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Why science questions matter for candidates

In the last few weeks, and at tonight's Republican debate, lots of national politicians have been asked their views on evolution, and lots of politicians have answered embarrassingly. We should bear in mind, as I pointed out before: Like the Miss USA contestants, most politicians (excluding those on local school boards or state boards of education) will have little opportunity to influence how evolution is taught. In answering questions about evolution during campaigns, their goal is rarely to indicate a clear conception of how science works and why evolution is central to modern biology.…

Affordable Care and the Election

Yesterday I reported a statistical analysis which found that voting for ACES (the climate bill) had no ill effect on Democratic election outcomes. Today, Brad Delong asks Blue Dogs: "How Is That Voting Against Health Care Reform Working for You?," noting (via TPM) Of the 39 Dems who voted against Health Care Reform, 12 are going to be returning in the next Congress. Which is a heavy toll, but the real question is, would even fewer Democrats in swing districts be returning to DC if they had voted for Affordable Care, or would we have more Democrats returning if fewer had supported the bill?…

The truth matters

Commenter SLC tricked me into violating my moratorium on reading anti-accommodationist blogs, curse him. The discussion, such as it is, focuses on an essay written by Francis Collins introducing a book of essays on religious belief. Naturally, this has various people up in arms, clamoring for Collins to resign from the NIH because he repeated his long-held and oft-stated belief that science and religious faith are compatible (for him, at least). I'm not really interested in engaging the substance of Collins' claims, nor the counter-arguments by the anti-accommodationists. It's boring, no…

On fiction, again

Some time back, we had an interesting discussion about whether fiction contains truth or not. I tended to think it did, though a different sort than that found in science textbooks, while some commenters argued that no, fiction might have metaphor and analogy and references to the author's state of mind or whatever, but did not have any intrinsic truth. This was all balled up in the accommodationism clusterfuck, so actual productive dialog tended to get bogged down. Anyway, science fiction publisher Tor has a neat essay on its website about how to read SF (via), which bears on these issues…

"The most dangerous domestic terrorism threat"

Department of Homeland Security report on Rightwing Extremism, issued April 7, 2009: Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration. Rep. Michele Bachmann, April…

Heritability of height vs. weight

Megan McArdle has a post, Thining Thin, a follow up to America's Moral Panic Over Obesity. She says: 1. Obesity is increasing in the population, so it can't be genetic. Well, average height is also increasing in the population. Does that mean that you could be as tall as me, if you weren't too lazy to grow? Twin studies and adoptive studies show that the overwhelming determinant of your weight is not your willpower; it's your genes. The heritability of weight is between .75 and .85. The heritability of height is between .9 and .95. And the older you are, the more heritable weight is.…

In tight fiscal times, National Public Health Week highlights the return on public health investments

While we’re on vacation, we’re re-posting content from earlier in the year. This post was originally published on March 8, 2013. by Kim Krisberg In a little less than a month, public health workers and their community partners in Macomb County, Mich., will set up at the local Babies"R"Us store to offer parents a free child car seat check. The Macomb County Health Department has been organizing such car seat checks for years now, knowing that proper child vehicle restraints can truly mean the difference between mild and severe injuries, or between survival and death. The car seat check is…

Who will win the remaining Democratic primaries?

As you know, I’ve been running a model to predict the outcomes of upcoming Democratic Primary contests. The model has change over time, as described below, but has always been pretty accurate. Here, I present the final, last, ultimate version of the model, covering the final contests coming up in June. Why predict primaries and caucuses? Predicting primaries and caucuses is annoying to some people. Why not just let people vote? Polls predict primaries and caucuses, and people get annoyed at polls. But there are good reasons to make these predictions. Campaign managers might want to have…

Unenumerated Rights and Legitimate Authority

This began as a response to a comment by Eric Seymour in a post at In the Agora, but I'm moving it up here because the response became so long and delved into the details of constitutional interpretation so deeply that I thought it deserved to be its own post. It is addressed specifically to him, but I do not want anyone to think that I am picking on him specifically. Eric does a good job of presenting what is the most commonly heard conservative argument on "judicial activism" and the limitations on the government and the individual. You may also want to read the whole series of comments at…

Reviewing Ruse's Review

In his book Indiscrete Thoughts, mathematician Gian-Carlo Rota spoofed a certain style of book reviewing: The bane of expository work is Professor Neanderthal of Redwood Poly. In his time, Professor Neanderthal studied noncommutative ring theory with the great X, and over the years, despite heavy teaching and administrative commitments (including a deanship), he has found time to publish three notes on idempotents (of which he is justly proud) in the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. Professor Neanderthal has not failed to keep up with the latest developments in…

Tenure decisions.

