We usually don’t commemorate the 39th anniversary of an event, but today is an exception. Because of the recent proposal to amend the Constitution to ban homosexual “marriage,” which failed to gain traction, I believe it’s important to blog about Loving v. Virginia and distinguish between laws criminalizing marriage between a man and woman of different races and laws against marriage between two men.
Thirty-nine years ago today, the Supreme Court declared in Loving v. Virginia that laws against interracial marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
After the Civil War, states began to enact laws called the Black Codes in response to the emancipation of slaves. Democrats created these laws for newly-freed slaves that restricted their rights to own or rent farmland, vote, sit on juries, testify against white men, sue, enter into contracts, and intermarry with whites. Republicans opposed the laws and wanted to pass the Civil Rights Bill to protect former slaves. Democratic president Andrew Johnson refused.
Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter had known each other since childhood in Central Point, Virginia. In 1958, the two traveled to Washington, D.C., to get married since they couldn’t legally marry in Virginia. They returned to Virginia, and a few months later, both were arrested and taken to jail. They plead guilty to “unlawful cohabitation.” The court suspended their one-year sentence in prison on the condition that they leave Caroline Country, Virginia, and not return together for twenty-five years.
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Happy Friday! I will probably add more links over the course of the day.
Homeschooling
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by La Shawn on February 16, 2006
in Bloggers
Glenn Reynolds interviewed bloggers at CPAC for his podcast. Check it out.
His latest column at Tech Central Station is called Blogging: Love or Money? Why the dichotomy? I blog for both!
Making money off a blog requires a lot of traffic, and no matter how much the blogosphere grows, most blogs won’t have a lot of traffic, as Clay Shirky persuasively demonstrated a while back. Shirky observed that blogs, like many other things, follow a power-law distribution in terms of links and traffic, with a small number getting most of the links and traffic, and a much larger number getting much less of either. This was, he argued, essentially a function of attention economics. (I’ve written on that subject here).
Glenn doesn’t quantify “a lot of traffic,” but I suppose it’s a matter of opinion. For instance, I’m averaging a little over 4,000 unique visitors per day. (Some people are surprised when I tell them this. They assumed it was much higher. I wish!) In the scheme of things, that’s a lot for a blog, although I’d be satisfied with 20,000. 
Let’s face it, though. Most of us will never reach Glenn’s or Michelle Malkin’s numbers or anywhere close (144,000 and 232,856 per day, respectively).
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Update III (2/6): Muslims apologize on behalf of their barbaric brothers.
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Liberal editors are a lot smarter than they look. If Rolling Stone had put Kanye West posing as Muhammad on the cover, they’d be in hiding, too. Instead, they chose the safer route: West, a rapper and contributor to the cultural toilet, posing with a crown of thorns on his head.
Christ is fair game, isn’t he? Unbelievers, liberals, and other secularists make fun of him, mock him, scorn him, and curse him, yet they steer clear of doing the same with Muslims’ god. They know offended Muslims, unlike offended Christians, issue death threats.
Crash and burn, Islamofascists! It’s in your nature. Killing is all you know how to do. You are gutless and psychotic. A religion of peace, indeed. (More pics and links)
But I don’t think liberal journalists are psychotic, though.
Just gutless.
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Update (1/6): Justice Sunday III in the news.
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I don’t want to blog about Alito, or the tragic mining accident (although the families are in my prayers), or Ariel Sharon’s stroke (he is, too), or Abramoff, or Microsoft, or NSA leaks, or Lynn Swann running for governor in PA (although I will next week), or anything else going on except books, books, books…and a movie:
1. If you’re a Harry Potter fan looking for something to keep you busy until the final book comes out in 2007 and you’re tired of theorizing and wondering whether Snape is “good,” why not start reading a totally new book series? Check out Landon Snow And the Auctor’s Riddle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a kid’s book, but so what? Have some fun.
2. I’m starting a Da Vinci Code movie blog very soon. Back in November, I mentioned something about generating a Christian blog swarm to grab some of those online surfers looking for information about the upcoming movie (May 2006), which is based on the best-selling book. Although Dan Brown’s book is fiction, he blurred the line with this preface:
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by La Shawn on November 5, 2005
in Bloggers
Happy Saturday!
I’m in South Carolina to celebrate with former high school classmates this weekend. I’ve been out of high school 20 years. Most are married with children, but none of us look like we’ve been out of high school 20 years. 
Interesting things:
— James White is a man on a mission. He’s up to Part IV of his series on debunking The Da Vinci Code. For background on why Christian bloggers should blog about the book and upcoming movie, see Bloggers and Da Vinci and all links in the post.
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Blogger Stephen McCaskill suggests that bloggers interested in blogging about the book each tackle a specific section so all the important points will be covered. Great idea.
I hadn’t planned on creating a formal group of bloggers, but if there’s a section(s) in The Da Vinci Code you want to blog about, do so. The movie comes out in seven months, but the marketing campaign will be in full swing early next year, I suspect.
James White is blogging about the book in preparation for the movie, and I will link to each post. Here’s the latest. Also see First Objection: It’s Fiction, Dummy and Heads Up, Folks. It’s Coming.
Think about which chapters/sections/concepts you want to blog about and let us know. I’ll do the same. If you’re blogging this weekend, trackback to this post, and I’ll link to you.
Joy D. blogs about the “woman” in Leonardo’s rendering of The Last Supper. Dan Brown claims the person to the right of Jesus (our left) is his “wife” Mary Magdalene, not the Apostle John. (By the way, I don’t like to see images of “Jesus,” but I linked to Leonardo’s painting to explain Brown’s reference.)
