 egg, 1/4 cup Almond Meal, 1/4 cup of coconut milk, 1/8 t cinnamon, and 1/8 t vanilla extract. They were a bit runny, so I think you could increase the ratio of meal to milk. (I imagine you could also use cow milk.)

I wend shopping this morning at Sunflower before I made breakfast. I was going to purchase almond meal, but it can cost over $10 per pound. Before I left, I read Yvette Marie's suggestions for making almond meal. So I paid something like four dollars a pound for bulk raw almonds at Sunflower, then made my own meal. (I didn't sift the meal, as Marie suggests, but I don't mind it a little crunchy.) It turned out great.

Dreaming of a White... Halloween?

2009-10-29T18:54:00.002-06:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, yet it's still two days before Halloween! I don't know what the official snow total is for my area, but we got well over a foot.

Ben Carson, A Hero of Medicine

2009-10-23T20:18:00.004-06:00

We just rented and watched Gifted Hands, the story of neurosurgeon Ben Carson of Johns Hopkins. It's a fantastic film. In today's cinematic world of mindless action, dumb comedy, and grotesque horror, here is a different sort of movie, a movie about a true hero, someone who made medical history with his innovative brain surgeries.

Dr. Carson says in a documentary accompanying the film, "It will show the incredible power of education and what it can do for a person. How it can take a person from a life of virtually nothing to the pinnacle of one of the toughest professions in the world."

Carson grew up in poverty. Though illiterate, his mother drove her sons to educational excellence, requiring them to report on books from the library. Carson overcame struggles in school and racial prejudice to achieve an outstanding education and take the path to medicine.

The film has an obvious religious theme and emphasizes Carson's religious faith. What drives the heroic story, though, is Carson's dedication to learning and to his career goals. Well worth viewing.

Fall Harvest

2009-10-21T22:23:00.003-06:00

It has been snowing and raining today, so it feels like winter is upon us. Hidden on my camera, however, were some nice photos of the fall's harvest.

This year's garden was thrown together. We were in the middle of working on the house (which we're still doing), and we planted late in mediocre soil. Still, we had a garden, and we did pretty well given our limitations. We got good produce from our 48 tomato plants, and we also had some summer and winter squash. Next year I plan to do considerably better.

By the way, the basil is from our wonderful indoor plant. Also by the way, today I turned a couple of butternut squash (one purchased, one from the garden) into a fabulous soup.

Vampire Haiku

2009-10-14T22:48:00.004-06:00

The Denver Post is running a weekly contest for writing haikus. This week the topic is vampires. The only rule is that the verse must follow the 5-7-5 syllable structure. Here's my entry (which my wife, at least, thought was funny):

Vampires suck my blood?
No, they suck my wallet dry
at cheesy movies.

Here's the rest of the entries, for those interested.

Getting Things Done Faster

2009-09-23T13:41:00.002-06:00

What's amazing to me is that people spend so much time learning about "time management." My attitude has always been that people should quit screwing around learning about "time management" and just spend their time doing stuff.

Nevertheless, I am currently reading David Allen's Getting Things Done, as it comes highly recommended by various friends. My basic evaluation so far is positive, but I think most readers could save a lot of time by skipping much of the book.

Basically, the entire first part -- the first 81 pages -- boils down to two points.

1. To reach your goals, you need to define your goals and figure out effective ways to reach them.

2. You need a good way to process information related to your projects. You're getting all sorts of ideas and information coming at you, all the time, from many directions. Moreover, you do a lot of good thinking at odd times. You need a good way to capture and organize all this information and all those ideas, so that you can effectively use them, and so that you can work in a more relaxed, enjoyable way.

Part 2, which I've just started, explains specifically how to accomplish the second point. I really don't think I would have missed much if I had simply skipped the first part. It seems to me that much of effective time management is about figuring out what not to do.

Tomatoes Yum

2009-09-21T09:39:00.002-06:00

Jennifer and I planted 48 tomato plants in the spring. I dried several batches of the produce in our handy Excalibur.

These dried tomatoes will be great in a variety of cooked dishes.

And we should do better next year, once we get the back yard in better shape.

Muscle Versus Concrete

2009-09-16T15:55:00.003-06:00

So I called the local machine rental shop and got a quote for $48 for four hours on the electric jackhammer.