In light of the ongoing flap about Iowa State University's decision to deny tenure to Guillermo Gonzalez, I thought it might be worth looking at an actual university policy on tenure -- the policy in place at my university -- and considering the sorts of judgments required by policies like this. The take-home message is that tenure can't be taken as a "sure thing" if only you produce a certain number of publications. First, it's worth pointing out that each college and university has its own policy on tenure, and my sense is that the policy at my university is rather more explicit than most…

Ben Swann returns, and this time he's got the CDC whistleblower documents

When it comes to blogging, sometime's it's feast or famine. Some days there are more topics and stories that I'd like to blog about than I could ever get to, given that I generally only do one post per weekday, while other days I seriously think about skipping a day because there's just nothing out there that interests me. This is one of the former kinds of days. Seriously, there was an embarrassment of riches last night, so much so that I had a hard time making up my mind what story to write about. The one that I ultimately chose only just edged out the second place choice, and then only at…

The "wisdom" of cancer cells?

I was perusing my newsfeeds last night looking for topics for Your Friday Dose of Woo this week when I came across what, initially at least, I considered to be primo material for my weekly bit of fun at the expense of the more far out excursions into woo. Then I thought about it some more. Early in the history of YFDoW, I admit that I did a couple of misfires. Perhaps the most notorious misfire was when I decided to take on the German New Medicine. Certainly the woo was there and it was good, but I quickly regretted taking such a lighthearted approach to this topic because it quickly became…

Separating doctoring from doctrine

You may recall how I've criticized the infiltration of woo into medical school and medical education in general. Such an infiltration threatens the scientific basis behind the hard-won success of so much of modern medicine over the last century. Unfortunately, woo isn't the only threat to scientific medicine. Now, there is a growing movement that insists that doctors should ask you about your spiritual life and make religious practices a part of medicine, as Dr. Richard P. Sloan described in an editorial in the L.A. Times that I can't believe I missed: HOW WOULD you like your doctor, at your…

Using placebos outside of clinical trials

The other day, I thought it was about time that I did some of that cool and fancy ResearchBlogging.org stuff, you know, to keep this blog from being nothing more than a collection of not-so-Respectfully Insolent spleen venting at generalized stupidity. I realize that those are some of the funnest posts here and that people like them, but a little variety is required. No study, however, had quite floated my boat, and I was almost to the point of being desperate enough for blog fodder that I considered perusing Age of Autism or even NaturalNews.com (maybe later in the week) in search of that…

"Dr. Bob" Sears: Perfecting the art of the antivaccine dog whistle

Oh, no, here we go again. In fact, before I get started, I feel obligated to show this clip, saying, just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in again: Yes, I know I've used this clip on multiple occasions before over years. However, sometimes it's just so completely appropriate to how I'm feeling about a topic I'm about to write about that I just don't care and have to use it again. This is one of those times. I'm referring, of course, to Robert, "Dr. Bob" Sears, MD, the antivaccine-friendly (if not fully antivaccine) pediatrician from Capistrano Beach who has lately been digging…

John Weeks accuses Orac of having "blood on his hands" for criticizing the Samuelis' $200 million gift to UC-Irvine. Orac responds.

John Weeks has long been an activist for what is now known as "integrative medicine," earlier known as "complementary and alternative medicine"(CAM). Basically, for many years Mr. Weeks has been at the forefront of encouraging the "integration" of quackery with real medicine and promoting what I like to refer to as "quackademic medicine," a perfect term to describe the increasing encroachment of pseudoscience and quackery in medical academia in the form of—you guessed it—integrative medicine. Despite his having zero background in scientific research or the design and execution of experiments…

How is it that antivaccine pediatricians keep their medical licenses?

