Search Content

Displaying results 55001 - 55050 of 87947

Knife Attack in Saint Cloud: Terrorism, Racism, Guns

Update: From WCCO: An Islamic State-run news agency claims the man who stabbed and wounded eight people at a mall in Minnesota before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer was a “soldier of the Islamic State.” Original Post: We know nearly nothing about the Saint Cloud attack, but I'm going to offer some preliminary context-related thoughts anyway. Not conclusions or guesses, just context. (See below for some basic info on the attack.) One thing you need to know is that Minnesota is a state with the least racist and most socially and culturally enlightened people in it. And, some of…

Measure the tilt of the Earth today!

A person without a shadow should keep out of the sun, that is the only safe and rational plan. -Adelbert von Chamisso A few years ago, there was a rumor going around that the Earth's axis had shifted, and that we were no longer inclined to the Sun at 23.5°. Well, guess what? Today, June 21st, like most June 21sts, is the Summer Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere. This means, for everyone (like me) living North of the Tropic of Cancer, this is the one day of the year where the Sun reaches its absolute highest point in the sky. (If you're South of the Tropic of Capricorn, this will apply to…

"I'm going to be a star" -- a correct hypothesis

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. -Chinese Proverb Every once in a while, we'll look out into the sky with a telescope, and see some spectacular glowing gas. These nebulae typically come about from dead or dying stars, and are some of the most spectacular sight in the sky for astronomers, from amateur to professional. But in the 1940s, an astronomer named Bart Bok observed these little dark "defects" in a few of these nebulae. It looked like something dark was simply sucking in all of the light around it, and refused to let any out. In fact, looking even with modern…

Coates: Donald Trump and his Supporters Are White Supremacists

A lot of people will object to the title of this post. I will be told to take the post down. I will be told to modify the title or to change what I say in the post. Nope. Ta-Nehisi Coates is correct, and his presentation is brilliant. Watch the following interview (in two parts) and read his book We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. Chris Hayes is correct to point out that the historical source of Coates title is critically important and deeply disturbing (this is something we've talked about here in the recent past). He is incorrect, as Coates points out near the end of…

A loved one just died, and today is her birthday. #Sad

I speak, of course, of America. America became very ill early last year when one of the two main political parties seriously embraced a fake candidate for the most important job in the land. America was given a very poor prognosis in August when that party endorsed this clown for president. Then, in November, the fatal blow happened, but as is the case with many fatal things -- being sentenced to death, being told you have incurable cancer, etc. -- it took a while before the death throes. From some point in time, around January, though the late winter and spring, we gained the full…

A Little Baby… Supernova?

We know, more or less how supernovae work. We've seen them just hours after they first go off through telescopes and satellites. The Crab Nebula, also known as M1, was a supernova that went off nearly 1,000 years ago in our own galaxy, for example, and we can simulate pretty well that it formed like this: But this is totally new: a paper is coming out in the journal Nature tomorrow (the 22nd of May), where they've caught a star exploding red-handed! First things first; here's a quicktime movie of the explosion. Let's put up some screenshots of the Blue Giant star before the explosion: Here'…

Why are Brown Dwarfs so Dim?

Ahh, stars. Giant furnaces of nuclear fusion. Doing the stuff our Sun does, burning hydrogen fuel into helium (among other things) and emitting lots of visible light and energy in the process. But when we take a look at brown dwarfs, they aren't like normal (i.e., main sequence) stars like our Sun. Instead of burning hydrogen into helium for their fuel, brown dwarfs don't generate enough pressure to make that happen; they can only burn hydrogen into deuterium. Let's go over what the differences here are. A hydrogen nucleus is just a proton, with a mass of 938.272 MeV/c2. (I use these units…

Speaking of Lack of Reading Comprehension

I found this trackback to an angry and not terribly coherent response to my post about Catholic Charities pulling out of the adoption business. Someone named Aerik Knapp-Loomis didn't like that I require comment registration, so he posted his comment to his own blog and called me out for a "monumental moral failure" for my post. Why? Because adoption is a good thing. Well, no kidding. You'd think I had come out and applauded what Catholic Services did. Here is the sum total of what I said in terms of my reaction to their decision: On the one hand, I think they are completely wrong in their…