But I drove down to the shop and found that $48 rents only the puny 35-pound machine. The big boy costs $60. Plus, I was annoyed that I had to rent the machine for a full four hours, when I only needed it for half an hour (plus commute, so still under two hours).

I figured, hell, for $48 I can do it myself with a sledge hammer. So I did.

Was it worth it? Well, per swing I didn't save too much money. (It took a lot of swings.) The middle was a lot thicker than I thought judging from the edges. But it's not like running a jackhammer is easy work. Plus, I saved an extra forty minute commute back to the rental shop, plus gas.

And, of course, I can say I broke up a concrete pad with nothing but a sledge hammer.

Garden Meals

2009-09-09T13:59:00.003-06:00

I was so impressed with our recent meals that I thought I'd photograph and post them. Shown are tomatoes and squash from our garden, fresh basil from our herb pot, and purchased meats, cheese, olives, pine nuts, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

Ordering a Blood Test

2009-09-04T13:18:00.005-06:00

For reasons that probably won't interest the reader, I want to order a blood test that measures the basic cholesterol readings. My difficulties in ordering a test illustrate a major problem with our third-party health payment system: it largely shuts the patient out of the process.

First I called a lab that does not offer the blood test but that helpfully told me that the two main testing facilities in the state are Qwest (of which I was already aware) and Lab Corp.

So I started with Lab Corp. The first fellow I talked to was helpful, but he couldn't answer questions about specific facilities, so he sent me on to a general customer service number. There I got the number to the Broomfield facility.

The Broomfield office was basically helpful, except on two counts. First, for reasons that nobody could explain, Lab Corp requires a doctor's order to conduct any test. You can't just go in, as though you were an adult in charge of your own health, and order up the test of your choice. No, no, no. You've got to ask for permission to get tested. (I imagine this has a lot to do with liability nonsense.)

Second, the woman on the phone said she didn't know how much the blood test costs, nor would she figure it out for me. Moreover, she didn't have time for me to give her any "problems" over the matter. She was unfazed when I pointed out that every other business in the state can tell me what their services cost. (True, auto mechanics sometimes don't know the final tally until they discover the nature of the damage, but a blood test is the same every time, so you'd think they'd have a clear idea of the cost.)

So then I tried Qwest, which also requires a doctor's order. At least Qwest could tell me the price: $58 plus a $15 draw fee. The woman at Qwest did helpfully point out that "Any Lab Test" might be able to fill in for the physician on the ordering end.

It turns out that neither Lab Corp nor Qwest actually requires a doctor's order, as they claim on the phone, if you use a run-around method of ordering the test. (The first fellow I talked with at Lab Corp did mention this.)

Any Lab Test has two Colorado offices. You can go in, pay $49, and the office will draw your blood and ship it to a Qwest center in Kansas.

Or you can go to PrePaidLab.com, which contracts with the local Lab Corp. You can order a "Lipid Panel" for $16.05 (plus a processing fee of $9.50) or a "Lipid Panel With LDL:HDL Ratio" for $43.65 (plus the fee).

King Soopers will also conduct an instant, "finger prick" blood test for $20; however, my wife's doctor lacked confidence in the "finger prick" test. I called Lab Corp back, and a representative confirmed that both of their lipid tests involve a full blood draw. The rep. said that both tests are equally accurate, though one provides more information.

Imagine how much better life would be if politicians hadn't pushed us into a third-party payment system for health care. (Obviously, I favor third-party payments when they involve real insurance, but not when they involve routine care.) Health providers would actually tell us what they plan to charge us for their services. Doctors and clinics would be more responsive to patients.

While politicians have seriously damaged the market in health care, enough freedom is left that proactive consumers can still shop around and find services that largely fit their needs. We should expand that freedom, not further diminish it.

[September 8 Update: My wife used Lab Corp through PrePaidLab.com, and she got good, fast service. September 9 Update: Lab Corp had the results back the next day! That beats the pants off of Qwest, in our experience.]

What is a Christian Libertarian?

2009-09-02T11:01:00.004-06:00

On August 28 the Centennial Institute of Colorado Christian University sponsored a talk by former business professor Kevin Miller titled "Christians and Libertarianism." So what is a Christian libertarian?

Miller presented two basic, conflicting views without revealing which view he personally endorses. One view is that Christians should seek to enforce religious morals by force of law, as by banning gay marriage. The second view, which Miller articulated at greater length and with more passion, is that Christians should advocate political liberty for all and take advantage of liberty to evangelize.

