Sobbing about SOPA… In general, the anti-SOPA arguments are meritless fear-mongering, and the results they predict either could not come true for practical reasons (surely once the bill is passed nerds will immediately attempt to jam up the works by reporting everyone and anything for violations), or are typical emotional appeals that have little to do with SOPA's aim or likely implementation.  The idea that the federal government will begin blindly shutting down websites based on obvious planting of pirated material is risible.

So what should you think about SOPA? One, it won't hurt you or the websites you use, unless the websites you use are actively promoting piracy. Two, opposition to SOPA is a smokescreen that conceals the growing power of Big Technology, a power it is increasingly wielding in ways that actually can hurt you. Three, the powers in question are far more safely invested with governments than with private corporations, where there is less oversight and less accountability. Do you want fewer corporate megaliths wielding more power? What is in your interests?

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Kiss Me Deadly: Paranoia in the 1950s, part 1… Kiss Me Deadly begins with Cloris Leachman's orgasmic panting as she runs along a highway clad only in a trenchcoat. Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) swerves onto the shoulder to avoid her, testily tells the speechless (but not breathless) Leachman to get in, then drives into the night. The novelty credits feature title cards coming toward the viewer in reverse style while Leachman pants and grunts from the passenger seat.
 
"Your thumb isn't good enough for you, you've got to use your whole body," Hammer gripes. "Would you have stopped if I'd used my thumb?" she asks. It won't be the last time a woman puts her whole body to use, or the last time someone draws an innuendo out for effect. Kiss Me Deadly is 50s pulp right down to its garters and cold skin; it's a reminder that this decade was as alive and as interesting as any.

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Chistopher Hitchens, the hatheist… How to remember Hitchens?  A drunk who made passes at men, a globetrotting narcissist who probably spent more time with his fannish admirers than with his own children, a bridge-burning provocateur who carried on feuds with a number of ex-friends and his own brother, a bon vivant whose body became a bloated symbol of his hedonism, a vain snob who preached socialism (which he belatedly abandoned) while living quite above the level of the working class (whose company he could not have cared for)--too ungenerous?

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Stephen Bond: the contrarian in miniature… For me it gets interesting when contrarians become contrary about their contrarianism–this is the ultimate application of their craft, like when Orthodox Jews figure out elaborate ways to trick God. Stephen Bond pulled off a version of this trick when he decided that he had rejected skepticism–essentially, he became skeptical of skepticism itself, and wrote a long, semi-boring blog post about it.
 

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A liberal (arts) proposal… Barry is attempting to enliven his drifting, annoyed youth base with a giant student loan giveaway.  This brings up the long-deferred subject of what really to do about the university education bubble.

Conservatives will lose this issue unless they actually bring the discussion to a sharp critique of liberal arts education, the university tuition racket, 1%-esque university administrations, the entrapment of the middle class into debt, but most crucially the very low value of a university education. There is no way to make college education free?someone has to pay the tuition, whether it is taxpayers, university students, or the universities themselves (which is the preferable option). Therefore the value of what is being paid for is really the central issue.

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Transgenders and mental illness… Dr. Keith Ablow went on The O'Reilly Factor (click here) and said something that every conservative should hear about transgenders.  He approached the subject in a very intelligent way, and anyone who cares about reversing the cultural tide (that is washing hypodermic needles and used condoms onto our shore) should listen.

Where the left has been extremely successful is in derogating the notion that homosexuality, transgenderism, etc. are treatable–i.e., like a lot of mental illness, treatment is difficult.  Treatment of many forms of mental illness tends to work only with a select segment who have everything running in their favor:  a supportive environment, a milder form of the illness, personality characteristics that favor treatment, and so on.  Most patients can only be helped so much.  Some respond to treatment, while others spend their lives being "maintained" rather than really treated or cured.
 

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Steve Jobs, RIP… Steve Jobs was a nasty piece of work.  He is known to have fleeced his best friend, Wozniak, out of money early in their partnership (i.e. when the money couldn't have been enough to matter).  He was an egomaniac and blowhard, and as accustomed as we all are to the amoral business ethics of today, Jobs was always a pioneer in the field of self-serving spin.

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The top WHAT percent?… When people talk about how much the "top n%" pay in taxes or harbor in wealth, do you sometimes wonder to yourself, "how many people is that, and how rich are they?" You can't be blamed for wondering, because reporters and pundits seldom flesh out these percentages.
 

More on the contentious topic of tax policy and its ramifications at My Posting Career.