May 31, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
I used to tout every bit of media interest I've gotten, but lately it's hardly seemed worth it. Press outreach is part of my job, so a quote in a newspaper in Florida, or a radio interview in Pennsylvania, doesn't do much for the ego any more. I will note with interest this article at conservative news site CNSnews, relating to anti-science bills that have been introduced in several states. The author talks to Expelled producer Walt Ruloff, Expelled star Carolyn Crocker, Disco. 'tuter Casey Luskin and the legislator who introduced Louisiana's version of the noxious bill. Pleasantly enough, he...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:56 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 30, 2008
Category: Culture Wars
Remember this?: Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk radio host and bestselling author, has joined the Discovery Institute in the role of senior fellow. The position cements a longstanding friendship and recognizes a commonality of values and projects across a spectrum of issues. “Michael Medved is an intellectual entrepreneur, a political and cultural polymath with great insights, judgment and wit. We are delighted to have this new relationship with him,” said Discovery Institute president Bruce Chapman. … Chapman saluted Medved “as the national radio host–make that ‘media host’–who is best able to understand science issues, including the current conflict over Darwinism...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:18 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 29, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
On June 3, Californians will vote. There are a bunch of jackasses running for local offices, all clogging my mailbox with their fearmongering. I haven't sorted through the candidates, and their fliers all go into the recycling anyway. I'll work that out, though, with endorsements before the election. There are also a couple of local initiatives, both of which just update small local taxes, and I'll be voting yes on measures F and J. I'll grumble a bit about the stupidity of a system of government which requires that minor tweaks like this constantly being stuck on the ballot to...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:41 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Call Arnold To Tell Him You Totally Support Gay Marriage, Or Else: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is receiving large numbers of phone calls from the supporters of "Limits on Marriage" (The constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage in California ) about his comment to a group of Log Cabin Republicans that he wouldn't support a constitutional amendment. We don't want him to go back on his word. He must hear from us too. The aide I spoke to yesterday was so glad I called as most of his calls were from the "other side." Now it is automated and you will...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:12 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Planet Earth
Nature's Climate Feedback blog points out that the post-World War II cooling is a mirage: The 1945 temperature drop is nothing else than the result of the sudden but uncorrected change from warm US measurements to cooler UK measurement… That’s a rather trivial explanation for a long-standing conundrum, so why has it taken so long to find out? Because identifying the glitch was less simple than it might appear, says David Thompson of the State University of Colorado in Boulder. The now digitized logbooks of neither US nor British ships contain any information on how the sea surface temperature measurements...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:32 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Lindsay alerts us to the death of Utah Phillips. Not a great singer, but a great story-teller, and a repository of a quirky part of American labor history. He'll be missed....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:10 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 28, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
Is Barack Obama Muslim?: No.The internet: cause of and answer to all of life's problems....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 3:15 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 27, 2008
Category: Policy and Politics
Before the weekend, I had a half-composed post about Hillary Clinton's asinine invocations of RFK's assassination, but I wasn't done when weekend fun-n-games began, and now it's dated and irrelevant. I only mention it because I would've linked to Atrios's excellent and correct advice to the Clintonites: Stop Sticking Finger in Brain. The post had the same title as today's and quoted the observation that "the various historical comparisons the Clinton campaign is making are in the 'isn't it great that people are so stupid that they'll swallow this horseshit' category. It did not take her husband until June to...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:39 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
I was out and about yesterday, but my belated Memorial Day memorial is to say, as I did last year, "On this day when we remember our war dead, it's worth looking back at the when and the how of the … US military fatalities in Iraq." Then it was 3455 dead, now we're up to 4083 American soldiers dead, with a total of 4394 fallen coalition soldiers. The count at icasualties.org has us on the verge of 30,000 wounded US soldiers, a sum which does not include subtle psychological errors, or wounds too minor to require evacuation. This...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 9:34 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 24, 2008
Category: Chatter
A friend wants LGBT books for tweens: So far, the best we’ve been able to do in terms of LGBT fiction for kids who have moved beyond picture books is: Boy Meets Boy, by David LevithanSo Hard to Say, by Alex Sanchez Geography Club, by Brent Hartinger The Order of the Poison Oak, by Brent Hartinger Totally Joe, by James Howe Not one of these books, however, is truly a tween read. They’re basically young adult novels without too much explicit sex. So while a 10-year old could read them without his parents throwing a fit, he probably wouldn’t get...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:03 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks