I ran across an interesting piece today, in which the author, Joshua Spivak, notes that by declaring that the supporters of Prop 8 (the proposition in California which forbid same-sex marriage) did not have legal standing to sue in its defense, the Supreme Court has made direct democracy through propositions and referendums much more difficult to defend. Implicitly assumed in the piece is that direct democracy is an ideal worth defending, and that the Prop 8 decisions amounts to a dangerous precedent. Today I intend to dispute that assumption.
Category: Politics
Concerning the nature of man and the state, and how best the latter can be structured to augment the former.
A Critique of Affirmative Action
Yesterday, the supreme court announced a non-decision decision on the issue of affirmative action by universities. The ruling itself makes no significant difference to the status quo, but it got me thinking about the issue. As regular readers know, I think economic and social mobility is very important. For this reason, I am opposed to affirmative action.
Man of Steel and Genetic Engineering
Earlier this week, I went to see Man of Steel, and wrote about the way I thought it ignored and marginalized interesting and controversial moral debates about whom we have moral duties to. Toward the end of that piece, I noted that I also had thoughts concerning genetic engineering, another issue the film briefly raises, then discards. Today I’d like to pursue that thread further. Having thought about it more, I’m now convinced that the film’s take of genetic engineering is even more knee-jerk and surface level than its attitude toward imperialism.
With Apologies to George W. Bush
Guess who’s back, back again? Palin’s back–tell a friend. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s 2008 running mate, has given another speech, this time for the Faith and Freedom Coalition, one of those conservative 501(c)4’s that has so often been in the news lately. What do I find interesting about this Palin speech? The fact that, 5-10 years ago, parts of it could have been made by your average democrat.
Should States Hire Mercenaries?
I was recently asked by a friend for an opinion on the use of private military contractors. After ruminating on the subject off and on for a couple days, I recalled an interesting chain of thoughts I once had on the subject, which I intend to reconstruct today in this piece.
