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Congressmen: Do we shoot them or do we not shoot them? (Updated at the request of Senator Paul)

Short answer: No, we do not shoot them. But the argument that we don’t shoot them is not as simple as it seems. Rand Paul: Shoot the CongressmanRight Wing: The purpose of the 2nd Amendment is to allow us to be armed, so we can shoot at the government when we need to. (This section has been heavily modified at the request of Senator Paul) The purpose of the second amendment, and the reason to stay heavily armed and to be prepared to use the firearms the Constitution guarantees we can keep, is to lift tyranny should it befall the land. An increasing number of people now realize that a president…

The new Secretary of Health and Human Services is a member of a fringe medical organization. Here's what that means.

I’m always hesitant to write about matters that are more political than scientific or medical, although sometimes the sorts of topics that I blog about inevitably require it (e.g., the 21st Century Cures Act, an act that buys into the myth that to bring "cures" to patients faster we have to neuter the FDA and a retooled version of which is still being considered). This is one of those times. Yesterday, I woke up to the news that President-Elect Donald Trump had chosen Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) as his new Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS),…

Abrogation

This is another fine word that I found in Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion. I am still nearly finished with this book and will be reading a new one tomorrow. Abrogation (ab-RUH-gey-shun) [from Latin abrogÄtus repealed] noun. to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal: to abrogate a law. to put aside; put an end to. Usage: Sookhdeo goes on to explain how Islamic scholars, in order to cope with the many contradictions that they found in the Qur'an, developed the principle of abrogation, whereby later texts trump earlier ones.…

Worth reading: Alzheimer's, working moms, and conditions in Trump's Las Vegas hotel

A few of the recent pieces I've liked: Melissa Harris-Perry in Elle and before the Congressional Caucus for Black Women and Girls: How Our Country Fails Black Women and Girls N.R. Kleinfeld in The New York Times: Fraying at the Edges (“A withered person with a scrambled mind, memories sealed away: That is the familiar face of Alzheimer’s. But there is also the waiting period, which Geri Taylor has been navigating with prudence, grace and hope.”) Oliver Laughland and Mae Ryan in The Guardian: Workers fight for dignity in Trump's Las Vegas hotel: 'You don't talk to the boss' Emily Peck in the…

Bombing Syria

For my friends who are thinking that military action like we just saw in Syria is OK. No it isn't, even if it is. Gather together the three smartest people you know. Then recruit the top five experts on Middle Eastern diplomacy, and the top five experts on military solutions in the region. Call in the joint chiefs. Make a military plan, the best plan ever. Now put 100% of the responsibility for final decisions, go-orders, choice making between alternatives, etc, in the hands of an ignorant clownish six year old who is allowed to make up his own alt-plans at any time, and who, as a habitual…

Republicans Have No Ethics Ever, Proven

There may be a few individuals who are not in politics who have some ethics who still call themselves Republicans. One such person, a friend of mine for whom I have great respect, sent me an email the other day apologizing. For the whole Trump and Republican thing. But at the professional level, there isn't a single Republican out there that is unwilling to stick his slimy nose right up the ass of whichever other Republican happens to be top dog at the moment, putting their own self interest ahead of the nation, of governing, of the people, even of their own families. As proven by events…

Bridgegate Chickens Come Home To Roost: Waiting For Other Shoe To Drop

Chris Cristie is a thug.* Several of the people that Chris Cristie chose to run his administration are criminals. Going to prison criminals. Chris Cristie is in charge of selecting the people who will run the Trump administration. It all makes sense so far. The other shoe, the shoe we are waiting to drop, will be Cristie being indicted. Meanwhile, questions remain as to what happened to the reporters who broke the story. See: ___________________________________________ *I unapologetically use the word "thug" because it is always the word I've used to describe criminal gangster types…

Guilani's Social Views Unlikely to Turn off GOP Majority

Pundits and journalists continue to speculate about whether or not conservative Republicans will get strongly behind a Rudy Giuliani presidential run. As it stands right now, according to a recent Gallup survey, for the great majority of Republicans, the heuristics of likability, party loyalty, and Rudy's national security message appear to trump the Mayor's stands on abortion and gay rights. Yet for a strongly committed conservative minority, these issues do raise objections. In the Oct. 12-14 poll, 61% of Republicans say Giuliani's views on abortion and gay rights either make no difference…

Google delists Mike Adams' NaturalNews.com. His hilarious tantrum about the "conspiracy" behind it is epic, as is my schadenfreude.

