Driftglass Identifies the Real Swing Voters of the 2008 Election
Category: Racism
The Swing Vote That Must Not Be Named.
Posted by Mike at 11:27 AM • 6 Comments •
Mike the Mad Biologist
Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology
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Profile
Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
Recent Posts
- Gromia sphaerica: It's a Cool...Macrobe?
- Political Controversy and Research
- The Net Neutrality Canard: A New Corporate Conservative Wedge
- The Fourth, Unnamed Horseman of the Apocalypse That Is the GM Bailout
- Why the "Center-Right" Debate Is Maddening: It's the Lack of Statistics, Stupid
- Are We Talking About the Same Democrats?
- The Irrationality of the Health Insurance Market
- Why Political Corruption Matters: Dianne Wilkerson
- "Facts Alone May Not Completely Allay Fears": Sums Up the Theopolitical Rightwing Pretty Well
- How Will the GOP Rebuild?
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Recent Comments
- antijen on Gromia sphaerica: It's a Cool...Macrobe?
- anon on Gromia sphaerica: It's a Cool...Macrobe?
- Pandie & Dingdong on I Don't Think This Represents the Design Philosophy of the Smart Car
- MattXIV on The Net Neutrality Canard: A New Corporate Conservative Wedge
- Brett Glass on The Net Neutrality Canard: A New Corporate Conservative Wedge
- a on Myanmar: This Is What Courage Really Looks Like
- Coriolis on The Net Neutrality Canard: A New Corporate Conservative Wedge
- chris y on The Net Neutrality Canard: A New Corporate Conservative Wedge
- meme on A War on Christmas Question
- MattXIV on The Net Neutrality Canard: A New Corporate Conservative Wedge
Archives
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Blogroll
- All The World's A Stage, Act For Change
- MyDD
- Chris Mooney
- Thoughts from Kansas
- Pharyngula
- The Public Trust
- Keats' telescope
- Laughing Wild
- groupThink
- Dancing in the Divine
- Craig's Thoughts, Theories, and Tantrums
- media in trouble
- Neo Commons
- MajikThise
- Living the Scientific Life
- YoungFemaleScientist
- Respectful Insolence
- Everyone Loves Hedgical Trevor
- Salon.com
- The Gazetteer
- Nameless Rantings
- dadahead
- She Flies with Her Own Wings
- A Pondering of Fools
- Henry's Webiocosm Blog
- Jon Swift
- Divine Afflatus
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- Independent Bloggers' Alliance
- The Thermal Vent
- The Burned Over District
- Mixter's Mix
- Lab Cat
- If I Ran the Zoo
- Rev. BigDumbChimp
- ... ponderings of a fool
- Drinking Liberally in New Milford
- Scientia Natura: Evolution and Rationality
- Middle Raged Punk
- Primordial Blog
- ... ponderings of a fool
- SuportVaccination.Org
- Aetiology
- Big Brass Blog
- driftglass
- Battlepanda
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- skippy the bush kangaroo
- The Scientific Activist
- Deep Weeds
- The Corpus Callosum
- Complex Medium
- This Human Project
- Left in the Heartland
- A Mind Occasionally Voyaging
- Nice Shoes, Wanna Fock?
- Societas
- Skeptico
- Tied To the Tenure Tracks
- The Raven's Gazette
- Studying Biology and Environmental Science
- postgenomic
- Welcome to Shakesville
- Military Religious Freedom Foundation Blog
- Mad Melancholic Feminista
- ¡Viva La Evolución!
- comment is free...
- Melissa McEwan
- Marisacat
- The Panda's Thumb
- King of Zembla
- are you effin' kidding me?
- Eccentricity
- A Concerned Scientist
- Utenzi Blog
- Graphic Truth
- Universal Acid
- Scriptoids
- phronesisaical
- Muton
- A Beginner's Mind
- Altair4 Redux
- PSoTD
- Liberal Street Fighter
- Jon Swift
- Tangled Up in Blue Guy
- Sorting Out Science
- The force that through...
- jobsanger
- no fish, no nuts
- The Barefoot Bum
- ywut
- miriam's ideas
- decrepitoldfool
- Philosophers' Playground
- Yhetti
- Endosymbiosis
- The Crone Speaks
- blue collar scientist
- Crinch Pin
- Moue Magazine
- Balls and Walnuts
- over the cliff, onto the rocks
- Argue With Everyone
- Passing Afternoon
- Centerface! Adventures in Post-Democracy
- La Casa de Los Gatos
- CultureVultures
- Lance Mannion
- Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
Science Links
These links do not indicate support of this blog's statements by these groups
August 31, 2008
August 30, 2008
McCain Picks Creationist for Running Mate (Why You Should Always Read ScienceBlogs First)
This is the Alito-Roberts strategy: pick someone with virtually no track record so they can't get dinged. It's a crappy way to run the country.