Notable is Miller's reason for endorsing liberty. I believe an individual needs liberty in order to pursue his happiness, act on his own best judgment, and apply his reason to the task of living successfully. Such analysis was absent in Miller's presentation. Instead, the value of liberty for a "Christian libertarian" is that the state will not seek to control or inhibit religion, leaving the faithful free to advance religion.

Miller got himself into a number of problems, as by denying natural law and advocating abortion bans on the grounds that a fertilized egg is a person. But what most interested me was his view of "prudential" Christianity. (Unfortunately, I was not able to ask a question on this matter before the event formally ended.)

Miller argued that what was prudent in the age of Daniel is not prudent today. In Daniel's age, it was appropriate to serve a king. Now, the prudent Christian endorses liberty so as to further the Christian goal of converting others to the faith. Miller also pointed out that American culture is currently "unregenerated," meaning largely not under Christian influence.

But what does that entail for the future of liberty if Christians manage to "regenerate" the nation? Many of Miller's concerns focussed on possible ways the government might impede Christianity. But what if Christians solidly control the government? Those concerns disappear. Would it not then be "prudent" for Christians to advocate government enforcement of strictly religious convictions? Miller offered no answer to this.

Nor did Miller answer the most powerful rebuttal to "Christian libertarianism," which is that, by appealing to faith for ultimate truths, Christians place those truths beyond human reason and into the hands of some authority. When an authority decides ultimate matters of truth and morality, the logical conclusion is an authoritarian political system.

Liberty ultimately depends on the independent reasoning mind and on independently pursued values. We can discover objective truths about our world and about right and wrong, we can apply our knowledge in the pursuit of our values, and we can seek to persuade others through rational argument. The proper role of government, in this view, is to protect our liberty to think and to act, protect us from the initiation of force, and otherwise leave us free to go about our own lives.

Hard to Escape Third-Party Health Payment

2009-08-29T17:40:00.004-06:00

How entrenched is third-party payment for health care?

Consider a personal example. Recently my wife went to her doctor. She paid for the care at the time of service using funds from our Health Savings Account. She had to explain that, no, we did not want to submit the bill to insurance. She had to explain that, yes, she in fact wanted to pay for the service, at the time of service, all by herself.

So she paid the bill, and that's that, right?

Of course not. We just got a notice from our insurance company informing us that the doctor's office also billed insurance for the doctor's visit, despite the fact that my wife paid the bill at the time of service. So now we have to spend more time resolving the double-billing.

Apparently, the doctor's staff literally cannot mentally grasp the notion of paying for health care at the time of service.

Voyage to the Planets

2009-08-19T12:35:00.005-06:00

I happened to learn of a new ABC show, Defying Gravity, over at Hulu. My wife and I watched, and mostly enjoyed, the first episode. The premise is that a group of astronauts is headed on a trip around the solar system.

But why can't somebody just do good, hard, exciting sci-fi? Defying Gravity is seriously marred by some mysterious force (alien?) on the ship that is driving events. Way to ruin a perfectly great premise.

Fortunately, the BBC show that inspired the dumbed-down, soaped-out American version, Voyage to the Planets and Beyond (originally Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets) suffers no such silliness. We Netflixed the two-hour show and really enjoyed it.

The only thing I didn't like about the BBC show (aside from its asinine PC environmentalist segment) is that it portrays a future global (meaning political) effort to explore the solar system, rather than a truly useful future of free-market space exploration. Typical of a political program, the voyage is a rushed, astronomically expensive venture with little payback for the investment. It would be absolute lunacy to send five astronauts on a three-year trip to Pluto, for example. What they should have done is spend the entire time on Mars, as Bob Zubrin suggests.

Still, part of the point of the show is simply to show the solar system, using top computer imaging based on the latest discoveries. In this goal, the show is a spectacular success. Wow, wow, and more wow. Don't miss the documentary about robotic exploration of space.

Dear YouTube: Please Charge Me!

2009-08-09T18:05:00.005-06:00

Dear YouTube,

You have a great service. The problem is that it's "free." (I understand your owner, Google, continues to lose money on you.)

