Mike Dunford
tqa
Posts by this author
December 29, 2009
Jason Rosenhouse asks us if we think there's anything wrong with the following sentence, taken from Thomas Dixon's book Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction:
Historians have shown that the Galileo affair, remembered by some as a clash between science and religion, was primarily about…
December 11, 2009
Earlier this evening, Judge Nina Gershon issued a preliminary injunction barring the government from enforcing a law that bars any Federal money from going to the controversial community group ACORN, or any of ACORN's "affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations". Gershon's ruling will…
December 9, 2009
The Democratic Party will not be traveling to Copenhagen to negotiate an international climate change treaty.
Surprised? Then you might not have as good an understanding of the Constitution of the United States as you thought. But don't feel bad - that puts you on par with Jake Sherman, and he's…
December 9, 2009
If your face is regularly complimented with goggle rings and you spend hours every week following the black line, this review might just interest you. If don't know what I'm talking about, it won't.
I like to swim. This is a good thing, since I'm currently employed as a head guard, and spend…
December 6, 2009
Sheril Kirshenbaum and DrHGG recently wrote posts expressing their disappointment at the selection of authors that Richard Dawkins included in the Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing. Neither of them was pleased that only three female authors were included in a book that featured 83 excerpts of…
November 30, 2009
Over at The Austringer, Wes Elsberry has been engaging in a bit of debate with BeliefNet blogger David Opderbeck over Opderbeck's views on the Dover Intelligent Design case. The bulk of their disagreement seems to center on the appropriateness of Judge Jones' decision to rule that Intelligent…
November 24, 2009
WikiLeaks.org - a group that's dedicated to posting leaked material from governments and other major institutions - has obtained and is currently publishing an archive of over 500,000 text messages that were sent, intercepted, and archived on 11 September 2001. The messages begin several hours…
November 19, 2009
Doug Hoffman recently posted a new fundraising letter on his blog. Now, I know some of you might be wondering why the guy is trying to raise money for an election that already happened. It's simple, really. He wants to keep fighting until he gets the seat in Congress that ACORN stole from him.…
November 19, 2009
As many of my regular readers know, I often find myself frustrated by something that's happening (or, more often, not happening) in the United States Senate. Over the past several years, I've been repeatedly stunned by the near-complete absence of skill, competence, or leadership demonstrated by…
November 16, 2009
Predictably enough, the news that ACORN filed a lawsuit challenging Congress' decision to bar ACORN and it's "affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations" from receiving federal funds has attracted a bit of attention, both in the traditional media and on blogs. Predictably enough, there's a…
November 13, 2009
When attempting to score cheap political points on the backs of dead American soldiers in your legal filings, it is generally considered to be a good idea to take the time to get at least one or two of the basic factual details correct. Like maybe the number killed in the incident you are…
November 12, 2009
Thursday morning, a Federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of the community group ACORN and two of its affiliated organizations. The groups are, unsurprisingly enough, claiming that a recently passed provision in an appropriations bill barring federal funds from going to either ACORN or "any of its…
November 12, 2009
ScienceBloggers Greg Laden and Matt Springer have both weighed in on the weapons used by Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. Matt disagrees with the basic gun control argument that Greg initially raised, but focused primarily on correcting some factual errors that Greg made in a later post.…
November 7, 2009
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of…
November 5, 2009
The amazing amount of uninformed speculation that's coming out of the mouth of Chris Matthews right now is mind numbing. Speaking as someone who lives and works on a military post, I have absolutely no doubt that I have a better understanding of the dynamics of the military base than he does.
I'…
November 5, 2009
I don't know why I would have expected anything about the entire incident to make sense, but the more I hear about the alleged shooter - Malik Nidal Hasan - the less sense it seems to make. I'm not going to try to speculate about anything at this point. Here are the things that are known so far…
November 5, 2009
For reasons that are well known to the regular readers of this blog, I'm following the ongoing situation at Fort Hood closely right now. There's a lot of scattered information coming out right now, and absolutely no way to know how much - if any - of it is real. About all that is clear at this…
October 31, 2009
Apparently, offering high school English students the chance to read an article on the Seed Magazine website is ground for suspension - at least if you're an English teacher in Piasa, Illinois.
According to several media reports, teacher Dan DeLong has been suspended with pay pending a Monday…
October 29, 2009
Great White, Tiger, Lemon, White-Tip, Hammerhead - you name a species of shark, and Orly Taitz DDS Esq. has jumped it. She hasn't just gone off the deep end, she's gone of the Challenger Deep. One of her more recent blog posts should be more than enough proof of that for anyone:
If Obama is not…
October 27, 2009
Yesterday, Greg Laden posted a short response to my post about the recently discovered Apple patent application for an ad-supported operating system. Some of the comments that people left on Greg's post raise issues that I want to respond to. Since I'm lazy, and writing something up in the…
October 26, 2009
A number of people (including another blogger here at ScienceBlogs) have weighed in on the recent revelation of a patent application that describes a way to integrate advertising into computer operating systems. The patent application covers both traditional personal computer operating systems and…
October 18, 2009
You would think that it would be hard to find a statement more outrageous than hopefully-soon-to-be-former-Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell's attempt to prove that he's not a racist:
"I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom.…
October 13, 2009
As some of you might recall, I've been keeping tabs on some of the continuing court antics of Dentist/Lawyer Orly Taitz, High Priestess of the Birther Movement. Her frivolous court filings - which start out at chiropteran excrement insane and go downhill from there - have been providing me with a…
October 5, 2009
As I wrote that title, I realized that it's probably insufficiently informative - there are, after all, multiple parallels between Intelligent Design proponents and the crackpots dedicated defenders of the Constitution who continue to insist that Barack Obama is not eligible to be the President.…
October 4, 2009
Earlier today, Birther Leader Orly Taitz took time away from her busy schedule to explain the connection between Barack Obama's birthplace and Tropical Storm Grace to this reporter:
"If you look, you will see that the storm is just like Obama. It has come from Africa and turned everything left.…
October 2, 2009
I've been pretty quiet over here for the last few weeks - I've been (very) slowly getting used to a new job that's got me working from 0500-1300 - but I haven't totally disappeared from the blogwebtubeospheres. I found some time earlier this week to do an interview with Ava. If you're interested,…
September 18, 2009
Yesterday the House of Representatives - demonstrating a reckless disregard for the United States Constitution and the very concept of the rule of law - overwhelmingly voted to ban the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now from receiving federal funding. ACORN, you might recall, is…
September 17, 2009
Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame, passed away this morning from complications of leukemia. She was 72.
September 7, 2009
...and it's easy to see why the right is so up in arms over Obama's plan to start off the new school year by talking to students.
I've just finished reading the text of the speech, and it's just totally jam packed with anti-Republican ideological concepts. Here are some of the highlights:
I…
September 2, 2009
How in the world did your party manage to get here:
"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology. The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his…