Posted by Mike at 11:40 AM • 4 Comments •
August 29, 2008
Palin and Alito: The No-Name Strategy
Category: 'Snuggles' McCain
If 'the less they know, the better' is actually an apt description of your candidate and her policies, then you need a new candidate with different policies.
Posted by Mike at 2:29 PM • 6 Comments •
Teaching Macro- and Microevolution
I don't think molecular data are susceptible to the macroevolution/microevolution creationist canard.
Posted by Mike at 11:03 AM • 10 Comments •
August 28, 2008
If CNN Had Covered MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech...
they would have talked through the whole thing and nobody would have ever actually seen it.
Posted by Mike at 10:54 AM • 8 Comments •
August 27, 2008
Did Someone Help Bear Stearns Tank?
Was the Bear Stearns collapse the result of illegal manipulation?
Posted by Mike at 11:05 AM • 7 Comments •
August 26, 2008
Is Molecular Evolution a Good Way to Teach High School Students About Evolution?
We shouldn't get rid of the organismal approaches to teaching evolution, but do you think more of an emphasis on the molecular evidence for evolution would work?
Posted by Mike at 11:19 AM • 14 Comments •
August 25, 2008
The McCain Mansions
Category: 'Snuggles' McCain
I think we're up to nine McCain homes. It's so hard to keep track...
Posted by Mike at 6:01 PM • 6 Comments •
Bacteria and Influenza: The Streptococcus Vaccine Is One Way to Prepare Against the Unknown
In lieu of an influenza vaccine, bacterial vaccines and rapid diagnostics could save many lives.
Posted by Mike at 11:03 AM • 5 Comments •
August 24, 2008
Quote of the Day: Privacy, Then and Now
Category: Civil Liberties
The Sideshow comments on why a right to privacy isn't found in the Bill of Rights.
Posted by Mike at 6:33 PM • 11 Comments •
On "Cancer Ridden"
...and that wasn't the point of the post anyway. Orac is right to call out Stoller for referring to McCain as cancer-ridden.
Posted by Mike at 4:35 PM • 3 Comments •
For the Next Debate Thingee, Can the Moderator Be a Member of the Coalition of the Sane
Rick Warren believes that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time. Don't let all of that radiometric dating hooey fool you!
Posted by Mike at 11:53 AM • 9 Comments •
August 23, 2008
With "Innovation" Like This, No Wonder Political Reporting Is So Stupid
In the land of the complete f-cking moron, Adam Nagourney is king.
Posted by Mike at 11:01 AM • 2 Comments •
August 22, 2008
Chris Bowers Writes What I've Been Thinking...
Category: Democrats
Obama's campaign is a mass movement, not a grassroots one, in that the communication--and decision-making--are unidirectional.
Posted by Mike at 11:05 AM • 9 Comments •
August 21, 2008
At Long Last, Has the McCain Campaign No Decency?
The stupidest and most absurd answer possible to 'Housing-gate.' Maybe the POW answer to everything routine has finally jumped the shark?
Posted by Mike at 4:15 PM • 13 Comments •
FBI to Published Anthrax Evidence
Releasing the scientific evidence would be a very good thing. Hopefully, it will happen very quickly--and be in an open access journal.
Posted by Mike at 11:02 AM • 5 Comments •
August 20, 2008
Former Vietnam POW on the Irrelevancy of Being a POW to Being President
Category: 'Snuggles' McCain
"POW experience is not, in my opinion, something I would look for in a presidential candidate."
Posted by Mike at 11:01 AM • 12 Comments •
August 19, 2008
McCain: He Was for the Bear DNA Study Before He Was Against It
McCain's flip-flop on the bear DNA study is part of a larger pattern when it comes to government spending: all talk, no walk.
Posted by Mike at 4:52 PM • 4 Comments •
Skippy Takes the Long View on Racism and Obama
Category: Racism
"Don't worry about bigotry, because, while we'll always have bigotry, we are making inroads."
Posted by Mike at 11:07 AM • 3 Comments •
Jonathan Eisen Is Absolutely Right About Science Articles...
Category: Publishing
...and it's symptomatic of a larger problem too. When scientific communication is impaired by the needs of for-profit publishers, something needs to change...and it shouldn't be the science.
Posted by Mike at 11:04 AM • 11 Comments •
August 18, 2008
Community-Acquired ST398 MRSA Found in Sweden
This is bad. The piggy MRSA has entered the commensal human population.
Posted by Mike at 11:08 AM • 2 Comments •
August 17, 2008
Olivia Judson on the Utility of Evolution
We need the concepts, methods, and techniques of evolutionary biology to do other stuff in biology.
Posted by Mike at 11:26 AM • 1 Comments •
Clean Wastewater and the Naturalist Fallacy
Draining the groundwater aquifers because of a mistaken belief in what is 'natural.'