Pajama Hadin discusses “tactical misrepresentations.”
Previous: Christians, Are You Ready For The Da Vinci Code?
Update: Leaving a comment is great, but in order to be linked in this post, I ask that you trackback to it. If you’re using Haloscan (incompatible with WordPress) or don’t have a trackback feature, use Simpletracks. The trackback link to this post:
http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2005/10/22/bloggers/trackback/
Update II (10/23): Bloggers: Myopic Zeal, J. Rob’s House of Opinions, Cigars and Theology, The Seven Realms, Sofyst…
The Da Vinci Code movie is on its way. Are you ready to blog knowledgeably about it?
Unbelievers (and not a few Christians) may scoff at us for taking The Da Vinci Code phenomenon so seriously. But pop culture is powerful, and although we surely have more productive things to do, setting the record straight and offering a reasoned defense of the faith and correcting historical inaccuracies are also important, even when the subject is fiction.
Christian bloggers can create a blog swarm around the upcoming movie. As someone who is learning more every day about the importance of using relevant keywords for search engine placement and anticipating hot topics and search trends, I know the more blogging you and I do about the movie, the more we’ll draw readers looking for online information.
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by La Shawn on August 26, 2005
in Faith
Christian bloggers: I know it’s only fiction, but The Da Vinci Code should definitely be on your list of “things to blog.” The book was a raging bestseller, and the movie is scheduled for release in May 2006.
The convoluted plot is just window dressing. The two main characters discover that the “Holy Grail” is not a chalice but a woman: Mary Magdalene. Mary and Jesus were married, and after Jesus was killed, she fled to Gaul (France) and had a child. One of the main characters is a descendant of the child.
The Roman Catholic Church hid this knowledge for 2,000 years, recasting Jesus the man as Jesus the divine Son of God. The Jesus of The Da Vinci Code was a sinner… just like you and me. In the end we learn that the way to God is not through repentance, redemption, grace or divine mercy. No, the way to God can be found through a pagan sexual ritual.
The Da Vinci Code hype has died down in the past couple of years, but it’s sure to heat up again. The story is not true, but that’s hardly the point. In a world hostile to the faith, we must be prepared to defend the faith when confronted by questions and absurd arguments based on the nonsense within the pages of this book.
Related post: Review of Breaking the Da Vinci Code
Also see:
Update (8/27): From a reader:
Just a thought as I hear more about the book and the movie and the claims made therein. Can you imagine… just imagine… what muslims would do if such a book/movie were made about islam?
-They commit terror in the face of Korans in the toilet
-They riot when someone suggests Mohammad would’ve married a Miss Universe contestant
-They issue a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for the “blasphemous” Satanic Verses
I think the DaVinci Code’s movie release may provide an opportunity for Christians to show that we can oppose such a blasphemous work without resorting to violence, and perhaps that opens a door or two allowing for some opportunity to witness to others.
by La Shawn on January 3, 2005
in Bloggers
The title should probably read, “Too much stuff I want to do…”
This post is the kind of stream-of-thought missive usually found in the pages of my journal. What do I want? To be able to quit the 9-5 for good, and I could — if I had other income rolling in. I heard that blogger Andrew Sullivan had a pledge drive and raised $79,000 from his readers so he could blog full time. Is that true? If I could get that kind of cash…If you’d like to donate to my quit-the-day-job fund, don’t be shy! I’m kidding. Sort of.
I’m working on the DC Blogger meet-up post, and the picture on the right is a teaser. I call it “The Ladies.” I’d also need to finish the 2004 Blogosphere Round-up post by tomorrow, too, but it’s taking longer than I thought. I’d like it to be special. Different. I need to say something no one else has said, or at least say it in a fresh way. I’m not using hyperbole when I say blogging is revolutionary. I want to do it justice.
Many bloggers have said (and I’ll cite a few tomorrow) that blogging is to the mainstream media what the printing press (and the Protestant Reformation) was to the Roman Catholic Church.
Speaking of reformation, I just got a review copy of Hugh Hewitt’s new book in the mail, BLOG: Understanding the Information Reformation, and I can’t wait to read it. I’d like to have the review completed and circulating (in a paying market) this week, but between working all day and having to eat and sleep, I suppose, and trying to do all the other stuff on my list, it’s not likely.
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I didn’t hype my pending blogiversary because I didn’t know whether I’d be celebrating it and George Bush’s re-election or commiserating with you over John Kerry’s victory. Now I can celebrate!
One year ago today, I started blogging on Blogger (Blog*Spot). This was my first post.
By the time I’d heard of something called a “blog”, I’d been writing a bi-weekly column for one year (Find late 2002 stuff here. I can’t add. I wrote “two years” earlier instead of “one year.”). A blog sounded like an online journal, and because I’ve kept hard copy “journals of life” since I was 16 (20 years ago!), it sounded easy. I decided my new blog would be a semi-personal online journal serving mostly as a rant forum between columns. It’s become much more than that.
I signed up on Blogger one night in early November 2003, and for three days I almost tore out all my hair working with CSS and HTML code trying to get the look I wanted. Here’s a cached copy of my beloved old blog spot. The memories return! This was my first post on this blog on July 22, 2004.
There’s a whole lot I can say about the past year, but I’ll save it for another time. This weekend I plan to do more reading and less blogging. I’m also working on a piece about the moral divide in this country. I’ll have to take some of the edge off my writing style so I can submit the op-ed to major newspapers. A little compromise is sometimes necessary.
More links to follow. I hope you all have a restful yet festive George-Bush-won weekend!
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