One of the most important responsibilities pediatricians have to assure the health of the children they take care of is to make sure they are vaccinated. Over the last 100 years, childhood mortality has plummeted such that it is no longer common to lose a child (or children) to infectious disease. Indeed, it is now very uncommon, if not rare, to lose a child to the diseases that were the scourges of prior generations of children, largely thanks to vaccination. Diseases like polio, whooping cough, smallpox, diptheria, the measles, and several more, that once were the scourges of children…

What's the opposite of education?

Plans are afoot to build a creation "science" education center in Henning, Minnesota — about two hours north of Morris. They plan to push the simple-minded literalist creationist claim that the earth is 6,000 years old and peddle the same BS that the Creation "Museum" does — it's stark raving mad. These quotes tell the whole story: The aim, Schultz said, is to provide families and young people with information they can use to respectfully question differing points of view they may encounter, like at school. "What we're finding is, many kids are subject to ridicule, lower grades, being…

Friday Recipe: Catfish in Dashi Sauce

This dish is one of my own creations. It's inspired by reading Ming Tsai's cookbooks, and seeing how he combines things. But as far as I know, he doesn't do anything like this. You really need catfish for this. I've tried it with other fish, but it just doesn't work as well. Catfish has a unique flavor and texture which is particularly well-suited to this. There are three parts to this: the soy glaze, the dashi sauce, and the fish. Ingredients Soy Glaze 1 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup brown sugar Dashi sauce 1 large leaf of dried konbu seaweed 1 large handful of dried shredded japanese…

Some Sunday Links

It's the 'freshmen are invading Boston' links edition. By the way, if you're at the corner of Exeter and Boylston and you can't find the Prudential Center--which is right below the really tall building that has "PRUDENTIAL" on it--you are prima facie evidence that admissions standards are indeed slipping. To the links; science first: eigenFACTOR has a whole buncha shiny, new buttons to push. ScienceBlogling Razib makes a very important point about how heritable a trait is: heritability is always dependent on the environmental and genetic contexts. David Lindorff details the new security…

The Mad Biologist's Rule of Base Ten Numbers and Abstinence-Only AIDS Non-Prevention Programs

Actually, the Mad Biologist's Rule of Base Ten Numbers is a pithier way of describing how certain numerical estimates or quantities are chosen based on little or no evidence. For example, when asked what an appropriate sample size is, someone will often respond, "ten." Of course, it might very well be that either nine or eleven are, in fact, the appropriate sample sizes, but we have a tendency when making shit up to focus on numbers divisible by five or ten, or, if we're dealing with really large quantities, increasing the quantities ten-fold (i.e., moving from 100 to 1000). To give a…

The Dollar: Never Mind OPEC...

...Jay-Z has ditched the dollar in favor of the euro: Pay attention as you watch the catchy new music video from the mega-star rapster Jay-Z, "Blue Magic", and see if you can't spot the product placement. It is not a fancy car that he is endorsing - although both his rides, a Rolls- Royce and soft-top Bentley, are plenty spiffy - but rather a currency - and it is not the dollar. Like so many in the hip-hop genre, the song is a celebration of ostentatious wealth. But capturing the attention of commentators in this clip, shot in the glimmering, neon-lit canyons of New York City, are the…

CNN Scripts 'Audience' Questions at Debate

How can a CNN debate be considered news when questions supposedly asked by the audience are actually scripted? Isn't that lying as opposed to news? CNN, at a recent Democratic debate, according to one questioner, screened and scripted every 'audience' question (italics mine): Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred "diamonds or pearls" at last night's debate wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. "Every single question asked…

FOX TV Misinformation About MRSA

I have a week off, so I've been going to the gym in the morning later than usual. I'm still recovering from the near-lobotomization of morning radio, so I wasn't prepared for a report on the "superbug" on Fox's The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet--think of it as a cheap knockoff of Regis and Kelly. Since the sound wasn't turned on for the television, I should have just left it alone, but no, I had to check out the video on the interwubs when I came home. First, anyone who says that evolutionary biologists suck at communicating should watch this bozo. It's a classic example of how not to…