Because uploading videos to YouTube is "free," I have wasted several hours over the last three days trying to upload videos to your server. I am currently trying to upload a 9 minute, 40 second video, at medium resolution, featuring an interview with a Colorado Congressional candidate. My wait time is 16 hours. This is the third time I've tried -- and apparently failed -- to upload the video. (I have a good cable line, so I don't think that's the problem.)

Call me crazy, but I think publishing videos like this in a timely manner is healthy for our republic.

With a previous video, my wait time was up to 48 hours. (I cancelled the upload, obviously.)

YouTube is a sweet service. Just about everybody loves it. I love it. But I'd love it a whole lot more if I could pay you for improved service.

Here's just one possibility for pricing. Users could purchase credits, say one credit per dollar, perhaps with a bulk discount. You could price based on file size. Then users could make the tradeoffs between length and resolution. Charge, say, a dollar for files up to 100 megs, two dollars up to 200 megs, etc. Obviously you could adjust the actual rates based on costs, demand, advertising revenues, etc. You could even charge a premium for peak-time access.

If you already offer people the option of paying you for better upload service, I've missed it. Perhaps you or a reader will correct me. But, assuming the option is not already available, I beg you, please don't make me continue to use your service for "free!"

Sincerely,
Ari Armstong

August 10 Update: After several failed attempts to upload the video in question through iMovie, I tried uploading the file directly to YouTube and had much better success. So it's unclear to me why the iMovie upload doesn't work well, but the direct upload works better. At any rate, I'm still interested to learn how YouTube hopes to make money from its operation -- and provide users with good service in the process.

Planter's Progress

2009-08-09T13:23:00.003-06:00

If posting has been a little slow this summer, a big part of the reason is that we've been working hard on the property.

We finally finished up the front yard. Here's the progress in pictures:

We purchased the red concrete pavers at Home Depot for 79 cents each. We bought around 250 blocks. We also got laying sand there.

We ordered a truckload of Washington Cedar Mulch from Pioneer.

The sod and flowers came from O'Tooles.

We discovered that large planters cost a fortune at garden centers. Therefore, we purchased two $30 plastic "pond" liners at Home Depot, drilled holes in the bottom, and painted them brown.

Don't Ban Or Force Abortion

2009-07-23T12:43:00.003-06:00

Today's Boulder Weekly published my new article, "Don't ban or force abortions."

It begins:

The debate over abortion seems more contentious than ever in America today. Some want to ban all abortions from the moment of conception. Others want to forcibly sterilize people and compel women to get abortions.

But are those two groups really that different? They share fundamentally similar goals. Both would sacrifice the individual to some alleged greater good. Both would use the force of government to squash the rights of individuals. The moral alternative is to consistently uphold the rights of individuals to determine the course of their own lives.

Comments by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and by President Obama's "science czar," John Holdren, have raised concerns about politically promoted or required abortions. ...

Following are links to three articles I consulted.

"The ghoulish spirit of Margaret Sanger lives," by Michelle Malkin

"The Place of Women on the Court," by Emily Bazelon (New York Times)

"Science fiction czar," by David Harsanyi (Denver Post)

Moon

2009-07-18T15:42:00.002-06:00

If you like science fiction driven by ideas and characters' psychology, go see Moon. Don't watch the preview first, don't read any reviews, don't even read the rest of this post following this paragraph. Just go see it. You may not like all the ideas in the movie, but then at least there's something to positively dislike, a big step up from today's typical, mindless "action" film. I'll be stunned if Sam Rockwell doesn't get major awards for his fine acting. I only wish I hadn't watched the preview first, as it gives away the central story arch. My comments that follow, then, are mainly directed at those who have already seen the movie and want to evaluate it more deeply.

There's nothing truly original with the story. In its premise it reminds me a lot of Blade Runner (which already gives the game away to those who have seen that film). Isolation in space, cloning -- these are the staples of science fiction. So what I like about the movie is the skill in which these traditional motifs are carried off.

This is a film that, despite its dark and morally troubling subject matter, keeps a bright spirit, at least ultimately. I feared it would descend to psychosis and to the character's detachment from reality.

What I don't like about the film is its anti-industrial bias. Indeed, the entire premise of the story is ridiculous.

So here it goes (again, you shouldn't be reading this if you haven't seen the movie and may wish to do so). The background for the story is that a large corporation that produces energy on the moon clones a guy to service the station. The clone lives for around three years and then is incinerated, at which time a new clone takes his place, oblivious to what's going on.

