Now on ScienceBlogs: In defense of hir in a male-dominated environment [Sciencewomen]
Mike Dunford was a graduate student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he studied evolution. Life as an army spouse has since moved him on to Pensacola, where he's currently trying to figure out what to do next. While he's doing that, he writes stuff here, although not usually in the third person. He's also a contributer to The Pandas Thumb. As is the case with everyone else here, his opinions are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of any organization he is affiliated with.
June 17, 2009
Category: Politics
“It is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.”
Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
13 July, 2004
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:40 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
NASA called off today's planned launch of the shuttle Endeavour earlier this morning when a hydrogen leak was discovered near the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate. The GUCP was also the location of the leak that shut down Saturday's launch attempt, so it appears that the repairs made to that system over the last few days did not quite have the desired effect.
According to NASA's website, the launch has been rescheduled for 11 July, at 7:39 pm EDT.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 4:23 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 16, 2009
Category: Misc
For those of you who are wondering where I've been, we're currently in the middle of our third family move in the last 25 months. We're starting to get good at it, but it still takes a while. Since I've got a few minutes to spare this morning - and I'm fed up with boxes and tape - I thought I'd share a few of the tips I've picked up.
Given how often academics move, I'd guess that some of you have your own hard-learned moving tips. Feel free to share them in the comments.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:10 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 4, 2009
Category: Do Something
On June 5th, 1989, the world got to see exactly what courage is. One man, in a white shirt and dark pants, carrying shopping bags, faced down a company of tanks. The whole world saw the images of his simple courage. His name and his fate remain a mystery - all that is known about his entire life is what he did for a few brief minutes on one terrible day.
A Facebook page has been created to celebrate the legacy of the Tank Man. Please take a few minutes to help demonstrate how important those moments were by becoming a fan.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 1:55 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 3, 2009
Category: Misc
James Kirchick has an op-ed up in today's Wall Street Journal that addresses the reaction to the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Or so he might want to believe. In actuality, Kirchick is responding to the portion of the reaction that he wants to see, and not to the range of opinion that is out there.
There is no appreciable number of people in this country, religious Christians or otherwise, who support the murder of abortion doctors. The same cannot be said of Muslims who support suicide bombings in the name of their religion.
Not only has Kirchick clearly missed the moral munchkins capering through internet comment threads as they sing the "ding, dong" song, he's also managed to miss some of the semi-official reactions. Take, for example, this press release from the president of Vision Forum Ministries:
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:45 AM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Flaming Small-Minded Stupidity • From the Left
PETA is continuing their ever-successful quest to prove that mind-numbing insensitivity and flaming stupidity are not restricted to any particular portion of the political spectrum. This time, they're using the murder of Dr. George Tiller as the hook for a new set of pro-Vegetarian billboards in Wichita.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:15 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 1, 2009
It's easy, as Nicholas Kristof points out, to think and talk about international affairs in abstract terms. Most of us are living comfortable lives in comfortable countries. We have the luxury of being able to afford to think about things that are happening beyond our own borders, even when they're unlikely to affect us directly. We can talk and think about what's happened or what is happening in Bosnia, in Darfur, in Cambodia, in the Sudan. We can think and talk about things we can do to make things better in those places, and sometimes we can carry through with our plans.
It's not as easy to talk about some of what's happening in concrete terms. It's easy to talk about what is happening in various places without overly disturbing our bourgeois happy feelings. It's not as easy to talk - or write - about what's happening to people who live in those places. That's particularly true when what's happening lies far, far outside our comfort zones. In some cases, it's harder than others. Talking about children being killed makes me uncomfortable. Talking about little girls being violently raped is harder. Even thinking about a 7-year-old named Jackie jumping rope in a center for rape victims alongside other girls in the same age group is - yuck. It's easier to talk about people being "killed, or worse".
But playing ostrich isn't going to help. When it comes to atrocities - even atrocities in places we've barely heard of and will never visit - silence is complicity.
Sheril Kirshenbaum and Isis are spearheading a blogosphere drive to try and increase awareness of rape in war-torn areas. They will be donating all the income from their blogs this month to Médecins Sans Frontièress, as will several other bloggers (including me). We'll also be discussing the issue in more detail throughout the month.
If you want to help, there are a few things you can do to help. Get in touch with your elected officials, wherever you are. (A Congressional directory for US readers is here.) A sample letter will be available shortly, and I'll link to it when it's up. I'm honestly not sure if this is a case where international pressure will slow or stop the problem in the short term, but it can't hurt.
If you want to do something that can have an impact, you can donate to Médecins Sans Frontières. They're providing help to rape victims in a number of different countries. If you can't donate yourself - or if you want to increase your impact - check with the blogs that will be donating their income often. The more you click over to Sheril or Isis' blogs, the more money they'll raise.
And if you can think of anything else that will help, let us all know about it.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:25 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
As you might have guessed from my earlier post, I was angered and saddened when I learned of the death of Kansas doctor George Tiller earlier today. Dr. Tiller was gunned down while serving as an usher at his church while services were underway. As I mentioned earlier, the suspect arrested in the case - reportedly a 51 year old named Scott Roeder - was apparently an almost stereotypical far-right-wing extremist nutjob, with a long history of radical and potentially violent behavior.
I'm a member of a large Catholic family, and I spent 13 years in Catholic schools. I know many people who have very strong anti-abortion beliefs, and I love some of them very much. The vast majority (but not quite all) of them are extremely unlikely to be anything other than appalled by the murder of Dr. Tiller. Although I'll readily admit that I am often unreasonably optimistic, I think that's likely to be true for the majority of the people who classify themselves as "pro-Life".
Under the circumstances, I find the idea of dismissing today's homicide as nothing more than the actions of one deranged man to be quite appealing. Unfortunately, it would also be quite wrong.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:17 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 31, 2009
Wichita NBC affiliate KSHB-TV is reporting that the suspect being held in the assassination of Dr. George Tiller is a man named Scott Roeder. Posters in the forums at the DemocraticUnderground have identified at least one posting at Operation Rescue's website (currently down, link to Google cache here) that's written by a Scott Roeder and refers to Dr. Tiller.
There is also information that indicates that a suspected Freeman named Scott Roeder was arrested in Topeka in 1996 for parole violations related to his having bomb making materials in his car trunk. At that time, he was identified as being 38, which would make him 51 today. Another recent news report gives the current age of the suspect in Tiller's assassination as 51.
The information currently available strongly suggests that this Scott Roeder is exactly the kind of radical right-wing extremist that was discussed in a recent Homeland Security report - you remember that report, right? It's the one that various semi-mainstream conservatives got all self-righteously irate over a couple of months ago.
Update (semi-): I've got some additional thoughts on the matter, including the question of how much (if any) responsibility the broader anti-abortion movement shares with the gunman, here.
Update 2: Daily Kos has some commentary up on a McClatchy article that goes into more detail on Roeder, his history, and his associates.
I also added a link to Tarc's original thread at DU that had the link to the Google Cache for the Op Rescue post. I should have had that link up before now - sorry I missed it.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:06 PM • 156 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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