Norovirus and Surveillance

There's an interesting article about the norovirus outbreak in Boston (it also seems to be nationwide). At this point, over half a percent of all the residents of Boston have gone to the emergency room due to this virus--which means even more have been sick. First, as always, wash your damn hands! Now, onto the public health. What's interesting is that Massachusetts has installed a real-time surveillance system to deal with bioterrorism and biopreparedness (i.e., avian flu--got that, Fumento?). But as the biosecurity 'community'* is beginning to learn, you can't separate biosecurity from…

Creationism in the UK Schools

The UK really doesn't deserve this: first, they're dragged into Iraq, and now, they're being invaded by creationists. Even though the Department for Education and Skills has called creationism "not appropriate to support the science curriculum", many science teachers may be using Discovery Institute designed 'science' curricula. From the Guardian: Dozens of schools are using creationist teaching materials condemned by the government as "not appropriate to support the science curriculum", the Guardian has learned. The packs promote the creationist alternative to Darwinian evolution called…

I See Stupid People: The George Bush Edition

Yes, I know. Saying this is like picking on the stupid kid. But that's the whole point. Cenk Uygur writes: If someone is this ignorant, they're usually embarrassed and try not to talk much. But this guy is so dumb he has no idea how dumb he is. This sounds like a conversation you might have with a child, a mentally challenged child. Johnny, do you know how big Russia is? How about China? This would all be unfortunate if George was your dentist, or worse yet, your accountant. But he is the leader of the free world. This man makes life or death decisions every day. If you say you're not…

Suitable Madness from driftglass

driftglass takes up a topic near and dear to my heart because it's a cancer that still corrodes and corrupts the U.S.: the use of hate-mongering by the Right to gain and keep political power. And you thought I was Mad (and if you're not reading driftglass, what the hell's the matter with you). driftglass writes: And every year it gets easier to call a feminist a "feminazi". A Liberal "America-hating". A homosexual an "abomination". A scientist a Godless "tree-hugger". To accept the swiftboating of patriots as normal, and to vote sadistic, damaged drunks and war criminals into office. And…

So What Exactly Is Bioinformatics

In response to this question asked of us by our Seed Overlords (the readers), Steinn says that he would do bioinformatics. As a biologist, I'm really unclear as to what bioinformatics actually is, other than a word you put into your grants to get funding. Let me add that I'm the PI on a federally-funded bioinformatics grant, so I'm supposed to be an expert in this area. As I see it, bioinformatics usually means one of three things: The generation of large (massive, actually) datasets. The analysis of large data sets, and development of computational tools to handle these large datasets.…

Placing Politics Above the Integrity of the Judical System

Another disgusting turn in Attorneygate: only politically correct--that is right wing--federal prosecutors who are murdered are worth the Department of Justice's time and effort. Just as the justice system can not function when witnesses are intimidated (or worse), the justice system also can not function when prosecutors' death are not given high priority. That's why this letter to Josh Marshall from a prosecutor is absolutely stunning (italics mine): I email you because I read something today about the firing of John McKay that finally put me over the edge. Apparently during Comey's…

Maybe Crazy Is the Republican Base

A recent meeting of the Utah County Republican Party I've argued before that the Republicans can't win elections without their racist base. Well, apparently they can't win without their cracked-in-the-head base either. From Utah County, Utah: Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan's minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty. In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants "hate American people" and "are determined to destroy this…

Hit Wiley Publishing Hard

Hopefully, by now, the anti-Wiley blogswarm is getting geared up. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, ScienceBlogling Shelley over at Retrospectacle was threatened with a lawsuit by Wiley Interscience for reproducing part of a figure and a table (and why would they want to do that? She has such groovy taste in cars). Shelley has the best argument why it's wrong for Wiley to do this: But it leads me to ask the question: What really constitutes fair use? This is taxpayer-supported research, which should be available for all. If a blog properly gives credit, isn't…

A Question About DLC Democrats

How can the DLC-wing of Democratic Party, including Rahm Emanuel, continue to claim to know what's best for the Democratic Party after they've been so badly schooled? By other Democrats (italics mine): It isn't just Ford who wanted to take us down a different path--it is the entire neoliberal, neocon, triangulate from a point of weakness, liberal-hating, Michael Bloomberg and Joe Lieberman loving, DLC-nexus of Democratic Party aristocracy that wanted Dean out. For example, I think it is pretty clear, at this point, that one of the "top Democrats" who was opposed to Howard Dean continuing on…

