January 31, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
Scott Roeder found guilty of first-degree murder in death of George Tiller: A jury took less than 40 minutes Friday to find Scott Roeder guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting of abortion provider George Tiller in a [Wichita] church […] last May. […] The murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, though under Kansas law, parole is possible. Mr. Roeder, 51 years old, will be sentenced in March. […] Defense attorney Mark Rudy acknowledged in his closing statement Friday that there was no question his client had killed Dr. Tiller and had been planning to do...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:26 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
As the Times puts it: Former Justice O’Connor Sees Ill in Election Finance Ruling: “Gosh,” she said, “I step away for a couple of years and there’s no telling what’s going to happen.” Justice O’Connor criticized the recent decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, only obliquely, reminding the audience that she had been among the authors of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the 2003 decision that was overruled in large part on Thursday. … She has become increasingly vocal in recent years about doing away with judicial elections. Most states elect at least some of their judges; federal judges...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:45 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
Courtesy of the San Mateo County Times: Police find cache of weapons, alligators and suspected explosives in South San Francisco home: Lazaro Ismael Leon Jr., who is allegedly a Norteno gang member, entered his [not guilty] plea Monday in San Mateo County Superior Court and Commissioner Stephanie Garratt set the man's bail at $1.2 million, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. This is only slightly better than the headline a couple weeks ago in the Contra Costa Times: Man shot over mouth jewelry in Richmond. Yes, according to police the young man's grill got jacked, and he then had...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
Darwin biopic Creation premiered in seven movie theaters across the country last weekend, earning $53,073, an average of $7,582. That's not a lot of money, but at roughly $10/ticket, this works out to 760 viewers per theater, a solid showing. I know the theater I saw it at was full for their 7 pm showing. Compare that to creationist schlockumentary Expelled: No Intelligence…, released two springs ago. Part of its promotional strategy was a big opening weekend; coordinating with the owners of Regal movie theaters, they opened in 1,052 theaters, earning $2,970,848, or $2,824 per theater (roughly 280 viewers). By...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:26 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
I've had my disagreements with Martin Cothran over the years. He's a bigoted man, proud of teaching logic at a private school, yet utterly dependent on logical fallacies in his actual argumentation. He wants creationism taught in public schools. He dislikes gay people and anyone else who challenges his notions of how sex and gender should work. He enjoys quoting Holocaust-denying racists like Pat Buchanan and cross-burning racists like Charles Murray. He celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday by listing the blog posts from 2009 he's most proud of. Sometimes he's basically harmless, as when he berates local universities for...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:28 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
Having blown an easy win in the Massachusetts Senate race, DC Democrats seem intent on blowing the dreams of millions of Americans, and the best chance of reforming the health insurance industry to make it more equitable – a policy long held up as a major reason to vote Democratic. The Times reports on the search for consensus on how to move forward: Even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi affirmed her commitment to pass far-reaching health care legislation this year, members of Congress and health policy experts began Thursday to deal with the reality that a smaller bill would have a...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:32 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 21, 2010
Category: Culture Wars
This weekend marks the U.S. premiere of Creation, featuring Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his wife Emma. It's an adaptation of Darwin descendant Randal Keynes' Annie's Box, an account of Darwin's struggle to decide whether to publish the Origin while overcoming the death of his favorite daughter. I got to see a preview of it last fall, and it's a tremendous film. The history had to be tweaked here and there to make the picture hang together, but the science, the ideas, and the basic sweep of the history are accurate. As a bit of a...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:22 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
I've never been more ashamed of the Democratic party than I am right now, watching the idiots in Congress piss away the opportunity to expand insurance coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans, to protect the insurance coverage of people who have preexisting conditions, to save Medicare by reducing the rate of medical inflation, and to lay the groundwork for a greater expansion of progressive policies down the road. The election of Scott Brown changes nothing in the House, and very little in the Senate. House and Senate negotiators were working on merging the different health care bills, and there was...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:42 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 19, 2010
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Scott Brown will be a U.S. Senator until 2012. Seriously. Ted Kennedy's seat went to a teabagging healthcare opponent who voted against 9/11 rescue personnel. On the bright side, Joe Lieberman is no longer the 60th vote for anything interesting, so Senate Dems can take him to the woodshed....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 7:46 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 18, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
There's much that needs to be done to assist the recovery in Haiti, but the consensus of those on the ground is that what's needed now is money. Don't mail blankets or whatever, just let the aid agencies buy what they need and ship it in. The airports and seaports are clogged and there's minimal capacity to offload supplies, so let the aid groups make decisions about what's needed and when. The Intersection has a good roundup of the top aid groups. Personally, I've always been happy with Oxfam. They have a longstanding presence in Haiti, and I know that...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:55 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
