October 10, 2006
The tagline from a new ad by Wichita-area Congressman Todd Tiahrt is "The safety of American ports must never be sold off to a foreign bidder." It ends a spot that seems aimed at distancing himself from the White House over the Dubai ports deal.
The entire enterprise is bizarre, not least because…
October 10, 2006
Frontal Cortex, reviewing An Elephant Crackup in the Times, writes about Elephants Gone Wild:
This shouldn't be too surprising. The neurobiology of stress is an extremely well conserved biological pathway. Our brain experiences stress in much the same way as a chimp, or an elephant, or a rat. And…
October 9, 2006
Fire Phill Kline points out this exchange in a Chat with Attorney General Phill Kline:
kugrad: Exactly how many cases did you try in court, meaning you were the lead attorney in the courtroom giving oral arguments, prior to becoming attorney general? If you must estimate, use small incremental…
October 9, 2006
My first paid gig is up at Seed online.
It's a retread of a post from a month or so ago.
October 9, 2006
"To follow Jack Abramoff's money trail, we will be coming back often to this red door. The townhouse at 132 D Street is just three short blocks from Tom Delay's office at Capitol Hill. 'The Safe House' his staff called it."
So begins chapter two of "Capitol Crimes," Bill Moyers overview of the…
October 8, 2006
Buck O'Neil, Negro League baseball great, dies at 94:
Buck O'Neil, a batting champion in the Negro Leagues before becoming the first black to serve as a major league coach, has died. He was 94.
The beloved national figure as the unofficial goodwill spokesman for the Negro Leagues died Friday night…
October 7, 2006
The "ID Report" has a post up full of "breaking news": "So much is happening nowadays in the ID controversy..." writes Denyse O'Leary. For instance, she sez "Ann Coulter, who had kind words for the ID guys, has been accused of plagiarism, but Talking Points Memo (no friend of hers) did not find…
October 7, 2006
Our regular Friday Find feature was delayed by a day due to technical issues.
On receiving the Emerson-Thoreau Award, Robert Frost told the crowd:
You may be interested to know that I have right here in my pocket a little first edition of Emerson's poetry. His very first was published in England,…
October 7, 2006
Via Kansas RINO, we learn that:
Sen. Rick Santorum … has politely declined an offer to campaign for him by a favorite of Christian conservatives, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.
Apparently, our Senator is too freaky to help Santorum hang onto his Senate seat in swing state Pennsylvania. That pretty…
October 7, 2006
Billy Bragg called Abel Pharmboy to commemorate Stetson Kennedy's 90th birthday.
Bragg performs the song Stetson Kennedy on Mermaid Avenue, Volume 2, a collection of lyrics by Woody Guthrie that Bragg and Wilco put to music in two phenomenal albums.
Abel met Stetson Kennedy a while back, and that'…
October 6, 2006
Elevated from the comments. Reader CSA writes:
Even when Bacon *does* show up, physically, he doesn't contribute much. Consider these excerpts from the minutes of the August 2006 KSBE meeting:
p. 18: Mrs. Waugh moved, with a second by Dr. Wagnon, that the Board include in its FY 2008 budget…
October 6, 2006
It appears that my iPod hard drive is dead. This is deeply distressing news. Anyone who has tried fixing the drive in an iPod is welcome to offer advice.
I have also added it to the very top of my Amazon.com wishlist, so interested parties should feel free to support the vital work of TfK that…
October 6, 2006
SurveyUSA sez:
43% of Americans Say Hastert Should Resign From Congress, Another 20% Say Resign As Speaker But Remain in Congress
He allowed a sexual predator to abuse his power over pages and has run one of the least effective Congresses in modern history. Of course he should resign the…
October 6, 2006
You Belong in Soho
Although you may not be a professional artist, you do dabble in one form of art or another.
And you indie culture of all kinds - from little botiques to art house films.
Where Should Your Inner New Yorker Live?
In honor of Grrrrrlscientist.
October 6, 2006
Gitmo guards brag of beatings:
Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as common practice, a Marine sergeant said in a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press.
