Philly.Com disses the Philly Cheesesteak

Okay, it appears that a website dedicated to covering Philadelphia has opined that the Philly Cheesesteak is inferior to the Grilled Pork Sandwich. Isn't this like Stalin insulting vodka, or Fidel Castro giving up cigars, or Jimmy Carter admitting his secret love for M&Ms over Jelly Beans?

As for me and my house, we remain faithful to the cheesesteak... although we don't live anywhere near Philadelphia anymore, so I am not sure we get a vote.

Edit 1:24 PM EST: "like" changed to "live". Ah, the curse of having an intelligent, detail-oriented audience. ;-)

Why can't there ever be a DISCUSSION on abortion?

A "eureka" moment for me on the issue of abortion came on a high school trip to a museum. I sat with a good friend who shared my interest in model rocketry, and somehow our conversation turned to Roe v. Wade. We disagreed on the topic, and I carefully laid out the Pro-Life arguments that I had found so convincing. His response? He actually agreed with me, but "It is a woman's right to choose." OK. I laid out an argument for why I felt that particular argument was specious. He agreed 100%. But "It is a woman's right to choose." We spent the whole 3 hour trip having a "discussion" where he would not answer any of my points with a reasoned, logical, or even emotional response. It was simply the mantra "It is a woman's right to choose" with literally no intellectual backing.

This post on Digg.Com has the same ring to me, and reminds me that for much of the abortion argument while the Pro-Choice side accuses the Pro-Life side of being "ignorant and unreasoning", they themselves are not interested in a dialogue. Maybe it is the radicalism that has emerged on both sides, maybe it is the rise of political correctness, or maybe it is something I truly am not seeing. But I am still waiting for a GOOD Pro-Choice argument based on solid philosophical ground. I understand the concerns about rape/incest/life-of-mother. But most Pro-Lifers are willing to compromise on this. In fact, my own Pro-Life position is that this is a morality issue that should be decided on the STATE level and NOT the Federal level.

Is there any hope for a discussion on Abortion instead of an endless stream of invective and recrimination?

New Vocabulary Word: Otiose

Our observant Mod-Blog audience may have noticed my penchant for vocabulary. I love to discover new words and their meanings. English is a rich language and it is fun to see all the places that various users have taken it. This article brought me to a new word: OTIOSE.

OTIOSE: (Oh - Tee - Ohs)
- serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being; "otiose lines in a play"; "advice is wasted words"
- futile: producing no result or effect; "a futile effort"; "the therapy was ineffectual"; "an otiose undertaking"; "an unavailing attempt"
- faineant: disinclined to work or exertion; "faineant kings under whose rule the country languished"; "an indolent hanger-on"; "too lazy to wash the dishes"; "shiftless idle youth"; "slothful employees"; "the unemployed are not necessarily work-shy"

Methinks we have discovered a wonderfully obscure new insult to use on friends and family members. ;-)