The back story is just stupid. Here we have a company responsible for generating 70 percent of the Earth's energy, yet it can't afford to send a regular crew up to man the station? Moreover, we're supposed to believe that an intricate system of cloning is less costly to create and maintain than just sending up regular people for reasonable stints, presumably in pairs or teams? As the movie reveals, rocket technology has advanced considerably and must be regularly used to transport physical goods. Beyond that, as the movie makes clear, the cloning system can break down, so the company must also pay a regular crew to visit the station to solve related problems. That's supposed to save costs?

But of course that is only the minor issue. The main issue is that the company creates new people and then systematically violates their rights. They are essentially slaves. The company's behavior is wrong, and it is contrary to the principles of individual rights on which capitalism is based. So the government's legitimate responsibility would be to stop the rights violations.

And we're supposed to believe that a company could keep such a thing hidden for many years? Wouldn't anyone ask any questions about how all that energy is produced? In the end the company is exposed. In the real world, if any remnant of justice remained, everybody involved in the criminal side of the operation would then go to jail for a very long time. While obviously people like Madoff demonstrate that some people engage in criminal behavior for short-term financial gain, such behavior is severely self-destructive and unsustainable.

(A related economic issue is that no company would likely maintain such a large market share over time without political privilege. With property rights protected for homesteaders, and given diseconomies of scale, I'd expect to see a number of production companies. We do not know the political nature of the energy production in the film.)

The irony of the movie is that the new Evil Corporation is the "greenest" corporation ever to exist. It has accomplished what many environmentalists claim to desire. The entire premise driving enviro-socialism is the old Marxist canard that profit-seeking business people are inherently corrupt. As the movie illustrates, this prejudice does not dissipate merely because the business produces politically-correct goods. (Don't get me wrong; I'd love to see cost-effective, off-world energy production within my lifetime, though I don't see that as a feasible alternative to Earth-bound energy into the indefinite future.)

But many writers in their laziness pull out the Marx card any time they need to generate some malignant force. Blame it on the evil businessman. Why let the resulting artistic idiocy get in the way?

Harry Potter Radio

2009-07-18T01:02:00.004-06:00

On Friday evening I joined Bob Glass on the radio to talk about Harry Potter.

I start in about two-thirds through the first hour.

We also spent the entire second hour continuing our discussion (though with an occasional diversion).

Bob is a Potter virgin, so I summarized the major story arch for him and for listeners unfamiliar with the stories. We talked a lot about the anti-totalitarian political themes of the series. We also talked about the Christian criticisms of the books as well as the religious themes within them. (I also briefly summarized my view that the religious themes of the books are not very strong or pronounced.)

I had a lot of fun discussing the Potter books and movies with Bob. In general, Bob's show is shaping up with good analysis of current events. You can check him out at BobGlassRadio.com. (He said he'd start updating his page more frequently and even start looking into Twitter.) The online feed works very well, so you can listen to his show 9-11 p.m. (mountain) anywhere in the world where internet is available.

Of course, if you're interested in more of what I have to say about Harry Potter, check out my book and additional essays at ValuesOfHarryPotter.com.

Half-Blood Prince Review

2009-07-15T15:47:00.005-06:00

Jennifer and I decided last-minute to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I figured I was already way off my schedule, so I might as well write a review as well. I published it this morning around 5:30. My review is targeted to those already familiar with the story. I'll be interested to see if I notice anything new -- or change my mind about anything -- on a second viewing.

Feel free to let me know if you have a different take on the film.

Read my review, "Movie Does Justice to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

Update: David Yates discusses leaving out the Minister and adding in a couple of of scenes not from the book. I liked the bridge scene, but the waitress scene seemed out of place. I wish he had dumped it and put the Minister back in!

Twelve Bovine Livers

2009-07-14T00:46:00.003-06:00

My grandfather farmed peaches in Palisade. I spent many an hour shoveling cow manure, planting and watering trees, and so on. I guess I still have a bit of farmer in me.

Jennifer and I figure we've dried nearly 100 pounds of fruit so far this summer. We got 67 cent per pound apricots, $1.34 per pound cherries, mangos at Costco, and strawberries for 88 cents to a dollar per pound. Now we have outstanding dried fruit to eat through the winter. We're still looking forward to peaches and tomatoes.