Posted by Mike at 10:55 AM • 9 Comments •
August 16, 2008
Bush Is Restoring Dignity to the White House
In case you need to induce vomiting for some reason, here's an image for you. Seriously, I think Bush's image handlers are just mailing it in at this point.
Posted by Mike at 11:41 AM • 12 Comments •
August 15, 2008
Happy Birthday to Social Security!
From FDR's grandson, here's a video that puts Social Security--and its current politics--in proper context
Posted by Mike at 11:02 AM • 0 Comments •
August 14, 2008
Anthrax and the Myth of the Mad Scientist
To the extent that the evil scientist myth is actually reinforced by the anthrax incident, it is that we have met the enemy and it is not the other, but us.
Posted by Mike at 11:05 AM • 4 Comments •
August 13, 2008
Lip Synching Is in the "National Interest"?
The Beijing Olympics has led to an increase in truthiness. Truth, not so much.
Posted by Mike at 5:06 PM • 9 Comments •
Reed Elsevier Is Stealing My Words
This displeases us greatly.
Posted by Mike at 11:09 AM • 6 Comments •
August 12, 2008
Political Reporters, Polls, and Numerical Illiteracy
Even though the presidential race is stagnant in that the numbers aren't shifting much, that's not the same as the race being in a dead heat. This would be obvious, if your typical political reporter wasn't a mathematically illiterate moron.
Posted by Mike at 11:06 AM • 8 Comments •
August 11, 2008
Joe Klein Gets It Right About Privacy and Politics
Political puritanism means that the only way to be scandal-proof is to have spent your entire life planning a run for office. This selects a very bizarre group of people.
Posted by Mike at 4:41 PM • 6 Comments •
Finally, the Scientific Issues with the Anthrax Investigation Are Entering the Discussion
Finally, the scientific issues surrounding the anthrax investigation are entering the mainstream (kinda, sorta, at least).
Posted by Mike at 9:36 AM • 5 Comments •
August 10, 2008
Voter Suppression in Missouri
Apparently, freedom isn't free: it costs $300.
Posted by Mike at 11:18 AM • 10 Comments •
August 9, 2008
Reporting on the Bush Disaster: Bestest Satire EVAH!
Any time there's a send up of news anchors, disaster coverage, and George Bush, it's worth watching.
Posted by Mike at 11:15 AM • 4 Comments •
August 8, 2008
Viruses That Parasitize Viruses?
Category: Viruses
Welcome to the world of virophage--viruses that parasitize other viruses.
Posted by Mike at 10:58 AM • 4 Comments •
August 7, 2008
OK, Now I'm Convinced There Isn't an Anthrax Mixture
The inversion is not enough evidence to conclude that two anthrax strains were used.
Posted by Mike at 11:03 AM • 6 Comments •
August 6, 2008
Was the Anthrax Attack Really a Mixture of Two Strains?
Category: Anthrax
Does anyone know more about the DNA anthrax inversion? And why is this evidence of a mixed culture?
Posted by Mike at 12:57 PM • 5 Comments •
Note to Cowen: Anger Towards HMOs Is Often Rational
Category: Healthcare
Dislike of HMOs is a rational response.
Posted by Mike at 11:02 AM • 3 Comments •
August 5, 2008
Seed and ScienceBlogs Survey
Category: Bloggity Blog
Tell our Benevolent Seed Overlords what you think of Seed Magazine and Scienceblogs.
Posted by Mike at 5:13 PM • 0 Comments •
How the Bush Administration Makes Tinfoil Helmet Terrority Seem Sane
Anthrax--this exemplifies how the Bush Administration drives the country insane: we don't even have a good grasp on what qualifies as the surreal anymore.
Posted by Mike at 11:12 AM • 14 Comments •
August 4, 2008
Gergen Says the Thing That Must Not Be Said About Obama and McCain
Fear of a successful black man.
Posted by Mike at 4:58 PM • 2 Comments •
Numerical Illiteracy and the Gang of 500 Mediocrities
I've always thought that one of the hallmarks of being smart is the ability to explain complex things to other people. Unfortunately, our political press corps is quite stupid.
Posted by Mike at 3:31 PM • 1 Comments •
August 3, 2008
Anthrax: The Disconnect Between the Investigation and the Iraq War Supporters
Lieberman and McCain claimed there were "indications" Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks. So why was the FBI focusing on U.S. scientists? Either this was an outright lie or a case of hysterical delusion.
Posted by Mike at 11:22 AM • 5 Comments •
August 2, 2008
Corn Was Patriotic...in WWI
WWI: a time when everyone viewed corn as a good thing.
Posted by Mike at 10:46 AM • 8 Comments •
August 1, 2008
Why Counterterrorism Should Not Be Left to Those Who Believe in the Easter Bunny
More fallout from Bushist apparatchik Monica Goodling.
Posted by Mike at 10:56 AM • 6 Comments •
