Policy

A follow-up on last week's repost (originally from April 06, 2005)... ----------------------------------------------- I've been wavering in how to call the Right Wing. When I say "conservatives" I get attacked for equating conservatism with GOP (with implication that conservatism is good but GOP is not conservative any more). When I call them Regressives, I am told I miss the point, because they should be described as conservatives. Should I just call them Republicans? Not damning enough. People, make up your minds! What follows is a mix of stuff I have already written before on this blog (…

From an Eco Politics listserv I see mention of an upcoming debate about Nuclear Energy: "Cradle to Grave: New Nukes and Old Radioactive Waste" It is a Live Webcast Debate being held on the 27th. The link is here, but you can't see anything until the webcast. More details below the fold... MEDIA ADVISORY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CAN NUCLEAR POWER BE THE SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND FUTURE ENERGY DEMAND? ***Live Webcast Debate*** FORMER GREENPEACE ACTIVIST TURNED NUCLEAR INDUSTRY SPOKESMAN TO DEBATE LEADING "VOICES OF REASON" AGAINST A PROPOSED NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE Burlington, VT - After…

The LA Times has a story about some religious right leaders pushing for gays to be purged from the Republican Party. In the wake of the Foley scandal, there are increasing calls to get gay people out of the party entirely. "The big-tent strategy could ultimately spell doom for the Republican Party," said Tom McClusky, chief lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a Christian advocacy group. "All a big-tent strategy seems to be doing is attracting a bunch of clowns." Now the GOP is facing a hard choice -- risk losing the social conservatives who are legendary for turning out the vote, or…

Just when you think STACLU can't get any more ridiculous you come across this post by davef, announcing breathlessly that a - gasp! - Muslim has joined the national board of the ACLU. Laila Al-Qatami of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee is joining the ACLU board and, apparently, davef thinks that the mere fact that she's Muslim makes her a terrorist. He tries mightily to make this sound like a bad thing, and fails miserably. He begins: Laila Al-Qatami has long been the spokes person for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, an organization with previous ties to the…

The Scientist has an excellent article attempting to fairly evaluate the Bush record on science: What may be adding to the perception that the Bush administration is harder on science than ever before is that in recent years, biology has borne the brunt of political interference in science, which is a decidedly unfamiliar experience for many life scientists. "So far, most of [biologists'] experience with Congress has been showing up and asking for money and going home," says Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists. Now, politicians spend less time talking about atomic…

Last month, a group of prominent scientists launched the new organization Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA). The organization has already received quite a bit of press (including a nice article in The New York Times, but I would be remiss if I didn't give them a shout out and let readers know how they can help out. The group is dedicated to supporting science-friendly candidates for public office, pushing for the proper use of science in formulating science policy, and opposing political interference in science. Among the points in its "Bill of Rights for Scientists and Engineers"…

The latest issue (Fall 2006) of the Social Research Journal has as its theme "Politics & Science: How their Interplay results in public policy", based on a recent conference. The table of contents looks very promising. Unfortunately, none of the articles are online (yet?), so I cannot comment on any one of them. The upcoming Winter issue also looks promising - the topic is "Politics and Science: An Historical View". I hope all the articles come online soon (with permalinks so we can link to them) so we can all read them and dissect them on our blogs.

href="http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2006/10/poverty_and_nature.php">Hedwig's recent post got me to thinking.   Poverty, Nature and Progress Category: Cultural Observation • Environment • Ethics • Politics Posted on: October 15, 2006 1:56 PM, by "GrrlScientist" Wealth accumulated by First World countries is largely based on riches taken from Third World countries. For example, the destruction of India's textile industry, the takeover of the spice trade, the genocide of native American tribes, and African slavery all served to fuel the Industrial Revolution. Below the fold is an…

As expected, the Lancet study on civilian deaths in Iraq has created a firestorm on the net. What frankly astounds me is how utterly *dreadful* most of the critiques of the study have been. My own favorite for sheer chutzpah is [Omar Fadil](http://politicscentral.com/2006/10/11/jaccuse_iraq_the_model_respond.php): >I wonder if that research team was willing to go to North Korea or Libya and I >think they wouldn't have the guts to dare ask Saddam to let them in and investigate >deaths under his regime. >No, they would've shit their pants the moment they set foot in Iraq and they…

It seems that war supporters with actual knowledge of statistics aren't willing to criticise the new Lancet study, leaving the field to folks who don't know what they are talking about. John Howard: Well, I don't believe that John Hopkins research, I don't. It's not plausible, it's not based on anything other than a house-to-house survey. I think that's absolutely precarious. It is a ... an unbelievably large number and it's out of whack with most of the other assessments that have been made. Surveys are the best way to measure these things. The other assessments that are lower such as IBC…