This evening we ate the first tomato from our garden. It was small, but very sweet.

And I cooked twelve grass-fed cow livers, chopped them up, and froze them in portions to add to dishes. I thought it would make a fun song:

In the middle of summer,
my true love made for me
Twelve bovine livers
Eleven pounds of berries
Ten trays of mangos...
Five red cherries...
And a tomato from the back yard.

With the liver, I was inspired by Jessica Seinfeld's book on pureeing vegetables and adding them to various dishes. I've taken to pureeing broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, and so on, then freezing portions in baggies. Then I just dump a bag or two of puree into any random dish. I decided to try this with liver as well, as It turns out that Jennifer is no fan of liver and onions.

I bought this liver based on two dietary theories. The first is that grass-fed cows offer more nutrients than junk-fed cows. The second is that organ meats contain higher amounts of certain vitamins such as K2. (Besides, grass-fed cow liver is pretty cheap, so at worst I'm getting a modest-cost dish add-in. By the way, NutritionData.com shows that cow liver has low Vitamin K but high amounts of other vitamins like A and B12. I'd get grass-fed cow milk if it weren't so danged expensive.)

It seems funny to me now that I used to stock my freezer with junk frozen dinners and burritos. Now it's stocked with grass-fed beef, assorted frozen fruits, sale meats, and shredded cheese -- the joys of abundance.

'Personhood' Returns for 2010

2009-07-10T12:13:00.003-06:00

Last year, the religious right ran Amendment 48 in Colorado to define a fertilized egg as a person, with full legal rights on par with born infants. The "personhood" measure would have paved the way to banning abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, health risks, and fetal deformity, perhaps excepting extreme risk to the woman's life. If enforced, it would have led to bans on certain forms of birth control and severe restrictions on fertility treatments. It would have prompted criminal prosecution of abortions and criminal investigations of suspect miscarriages.

Voters crushed the measure 73 to 27 percent. So, after such a resounding defeat, the measure's backers learned their lesson, right? Of course not. They're back with a new -- and even worse -- proposal for 2010.

Mark Barna reports for the June 29 Gazette, "Two anti-abortion groups, Colorado Right to Life and Personhood USA, will submit a new 'personhood' initiative to the Colorado Legislative Council on Thursday in hopes of getting a measure on the 2010 state ballot." Gualberto Garcia Jones of Personhood Colorado promises a "smarter," better-funded campaign with better spokespersons.

But there will be an important change. Barna writes:

Rather than defining a person as "any human being from the moment of fertilization," the new initiative will establish personhood in "every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being."

"The change," Garcia [Jones] said, "doesn't leave any loopholes to artificial forms of reproduction such as cloning."

See also coverage in the Denver Daily News (in which we learn that Garcia Jones is Catholic -- big surprise there) and the Denver Post.

Tim Hoover of the Post doesn't mention the cloning issue. Instead, he writes:

"When we use 'fertilized egg,' it's a pejorative," said Keith Mason, director of Personhood USA, an Arvada-based organization supporting the measure and similar proposals across the country. ...

The amendment would say that "the term 'person' shall apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being."

So what is "the beginning of the biological development of that human being"? That would be up to courts to decide, said Gualberto Garcia Jones of Personhood Colorado.

How is calling a "fertilized egg" a "fertilized egg" a pejorative? Mason's claim is ridiculous. So I'll offer a different explanation. I think that the main reason supporters of the measure dumped the language about "fertilization" is that it draws to voters' attention all too clearly the goals of the organization: to ban all abortion and any other action that might harm a fertilized egg, on the faith-based fantasy that God infuses a fertilized egg with a soul.

By substituting "human being" for "fertilized egg," supporters of the measure hope to cloud the issue in sufficient ambiguity to trip up more voters.

Of course, the ultimate goal of the measure's supporters -- as they loudly proclaim -- is to eventually elect the "right" politicians, who will appoint the "right" judges," who will interpret the measure so as to declare a fertilized egg a "human being," with all the legal ramifications that that entails.

Note the shift in Garcia Jones's tone from the Gazette article to the one in the Post. He told the Gazette that the purpose of the new language was to make it even more restrictive: to extend it beyond fertilization to cloning. But by the time he spoke with Hoover, he said the courts will decide. One might get the feeling that Garcia Jones rethought his strategy of informing voters that he intends the new measure to apply to all fertilized eggs.

