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I found an interesting article by David Friedman, son of acclaimed economist Milton Friedman. He takes a strident position on the current evolution/intelligent design debate:

A school that teaches that evolution is false is taking sides in a religious dispute — but so does a school that teaches that evolution is true.

The problem is broader than evolution. In the process of educating children, one must take positions on what is true or false. Over a wide range of issues, such a claim is either the affirmation of a religious position or the denial of a religious position. Any decent scientific account of geology, paleontology, what we know about the distant past, is also a denial of the beliefs of (among others) fundamentalist Christians. To compel children to go to schools, paid for by taxes, in which they are taught that their religious beliefs are false, is not neutrality.

Freidman is an atheist, and as such, probably sides with evolution. His views are nonetheless refreshing.

Bailey’s Irish Cream is probably one of the more versatile adult beverages. There’s straight up Irish Coffee (coffee, Irish Cream, whipped cream), Irish Ice Cream, Irish Cream with plain milk, Irish Cream with warm milk, Irish Frappe (1 bottle Starbucks’ Mocha Frappuchino, 4 ounces Irish Cream, 2 tablespoons Hershey’s dark chocolate syrup). Heck, I’ve even added it to cream of crab soup, and it wasn’t bad.

I spent about an hour or so just now upgrading and tweaking WordPress 2.0 and so far I have a very good impression of it. It definitely has an AJAX flavor to it now — admin pages are more customizable and features just flow nicer.

One of the more noticeable differences I can see is the restoration of the Dashboard. In version 1.5.2, I could only see the right side of the Dashboard — the left column was mysteriously missing. Yet in another install of 1.5.2 that I had done, the left column worked just fine. However, the Developer blog entries are missing from the Dashboard now! Such a pity.

I wonder if sometimes my standards are set to high. Do I expect too much from people? Was it wrong for me to veto a rental of The 40-Year-Old-Virgin because the movie was rated Morally Offensive by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops? Granted, I probably would have vetoed it even if it hadn’t achieved such status.

My grandparents came over for lunch today. After I put on an old Herb Alpert record, they spontaneously got up and started dancing.

Another spot-on entry from Newsbusters. An excerpt:

The UN is a failure. While the United States pays the biggest portion of the tab, the UN makes backroom deals with our enemies. In 2005 UN diplomats lounged around on what looks like a 1970s Merv Griffin set by day and double parked their cars by night. “Peacekeepers” of the UN raped those they were sent to help, including children, across the world. In the 10 years since Black Hawk Down, 9 million more Africans have been killed from conflict [PDF]. The last time that many people died, we held people accountable. What, if not this, is the UN for?

Where are the editorials condemning the current state of the UN? The media was too busy in 2005 trying to scuttle the John Bolton nomination because he might be hard on the UN. Had the media spent the broadcast time and column inches on UN reform that they spent chasing moonbat scandals, they could have made a difference in lives.

I’m wondering when a domestic politician will call for the United States to completely withdraw from the UN, given our return on investment is so low. The world would probably be better off with its dissolution.

Well, the move is over, college is over, the Dimension E510 arrived, Christmas is over, Verizon Fios is up, so I think it’s about time I sat back, maybe get back to those marathon coding sessions, and fuel my recent addiction to Starbucks’ Mint Mocha Frappuccinos.

I brought over Annie’s G4 because she said she was having trouble starting it up. I’m not a Mac person by any means, but I took a look at it and everything seemed to work. Connecting it to the network was simple; I fussed around with it for a bit, but only because I wasn’t familiar with the interface. It’s a shame Firefox isn’t available on OS9.1, or else I would have urged Annie to abandon *gasp!* Mac IE 5.1.7 a long time ago.

Lennon starts off the song with “If I fell in love with you…” Fell in this context is incorrect. He had two choices — he could have used the subjunctive mood: “If I were to fall in love…” or the implied future tense: “If I fall in love…” He chose the simple past tense — when coupled with “If”, it seems as if John is uncertain about whether or not he fell. Not the intended meaning, I’m sure.

The implied future tense of “If I fall in love…” make the most sense, both grammatically and rhythmically. Furthermore, it parallels the second and third verses, which start with the implied future tenses of “If I give my heart…” and “If I trust in you…”, respectively.

Many inconsistencies abound in the last verse:

So I hope you see that I
would love to love you
And that she will cry
when she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you

He uses the explicit future tense “will cry” with the past tense “If I fell”. Shouldn’t it be “..she will cry… if I fall in love”? The listener knows that John has already fallen in love with this new girl. But he has to temper his emotions and not reveal his new love to said girl. “If I fall in love…” would have made a good improvement, but “When I fall in love…” would have been the kicker, as would “When I give my heart to you…”, and “When I trust in you…” This makes sense because John predicts that “she will cry when she learns we are two.” Notice he said “when” and not “if”. Choose either the hypothetical “if” or the inevitable “when” and use it consistently throughout the song.

I have many exciting things going on right now: I’m taking my final final exams next Saturday (no more college!) All this week I’ve been moving out of my condo and into a townhouse — replete with painting, organizing, sorting, tossing out stuff, buying new stuff, etc. December’s postings and site updates will be few, as I won’t have Internet access at my new place until Dec 27th. I’m having fiber installed, so it should be well worth the wait. I will somehow find a way to survive over three full weeks without a TCP/IP connection.

I have a Dr. Martens Music Sampler CD available to the first person who contacts me with his/her mailing address. It’s a promotional CD that I picked it up at the 1999 HFStival. It features 17 full-length tracks from artists on various labels.

Track listing: Primal Scream — Kowalski, Faith No More — Last Cup of Sorrow, Failure — Pitiful, BT — Quark, Gus Gus — Why?, Moloko — Fun for Me, Soul Coughing — Soft Serve, Cornershop — Candyman, DJ Kool — Let Me Clear My Throat, T.D.F. — Rip Stop, Arkarna — House of Fire, Drill Team — Peppermint, Kenickle — In Your Car, Wilco — I Got You (At the End of the Century), Cool For August — Don’t Wanna Be Here, Poster Children — 0For1, and Rockers Hi-Fi — 90° Fuzzwalk.

It’s mostly rock with a bit of techno and hip-hop thrown in for good measure. Released in 1997.