Kevin Drum and Mark Kleiman both pick up on the new book from Dennis Kuo saying that the "faith-based initiatives" program was a political scam. The MSNBC piece contains a few colorful quotes about the shenanigans Kuo is reporting, which sound pretty bad. Kevin cites them, then asks: Like I said a few days ago, are social conservatives ever going to catch on to the way they're being conned by the Republican Party? I agree that they're being conned, but at the same time, what, exactly, does Kevin think they're going to do about it? This is one of the central problems with the "What's the…

Absolutely read this: If This Goes On....A Scenario. And read the comments (ignore the trolls, focus on people with insight and information). Funny, when I wrote this, people said that I was "paranoid" while the point of the post that too many people are not paranoid enough. I particularly like this comment by someone on digg: I'd move to another country if I wasn't so terrified of our foreign policy. On one hand, I do not see the utility of moving from one country to another to another until finally dying on the last Pacific island to feel the influence. On the other hand, I feel the…

Hmmm, after a whole week of fantastic traffic, it has suddenly gone down through the floor today, so I better act quickly and post something really provocative - an old anti-Libertarian screed that is bound to attract trolls (and traffic).... Much of the stuff on this blog is based on the bimodal (bipolar?) view of the world: there are Conservatives and there are Liberals, and that's it. Lakoff, Ducat, Frank and the like spend much time explaining the two, or just trying to explain the strange Conservative animals to the Liberals. But, as I stated before, only about a third of Americans are…

'Hip Happy Prof' teaches over MySpace, bosses protest: N.C. State Professor Tom Hoban is offering Sociology 395-M, "Social Movements for Social Change," on the popular social networking site that claims to have 100 million active users worldwide. But administrators say it's the wrong space for teaching a university course. Hoban says he received approval over the summer from his department head to teach via MySpace. But last week, Katie Perry, senior vice provost for academic affairs, told Hoban to move the course to university servers. Hoban has refused. "N.C. State's distance education is…

Some scientists have decided to form a 527 -- a political action committee that is not tax deductible under election law -- to combat what they feel is a rising anti-science sentiment: Several prominent scientists said yesterday that they had formed an organization dedicated to electing politicians "who respect evidence and understand the importance of using scientific and engineering advice in making public policy." Organizers of the group, Scientists and Engineers for America, said it would be nonpartisan, but in interviews several said Bush administration science policies had led them to…

Everyone here in D.C. is talking about Bob Woodward's State of Denial, as the book's insider accounts continue to dominate the news cycle this week. Woodward's impact offers a leading example of how politicians, journalists, and the general public use frames to cut down on complexity and uncertainty, and as tools to make sense of what's either wrong or right in America. Yet in order to understand why Woodward's book resonates so powerfully at this moment, you have to understand the history of the frame contest to define Bush. State of Denial is a classic example of a "frame device," a…

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, and James Webb, a Democrat; a stem cell ballot issue in Missouri; the question of intelligent design in Ohio; and Congressional races in Washington State." On the conference call announcing the group's kick-off, retiring Republican Representative Sherwood Boehlert was the only politician mentioned by…

This is so old (December 03, 2004) and so long that I did not even bother to re-read it or check the the links. I am sure the commenters will draw attention to everything that is wrong in this post... First, here is some science, or really problems with science policy, or better still, some top-down nonsense: Two Must Readshttp://www.chriscmooney.com/blog.asp?Id=1425 What women are supposed to wanthttp://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/what_women_are_supposed_to_want/ On the other hand, for some nice science, the new Tangled Bank is now online:http://penn.typepad.com/penn/2004/11/…

There aren't too many cabinet positions in a modern parliamentary democracy that don't require a modicum of respect for the scientific method. But in an era of climate change, bioengineering and species depletion, the politicians charged with overseeing environmental policy should surely be at the top of the list. Such is not the case in Canada, where Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has just appointed a creationist as her new chief of staff. Darrel Reid used to be director of policy and research for the Reform party, a previous, and slightly more regressive, incarnation of the governing…

A new organisation, SEFORA (Scientists and Engineers for America), has been formed to counter the abuse and supression of science currently popular in American media and politics. They have drafted a "Bill of Rights" for scientists and engineers which includes: Federal policy shall be made using the best available science and analysis both from within the government and from the rest of society. and The federal government shall not support any science education program that includes instruction in concepts that are derived from ideology and not science. The second one is worth playing up -…