The Templeton Foundation plays some more games

It's just sad. The arguments the apologists for religion make seem to be getting more and more pathetic, and more and more unconvincing. There is going to be a lecture, announced in the Times Higher Education supplement, by someone trying to reconcile science and religion in the history of the Royal Society. How is he going to do it? By arguing that members of the society in 1663 were religious. Woo hoo. They also wore funny powdered wigs, treated syphilis with mercury, and argued that there had to be precisely seven planets because it was a number sacred to geometers, but I doubt that he'll…

Sovereign Nations Should Not Outsource Currency: The Social Security Edition

A while ago, I discussed how the battle over credit and debit fees is really a battle over how much money should cost and whom you're paying that cost to: corporations or government. Well, the corporate takeover of the monetary base continues unabated, this time affecting Social Security. You see, in the name of efficiency, the Social Security Administration is moving to direct deposit, whether you like or it not. So what's the problem with that? Well, there are some interesting...features (italics mine): If you click on the "About the Direct Express Card" link, the second paragraph says…

Collegiate Grade Inflation: It's All About Supply and Demand

By way of Dr. Isis, we come across this post by Catherine Rampell about the rise of grade inflation in colleges: Dr. Isis observes: It's interesting that the real change in grading appears to have occurred in the period between 1962 and 1974, probably coinciding with the increase in conscription for the Vietnam War. After 1974 things appear to trend toward a return to baseline. Then in 1990, something new happens that drives grade inflation. I think it's pretty obvious what happened: increased competition for graduate school slots put (and still puts) pressure on faculty to not give C's…

Kevin Smith is too fat for the sky

Kevin Smith, the writer and raconteur, was recently booted from a plane for being too fat. He's a big guy, but not so big he doesn't fit in an airplane seat — so this looks like some weird, nasty, rude policy being pushed by Southwest Airlines. It's an injustice, but it's also hilarious, because Kevin Smith is the kind of guy who can turn it into a 1½ hour rant. It's also amusing because Smith has 1½ million followers on Twitter, and he tweeted the whole escapade. He has far more followers than Southwest Airlines, and while maybe they're trying to say their side of the story on the airline's…

Blowing Your Vuvuzela: Sounds Dirty--and Respiratory

One thing I like about PLoS ONE is that it has interesting, if not always groundbreaking, science. Consider this article, "Propagation of Respiratory Aerosols by the Vuvuzela" (italics mine): Vuvuzelas, the plastic blowing horns used by sports fans, recently achieved international recognition during the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa. We hypothesised that vuvuzelas might facilitate the generation and dissemination of respiratory aerosols. To investigate the quantity and size of aerosols emitted when the instrument is played, eight healthy volunteers were asked to blow a…

When Business People Call for a Guaranteed Minimum Income...

...you know things are getting weird. David Warsh writes: I belong to a luncheon club whose smartest member is a longtime investment manager whom I have observed for many years, He walked out of the room after a global tour d'horizon talk the other day and said on the sidewalk in front of the building, "The only things that can possibly address inequality of a magnitude that will soon be judged to be unacceptable in this country are much higher levels of taxation on the well-to-do and a negative income tax for the poor." I hadn't heard it put so simply or succinctly before, but in the…

I Wish This Architecture Prize Were Real

As someone who spent several years working across the street from the Frank Gehry designed Stata Center and had more than a few meeting there, I appreciate Joe Queenan's wicked satire: An Iowa-based philanthropist and architecture aficionado has offered a $300 million reward to any city anywhere in the world that dares to hire someone other than Frank Gehry to design its gleaming new art museum. "Don't get me wrong, I like iconoclastic, swoopy structures that look like bashed-in sardine cans as much as the next guy," says the philanthropist, who wishes to remain nameless for fear of enraging…

Banning Male Circumcision? Really?

