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Brian Sorgatz
(rhymes with “cats”)
Arcata, California, United States
What sort of man blogs about Playboy? I flatter myself to think that Kendra Wilkinson might call this blog intellectual pimping.
“Composer Artisan” ISFP. Socially and economically libertarian for reasons having nothing to do with Ayn Rand. Current fields of study: Playboy, A Course in Miracles, building a new life in Humboldt County.
Hollywood, California, is my spiritual hometown. I actually grew up in three other communities in California, but it hardly seems to matter which three. How could my heart take root anywhere under the tyranny of American public schooling?
I don’t have to work for a living. After my father died in December 1997, my family and I won a legal settlement.
If you’re a heterosexual man and you don’t know how to admire small breasts, you need to get a clue already, you ungrateful philistine. In aesthetic terms, those stacks of fatty tissue are essentially jewel cases for the nipples, anyway. Why not build a repertoire of variety of taste? Pretty adjectives like dainty, svelte, and lithe were made to describe beauty like Bai Ling’s as caught by photographer Stephen Wayda for the June 2005 Playboy.Labels: Celeb, Cintv, ForPo, Lib, OnVi, RS
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Labels: Celeb, DruPo, Lib, Mansi, OnVi, OthBlo, PM
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Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 7:16 AM
ANNE FRANK HOUSE, Amsterdam: When you stand in front of it—a nondescript house on a busy street—you really feel how true the phrase “banality of evil” is. One of the most common arguments in defense of religion is that Hitler wasn’t religious and neither were Stalin and Mao, and they were bad, so religion must be good [emphasis added]. But like religion itself, this argument relies on one’s not thinking too deeply.—Bill Maher, “Religion 101,” Playboy, July 2008
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 7:40 AM
Playboy: It’s a scary world out there. What’s it like with your triplets being 15? That’s the age when all the sex, drinking and drugs kick in, right?—Playboy Interview, July 2008
[Dr. Drew] Pinsky: I’m less freaked out about the sex than about drugs and alcohol.... I don’t think kids ever tell you if they’re using drugs and alcohol, but I put it on record that if there’s even a hint of something, I will bring the whole thing down. I’ll have their asses hauled in by the police.
Playboy: So you’re not one of those parents who say “You can drink as long as it’s under my roof”?
Pinsky: To me that’s the worst kind of parenting. Drink here but not there? Please! It becomes “You can drink everywhere,” because that’s how the adolescent brain works. Kids need very clear boundaries. My thing is, if you do something illegal, you’re going to jail and I’m not bailing you out. And they know I’ve got perfect radar, too....
Playboy: What’s your history of drug use?
Pinsky: Mine personally? Because my kids may read this, I’m going to follow the advice I give to parents, which is that talking to your kids about what you did or did not do as an adolescent is the equivalent of issuing them a license to pick up where you left off. I guarantee you. I’ve been through this thousands of times. When parents tell their kids, “Well, I experimented with pot when I was 15, but that was all,” the kids will think, Of course I’m going to experiment with pot. They did it; why shouldn’t I? It would be hypocritical.
Playboy: So what do you say to kids?
Pinsky: You say “We don’t talk about it.”
Playboy: Come on! Tell kids that and they immediately think it means you did it!
Pinsky: When the child hears that, it has an entirely different impact on his behavior than my saying “Let me tell you about my experience.” If you did or didn’t do drugs, it’s not up for discussion. Don’t lie to your kids—never do that—but you aren’t obliged to tell them everything.
Labels: AgeMaj, ArtPic, DruPo, Lib, Sc
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 11:20 AM
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 5:13 PM
Bill Maher: Okay. Last time we talked to you, you wanted to say something about Proposition 215 [California’s 1996 medical marijuana ballot initiative].—the panel discussion show Politically Incorrect, May 15, 1998.
Dr. Drew Pinsky: I was really offended by 215. As you know, what I am mostly against is misinformation. And 215, to me, seemed like a sham. It was some sort of Trojan horse, concocted to try to get people—using the sympathies of people about individuals with chronic illness, to try to cram this thing into legality.