Regular readers here are probably familiar with Mike Adams and his website NaturalNews.com. Forget the antivaccine crank blog Age of Autism, when it comes to wretched hives of scum and quackery on the Internet, NaturalNews is the wretchedest, scummiest, and quackiest. Not surprisingly, Adams got his start in wingnuttery selling Y2K scams nearly 18 years ago. Now, besides presiding over a scammy online publishing empire that racks in considerable green by publishing articles laced with quackery, antivaccine pseudoscience, character assassination, and thuggery, both legal and getting a bit too…

Keeping Hillary off the Half Dollar

In January, Hillary Clinton still possessed the benefit of the doubt. Memories of her and Bill snarling at Barack Obama in 2008 had faded, and despite her long and dreadful record, it's always possible to turn over a new leaf. But Clinton's ongoing response to Bernie Sanders shows why she is unfit for the presidency. Even as the frontrunner, Hillary shows no leadership ability; she, too, follows Sanders, trailing him to the left as he takes meaningful positions on issues like income inequality and campaign finance reform. Her saccharine smile says "I can do that too!" but truly she should be…

Antivaxers are petitioning the White House and Antivaxer-in-Chief President Donald Trump to listen to their demands.

I've never been a huge fan of the We The People (WTP) website, which was set up during the Obama administration to allow people to petition the White House and, if they receive a sufficient number of signatures on their petition, receive an official response from the White House. While I applauded the sentiment of wanting to provide people an online means of petitioning the administration and like that a petition receiving 100,000 signatures in 30 days would receive a response, I was disappointed by the results. For one thing, although 321 of the 323 petitions that reached the threshold have…

Links 8/23/11

Links for you. Science: Warning: Killer fungi could run amok again Republicans and Democrats Differ on Evolution Sewage Treatment, Coral Disease, and Koch's Postulates Racial Disparity in NIH Grants: Priority Scores Other: The Purpose-Driven Lie Two bad polls for Obama (liberal blogs and the Cassandra complex) Krugman and the Firebaggers: Hippie Punching Department Print vs. Online: The ways in which old-fashioned newspapers still trump online newspapers. What the U.S. Can Learn from the Dutch About Teen Sex Rick Perry's 'Texas Miracle' consisted of 125,000 new government jobs Taxing Capital…

Ben Santer on Seth Myers

Via Media Matters of America. Very interesting segment. Santer talks about what is is like to be a rogue scientist in a Donald Trump administration. The words referred to here the twelve words, were part of the 1995 Second Assessment report of the IPCC. That report is regularly updated, and forms the scientific and policy basis for our thinking about climate change at the national and international level. I highly recommend that you have handy at all times what I like to think of as the human-readable version of the most current IPCC report: Dire Predictions, 2nd Edition: Understanding…

Senate Health Care: John McCain is busy

John McCain has a good heath care plan, and if has his way, you won't. The Senator most often accredited for thinking for himself (that's a lie) will vote with Russian agent Donald Trump and the rest of the Republicans to take away Obama care. The moment he gets a chance. However, he can't right now because he is indisposed, recovering form surgery. We at Greg Laden's Blog wish Senator McCain a speedy recovery and hope he is well. But we also urge him to think about his privilege and not take access to the sort of health care he has from other Americans. Speaking of the Russians, The Looking…

Health organizations warn about “regulatory reform" bills sweeping Congress

The American Public Health Association, the American Lung Association, and other health protection organizations have put Members of Congress and the Trump Administration on notice: dismantling regulations and slashing agency budgets will have dire consequences for Americans. The groups urged lawmakers to oppose several “regulatory reform” bills which were moving at lightning speed through the House of Representatives. Bills such as: The Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act of 2016 (SCRUB Act H.R. 998)) The Regulatory Integrity Act (H.R. 1004) The…

Pruitt in, Puzder out, Acosta waiting in the wings

President Trump's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was confirmed today by a Senate vote of 52-46. The former attorney general of Oklahoma has been hostile to new EPA safeguards for air and water, most notably by suing the EPA 14 times over his career. The Senate's approval of Pruitt has environmental and public health advocates wondering what the future will be for environmental protection. Maine Senator Susan Collins was the only Republican senator to oppose Pruitt's nomination: "His actions leave me with considerable doubts about whether his vision for the EPA is…

Marching for science?