So what are we to make of this new language about a "human being?" As Diana Hsieh and I wrote in our paper on Amendment 48:

In fact, the advocates of Amendment 48 depend on an equivocation on "human being" to make their case. A fertilized egg is human, in the sense that it contains human DNA. It is also a “being,” in the sense that it is an entity. That’s also true of a gallbladder: it is human and it is an entity. Yet that doesn’t make your gallbladder a human person with the right to life. Similarly, the fact that an embryo is biologically a human entity is not grounds for claiming that it's a human person with a right to life. Calling a fertilized egg a "human being" is word-play intended to obscure the vast biological differences between a fertilized egg traveling down a woman's fallopian tube and a born infant sleeping in a crib. It is intended to obscure the fact that anti-abortion crusaders base their views on scripture and authority, not science.

Of course, a fertilized egg, unlike a gallbladder, has the capacity, in the right environment, to develop into a born infant, a person. But a potential person is not an actual person, a distinction consistently dodged by advocates of abortion bans.

The problem with the new measure's language is that it relies on voters to decide for themselves what is a "human being." Is it a fertilized egg, a "viable" fetus, or a born infant? It's for the courts to decide, we are told. Then why do the measure's advocates leave the language intentionally ambiguous?

Obviously, if we take "human being" as synonymous with "person," then the measure is merely tautological. But clearly the goal of the measure's supporters is to define a fertilized egg -- and now a cloned zygote -- as a "person." The strategy is to make a rhetorical leap without bothering to show that a fertilized egg is, in fact, a person. Maybe that's because there is no argument demonstrating that a fertilized egg is a person, because it isn't.

Notably, not a single advocate of Amendment 48 even attempted to seriously address the arguments in the paper, "Amendment 48 Is Anti-Life: Why It Matters That a Fertilized Egg is Not a Person." Thus, I do not need to recapitulate those arguments here, when readers can peruse the original for themselves.

For the advocates of abortion bans, this is not about proving that a fertilized egg is a person. This is about trying to obscure the issue and impose non-objective law in order to enforce the beliefs of sectarian faith.

Love in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009-07-08T23:21:00.002-06:00

When I first read J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it struck me as a "bridge" book -- a crossover between the fantastic fifth book and the finale of the series. I enjoyed it, but it was by no means my favorite. But, once I started digging a little deeper into it, I discovered that the sixth novel offers the riches of human relationships. Of course it also reveals the tragic background of Voldemort's family (without making that an excuse for Voldermort's horrific actions).

I spent much of Wednesday looking through my notes of the novel and writing an essay about its central theme, which is, simply and profoundly, love. Here is the opening paragraph:

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, soon to be released as a blockbuster movie, is often a grim and frightening book, filled with episodes of murder and mayhem. From Dumbledore, Harry learns the secrets of Lord Voldemort's dark past. And yet, despite all the suffering and the rise of evil, the strongest theme of the book is love. Love for family and friends. Romantic love. It is in contrast with Voldemort's loveless and despicable life that the value of love shines through the story.

Read the entire new essay on love in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince over at ValuesOfHarryPotter.com.

Definition of a Nitwitter

2009-06-29T21:49:00.003-06:00

My first Twitter post is dated June 19, 2009. I had once sworn never to join Twitter. But I love it. For my purposes, it works fantastically. (I basically use it as a news feed.) But the tool is only as good as its users. I've seen plenty of Twitter nonsense as well.

I knew somebody out there must have come up with a definition of a "nitwitter." I was right:

A person who discusses their twitting frequently and enthusiastically, causing irritation.

Person A: Did you read my tweets this morning? They were so funny!

Person B: Get lost, nitwitter.

I'd like to add two more definitions:

2. nitwitter: a user of Twitter who writes hopelessly incomprehensible Twitter posts. (I know 140 characters isn't much, but if you can't write a post that other people can actually understand, why bother?)

3. nitwitter: a user of Twitter who follows more people than he or she can possibly read, for the purpose of attracting more followers, who in turn neglect to read the first person's Twitter posts.

Don't be a nitwitter! In any of the three senses.

Still, I love it. Go to Twitter and follow me!

What If God Disappeared?

2009-06-26T15:06:00.002-06:00

When I watched the first few seconds of this video some weeks ago, I didn't appreciate it. But now that I've watched it completely through...