Archive for June, 2011

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Arrested for Feeding the Poor

Posted June 6, 2011 By John C Wright

I kid you not.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-homeless-feedings-arrests-20110601,0,7226362.story

Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested Wednesday when police said they violated a city ordinance by feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park.

Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan “Keith” McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in the early 1980s.

The group lost a court battle in April, clearing the way for the city to enforce the ordinance. It requires groups to obtain a permit and limits each group to two permits per year for each park within a 2-mile radius of City Hall.

Arrest papers state that Cross, Markeson and McHenry helped feed 40 people Wednesday night. The ordinance applies to feedings of more than 25 people.

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ADDED LATER: Prestor Scott links to the same story, and adds: There is a lot of history behind this that the article does not provide. They are radical agitators, and they like setting up right next to an expensive restaurant that overlooks the park; i.e. they are a nuisance. The Orlando Union Rescue Mission and the Christian Service Center do much the same work without the politics.

My comment: Why not food AND bombs? Food to feed the poor, and bombs to destroy the enemy?

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On Stranger Tides — Jolly Sailor Bold

Posted June 6, 2011 By John C Wright

Tim Powers was kind enough to send me a note of congratulations when I entered the bosom of the Catholic Church.

In return for his favor, I would like to do him the courtesy of recommending the movie PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ON STRANGER TIDES.

If you squint at the film just right, you will see appear momentarily his name in the credits, something like: “Inspired by an idea vaguely related indirectly to a dream I once had about a book called ON STRANGER TIDES by Tim Powers, and basically we just wanted to use a cool name for a movie based on a Disneyland ride.”

I think Tim Powers gets a nickle each time the film is shown, so rush right out, watch it twice, or better yet, go buy some of his books.

Well, I liked the movie, because, when it comes to movies, I am easy to please. (I was secretly rooting for the Spaniards, dontchyaknow).

As long as the film makers do not insult my comfortably modest intelligence, and they include a few fistfights, swords duels, gunfights and dogfights, a tapdance scene, a duel between submarines, at least one prehistorical monster, a species-creating monolith from beyond the stars, a talking llama, a robot, a gorilla, and if a startling new insight into the human condition for me to ponder is expressed in terms memorable and elegant, and the guy gets the girl at the end, I am happy.

Actually, I have never seen nor heard of a movie that had all those things in it. So never mind: I am impossible to please. What stupid standards I have. If only I eliminated the requirement for a tapdance and a space monolith, and the talking llama, my taste would be broader.

My new standard is that any movie with pirates, mermaids, ninja, and a mystical fountain of youth is all right by me. This one has three of the requirements. And there is a song!

In this scene some evil pirates are set out as bait by some more evil pirates in order to attract some evil mermaids, whose tears are needed by very evil pirate (being helped by a somewhat evil pirate and being hunted by a medium evil pirate) to unlock the secret of the Fountain of Youth, being sought at the same time by an evil-looking Spaniard in order to stop the ambitions of the evil Monarch of England, ruled at that time by one of the Dursleys, a muggle. Got it? The only guy clearly and unambiguously good in this film is a man of the cloth. How that one slipped by the censor, I don’t know.
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Determinism and Indeterminism

Posted June 4, 2011 By John C Wright

Children, beware the wine of Philosophy, because once you are hooked, there is no escaping the barb of it. Having reached a point where (or so I thought) he and I had covered all the points of the topic of materialism, Dr. Andreassen asked me once again to address the issue.

I realized to my chagrin what an honor he does me, not only taking the time to write and ask my opinion, but being willing to answer with the patience of Job. I cannot in due courtesy refuse the offer. Here we go again.

I assure all my patient readers, rightfully bored with this topic, that I will certainly post more articles in the near future about much more significant philosophical topics touching the issues of the day, such as which version of Catwoman is the best, or whether green Orion animal-women are more attractive than Princess Leia in a slavegirl bikini.

Let us start the discussion with a point of agreement.

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