The Caricatures and Flag Burning

Eugene Volokh has an interesting post about the comparison between flag burning and the Muhammed caricatures. I agree with him that anyone who thinks that there should be an amendment banning flag burning but supports freedom of expression to print caricatures of Muhammed that inflame Muslims is being inconsistent. I would go even further than perhaps he would, however, and say that those who freak out over flag burning are engaging in very much the same kind of thinking that many Muslims are in the case of the caricatures - I'm offended and therefore this should be banned, or, in some cases…

Reading the 9th Amendment

I am having an extended debate with Jimmy G in the comments on this thread over the nature of the 9th amendment. Jimmy's argument is that the 9th amendment must be read as a federalism provision and that the "unenumerated rights" mentioned in it are limited to those rights found in state constitutions at the time of the ratification. I thought I'd move it up top and explore it in a bit more detail. His position is what Randy Barnett calls the "rights-powers conception" of the 9th amendment in an article in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. But as Barnett points out, this reading…

Court Upholds Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law

Very important Supreme Court ruling today, which upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law, passed twice by popular referendum. The ruling was 6-3 and fell along fairly predictable lines. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by Justices O'Connor, Souter, Ginsburg, Stevens and Breyer. Justice Scalia filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas, who also wrote his own dissent. I haven't had time to read over the ruling yet, but I will certainly do so. From the abstract, it looks like it was a highly technical decision involved how much weight…

CNN on John Roberts So Far

CNN has a long review of the job Chief Justice John Roberts is doing so far at the Supreme Court. By all accounts, the other justices have embraced him and he has shown great understanding of and affinity for court tradition. The article contains some interesting items for those of us who really watch the court and how the justices interact with one another: And so it has gone this term, where an atmosphere of practically buoyant camaraderie has drifted through an institution that prides itself on continuity and certainty. This is in stark contrast to the mood during the year preceding…

James Q. Wilson on Evolution and ID

James Q. Wilson has a terrific op-ed piece about evolution, ID and the nature of science in the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps the most important part of the column is a section about the meaning of the word "theory". This is by no means a revolutionary passage, but the colloquial meaning of the word is so pervasive that it cannot be repeated often enough: Some people will disagree with his view, arguing that evolution is a "theory" and intelligent design is a "theory," so students should look at both theories. But this view confuses the meaning of the word "theory." In science, a theory states…

Dembski's Orwellian Behavior

Yesterday I asked the rhetorical question, would Dembski continue to embarrass himself in this situation regarding Shallit's testimony? Well, we have our answer. Not only is he continuing to embarrass himself, he's digging the hole even deeper. He's now compounding his dishonesty with an attempt to erase the past. He has now deleted all three of his previous posts where he made the false claim that Shallit had been pulled from testifying by the ACLU because his deposition was an "embarrassment" and a "liability" to their case, even after one of those posts got almost 100 comments in reply to…

Missouri Scientists Stand Against "Intelligent Design" Bill

250 scientists and science educators from the state of Missouri have released a joint statement pointing out the unscientific nature of "Intelligent Design"(ID) and taking a public stand against Missouri House Bill 911. This bill is the most cleverly worded and detailed ID bill yet introduced in any state. Contrast the text in the Missouri bill with the text of the Michigan bill that is sitting in committee and you'll see what I mean. The Missouri bill was obviously written with the help of top ID advocates, perhaps even written by one of the pro-ID attorneys like David Dewolf. I highly doubt…

Two Questions for Rusty

Rusty has been leaving comments in response to various entries here, but there are two issues that I'd like to move up here to the top so they don't get lost and solicit a direct answer on. 1. Transitional Forms Rusty has repeatedly declared that there are no transitional forms in the fossil record. I have pointed out that I think this demand is a disingenuous one (not just from him, but from creationists in general) because they would deny the transitional nature of ANY fossil no matter what it showed by either demanding that it show transition in a trait that is not preserved by fossils,…

This could be HUGE: Obama Will Use Nixon-Era Law to Fight Climate Change

From Bloomberg President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they have to consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways. The result could be significant delays for natural gas- export facilities, ports for coal sales to Asia, and even new forest roads, industry lobbyists warn. “It’s got us very freaked out,” said Ross Eisenberg, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based group that represents 11,000 companies such as Exxon-Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Southern Co. (SO…

