stcynic
Posts by this author
When Karl Rove told a Denver newspaper that Bush would exercise his first veto of the stem cell bill a couple weeks ago, he included one big whopper in his claim:
Recent studies, he said, show that researchers "have far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells."
This is a…
Here's a frightening report from a Denver TV station about the government requiring air marshalls to report at least one person a month for suspicious activity on a plane - reports that could put someone on a terrorist watchlist - regardless of whether they see any such activity.
You could be on a…
Josh Claybourn has quite a month coming up. Today he begins the Indiana bar exam. When he's finished with that, he's flying to Africa for 24 days where he will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, going on safaris in the Serengeti and relaxing at the beach. I want to wish him good luck on the bar exam and…
You all remember Specter's "compromise" bill, the one he says the White House reluctantly agreed to in negotations that would allegedly establish real oversight on the NSA programs? Well, Glen Greenwald has a post that analyzes the text of the bill in more detail and reveals that it's even worse…
And rightly so. One of the hallmarks of the Bush administration has been their policy of not allowing any dissent or protest anywhere near the President anywhere he appears. And we're not just talking about protests. There have been dozens of incidents where even people with a Kerry/Edwards sticker…
David Darlington has a post at In the Agora about the ongoing situation in Philadelphia over an English-only requirement at one of its famous cheesesteak establishments. As David notes, the two most famous places to get authentic cheesesteak sandwiches in Philly are Geno's and Pat's, which are…
Roy Moore was interviewed on the American View radio program with Michael Peroutka and John Lofton recently. It included plenty of crazy and just plain false statements. Like this one, which went unchallenged by the hosts:
All Constitutions of every state at some level recognize God, as does the…
During last week's debate over Bush's veto of the stem cell research bill, we heard a lot about embryo adoptions. The bill, which would allow stem cell research only on those frozen embryos left over from IVF clinics, was vetoed and there weren't enough votes to override it. The religious right…
Here's a new science blog someone gave me a link to, Defending Science, Scientists and Non-Scientists. The author, silkworm, is in Kansas and actively involved in the fight for science education there. It's good work, including recordings of Kansas IDer John Calvert giving talks around the state.
No, not really. But it's at least as plausible as the absolutely ridiculous argument from the religious right that gay marriage will "destroy traditional marriage". And the evidence, minimal as it is, at least points to a correlation at this point. Massachusetts has now had gay marriage for two…
Jason Rosenhouse has gotten a lot of attention today with a link from DailyKos, and I think he deserves even more. He has a couple of cool posts up that are worth reading. The first is about how desperate the IDers are to claim any article that contains the word 'design' as an ID-inspired article.…
I've been eagerly awaiting the release of Clerks 2, and it finally came this weekend. I haven't seen it yet, but I will. This is one of the rare movies that actually will get me to go to the theater to see it. I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan. And seeing this review from wingnut Debbie Schlussel just…
I find this really funny. Ralph Reed is blaming John McCain for his loss in the primaries in the race to be Lt. Governor of Georgia, according to National Review:
Here's the view of what happened from the Reed camp: Once the Abramoff stuff exploded, it was going to be a very tough road for Reed.…
Gotta love that religious right logic (scroll to the bottom):
Marriott Hotels has banned smoking from their rooms -- now Concerned Women for America is wondering when the chain is going to ban another health hazard: pay-per-view pornography. "We've been after Marriott for years to stop providing…
Because of breathtaking logic like this:
The grand jury alleges Hovind failed to pay nearly half-a-million dollars in federal income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes on his employees at his Creation Science Evangelism ministry in Pensacola. Hovind, who is known as "Dr. Dino," says even though…
Which I think is quite funny, don't you? I decided that I just had to tune in to his show on Wide Awakes Radio, in the same way that you have to watch people humiliate themselves on a talk show. Man, it's worse than I imagined. This little radio project of theirs is stunningly amateur. His show…
There is now a webpage devoted specifically to the lawsuit filed against the World Poker Tour by 7 of the top poker players in the world. You can find the text of the complaint here. I haven't had much of a chance to go over it yet, and I know next to nothing about antitrust law, but perhaps some…
There is a new interview with Judge Jones in the July/August edition of the Pennsylvania Lawyer. The article is not available online, but I wanted to share some of the more interesting bits. As he did at the close of the trial and many times since, he offered a great deal of praise to the attorneys…
In all of the suits going on in various courts over the NSA's domestic spying programs, the government is arguing that the courts cannot even hear such cases because the process of discovery will violate the state secrets privilege. At least one court, the Federal circuit for the Northern District…
Remember the woman in North Carolina who was forced to quit her job as a deputy sheriff because she lived with her boyfriend and there was an old law on the books banning cohabitation in that state? A state court has now overturned that law, which is good news. The ACLU represented the woman and…
Here is Gribbit's amusing attempt to reply to my post below where I rightly make fun of his ridiculous claim that someone attacked him to get more traffic to their blog:
I'd like to say welcome to all the lefty traffic being sent here from one of the most ignorant individuals on the planet. Mr...…
At the request of Antigua, where many online gaming sites are located, the World Trade Organization has set up a committee to investigate our government's activities in regard to online gambling. Antigua and many other nations say that trying to shut down this trade that is perfectly legal almost…
One of the amusing things about the Worldnutdaily is that they always put scare quotes around the word 'gay'. Even funnier are headlines like this:
Savage Garden singer 'weds' homosexual boyfriend
Good choice, pal. If you'd wed your heterosexual boyfriend, that might have caused some confusion.
Everyone knows that by now. But you have to see this video of Sen. Sam Brownback, quite possibly the looniest man in the Senate (and with Santorum and Robert Byrd around, that's saying a lot) and his special chart during the debate on the bill. It has a child's drawing of embryos with sad faces and…
I came across this picture on the Pokerati blog. Jennifer Tilly, the actress who usually plays ditzy characters, is now a hot item with professional poker player Phil (the Unabomber) Laak. Tilly has taken up poker and done quite well for herself, winning the women's event at last year's World…
Our old pal Gribbit is back, and he's inventing history. In the middle of a post about some crazy leftist that he, naturally, thinks represents everyone who disagrees with him, he writes the following:
There a few leftists like you who did a blitz on me a few weeks ago trying to drum up traffic to…
Ralph Barker is back with the conclusion of his 2-part series on UFOs. And he's about to reveal to us what UFOs really are:
Even the greatest skeptic would have to admit that there are still unexplained UFO sightings. So, what are they? Are they alien spaceships? Are they visitors from the future?…
This is an interesting development. 7 of the top poker players in the world - Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer and Phil Gordon - have filed a lawsuit against the World Poker Tour for violations of their intellectual property rights. This has actually…
Someone hunted down this post by DaveScot's biggest fan that contains all the posts that led the Blog Czar himself to be deposed (ironic, since Dembski likes to compare "Darwinists" to the Soviet commie bad guys and here he is overthrowing his own self-appointed "czar"). I missed the thread…
After getting settled in to his new home in Maryland, Jason Kuznicki has jumped into the exchange I had with Mark Olson about the meaning of 'liberty' in the Declaration of Independence. That's valuable, because it gives us the perspective of a real historian in evaluating the situation. He…