A close look at the customers of these dispensaries reveals a not so shocking truth: Many are not ill at all. Exactly how many medical marijuana patients are really sick and how many exaggerate minor aches and pains in order to get high is impossible to gauge....I agree with Owen that it’s dangerous to implement a poorly thought-out system. Unfortunately, Owen’s article is a poorly thought-out system, because it doesn’t give enough thought to who is empowered to implement what kind of system at what level of authority, and why.
There is as yet no solid proof that smoking pot cures anything. Instead, there is a small mountain of evidence—both anecdotal and scientific—that suggests pot is a useful palliative for some people, good for boosting appetite among HIV patients and suppressing nausea among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Patients may feel better after smoking marijuana, and life may seem more bearable, but until further research is done it’s impossible to say whether the drug is doing anything to retard the progress of their disease.
Nearly all illegal drugs possess some medical utility. Heroin was introduced in the late 19th century as a treatment for opium addicts. In the 1950s methamphetamine was used to treat everything from depression to alcoholism to Parkinson’s disease. Yet nobody is talking about medical meth.
....
A year after [Denver med-pot seller] Ken Gorman’s murder the police have yet to make an arrest. In the end, who killed Gorman may be less important than why he was killed. His friends blame prohibition: If pot were fully legal, this wouldn’t have happened. But Gorman’s death resulted from a poorly thought-out system that puts patients and growers in peril even when they act within the limits of the law.
Labels: ArtPic, DruPo, Lib, Sc, UCL
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Labels: AgeMaj, BlaSla, DruPo, Educ, Lib, Mansi, Mil, MR, PJ, RS
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Labels: DruPo, ForPo, Lib, OnVi, OthBlo, Ra
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 12:52 PM
As a senior editor of Reason, Howley (pictured above) deserves better than the leering she gets from us libertarian horn dogs. But since it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission, I’ll go ahead and be part of the problem. She’s yummy! Fellas who wonder about her voice, her mannerisms, and her mind can sample them at Bloggingheads.tv. They won’t be disappointed.
Speaking of yummy, Reason associate editor Katherine Mangu-Ward (above) holds the alluring promise of culinary adventure for those with politically incorrect appetites. A couple of years ago, she read a passing reference to antelope steak in an O. Henry short story, she tells us:Why are there no antelope steaks at my supermarket?, I wondered. An innocent beginning to an obsession.True to her magazine’s libertarian mission, she calls her hobby, among other things, “an exercise in enjoying the most notable fruits of globalization.” Her article ends with two recipes: kangaroo with fig sauce, and Tibetan momo (yak meat dumplings). Boy, oh, boy. What guy can resist the simultaneous charm assault on the brain, the heart, and the stomach?
Bird watchers keep a life list of every species they have ever spotted. My life list is of species I have consumed. Both hobbies have the same root: It’s the impulse of a born collector who doesn’t like to have stuff lying around. All that remains is the memory of a flavor, wrapped—as taste memories always are—in the sights, sounds, and smells of the meal, the company, and the conversation.
Since that fateful day, I’ve nibbled on caribou filet, alligator jambalaya, elk medallions, yak dumplings, buffalo burgers, crocodile stir fry, ostrich burgers, emu jerky, and kangaroo loin. These memorable meals have all been interspersed with the merely interesting—frogs, ducks, rabbits, turtles, and deer—and the downright domesticated—cow, pig, and lamb.
I’ve had more than my fair share of eel, as well. Most of it was barbequed [sic] at sushi bars, though once I tried ordering it in a dim Russian restaurant in Boston. (They were fresh out of eel that night. Go figure.)
Last but not least, Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, deserves a place of honor here. Besides her beauty, I admire her excellent taste in stand-up comedians. Hot damn, any of these three ladies would be loads of fun on a date!
