Philosophy
Man, timing is everything. So, one of my favorite things to do on road trips is to look for license plates (40 states and 5 Canadian provinces on this trip, so far).
I had started working on a new bit about license plates (You can tell so much about a state from their license plate, just look at the colors. Deep south states like Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas -- all red, white, and blue. Vermont has that beautiful deep green that makes you think you have to pick them up in the parking lot behind the DMV where some guy in a van gives them to you in a rolled up zip lock baggie. New Jersey, yellow, but not just any yellow...the exact shade of urine. They're planning a new tribute plate to Jesse Helms in North Carolina -- all white with eye holes cut out.)
And then YKW sends me a link to a story about South Carolina planning a new Christian license plate (the original CNN story is no longer up.)
The plate is being challenged on church/state separation grounds, the argument being that this in some way counts as state advocacy for a given religion. The argument against is that this is a voluntary plate and that acknowledgment is not advocacy. Is there a legal problem here?
YKW thought it would be interesting to also consider other possible statements for SC plates.
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The other day I was reminded of a story told to me by a dear friend back when we were both single. He had broken up with a woman he had been dating for a while and they had done the picking up all your stuff from the other person's apartment and a...
- Help Digitize A Century Of Astronomy Photographic Glass Plates
"Help This Astronomer Digitize 100 Years of Irreplaceable Space Photos" Now, the historic astronomy images are on glass plates in a building. But what if they were digital and on the internet? by Lindsey Kratochwill November 11th, 2013 Popular Science...
- Pluto Photographic Plate
One of the famous photographic plates on which Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto "Rescuing our photographic heritage" Group moves to safeguard and archive astronomical plates. by Martin Ratcliffe April 22nd, 2005 Astronomy There are more than three...
- Physicist's License Plates
Jamie Santucci Fermilab Batavia, Illinois I have Illinois license plate PHYSICS on my 2005 Toyota Camry. I believe that it cannot get more physics than that! The story is simple, unlike Tom Nash’s.... I work at Fermilab and I used to have a Toyota pickup...
Philosophy
License Plates
Man, timing is everything. So, one of my favorite things to do on road trips is to look for license plates (40 states and 5 Canadian provinces on this trip, so far).
I had started working on a new bit about license plates (You can tell so much about a state from their license plate, just look at the colors. Deep south states like Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas -- all red, white, and blue. Vermont has that beautiful deep green that makes you think you have to pick them up in the parking lot behind the DMV where some guy in a van gives them to you in a rolled up zip lock baggie. New Jersey, yellow, but not just any yellow...the exact shade of urine. They're planning a new tribute plate to Jesse Helms in North Carolina -- all white with eye holes cut out.)
And then YKW sends me a link to a story about South Carolina planning a new Christian license plate (the original CNN story is no longer up.)
The plate is being challenged on church/state separation grounds, the argument being that this in some way counts as state advocacy for a given religion. The argument against is that this is a voluntary plate and that acknowledgment is not advocacy. Is there a legal problem here?YKW thought it would be interesting to also consider other possible statements for SC plates.
- On Vanity
Ginger Meyerson of The Hackenblog has picked up on a recent trend in a fascinating direction. Where a number of bloggers have parlayed their successful novelty blogs into books, Mayerson goes at it honestly and has started The Journal of Bloglandia, collecting...
- What Do You Do With The Plate?: Why I Am Glad To Be Married, Edition 316
The other day I was reminded of a story told to me by a dear friend back when we were both single. He had broken up with a woman he had been dating for a while and they had done the picking up all your stuff from the other person's apartment and a...
- Help Digitize A Century Of Astronomy Photographic Glass Plates
"Help This Astronomer Digitize 100 Years of Irreplaceable Space Photos" Now, the historic astronomy images are on glass plates in a building. But what if they were digital and on the internet? by Lindsey Kratochwill November 11th, 2013 Popular Science...
- Pluto Photographic Plate
One of the famous photographic plates on which Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto "Rescuing our photographic heritage" Group moves to safeguard and archive astronomical plates. by Martin Ratcliffe April 22nd, 2005 Astronomy There are more than three...
- Physicist's License Plates
Jamie Santucci Fermilab Batavia, Illinois I have Illinois license plate PHYSICS on my 2005 Toyota Camry. I believe that it cannot get more physics than that! The story is simple, unlike Tom Nash’s.... I work at Fermilab and I used to have a Toyota pickup...