October 4, 2006
Last night, tooling down to the Drinking Liberally, someone came up to my window while I was parked at a traffic light. My New York reflexes made me think I had to fend of a windshield washer or a panhandler, but it was the driver of the car behind me. She had a "Morrison for Attorney General"…
October 4, 2006
This week seems like the wrong time to write a pro-ID post titled "ID guys aim directly at youth." We've seen what it looks like to "aim directly at youth." IDolator O'Leary writes:
In a long-awaited move, the intelligent design guys are attempting an end run around the interminable school board…
October 4, 2006
I called Jim Ryun's office to see where he stands on the Foley issue, and he said that, while what Foley did was "indefensible," he doesn't think all the facts are in. Should Speaker Hastert resign, as conservative activists like Richard Viguerie have demanded? Ryun isn't sure any laws were…
October 4, 2006
Chilean sea bass is a success story for food marketers, and one of a long string of horror stories from the world's fisheries. Once known as the Patagonian toothfish, a little rebranding turned the fish into one of the most sought after fish on the market. The slow-growing fish (it takes 10 years…
October 3, 2006
Like Jason Rosenhouse I Grow Weary of ID. The song and dance hasn't changed since I started vaguely paying attention to it in 1999. I still read the ID blogs, and I see stupidity run amok, but I can't get myself excited about explaining the stupidity. It's tiring, and it doesn't seem to fix…
October 3, 2006
On October 12, Dick Cheney will be heading out to bail out the floundering ship that is Jim Ryun. Despite what state Republican Chairman Shallenburger says, the VP doesn't come out to raise money for a candidate unless there's concern about holding that seat.
Analyses of NRCC spending hasn't shown…
October 3, 2006
2 American ‘Worm People’ Win Nobel for RNA Work.
I don't remember us discussing RNAi in my biology classes in college, and that wasn't so long ago. The field has bloomed in recent years though, and just about every issue of Science and Nature reports new findings based on the use of interference…
October 3, 2006
Dennis Moore's latest TV ad is online.
October 3, 2006
Thanks to A Voyage to Arcturus for this reminder:
October 3, 2006
Nitpicker asks "Who's a fucking appeaser?" as:
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Islamic militia and its supporters into the Afghan government.
At the time, of course, al…
October 2, 2006
In a debate on a local radio show, Jim Ryun reminds us again why it's important to replace him:
Asked by a caller what the candidates would do about global warming, Ryun said: “Much of the global warming issue has been overplayed. We need to work with sound science,” he said.
Boyda responded: “If…
October 2, 2006
The (valid) concern over the eminent domain ruling in Kelo v. New London has been misappropriated for some truly awful purposes. Activists in several western states are using it to push the idea that regulations are "takings," and are trying to block environmental regulation (or bankrupt states…
October 1, 2006
Canada.com reports the firing of a government scientist because he wouldn't refer to the government as "Canada's New Government."
We could also file this as just another battle in the war on plain language.
The scientist was fired from an unpaid emeritus position, and is appealing his dismissal.…
September 29, 2006
Unholy Moses' Obituary for America is too good not to reprint:
Washington — America, United States of, died Sept. 28, 2006, after a six year illness. The family states that is was, in fact, the domestic foes, not foreign, that finally took their toll.
Born in 1776 in Philadelphia, America grew up…
September 29, 2006
Chris Mooney expresses concern at his blog and in Seed magazine about the possibility that Scientists and Engineers for Change (SEforA) will be too partisan. The races they expect to target include (according to the Times) "Senate race in Virginia between George Allen, the incumbent Republican,…
September 29, 2006
I have no opinion about marijuana. Never toked, never cared to, and I can't say I feel strongly about whether anyone else chooses to, especially while cigarettes are legal.
That said, the periodic discoveries of pot farms in national parks and forests is a definite disaster, and one that can be…
September 28, 2006
Billy Dembski's "research assistant" weighs in on Judge Jones at the Wichita Eagle's blog.
September 28, 2006
The Times gets it wrong in criticizing the torture bill that the House passed yesterday. We aren't Rushing Off a Cliff, we're strolling, carefully and deliberately. Other than that, the editorial is dead on:
Here’s what happens when this irresponsible Congress railroads a profoundly important…
September 28, 2006
I hate, hate, hate the phrase "citizen journalist." I don't know what it means. Someone is a journalist or isn't, and a given bit of writing is or isn't journalism. Would a "citizen journalist" be like a "citizen soldier," doing journalism a few weekends every year? Are members of the…
September 28, 2006
Apparently Bob Corkins gave away $32,000 to whoever asked for it. The money came from federal funds for charter schools. Commissioner of Education Corkins solicited proposals from people who would help create charter schools. "I have not been able to find any connection between these people and…
September 27, 2006
Journal World's Congressional Briefing points out an Atlantic article about Hillary Clinton, and how Sam Brownback made peace with her. Brownback came to the Senate prayer group planning to talk about a cancer scare, but seeing new Senator Clinton at the meeting:
confessed to having hated Clinton…
September 27, 2006
According to the Tom Sawyer campaign for the Ohio Board of Ed, Deborah Owens-Fink said in a radio appearance: "If you are Christian, vote for Debbie. If you believe in evolution, abortion and sin, vote for Sawyer."
No mention was made of who Indian Jim or members of the whitewashers' guild should…
September 27, 2006
Americans "need leaders to protect the integrity of science," according to Neal Lane, Bill Clinton's science advisor from 1998-2001, and before that the director of the NSF. He said that in announcing the kick-off of Scientists and Engineers for America, a new 527 that will be fighting to protect…
September 27, 2006
There have been some reports that the Ahner campaign (he likes to emphasize the "Ah") has been putting out a push poll. The Mystery Pollster defines a push poll as follows:
We can usually identify a true push poll by a few characteristics that serve as evidence of that intent. "Push pollsters" (…
September 26, 2006
Judge John E. Jones III, the presiding judge in the case that kicked ID out of classrooms, came to the University of Kansas to take part on the Difficult Dialogues at The Commons, a series of lectures that is bringing some big names for big discussions.
Jones set as a precondition of his visit that…
September 26, 2006
On August 1, voters rejected Connie Morris's bid to return for another 4 years on the Kansas Board of Education. Apparently her abuse of state funds on a partisan newsletter, wasteful spending on a needless trip to Florida, and blowing out money on out of state "experts" on IDC didn't sit well in…
September 26, 2006
As the Supreme Court begins to emerge from its summer hibernation, lots of stories are coming out previewing impending cases and controversies. The ACS blog takes a look at Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 05-1120 a case about whether the EPA is obliged by law…
September 26, 2006
As the wiretap bill moves closer to passage it becomes increasingly unclear why any new law is necessary. The new additions to the law make clear that court review of the program would not give blanket authorization for the surveillance, and would require procedures to prevent the surveillance…
September 25, 2006
Gallup/USAToday asked:
Just your best guess -- Do you think the Bush Administration has deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections, or do you think the recent decline in the price of gasoline has not been due to any manipulation by the Bush…
September 25, 2006
Former GOP chairman Dennis Jones endorsed Democrat Paul Morrison for AG.
This follows a debate in which Kline claimed that Paul Morrison let crooks out of prison early, while Morrison discussed the meetings that Phill Kline held with the creationists on the Board of Education. Saying that the…
