Quick Roundup 63

A Spot of Good News

It looks like the courts aren't happy with the state of Iowa's use of government funds to preach the Christian religion to convicted criminals.

In a 140-page decision, U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt ruled that the InnerChange Freedom Initiative program at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility violated the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion because it was state-funded, pervasively sectarian and aimed at religious conversion.

"The overtly religious atmosphere of the InnerChange program is not simply an overlay or secondary effect of the program -- it is the program," he wrote. Based on testimony at a two-week trial last fall, he concluded that inmates who voluntarily entered the program received significant benefits, including better living conditions, and that the prison did not offer any alternative secular or non-Christian program.

"Though an inmate could, theoretically, graduate from InnerChange without converting to Christianity, the coercive nature of the program demands obedience to its dogmas and doctrine," the decision said.

Related is an earlier blog entry of mine on "faith-based" prisons, in which I made two points worth repeating here:

(1) The major premise of this proposal is that prisons exist to reform criminals. This premise unavoidably leads one to propose some kind of moral education for inmates, not to mention forget what prisons are really for: protection of the general public from criminals. We lock up people such as Joseph Edward Duncan not to preach to them, but to keep them from harming anyone else. How do we know whether a prison "works"? Not by whether released inmates succeed in remaining out of prison, but by whether dangerous men are kept off the streets.

(2) [T]he "voluntary" aspect of the program can only be said with any degree of certainty to apply to admission into such a prison. What if an inmate changes his mind and what if the warden wants to make him reconsider by threatening to send him to the worst prison in the state? Will corrections officials trust a warden who says that this inmate has serious behavioral problems that constitute a threat to the safety of other prisoners? Or the prisoner, who is saying that he doesn't accept Christianity after giving it a try? Or whose "worship practices" don't happen conform to what this "Christian believer" thinks they should?

Three Music Videos

Reader Adrian Hester tells me of the existence of three video clips featuring the music of the Slackers, one of my favorite ska bands.

If you like what you hear, consider purchasing a CD or two.

Multi-Author Weblogs

I found this blog entry from Performancing interesting.

[A] blog with multiple writers is arguably going to do better than most blogs with just one writer.

There are many examples of this, including most of the Weblogs, Inc blogs. My own writing has recently started appearing on other people's blogs by request, and on one website, I'm getting several hundred pageviews per post. In just a day or two. None of my blogs have individually received as many pageviews in a single day or two, despite writing my ass off for 11 months now - and even though I publish the same type of writing and topics on my own blogs.

Why is that? I think it's pretty simple to answer. When there is more than one writer, there's something for everyone. There is more fresh content daily, and variety. And when writers on one weblog inter-link to each other's posts, it's an invitation for their loyal readers to read the other writers. A synergy is built up. But if a weblog only has one writer, the success of it depends solely on the cult of personality that that writer can build up, regardless of what they are writing about and how often. [bold added]

Heh! I'm not so sure about that "cult of personality" bit, but Raj Dash's observation that his posts at a team website get more page views than those at any of his solo blogs gels with mine. The Objectivism Metablog frequently picks up posts from here. There was once a glitch there that truncated one of my posts. At the time, I was averaging just over 150 hits/day and I got an additional 40-50 from that post alone.

Two Good Threads

And speaking of Objectivism Online, I found two recent threads there, on free verse and on the decline of Islamic civilization to be very interesting.

A Few Good Tips

This weekend, I found three things in the Blogosphere that will be of interest to my fellow Objectivist travelers. In no particular order, they are:

1. A recommendation by Gideon Reich to listen to the unabridged Books on Tape version of Atlas Shrugged. Hmmm. I'd no idea such an animal existed! My wife and I will often listen to books during lengthy road trips. This one, clocking in at a whopping 38 tapes would probably do, by itself, for a cross-country drive!
2. Bruno points to an interview with Michael Yon by Prodos.
3. Mike relays news of a conference in Pittsburgh called "Concepts and Objectivity: Knowledge, Science, and Values" to be held from September 22 to 24, 2006. Allan Gotthelf and Tara Smith are heading it up.

Also, if you haven't visited Ego or i, Egoist lately, a quick visit to each would be worth your while. Martin Lindeskog, in addition to his recent interview with Allen Forkum, has a slew of good posts up, and the Resident Egoist has just ended his hiatus.

-- CAV