Spidey, Too: Goin' nuts in Peru.

Supes Goes Bad: Must have got a hold of some bad Kryptonite.

Calvinites Rejoice:  Now you can truly have it all.

Hal Jordan Would Be Rolling In His Grave (If He Hadn't Already Come Back As The Spectre):  I try not to be overly negative in this blog, but I've had a pretty bad weekend.  It started out okay, smoking some meat and hanging with my family.  But somewhere between one of my stores getting vandalized in the middle of the night Saturday,  the headache that still hasn't really gone away, and blogger's "wonderful" (yeah, right) new editor, things took a sour turn.
 
But this bit of news has got to be the worst blow of all.
 
Green Lantern, the most powerful character in the DC universe, the man with the ring that can do anything he wants, the man who single-handedly anniatlated the guardians of the universe and the entire Green Lantern Corp will be played by . . . . Jack Black?
 
The Green Lantern movie is going to be a wacky, "Mask"-esque comedy?
 
The fact that some studio is going to be paying money to put Green Lantern on the screen and the phrase "Greatest Comic Book Movie Ever" are not dripping from anyone's lips is a Hindenberg-level tragedy.
 
If anybody wants me, I'll be that whimpering pile curled up in the fetal position in the corner.

Bad Writing (And Not Mine): They've announced this year's Bulwer-Lytton winner and it's gone to . . . somebody making fun of Martha Stewart.
 
Actually, he wasn't even making fun of her--he was just mentioning her.  But I guess everybody assumes Martha Stewart is just a big joke, so any mention of her is funny.

M. Night Hoax:  Readers of this blog know of my many posts applauding hoaxes.  I'm pleased to see that Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan was involved in one with the Sci Fi Channel.
 
I have no idea why they didn't keep this going.

The Economics of Conservatism: I am well aware that engaging Sandefur in a discussion of the 14th amendment is rather like playing Snapdragon with the Human Torch.  It's something you do more to get a good seat for the show, not because you think you're going to win.
 
I'll just say that I find the idea of the fourteenth amendment as a basis for banning imposed welfare appealing, and am curious to know how well accepted he would think such a position would be in the courts.
 
As for the other argument, the one he baited me with, the one he knows he and I disagree completely about--well, that one will have to wait for another night.  It's been a long weekend, and I just want to post some fluff.
 
But it will come.  That discussion will happen.  The gauntlet will be thrown down.  Titans will collide.  Minds will be enlightened with the force and fury of a white dwarfing star, and the blogosphere will never be the same!
 
But to tide everybody over, here's today's entertainment news!

Elementary, My Dear: If you've never seen it, check out Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction.

Sodium (K, 19) features the glowing pickle machine Dan Hunt and I did for our senior year science project, and Magnesium (Mg, 12) is a must read for anybody who's read Ender's Game (which I think is nearly everybody who reads this blog).

Conversation Continues: First, Sandefur has no reason to worry that anything in his posts are hostile towards me. We are discussing ideas, and he is free to be as hostile towards ideas as he wants to be. I wouldn't have gotten involved in the discussion if I wasn't ready to have my ideas challenged passionately.

Besides, I know he's above the kind of mean spirited stuff that gets flung about in less classy parts of the blogosphere (you suck!) (No, YOU suck!) (Oh, YEAH? Keep it up, and I'm going to Post in |337 $PE4k!!)

Whatever. With Sandefur, it's all about ideas, so let's see how well mine hold up.

Well, actually, there isn't much to say. Aside from some bad wording he found in my last post he's got my position nailed down.

First, as to "outlined," I was referring to rights outlined in, say, the bill of rights or other law. You and I may have an absolute moral right that exists and has existed through all eternity, but unless it is delineated somewhere in writing with the signatures of legislators, we're not going to get any protection of it by our government.

I hope that makes sense.

I'm really talking about two different things here--the first is absolute morality, a set of laws that are fixed and in place that cannot be violated nor changed, that have been and always will be.

The second is the structure and morality of our actual government. This one is fluid and changing, moving either towards the tenants of real, absolute morality, if the people are enlightened, or away from it, towards depravity and oppression, if the people are not.

So when I said that rights-based morality was not absolute, I should have been more careful about using the buzzword absolute. What I intended to say was that the means we have of trying to build morality into the system--of delineating rights that are not to be violated, even by the majority--doesn't automatically lead to a hard-and-fast set of rules that everyone will agree on (I believe the sentence, as first typed, read "Rights-based morality has some wiggle room").

So then comes his summary of my position: It’s not okay; it’s immoral and beyond the legitimate power of the majority, but they just have so much power that it’s impossible to stop them from doing it.

Would I agree with that? Basically.

I feel that it's important that the majority have power. Even though he qualified it, Jefferson still said, "the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail." His qualification was that it was possible to abuse that power, not that we should take the power away from them.

That power can definitely be abused. And that's why the government can only be moral inasmuch as the people themselves are moral.

And, again, all of this is only referring to the states. The constitution has already spoken and none of this should be happening on the federal level.

Linkin' the Doc: Thanks to Punditmania for blogrolling me. Reciprocation is eminent.