Every so often I read on the internets about people who are really upset about circumcision. Oddly, it's compared to female genital mutilation (I'll get to that in a bit). But in San Francisco, there's actually an attempt to make banning circumcision a referendum item: Most bans in San Francisco are enacted by the Board of Supervisors, but come November, it sounds like voters will have the opportunity to jump on the ban wagon by deciding whether to ban male circumcision. San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield said Thursday he is "on track" to have enough signatures to place his proposed…

According to IKEA, the U.S. Is Now a Developing Country: Why You Should Boycott IKEA

I'm a bit late to this story, but, if you missed it, the LA Times had a superb article about how IKEA treats and pays workers at its U.S. facilities much worse than at its Swedish factories: Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it's common to find out on Friday evening that they'll have to pull a weekend shift, with disciplinary action for those who can't or don't show up.... Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a…

The Budget Deal Isn't a Compromise, but a Rout

Yes, it's good that Planned Parenthood was defunded--I support Planned Parenthood. But the Democrats were routed on the economics. Right now, with U3 unemployment still near nine percent, and under- and unemployment essentially unbudged, we need more spending, not less (remember, government deficits mean an increase in private savings--in this case, unemployed people would get jobs and accumulate some savings or pay down debts). We also need these programs because they do useful stuff. The House is controlled by batshitloonitarians, but the Senate Democrats and the Obama Administration,…

I'll Try One More Time About Biomed Training: It's About Job Skills, Not 'Critical Thinking'

Clearly, I'm suffering from instructor error here, but I'll try it one more time. Back in my parents' day, mothers told daughters, "Learn how to type." Because one never knew if you might have to go it alone, and accurate, rapid typing, at the time, was a genuinely employable skill in demand. Remember is that most biomed Ph.D.s won't wind up in academic tenure-track jobs, so, like it or not, employment prospects out in the real world matter. We're failing our Ph.D's and post-docs if they wind up with the equivalent of English Ph.D's, especially in light of the hundreds of thousands of…

Amazon was not always "pristine"

'Pristine' Amazonian Region Hosted Large, Urban Civilization: The paper also argues that the size and scale of the settlements in the southern Amazon in North Central Brazil means that what many scientists have considered virgin tropical forests are in fact heavily influenced by historic human activity. Not only that, but the settlements - consisting of networks of walled towns and smaller villages, each organized around a central plaza - suggest future solutions for supporting the indigenous population in Brazil's state of Mato Grosso and other regions of the Amazon, the paper says.…

Brain size ∝ rate of evolution?

Brain Size and the Diversification of Body Size in Birds: Large brains are associated with increased cognitive skills, enabling animals to use new environments and resources more successfully. Such behavioral flexibility is theoretically expected to have macroevolutionary consequences. First, populations of big-brained individuals should more easily become established in new locations, increasing opportunities for allopatric speciation and decreasing chances that the species as a whole becomes extinct. Second, the ability to use new resources should place new selection pressures on…

Old people scientifically illiterate?

I've posted on general scientific literacy broken down by demographic groups in the GSS. I've also pointed to data which suggested that the lower scientific literacy of church goers vis-a-vis non-church goers is an due mostly to the influence of Young Earth Creationism. Finally, I put up a post which suggested that Americans aren't that scientifically inept in the international context. So I thought I would repost the raw responses to various questions. Charts below the fold, but to explain the title, here's the difference between the 18-24 demographic and the over 65 demographic in terms…

Who doesn't like Genetically Modified Organisms?

I was looking at poll results for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Internationally the results are all over the place, but within nations the data suggest a pretty strong notional resistance to "playing God," with a rank order of aversion spanning plants (least averse) to humans (most averse). There is some mild positive correlation between education and trust/acceptance of GMOs, and also some between irreligion and attitudes towards cloning and such for animals. The The Pew Initiative On Food And Biotechnology has some good data. For example: Religious attendance also has a…

One viewpoint to rule them all

I just read Ed Brayton's commentary about an attack on a pro-life display on the campus of the University of Northern Kentucky. The professor who seems to have encouraged this is quoted as saying: "Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it. Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged," Jacobsen said. First, great job on on refuting the stereotype that women think with their hearts rather than their head Herr Professor! "Outrage" or "repugnance," Left or Right, it doesn't matter. Affairs of the heart have a role to play in…