A sergeant talking with a group of soldiers reported their nonchalant recollections of beating…
October 6, 2006
Via Tony, we get Steve Rose explaining why Johnson County is turning Democratic:
in the 56 years we have been publishing in Johnson County, this basically has been a Republican newspaper … I can name on two hands over a half century the number of Democrats we have endorsed for public office.
This…
October 6, 2006
In the last week, there have been three candidate fora
Oct 3, Olathe Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum, Bacon was a no-show.
Oct 3, Candidate Forum in Osawatomie, no Bacon
Oct 5, Candidate Forum in Ottawa, no Bacon
As Don Weiss tells me "One might think he doesn't care."
You'll have a chance to…
October 5, 2006
Today's editorial from The Parsons Sun:
The race is on
Voters can tell when there's a real race by the big guns that come out, and we in the 2nd Congressional District have a real race. Challenger Nancy Boyda is taking another run at Congressman Jim Ryun, and the one-time Republican has Ryun…
October 5, 2006
The DI's Johnny West complains:
Last year, Bill Dembski reported on how he was contacted by the New Scientist's Bob Holmes, who assured him:It seems to me the media coverage of intelligent design has mostly failed to present your case on scientific grounds, and I'd like to remedy that.
Of course,…
October 5, 2006
Papa TfK sends this video of a real live music visualizer.
October 5, 2006
India shows the shape of things to come:
Wind power may still have an image as something of a plaything of environmentalists more concerned with clean energy than saving money. But it is quickly emerging as a serious alternative not just in affluent areas of the world but in fast-growing countries…
October 5, 2006
I doubt that the research that produced Nobel prizes in Chemistry and Medicine/Physiology cost $4 million combined. I don't really know for sure, but some of the most fundamental discoveries cost quite little to make.
I point this out only because the DI's "Mr. Suave" aka Rob Crowther, is bragging…
October 4, 2006
Inc. magazine is Rating the Governors, and only four governors got 4 stars, among them our own:
Kathleen Sebelius
During her 2004 State of the State address, Sebelius said, "State government can't create jobs, but it must create a climate in which businesses can flourish." Ask business owners in…
October 4, 2006
R. W. Apple has passed away, apparently after having planned out the menu for his funeral. Any discussion of Apple has to deal with a huge volume of material, in some cases, quite literally. In a 2003 profile of Johnny Apple, Calvin Trillin writes that Apple would start his day's work "in one of…
October 4, 2006
I guess I haven't paid as much attention to the Pitch since Tony Ortega left, so somehow I managed to not notice that this year's annual Best Of awards were coming.
If you peruse our sidebar, you'll see that we won the Best Blogger award last year, with Greg Beck taking "Reader's Choice" and Tony's…
October 4, 2006
At a Republican campaign lunch, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who once bragged about the memory pills he takes, told the audience that in hindsight, he would not have voted for Iraq war:
During a campaign stop for Kansas Republicans on Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate…
October 4, 2006
Positive Ape Index reports a fascinating find in a Kansas antique mall, an authentic space suit from the Gemini program. The suit never went into space, though it did go into high altitude test flights. Apparently the new owner of the suit knows how the only such suit that isn't in a museum wound…
October 4, 2006
Answers in Genesis hosts a version of the image above. Is there any plausible reading of this in which AiG isn't threatening to blow you away?
Good that Ken Ham can take time away from his busy schedule of getting busted for tax evasion feuding with the international branch of his group to…
October 4, 2006
Attorney general misrepresented sex-crime case:
Atty. Gen. Phill Kline had nothing to do with a Sedgwick County case he has repeatedly used to defend an investigation that entangled him in a lengthy legal fight with two abortion clinics, the county’s top prosecutor said Monday.
Kline has pointed to…
October 4, 2006
In response to a candidate for Michigan governor endorsing ID, someone or other writes to the Detroit News Evolution theory relies on faith, too. Which means we don't even get past the title before the first error. But it gets worse:
Both creationists and evolutionists have logically derived…