I didn't march for science; I was busy running the Head of the Cam (in something of a turn-up for the books, Nines won, in only a tiny fraction over 9 mins, a good time; Jesus were three seconds slower and in a welcome return to form Caius were only a second slower than that; it promises well for the summer). But my daughter went down to London for other reasons and got caught up which is where my pic comes from. But what am I to think of it all? Being English, and generally rather curmudgeonly, I can hardly be enthusiastic; but I can't bring myself to be quite on RS's side. I think maybe…

Links 5/18/11

Links for you. Science: Is Nathan Myhrovld's Intellectual Ventures behind the iOS in-app purchase patent troll job? What Does it Mean to be "Museum-Worthy?" How a Political History Curator Defines the Term (will have to ask biology/paleontology curators same thing) The evolutionary tree of fungi grows a new branch Other: Marshall Auerback: Revenue Sharing for the States - How It Works, Why We Need It and Why Nixon Liked It! It's all my fault... Sen. John Kerry Introduces Reconnecting Youth To Prevent Homelessness Act Farm subsidies will bring a different kind of partisanship Schemes of the…

Modern Fear, Modern Security

What moves human beings to innovate measures of security? History will tell us that the most inventive and industrious times are fraught with warfare, uncertainty, and widespread fear. Greg Laden, a longtime ScienceBlogger, helps tackle this topic this month on the new Collective Imagination blog with Peter Tu, a systems design engineer who has developed algorithms for the FBI Automatic Fingerprint Identification System, and is the principle investigator for the ReFace Program at the Visualization and Computer Vision Group at the GE Global Research Center. Greg and Peter discuss the important…

The Heartland Institute is sad

The Heartland Institute is sad. Because, like the Watties, they don't like their wiki page (ar). But they aren't going to take it lying down, oh no: In recent months, left-wing activists have hijacked The Heartland Institute’s profile at Wikipedia, removing objective descriptions of our programs and publications and replacing them with lies, errors, and outright libelous claims. Our efforts to correct the site have been rejected by the editors of the self-described “free encyclopedia.” Can you help? (my bold). Weirdly, although that was posted on "February 19, 2016" not a simple wacko…

Report: U.S. funding for global health research saves lives and creates American jobs

U.S. investments in global health research have saved millions of lives and prevented immeasurable suffering. And by working to detect, treat and eventually eliminate infectious diseases worldwide, we’re protecting our own country too. That cliché about diseases knowing no borders is unfortunately very true. All that alone should be enough to remain committed to the cause. But a couple weeks ago, a new report from the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) offered another persuasive reason: U.S. funding for global health research and development (R&D) is good for the American economy…

Getting ideas from Donald Trump? (An oldie from the vault.)

Hey, it's May already! Could that explain why things are crazy-busy here? There will be new content soon, once I've plowed through some more grading and exam-writing and curricular trouble-shooting. In the meantime, since I copped to enjoying reality TV more than I should (in that ABC meme, under "Not going to cop to"), I thought I'd share a May post from the earlier incarnation of this blog, a post in which I muse on what "The Apprentice" (a show, as of this season, I no longer watch ... we've grown apart) might teach us about how to improve the scientific community. Yes, it's utterly daft…

MIT Climate Scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen urges Trump: “Cut the funding of climate science by 80% to 90% until the field cleans up’?

