Yoinked from eisakka the "100 canonical" books from some source called "the Big Read" which alleges that most adults have read (tops) 6 of these books (something I find ludicrous based upon how many of these would have been read by anyone graduating from HS).

ground rules:

"1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read only six and force books upon them."

( the shitty list below the cut )

Scott Hussein Kaiser-Brown?
Hussein Scott Kaiser Brown?
Kasier Scott Hussein Brown?

If you're wondering what I'm doing, I'm jiggering around my name to see if I can fit in Barack Obama's terroristic middle name, Hussein, into mine in a way that works even a little bit. If you're wondering why I'm doing that, it's because I read an absolutely charming article in the Times just now.

"Emily Nordling has never met a Muslim, at least not to her knowledge. But this spring, Ms. Nordling, a 19-year-old student from Fort Thomas, Ky., gave herself a new middle name on Facebook.com, mimicking her boyfriend and shocking her father.

“Emily Hussein Nordling,” her entry now reads.

With her decision, she joined a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by informally adopting his middle name. "

The genesis for this comes from back in late February, when one Jeff Strabone got rather tired of all the B. Hussein Obama malarky emanating from both the right wing press and the mainstream media. So he became Jeff Hussein Strabone.

"I don't know about you but I am sick of Republicans pronouncing Barack Obama's name like it was some sort of cuss word. It is a national embarassment that American political discourse stretches so far to the extremes of xenophobia and puerility that a candidate's name can become an object of propaganda.
...
It's time for some good old-fashioned solidarité. With that in mind, I am changing my name for the rest of the campaign to Jeff Hussein Strabone, and I will urge others to do the same with their names. Between now and November 4, I will always try to include my new middle name, even when it might be difficult to do so.
...
In a broader sense, the law-haters have been coming for the Husseins for the past six and a half years. Right now I think we've got the haters on the run, but we can't let up. Many Americans can be proud of their activities in the fight for justice and the rule of law in this decade. If we recall the famous 'First they came' speech of Martin Niemöller, we can say that many among us did speak up and, if nothing else, at least put our money where our mouth was by giving to the ACLU and other groups. What if they came for the Husseins, and everyone was named Hussein?"

There's a couple reasons why I really dig this. #1, it's a symbolic point that resonates. Often when I read about something taking young politically minded folk by storm, I'm usually pleased that they're participating and wincing at the tone-deaf nature of their protest even when I agree with their overall view (WTO protestors, I'm looking at you). In this case, however, it's an elegantly simple idea with an elegantly simple message.

This leads to the second reason I love this: it can actually work. Sure, it won't stop folks like Rush Limbaugh from calling Obama a cryptomuslim, or stop people from forwarding an email that says that Obama feasts on the blood of Christian children in terrorist rites during Ramadan. And sure, some people will call the young adults who do this naive and emptyheaded. But it will give people pause, especially those parents who are shocked by their children's choice.

If those parents, such as the father of Ms. Nordling in the NYTimes article, are forced to reconcile that their child, who they raised to be good middle Americans, took the name Hussein and aren't turning into Muslims, they'll also have to think however briefly about Obama and his "American-ness." One of the biggest issues with Obama at the moment is convincing low information voters that he is "American" enough to be trusted with the presidency. By providing some of them with an image of an Obama who is within their family or close associations, they might have a reason to think things through, and to think differently about exactly how much that name matters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/us/politics/29hussein.html?bl&ex=1214971200&en=442dcec2d2792561&ei=5087%0A
http://jeffstrabone.blogspot.com/2008/02/we-are-all-hussein.html

Andy Schlafly is the type of lawyer who makes me ashamed to be pursuing my JD. He's the spawn of noted "women as chattle" advocate and A#1 spacedemon Phyllis Schlafly (which I guess makes him half spacedemon). He's also the grand high dragon guru of Conservapedia, which was created to fight the "liberal bias" of Wikipedia (or as Stephen Colbert notes, reality has a liberal bias). Conservapedia isn't that big a deal, it's not even among the top 50,000 most popular websites in the US. And of the people who use it, most seem to be all about checking into how one contracts the gays.*

So why do I bring up this pustule on the ass of public discourse, this blatant gleaner of affirmative action for conservatives too brain-dead to succeed in the marketplace of ideas without powerful benefactors? It's because Andy here went and pissed off a guy who'll probably be earning a Nobel in a decade or two, Richard Lenski. You might remember Dr. Lenski as the man with all the fabulous toys... err... e. coli that I mentioned a few weeks back.

Andy, who we will recall is a lawyer with no biological science background whatsoever, believes that either Doc Lenski doesn't know what he's talking about or is making shit up.

The shorter version of the following can be read at Ars Technica, the full email smackdown can be read below the cut.


( Here we have the original petard, as it were. )

"While Jeremiah Wright barely came up and “bitter” didn’t at all, two of the respondents -- the Clinton supporter and a female Bush voter -- had very negative opinions of him. “I don’t trust Osama … Obama. It’s only a letter difference,” said Charles, the Hillary backer. “His middle name is Hussein.” Observed Terry, the female Bush voter: “I don’t feel he’s a true American."

Yeah, I don't trust anyone named Hiller. Hiller, Hitler, only a letter difference.

No offense to Charles here, but he is one massive fucking idiot.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/25/1166068.aspx

Seriously, if that's Nino's magnum opus (and given the floridness of his prose I'm guessing he thought that it is) then I'm a bit aghast. Not just at the decision to make the right to bear arms an individual right, which I don't even really disagree with from an original intent standpoint, but the absolutely shitforbrains reasoning behind it. He didn't even address the issue of standing in the case, instead he leaped right into the tasty part where he felt he could make his mark on American jurisprudence.

And while the case does have a direct impact upon how 2nd amendment rights are seen, and as such is huge in that regard, the immediate impact of the court's decision is virtually nil. Most of the DC gun law gets struck down, but the court failed to address what it considered the effective scope of Heller and even suggested that some types of gun laws (such as the current federal laws and laws against felons owning guns) are peachy keen as is. Thus, at least some limitation on weaponry is acceptable according to Scalia. Meanwhile, the case only applies to the District of Columbia and other federally administered territories- in order for Heller to have any effect on the states the current majority would have to go directly against everything they've claimed to hold dear and decide that, hey! Incorporation is an acceptable judicial stance! If even one of these jokers thinks that incorporation of the 2nd amendment to apply to states is a bridge too far, then (assuming the 4 minority justices hold firm and dissent based upon the fact that they think Heller is bad law) they're not going to be able to strike down gun laws in places like Philadelphia or New York.

Oh well. "We" won Kennedy and Boumediene and the age discrimination cases this year, which makes this summer of decisions about a bajillion times better even with Davis and Heller coming down.

<3 youtube.