NOAA: 2012 Warmest Year on Record for the US 48

Looking just at the contiguous 48 states of the US, NOAA has determined that 2012 was the warmest year on record. It was also ranked second in "extreme" weather events including fires, major storms, and drought. Tornado activity was less than average. The report came out yesterday and states: In 2012, the contiguous United States (CONUS) average annual temperature of 55.3°F was 3.3°F above the 20th century average, and was the warmest year in the 1895-2012 period of record for the nation. The 2012 annual temperature was 1.0°F warmer than the previous record warm year of 1998. Since 1895,…

Unpack this, NRA (trigger warning)

Below the fold is a description from Wikipedia of the Red Lake School Shooting. Consider the details in relation to issues of gun ownership, safety, school security, and whatever other issues it brings to mind. Warning, this is graphic and horrid. ________________________ The day of the massacre, Weise got a .22 caliber pistol from his bedroom, and fatally shot his grandfather as he was sleeping; he shot him two times in the head and ten times in the chest. According to Weise's friends, the teenager may have had the gun for as long as a year. He took Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a .…

LeRoy Bell's Music

As you know, my nephew, LeRoy Bell, was a contestant on the XFactor singing contest. You may also know that he was voted off the show last week. I'm not going to say much about that other than to note that LeRoy was NOT the 8th or 9th best singer in the group. He was clearly in the top three, and he was voted off prematurely. But that's how these things work. In the end, America will Choose. A Country Western Act. Anyway, I thought that by way of acknowledgment of LeRoy's Talents I'd point you to his previous work. It's all good. You can get his CD's or download individual songs on…

Things are not going well in Libya (and: Where is Libya?)

The son of Libyan leader Gadhafi/kadafi claims that the "government" (which is not really true but its complicated) will fight to the last bullet against people engaged there in an uprising. Even as Seif al-Islam Gadhafi spoke Sunday night, clashes were raging in and around Tripoli's central Green Square, lasting until dawn Monday, witnesses said. They reported snipers opening fire on crowds trying to seize the square, and Gadhafi supporters speeding through in vehicles, shooting and running over protesters. Early Monday, protesters took over the office of two of the multiple state-run…

The septics are cr*p (part XVII...)

It constantly amazes me how completely cr*p the climate septics are. I dont mean the skeptics - e.g. Lindzen, who is a better met man than me, though he has gone a bit emeritus recently - I mean flacks like Milloy. If you want to be skeptical of GW, then the only real point at issue is "will be be a (very) bad thing". That encapsulates two points: how large is the climate sensitivity, and how will the balance of good and bad effects work out, regionally and globally (and, in a hat tip to RP, but also to others, how large are climate effects in the face of rapid societal change anyway?) (this…

GMO mosquitoes to stop mosquitoes (and all the diseases they carry)

Holy crap! This is so clever!! A synthetic sex ratio distortion system for the control of the human malaria mosquito Component #1-- Anopheles gambiae, the kind of mosquito that is notorious for spreading malaria. Component #2-- I-PpoI, a protein that 'sees' a specific DNA sequence, and cuts it. aka, a homing endonuclease. It was originally found in slime mold.   :-D It might seem as if there is no way these two components could come together in any meaningful way. But when you are an evil scientist, anything is possible!!   It turns out that there is a DNA sequence on the X-chromosome of the…

The Best of All Possible (Football) Universes

Proving that you can find physics in everything, Sean Carroll points to a strange anomaly in the Super Bowl coin toss: the NFC has won 14 coin tosses in a row. The odds of this happening seem to be vanishingly small, making this a 3.8-sigma effect, almost enough to claim the detection of a new particle, and certainly enough to justify the generation of a press release. Of course, there are two problems with Sean's analysis, one classical and one quantum. The classical objection is that what we have a record of is one team winning the toss every time, which does not mean that the coin is doing…

Science: It's What's for Breakfast

SteelyKid and I have developed a weekend routine: I make pancakes (with her help in mixing and occasionally measuring ingredients) on Saturday morning before we head out (usually to SoccerTots, but the last couple of weeks to birthday parties). On Sunday, we make French toast, before going to the Schenectady Greenmarket. Of course, while this routine may not seem like it involves Science!, it does, as demonstrated by these two pictures: "What do you mean?" you ask, "Those are just two pictures of a pancake. Where's the science in that?" Yes, but why do they look that way? To be a little…

