Religion vs Happiness

I enjoyed Keith Lockitch's recent editorial The Conservatives' War on Birth Control which includes this excellent paragraph:

Virtue, according to Christianity, consists of sacrificing one's desires and goals in the name of fulfilling one's duties to God. Sex, on this premise, is at best a necessary evil--a sinful act, justifiable only by the duty to procreate. To deliberately prevent pregnancy by using birth control is to assert one's right to enjoy sex purely for its own sake--not as a means to procreation, but purely as an end in itself. And this is what conservatives find unacceptable. What they object to is that a couple using birth control is placing their own, personal happiness above obedience to religion. They object to contraception not despite the fact that it removes the fear of unwanted pregnancy, but precisely because it removes that fear.

Stahl's Opinion Pieces

Via Mike's Eyes I was very happy to learn that Noah Stahl (an OAC classmate of mine) has been writing regular opinion pieces for the Iowa State Daily. Here is one of several that I enjoyed: One Enemy, One Way. You can use the search box at the top of the page to find Noah's other articles (over 60 so far and counting!).

GVH on Cato's Foreign Policy

Gus Van Horn has a nice post responding to a typical libertarian's view of national self-defense.

As to the semantic question of whether to call Islam's War on the West a "world war", I think that it probably is in terms of the number, extent and ideological devotion of the enemies allied against us, but due to the utter impotence of that enemy (as a direct consequence of the ideas he espouses and lives by) I don't think the confrontation yet rises to the potential destruction and devastation that the term "world war" normally connotes. Of course, if we continue appeasing and paying tribute to the Islamists, rather than eliminating the threat they pose -- eventually the toll they exact could rival that seen in the first two world wars.

Sanctioning Our Killers

Cox and Forkum have the cartoon and the commentary lambasting Harvard's (and the State Department's) Khatami travesty.

BLC Amy Wakasugi "Madonna"

To get an idea of the relative sizes, the white flower on the left is a dendrobium, the yellow flower on the right is the blc golden tang.



And here are a couple more shots of the madonna indoors and out.

Democracy Vs. Victory

Just a reminder that Dr. Brook's Hyatt talk is this coming Tuesday (the 12th). It should be a great lecture and I think there's a good chance that Onk will participate in the Q&A afterwards.

ARI Editorials

I'm way behind here, but did want to quickly mention two excellent ARI editorials that were just released: The Terrorists' Motivation: Islam and Why We Are Losing Hearts and Minds.

Also, for anyone interested in the Fantasy Football league, all the contests are now working. Be aware that you have to make all your selections for each contest before the site will allow you to submit the picks (e.g. in the mega contest you have to choose all your players, fulfill each of the position requirements and come in under the salary cap before you can save the team).