Via Twitter via ClimateDepot (hold your nose) we come to RealClear Investigations which quotes Lindzen as saying, inter alia, They should probably cut the funding by 80 to 90 percent until the field cleans up... Climate science has been set back two generations, and they have destroyed its intellectual foundations.” This is classic crusty old boy down the club stuff: it was all better when he were a lad, and so on. Just to remind you, I declared Lindzen emeritus in 2011, but he only became a shark-jumper in 2013. Although now I look he was pretty wacky even back in 2005 (older readers may…

Mea culpa! Orac praised the new CDC director for her pro-vaccine views, but missed the quackery in her past.

I have to start this post with a mea culpa, perhaps even a mea maxima culpa. I've been going on and on, in essence gloating about how the antivaccine movement was once again betrayed by Donald Trump. After the betrayal that was the appointment of the ultimate pro-vaccine pharma shill as FDA Commissioner, the second betrayal was the appointment of Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, yes, on the surface, Dr. Fitzgerald doesn't appear to be that bad a pick for CDC director. She has a history of being very pro-vaccine during her…

The data gap problem

“The monitoring of the atmosphere, of the surface of the Earth, of what’s going on in the ocean and under the ice — all of that is overwhelmingly funded by the federal government.” — Former Obama science adviser John Holdren The other day a friend of mine who works in Beijing as a foreign correspondent suggested that of all the acts of stupidity committed by Donald Trump since assuming office, the thing that bothers him the least is the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement. Haven't we actually moved beyond relying on government to reduce carbon emissions? he asked. Isn…

Occupational Health News Roundup

At the Guardian, reporters Oliver Laughland and Mae Ryan report on working conditions inside Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. Right away, the article notes that while the presidential candidate tours the country selling his job-creating skills, workers in his hotel say they get paid about $3 less an hour than many of Las Vegas’ unionized hotel workers, who also enjoy better health and retirement benefits. They write: Earlier this month, following a protracted dispute with Trump and his co-owner, casino billionaire Phil Ruffin, the National Labor Relations Board officially certified a union for…

Who will win the New Hampshire Primary and what will that mean?

SEE THIS UPDATE ADDED: Following the GOP primary, there has been another development. In most recent polls, Trump is clearly ahead in New Hampshire, with Marco Rubio a moderately strong second or third. In various polls he is second in most polls (by a few points) and tied in one. Kasich is generally right behind Rubio, with Cruz in third place in a few polls. Rubio crashed and burned in last night's debate, according to most observers. And he really did. So, this may be reflected in New Hamsphire with Rubio moving down quite a bit. He crashed in part because Christie skillfully skewered…

Freedom of Speech, Resolute Forestry, Stand.Earth, Greenpeace: New Developments

A little while back I posted this: Taking The Axe To The Environmental Movement: Resolute v. Greenpeace. Some of you complained because you don't like Greenpeace. But that is hardly the point. Greenpeace has a history of working towards important goals and sometimes even attaining them, and there are a lot of whales that want you to lay off and give them credit. Anyway, the point of that post was to let you know about a SLAPP lawsuit Greenpeace had been slapped with by Resolute Forest Products. The long and the short of it is this: Resolute, if they get legal traction and win, are setting…

Democrats: Do these things

A lot of people are offering free advice to the Democratic Party these days. This is natural in the wake of a resounding defeat, especially a defeat that was snatched so clumsily from the jaws of victory. I gave some advice a while back (see: Why Trump Won And How To Fix That For Future Elections). Since then, I've spent a lot of time with a lot of those folks who appeared on the scene, often as members of Indivisible groups, after the election. I see a lot of frustration with the Democratic Party (and our local DFL, which is what we call the Democratic Party in Minnesota). Here are my…

JAMA: A willing accomplice to co-opting “nonpharmacologic” treatments for pain as being “alternative” or “complementary”

That I’m not a fan of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH, formerly known as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, or NCCAM) should come as no surprise to anyone. Basically, from its very inception as the Office of Alternative Medicine in the early 1990s to its growth to large center with a yearly budget of $120+ million, NCCIH has served one purpose: The promotion and attempted legitimization of quackery and magical thinking in medicine, the better to “integrate” pseudoscientific medicine with science-based medicine. Certainly, the…

From Scientists to Policymakers: Communicating on Climate, Scientific Integrity, and More

