Month: May 2005

Sometimes you have a night where the pins are just falling right.

In my bowling league tonight, I shot a 267, a 270, and a 265. This gave me an 802 series. My average is 168, so the 270 also got me a wristwatch for shooting 100 over my average. The 802 gets my name put up on the wall, plus I get a ring for that.

On my third game I carried a perfect game into the top of the 10th frame, then made a bad shot that cost me a 300. Which was annoying, but having just had Passover, the song “Diyanu” came to mind. It’s a song about all the things God did for the Jews in getting them out of Egypt, and every chorus ends with “Diyanu,” which means if he’d done this much and no more, that would have been enough. So I didn’t shoot a 300. An 802, a ring, a watch, and congrats from everyone else in the league. Diyanu. It’s enough.

PAD

Remember how ages ago, I mentioned that whenever a discussion about free speech gets going, “some idiot” sooner or later misquotes O.W. Holmes and says that free speech doesn’t mean you can yell “fire” in a crowded theater? When the fact is that you CAN yell “fire” in a crowded theater…provided there’s a fire. What Holmes said you cannot do is falsely shout “fire” in a crowded theater and cause a panic. And furthermore, Holmes’ comment was attached to a decision that had nothing to do with theaters, crowds, fires or panic. It instead supported a horrific lower court abuse of free speech rights, when a socialist named Schenck was jailed for years and heavily fined simply for advocating the notion that the draft was wrong. You remember the draft: It’s that thing they eventually abolished and now when politicians try to make each other look bad, they claim the other guys are talking about bringing it back.

The Holmes-quoted decision not only jailed Schenck, but dozens of other Americans over the following years because it advocated a fundamental concept: Disagreeing with the US government in times of war was a jailable offense.

You’d think people would learn. And yet there, on the “Daily Show” last night, was Zell Miller, discussing freedom of speech and misquoting Holmes, as if misquoting was a good thing. As if a court decision suppressing disagreement with the government was a good thing.

Thank heavens I was not in the audience of the “Daily Show” last night. Because I just KNOW I would have shouted out, “Holmes didn’t say that, you nitwit!” Which probably would have gotten me thrown out of the theater, but hey, it’s better than falsely shouting “fire.”

PAD

We’re turning off comments in order to do some obviously necessary maintenance. Bear with us… we’ll have them back on as soon as we can.

UPDATE: We’re back, and even found some old comments that never went live before. Post away.

Clinton, Dubya and Gore are in a tragic plane crash and the next thing they know, they’re standing before God, seated upon a blindingly radiant throne. God says to Gore, “Al…what do you believe?”

Al Gore says, “Well, I believe that I really did win that election. But for whatever reason, you decided that I was not destined to serve you in that capacity, and I have since made peace with it.”

God says, “Very well, Al. You may sit to my left. Bill…what do you believe?”

Bill Clinton says, “I believe I did a lot of good, made a lot of enemies, and I was undermined by my own weakness that I should have been able to rise above. I wish to find forgiveness in my heart for those who sinned against me, and would hope that they likewise could find it in them to forgive me my trespasses.”

God says, “Very well, Bill. You may sit to my right. George…what do you believe?”

And George W. Bush says, “I believe you’re sitting in my chair.”

PAD