Links for 2011-08-13

"Black And Blue" | Homicide: Life On The Street | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club "Andre Braugher's Pembleton is fiery and mercurial and theatrical, and he works so fast that it's as if he thought that extracting false police confessions was a category recognized by the Guinness Book Of World Records. First, he pretends to be angry with the "suspect," played by Isaiah Washington, complaining that he isn't showing him the same respect he extends towards the white Bayliss. Then, having thrown Washington off balance, he guilt trips him, telling him that he's responsible for the dead man's murder…

Links for 2011-06-21

About SETIstars.org | SetiStars Blog "SETIstars is an initiative by the SETI Institute to recognize and rally support from the community to help fund the SETI Institute's operations and that of the Allen Telescope Array. It serves as a place to galvanize community action with clearly defined fundraising goals as well as a place to engage with and recognize supporters and contributors to the SETI Institute -- both financial and non financial. We are starting with a simple site with a clear mandate: raise funds from the community to help bring the ATA back on line. But this is just the…

Links for 2011-05-30

Guest Post from Author Nick Mamatas: "The Writer's Life: Actually, It's Awesome!" « Suvudu - Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, Comics, and Games "In my new book Starve Better, I talk about writing short subjects--both fiction and non-fiction--with an eye toward writing effectively and efficiently and making some money. Not good money so much as fast money. Relatively fast anyway, if slower than a weekly paycheck. For ten years I played the full-time freelance game before deciding to take a full-time job, and though I love predictable cash flow and dental insurance and paid time…

Daycare Sociolects

Childcare is a context where people from different class backgrounds come into intimate contact. Indeed, for as long as there has been childcare, this work has been done largely by working class women, even when the kids in question have been middle- or upper-class. There's a common literary trope where an upper-class young man has a warm "natural" relationship to his working-class nanny and a cold distant one to his blood mother. I've blogged before about how academic middle-class ideals of gender homogenisation clash with more traditional views among working-class daycare ladies. And…

US Politics Have No Left Wing

This is the first time that I'm aware of the US primary elections. I've never been very interested in the news, having at best a hazy idea even of Swedish politics. Blogging is entirely responsible for my heightened awareness of US political matters over the past two to three years. I've taken to reading US blogs and hanging out in web forums dominated by Americans. And what I've learned scares me. US politics often look absurd from a European perspective, since the entire bipartisan system maps onto the conservative half of European politics. A case in point is that the US "Left" is called "…

Tangled Bank 89

Welcome everyone to Aardvarchaeology and the 89th Tangled Bank blog carnival. Aard is strictly focused on whatever strikes the fancy of its archaeologist proprietor. The Tangled Bank provides a leafy warren for all little furry bloggers with an interest in the life sciences. We have good stuff here, so dive in! Beasties RPM at Evolgen offers some taxonomic insights apropos of a giant web spun by a diverse gang of distantly related spiders. Grrlscientist at Living the Scientific Life reports on research into embryo manipulation that would allow common fish species to spawn endangered ones.…

What is Emo Anyway?

I've been largely oblivious to the emo movement in music and youth culture, but being a pop music fan I feel I should find out a little about this recent mass-market outgrowth of the hardcore punk scene. Opportunity struck in the most recent issue of kids' mag Kamratposten left on the john by my 9-y-o son. Enthroned, I found a feature piece about a heavily eyelinered 14-y-o Stockholm emo-subculture girl, with a list of five emo bands deemed important by her. I read up about them on Allmusic, and offer the list with my commentary in the following for anyone who wants to learn about emo music…

Medieval Brick Kilns

Longtime Dear Readers may remember me blogging about the excavations in my friend Jan Peder's garden last summer. Beside his house is a ruin mound full of heavily burnt and vitrified Medieval-style bricks, and he's gotten funds together to do some excavations there. The original idea was that the feature might be the remains of a defensive tower or other aristocratic building. Last year's work established that it was in fact the remains of a brick kiln, which is also evidence of somebody powerful in the vicinity. 16th century pottery found inside the kiln gives the latest possible date for…