Among the different professional categories, scientists and engineers remain very highly respected by the public, at least compared to politicians, business leaders, the media, and even religious authorities. Part of this is due to the fact that success in the scientific enterprise depends on impartial analysis and independence from political ideology. And yet there are strong connections between science and policy: good policy without good science is difficult; good policy with bad science is impossible. Sure, there is plenty of bad policy made even in the face of contradictory scientific…

A strategic response to Trump’s “ripping off the Band-Aid” to workers’ health and safety: Defense of the status quo ante is not enough

By Garrett Brown, MPH, CIH and Deeg Gold, MPH CIH In late January, Donald Trump’s press secretary described his immigration and refugee Executive Order as “ripping off the Band-Aid” to get at immigrants.  The next week, Trump issued another Executive Order on regulations and is preparing other measures to “rip off the Band-Aid” to get at worker health and safety.  Our strategic response has to be more than simply defending the status quo ante; we have to rebuild the social movement that was powerful enough 50 years ago to force another right-wing Republican president, Richard Nixon, to…

How antivaxers deceptively don the mantle of "vaccine safety activists"

One of the most frequent talking points used by the antivaccine movement is that its members are "not anti-vaccine," but rather "pro-safe vaccine" or "vaccine safety activists." I first encountered that talking point over ten years ago, when I first heard Jenny McCarthy say it. Since then, I've heard any number of antivaccine activists use variations on the talking point over many years and in many circumstances. It's understandable in a way. Antivaxers know that society frowns on antivaccine views—and quite rightly so, given the danger such views pose to public health; so they have to…

Who won the New Hampshire primary?

At about 9 PM eastern, with 90% of the votes counted in the Democratic primary, Sanders is showing a strong win. He is currently at about 60%, while Clinton is at 38%. That gap is significantly larger than what I had intuitively established at the cutoff for a Sanders "lower than expectation loss." So, congratulations Bernie Sanders! If those numbers hold, that is a decisive win. (A lot of Sanders supporters were crowing about a 20% lead in the polls, which seemed kind of extreme at the time. They may end up being proven right!) In the Republican primary, with about 90% reporting, Donald…

Oh, History Channel, how much can you suck?

It's an annoyance that the History Channel is part of the basic cable package I get — I haven't watched the acceleratingly awful channel in years, but they still get by on their slice of the cable pie. Now they have announced that they will be turning the Bible into a "five-part, 10-hour scripted docu-drama with live-action and state-of-the-art CG". There is no part of that description that doesn't make me cringe. An honest survey of the Bible wouldn't be a bad thing — as we often say, it's a great tool for making atheists. I don't think that will be the case here, though. The idea for the…

Casual Fridays: Political attitudes and legal knowledge

This week's Casual Fridays study plays off a post written by Mike Dunford. The question is, how are political attitudes affected by legal knowledge? Do you let the law get in the way of a political position, or do political goals trump legal ones? In fact, you might what to read Mike's post before you participate. It's an excellent post, and it really highlights the kind of issues I'm talking about. Mike Dunford's Post The link brings up the article in a new tab or window (because we want you to come back and take the survey!). Click here to participate. The study is brief, with just 10 quick…

Health and environmental groups sue EPA over new rules on toxics

Earth Justice, the United Steelworkers, the Environmental Defense Fund and other public interest groups are suing the Trump administration over two new regulations to address toxic substances. The groups filed petitions last week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. They are asking to court to review the rules which EPA published on July 20, 2017. The groups will argue that the regulations are contrary to Congress' intent. The Natural Resources Defense Council's Daniel Rosenberg and Jennifer Sass use these photos to illustrate the matter.  It's the difference between what…

Canada moves to ban asbestos. Will Trump follow the lead of our neighbors to the north?

