mikethemadbiologist

If you thought Obama's minister was a piece of work, get a load of Palin's church (italics mine): An illustration of that gap came just two weeks ago, when Palin's church, the Wasilla Bible Church, gave its pulpit over to a figure viewed with deep hostility by many Jewish organizations: David…

First, Roland Martin attacks Palin for her comments about community organizers: And ScienceBlogling Matt Nisbet has the quote of the day: Weren't Jesus and Mother Teresa community organizers? Didn't they, in the words of Palin, have "actual responsibilities?" Aren't Evangelicals such as this group…

A recent paper examined if use of the antibiotic cotrimoxazole was correlated with resistance in three different bacterial pathogens, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis. To quickly summarize, in one species, S. pneumoniae, resistance was correlated with use…

Because nothing says compassionate conservatism like not helping hungry people. While many people have noted the incongruency of Palin's slashing funds for assistance to unwed mothers, her halving of a budget item to help the Fairbanks food bank has gone unnoticed. The specific item: Fairbanks…

In the midst of all of the hoopla surrounding Republican VP nominee and full-blown bugshit insane lunatic, Sarah Palin, I think it's worth noting that Obama's candidacy is also historic for another reason: He is the first recipient of food stamps to run for president: McCain, who has portrayed…

A recent, must-read article for anyone concerned about the problem of misuse of antibiotics to treat viral bronchitis, not to mention anyone who prescribes antibiotics, was recently published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The short version: giving patients antibiotics to treat viral pneumonia…

I don't think Democrats should let the Palin fiasco overshadow a great convention: there were some great speeches, one of them by John Kerry. While Kerry did an awful job of responding to the swiftboating, that episode really does mask some of his strengths: he's a terrific debater, and a very…

One of the tactics that creationists use is what I call "words as weapons." What they say has no intrinsic meaning; instead, they are simply a way to manipulate people into joining their political agenda (this is why many around these parts, including the Mad Biologist, call them Liars for Jesus…

I've never gone in for electoral prognostication; after all, in the 2006 election, a huge swath of voters didn't decide whom they would vote for until a couple of days before the election. Having said that, driftglass identifies the true swing voters of the 2008 election: Because 100 years from…

Two years ago, ScienceBlogling Afarensis told us about McCain's VP nominee Sarah Palin's creationist streak: Palin said she thought there was value in discussing alternatives. "It's OK to let kids know that there are theories out there," she said in the interview. "They gain information just by…

Just a very quick observation about McCain's VP choice Sarah Palin. She doesn't have much of a record which is the same strategy that the Bush Administration used when looking for Supreme Court Justices. If 'the less they know, the better' is actually an apt description of your candidate and her…

There have been a lot of comments on this post about using molecular evolution to teach evolutionary biology. A couple of people were worried that creationists will look at molecular data and claim that it is 'microevolution' and thus compatible with creationism (I've dealt with the creationists'…

...they would have talked through the whole thing and nobody would have ever actually seen it. From Jesse Taylor (italics mine): CNN's been talking since Obama was officially nominated about how Obama is the first black major-party candidate, yadda yadda yadda. So, the highest ranking African…

If there was a crucial tile in the Jenga Pile o'Shit (also known as the recent financial meltdown), it was the cratering of Bear Stearns stock. I can't have been the only one who thought, "Damn if I had only shorted Bear Stearns...." Turns out some anonymous investors did just that under some...…

In the midst of the kerfuffle about atheism, religion, and teaching evolution in high school, the NY Times article made me wonder if focusing part of the curriculum on molecular evolution would be a better way of teaching evolutionary biology* (and ScienceBlogling Sandra describes some good ways of…

I think we're up to nine McCain homes. It's so hard to keep track: And the Aristocrats have some clues that you might own too many houses. Then there's this one with a groovy soundtrack: Finally, some good, free advice: There's a pretty easy way for Obama to knock McCain back on his heels with…

There are two excellent papers in the August edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases (open access) about influenza that suggest alternative (or parallel) ways of dealing with an influenza pandemic (note: by "alternative", I don't mean woo). The standard response that is typically discussed is an…

The Sideshow comments on why a right to privacy isn't found in the Bill of Rights (boldface mine): All of this reminds me that I've been meaning to mention that one of the "killer" arguments that the wingers have used against Roe v. Wade is that the word "privacy" appears nowhere in the…

Orac is right to call out Stoller for referring to McCain as cancer-ridden--it's not true. Worse, it's cruel, and I should have made it clear that I've never supported the 'cancer critique.' (I have called McCain many things, but never that). At the time, I thought it would be dishonest to cut…

By way of Michael Tomasky, I stumbled across this site hosted by presidential debate moderator Rev. Rick Warren (?!?). Here's what the good reverend has to say about evolution: What about dinosaurs? Question: How do they fit in with the idea that God created the world rather than the world…

Recently, I wrote about the staggering stupidity of the national political press corps. Eric Alterman provides another example, the LA Times "chief innovation officer" (italics mine): Take the example of the Tribune Company's new owner, Sam Zell. Leaving aside his penchant for potty-mouth…

...about Obama. Bowers (italics mine): When John Kerry goes on a Sunday show and says that he's 'in awe' of John McCain's service, but feels free to undermine Wes Clark's, and the Obama campaign thinks of Kerry as their top surrogate, it's shameful. When John McCain's economic advisor calls…

By now, you might have heard about McCain's forgetfulness about how many homes he owns (at least seven). But his campaign's response is utterly absurd (italics mine): The houses gaffe doesn't matter because ... he was a POW! "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in…

This is a good start: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) plans to publish in peer-reviewed journals much of the scientific evidence it used to pin the 2001 anthrax attacks on microbiologist Bruce Ivins.... In lieu of expert witnesses and cross-examinations, the FBI plans to offer the…

It's struck me as curious that fellow POWs haven't played more of a role in the McCain campaign--it can't be reticence on McCain's part since he repeatedly brings up his service (and starts many of his campaign events with a three minute film highlighting his capitivity). I was going to post about…

Republican John McCain has repeatedly portrayed a study that uses bear DNA to estimate the population size of potentially endangered bears as an example of government waste and pork barrel spending. There's one small problem, however. McCain was for it before he was against it (italics mine):…

Admist all of the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over what some think is a relatively poor performance by Obama against McCain, skippy puts racism in its proper context (note: skippy worked very hard to remove all of those capital letters. Who am I to put them all back?): obama is…

...and it's symptomatic of a larger problem too. First, here's what Eisen says about articles published in Science (and presumably Nature too; italics mine): In addition, by choosing to publish the paper there [in Science] but not elsewhere, the field of deep sea symbionts may have been hurt…

This is not good. A recent article in Emerging Infectious Diseases describes two separate cases of community-acquired ST398 MRSA--and neither case was associated with agriculture. Let me explain what this means and why this is really bad news. MRSA--methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus--…

Olivia Judson, in an excellent op-ed, lays out the utility argument for why students should learn evolution as part of biology: The second reason for teaching evolution is that the subject is immediately relevant here and now. The impact we are having on the planet is causing other organisms to…