You Can't Grok Its Multiplicity

[More blog entries about archaeology, religion, vikings, vikingperiod, Scandinavia; arkeologi, religion, vikingar, vikingatiden.] Thursday morning I stopped by the Royal Library in Stockholm and read a paper by Johan Callmer in the great big symposium volume concluding the Vägar till Midgård project ("Roads to Middle-earth"). I was mainly there to check what he had said about the above 8th century brooch from Åland, apparently depicting a headless quadruped. But I also found a couple of really good paragraphs on another issue toward the end. Unfortunately the camera in my handheld computer…

Links for 2012-09-12

In which we learn about a new science communication service, some history of astronomy, a more complete definition of "one-hit wonder," and a new science award promoting basic research. ------------ Bowler Hat Science Matthew Francis launches his Media Empire, offering a variety of talks (both public lectures and research talks), and more importantly workshops on communicating science to a general audience. Transit of Venus History: Deaths and Dilemmas - News Blog - SkyandTelescope.com Western astronomers in 1761 may not have been the first to see a transit of Venus. The renowned Arab…

A Tale of Demonic Possession

Daryl Gregory has published a number of very good short stories over the past few years, notably a few science fiction pieces based on neuropsychiatry. So I was very keen to read his first novel, Pandemonium (Ballantine/Del Ray 2008). Genrewise it's modern fantasy in the sense that it takes place in a world much like ours where certain things happen that appear to be magical. As a consequence, the course of post-WW2 US history is different at some points. The central fantastical idea in the novel is that humanity is haunted by a number of disembodied spirits that can possess people. Each…

Weekend Fun

The way I like to lead my life is basically Epicurean: "Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear as well as absence of bodily pain through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires." I live for fun. But I try to emphasise the social side of my modest pleasures: I like to have fun together with people I love, not at the expense of others. Call it the Golden Rule. Now, my work is largely fun, but still I distinguish between work-fun and non-work-fun, because I am by character…

A Riddle of Brass Feet

Here's a little archaeological riddle I've been thinking about. From about 1350 to 1700, three-legged brass cooking pots were common in Sweden. When metal detecting in ploughsoil, you often find bits of them. They're easily found as the fragments tend to be large and heavy: they make the detector sing loud & clear. But here's the thing: you almost only find the feet and legs of the pots, hardly ever the wall or rim. Why is that? I think I've come up with an answer. These pots weren't used out in the fields. The reason that we find the feet there must be that household refuse was thrown…

Following the Letter of the Law

I recently read this year's Hugo-winning novel, Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union. (Getting it sent to my local branch library from Malmö cost me one euro!) It's a hard-boiled detective story set in an alternative present where Israel was squashed by irate Arab neighbours in 1948 and much of the world's surviving Jewry ended up in a small reservation in south-west Alaska. An exciting read, and very lyrically written. Full of badass Hasidic gangstas. One detail in the story was so silly that I had to look it up. And whaddya know -- eruvin are real. There are a lot of things…

Willard Anthony Watts (born 1958)[1] is an American blogger who runs the climate change denialism website Watts Up With That?

More wiki-fun. Or is this Google Truth in action? (Yeah, I know, the pic isn't quite right but its good). Which is more accurate? Willard Anthony Watts (born 1958)[1] is an American blogger who runs the climate change denialism website Watts Up With That?.[2] A former meteorologist,[3][4] he is president of IntelliWeather Inc.[5] and directs the Surface Stations Project, a volunteer initiative to document the set up and maintenance of weather stations across the United States.[6] (link) or Willard Anthony Watts (born 1958)[1] is an American meteorologist[2][3] (AMS seal holder,…

Obama’s recent executive order on carbon emissions

A round-up of reactions to Obama's announcement. Work gets the FT, so I saw Obama proposes biggest ever US push for carbon cuts in print on the front page, and I think Obama will be happy with that, and with what the FT have written: Under the plan, each US state is given a different target for cutting carbon emissions from its power sector. They will decide how to achieve the cuts by switching to cleaner energy sources such as natural gas, nuclear or wind power, by improving grid efficiency or by reducing electricity consumption And, in US carbon curbs raise hopes for Paris deal we have His…