(Photo credit: Rod Dreher at Beliefnet.) Although I didn’t typically read Reason when she ran it from 1989 to 2000, it was sheer ingratitude for me to forget to include Virginia Postrel in this post. She wrote one of the “Intellectual Turn-Ons” in this blog’s sidebar, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. Libertarian women appear to be characterized by courage: Postrel not only discusses the politics of organ transplants in this Reason.tv video but actually does something about it for a friend in need. Wow!Labels: Lib, NPH, OnVi, OthBlo
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 9:06 AM
As devotees of free minds and free markets, we spend our nights pining for a major-party politician who not only looks dreamy while reading a Teleprompter but shows some passion for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.—Nick Gillespie and Tim Cavanaugh, “Building the Perfect Candidate,” Reason, April 2004
Labels: ArtPic, BlaSla, CC, Lib, Lit, NPH, OthBlo, Sp
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 2:04 PM
Liberals and conservatives alike fail to truly reflect his views, McCain writes, because “neither emphasizes the obligations of a free people to the nation.” His main governmental inspiration is Teddy Roosevelt, the “Eastern swell who became a man of the people,” whose great accomplishment was “to summon the American people to greatness.” In Roosevelt’s code, McCain writes approvingly, it was “absolutely required that every loyal citizen take risks for the country’s sake.” This is an essentially militaristic view of citizenship, one that explains many of McCain’s departures from partisan orthodoxy. Unlike traditional Republicans, he will gladly butt into the affairs of private industry if he perceives them to be undermining Americans’ faith in government; unlike Democrats, he thinks the executive branch generally needs more power, not less.McCain is arguably even less libertarian than Hillary Clinton. That’s impressive, but not in a good way.
“Our greatness,” he wrote in Worth the Fighting For, “depends upon our patriotism, and our patriotism is hardly encouraged when we cannot take pride in the highest public institutions.” So, because steroids might be damaging the faith of young baseball fans, drug testing becomes a “transcendent issue,” requiring threats of federal intervention unless pro sports leagues shape up. Hollywood’s voluntary movie-rating system? A “smoke screen to provide cover for immoral and unconscionable business practices.” Ultimate Fighting on Indian reservations? “Barbaric” and worthy of government pressure on cable TV companies. Negative political ads by citizen groups? They “do little to further beneficial debate and healthy political dialogue” and so must be banned for 60 days before an election if they mention a candidate by name.
If his issues line up with yours, and if you’re not overly concerned by an activist federal government, McCain can be a great and sympathetic ally. But chances are he will eventually see a grave national threat in what you consider harmless, or he’ll prescribe a remedy that you consider unconscionable.
Labels: BGC, Cintv, ForPo, He, Lib, OnVi, OthBlo
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 12:00 PM
FCC indecency investigations begin when the agency receives a viewer or listener complaint about a program and can drag on for months or years. The lightly staffed FCC enforcement bureau must go up against broadcasters, which have more legal and financial resources to battle the proposed fine and have a vested interest in dragging out the proceeding. After the enforcement bureau makes a finding, it must be voted on by the FCC’s five commissioners, who were occupied with cable television and wireless spectrum issues through much of 2007.Never mind that the FCC is violating ABC’s First Amendment rights under a crypto-Marxist rationale of “public ownership of the airwaves.” Never mind that the government is acting on behalf of a tiny number of Church Ladies to punish a television network for placing adult content in a characteristically adult—and very popular—evening drama. Never mind that the authority of the FCC to impose the fine at all depends shamelessly on a time zone technicality (only ABC affiliates in the Central and Mountain zones are being fined, because that’s where the show ran at 9 p.m. instead of 10). In spite of all this, the public-morality bureaucrats are the underdogs in this fight.
Labels: BGC, Cintv, Lib, MorPa, Mus, NPH, OnVi, OthBlo
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 10:48 AM
Labels: Lib, Mus, OnVi, Ra, UCL
Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 5:40 PM
are not libertarian words. Maybe they reflect “paleoconservative” ideas, though they’re not the language of [Edmund] Burke or even [Russell] Kirk. But libertarianism is a philosophy of individualism, tolerance, and liberty. As Ayn Rand wrote, “Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.” Making sweeping, bigoted claims about all blacks, all homosexuals, or any other group is indeed a crudely primitive collectivism.(Thanks for the link, Andrew Sullivan.)
Libertarians should make it clear that the people who wrote those things are not our comrades, not part of our movement, not part of the tradition of John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, and Robert Nozick. Shame on them.
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Labels: ArtPic, BGC, Lib, MorPa, OthBlo
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Labels: AgeMaj, BlaSla, Lib, Lit, Sc
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Labels: DruPo, Lib, Lit, Mus, RS
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