Sean Hannity's Nobel Prize Nomination

The good Dr. William Hammesfahr was on Hannity and Colmes the other day, and Sean Hannity made it a point to refer to him as a "Nobel Prize nominee" about, oh, 1400 times in a single hour (a world record, I believe). A few examples: HANNITY: And we're going to talk to a doctor who spent 10 hours with her tonight, and he says that he believes, in his expert opinion -- this is a man that was nominated for a Nobel Prize, by the way -- that she could be rehabilitated. HANNITY: And coming up later in the program tonight, we're going to meet a doctor who actually spent 10 hours examining Terri…

More Evidence Against Abstinence-Only Sex Ed

Two new studies are showing the dangers of abstinence-only sex education. Both are reported here. Because abstinence-only programs are forbidden to even mention that condoms can help prevent pregnancy and STDs - it is literally illegal for them to mention anything about condoms other than failure rates - teens who take abstinence-only classes tend to use condoms far less when they become sexually active. Surprise, surprise. Here's the result: Teenagers' risks of pregnancy and disease are also affected by what they think about sex, contraception and pregnancy, researchers reported. According…

Will Miers End Up Being Judicial Liberal?

Jim Lindgren of the Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting post examining what sorts of nominees ultimately end up drifting to the left once they're on the court. He looks at Republican court appointees since Eisenhower, who famously nominated the men he called his two greatest mistakes, liberal judicial heroes Earl Warren and William Brennan. Likewise, Richard Nixon appointed Harry Blackmun, Ford appointed John Paul Stevens. Reagan appointed O'Connor and Kennedy, both moderately conservative but not the sort of ideological conservatives like Thomas and Scalia that the right hopes for. The…

Gay-Friendly Companies

The Worldnutdaily has an article up amusingly titled America's Pro-Homosexual Giants. No, it's not about a bunch of huge men in leather leading a pride parade. It's a list of all the companies who scored 100% on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. Of course, the WND thinks these are horrible companies out to destroy "family values", but what would you expect from that pack of dullards? The great news is that there is a major trend toward companies being more open and supportive of gay employees. They are scored on such things as whether they offer health benefits for the…

Cupertino Lawsuit Withdrawn

Steven Williams' fraudulent lawsuit against the Cupertino public schools has been withdrawn and is over. I wrote time and time again that this case, brought on behalf of Williams by the Alliance Defense Fund, was completely ridiculous. The ADF had been incredibly dishonest in their representation of the facts. Now they have apparently come to their senses and dropped the false accusations. You can see the official settlement here. The "settlement" is actually an admission that the suit was false, since it recognizes that the current district policy allows teachers to use supplemental material…

Utah Evolution Saga Continues

And continues to get more ridiculous as well. This Chris Buttars is some piece of work. It's frightening that someone this badly education could have any influence at all on how children are educated, but that's electoral politics for you. You'll recall from the other day that the Utah Superintendant of Public Instruction, Patti Harrington, was quoted as saying that human evolution could not be taught in Utah public schools because there's no evidence for it. Now another Utah education official says that teachers can teach human evolution, it's just not required. And Buttars says that…

Putting Moral Purity Before Life and Death

Bill Ware sent me a link to this article about religious right groups opposing vaccinations against sexually transmitted diseases because it might promote sex, and as well all know, sex is evil. Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted. Scientists have now developed a vaccine for HPV, which should be approved soon, but naturally the "pro-life" forces are gearing up to oppose: In the US, for instance, religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 per cent of parents favour vaccinating their…

The Grieving Widow

Boy, if this story is correct, it almost makes you feel sorry even for a guy like Arafat. It seems that Suha Arafat, the obviously grieving widow, would not allow the machines that have been keeping her husband's lungs and heart going for the last 13 days (he has been braindead all along, but under Islamic law, apparently, he could not be pronounced dead as long as his organs were still working) until she had negotiated a good financial settlement. Suha, you see, does not live in Israel with her suffering people, she lives in Paris, where her husband was taken for treatment, and she wanted to…

Conservatives in Government

Here is an interesting statement from Thomas Oliphant. The op-ed piece is about the Specter controversy going on, but within it he makes this statement that really jumped out at me: It's important to see all this through the right's lens. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980; since then, conservatives have been president 16 of 24 years; the party has held the Senate for 16 different years and directly controlled the House for 10 and had effective control of the floor for two more (1981-82). From one Christian conservative perspective, during this period there have been more than 25 million…