Canada's Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan announced today that her country plans to implement a comprehensive ban on asbestos by 2018. The proposal includes: Banning the import of asbestos-containing products such as construction materials and brake pads; Expanding the on-line registry of asbestos-containing buildings; Prohibiting the use of asbestos in new construction and renovation projects; and Improving workplace health and safety rules to limit the risk of contact with asbestos. Duncan indicated that the Canadian government's action will involve several agencies. Foreshadowing that…

Climate change and the Great Lakes

The latest vandalism from the Dork Side is censoring the concept of "climate change" from a Wisconsin governmental website (Snopes; see-also Sou and of course half your fb and Twitter feed). As Sou points out this minor vandalism seems to have over-excited certain sections of the denialist crowd, which is to be expected: they need a constant stream of news, and are on edge waiting for Trump to do something thrilling. This latest episode has no obvious connection to Trump, and indeed has no clear author. So you don't have to go elsewhere, a present-day snapshot is this and an older pre-…

Occupational Health News Roundup

At Reveal, Jennifer Gollan reports on how the Navy and other federal agencies give lucrative contracts to shipbuilders with troublesome worker safety records. In fact, Gollan reports that since 2008, the Navy and Coast Guard’s seven major shipbuilders have received more than $100 billion in public funds despite serious — and sometimes fatal — safety gaps. She noted that in his first days in office, President Trump announced plans for a massive Navy fleet expansion, which could mean even more workers will be at risk. Gollan writes: With extra business comes more risks for workers. But there is…

Back to School!

Classes start on Monday. I knew that intellectually, of course, but I had it brought home to me a few days ago when I innocently drove onto the campus, only to find a traffic jam and crossing guards directing the cars. Students were moving into the dorms, you see. Higher education is beset with problems nowadays, and I can recite the litany as well as any faculty member. But for all the legitimate complaints, the bottom line is that I still think I have the best job in the world. I get out of bed in the morning excited to go to work, and the upsides of my job vastly outweigh the downsides…

Friday Fun: National Park Service Temporarily Ordered To Stop Tweeting: Reactions From Wildlife

This one from Samantha Bee is so funny, I don't know whether to laugh to cry. On second thought, mostly cry. Lots and lots of crying. The only thing that will save me is singing a rousing chorus of Bruce Springsteen's Badlands in honour of the crazy wonderful park rangers at Badlands National Park. It's not hard to imagine a recent meeting going down like that famous scene from Casablanca -- "Play La Marseillaise. Play it!" Anyways, back to Samantha Bee and National Park Service Temporarily Ordered To Stop Tweeting: Reactions From Wildlife. Rock Squirrel, Zion National Park “This may just…

Scott Hatfield to debate Uber-Crank

Responding to an idiotic challenge from Vox Day Scott Hatfield has chosen to debate Vox at some point after August 15th. I don't know what to think. On the one hand, debating a crank like Vox day is unlikely to do anyone any good. It's not like a guy who doesn't think that science is valid (all science I know, he's crazy) is likely to be receptive to anything but their pre-formed worldview. On the other hand, it may help people see just how much of a lunatic crank Vox Day is. Although I don't know that we need evidence beyond the fact he writes for World Nut Daily. In the end, I think it'…

Keith Olbermann: Why Trump Wont Win

This discussion is a little ambiguous about "winning the nomination" vs. "winning the general election" but it is fun to see Keith Olbermann again. He states here that he is coming out of retirement. Olbermann correctly points out something I think a lot of people don't know or understand. A political party is an independent private entity (though there are some regulations and they must operate within the law). One of the first things they will do at the convention is to vote on rules. At that point, they can make any rule they want, pretty much. The rule could be "no nomination for…

Science Denial Bad Guys and Good Guys

White Supremacy, Climate Science Denial, Trump, Alt-Right Peter Sinclair suddenly realized it is all one big interconnected complex hole! (Well, whole, but more like a hole because of what we are throwing into it). Look at this classic video he made a while back: Then, check out his post, here. A lot of stuff about the MadHouse Effect I reviewed the Madhouse Effect HERE. Get Energy Smart notes that only a day after the Madhouse Effect authors highlighted nine key deniers (including Bjorn Lomborg) in the Washington Post, that venerable newspaper publishes yet another bogus editorial (…

Economic denialism?

Well, the conversation over at Kevin Anderson: how numbers reveal another reality got rather silly and bad tempered, but more than that it also became totally, obviously pointless1. Remarkably, my attempt to enlighten people by pointing out that their attitude to and discussion of economics bore a powerful resemblance to discussions of science at WUWT did not bear fruit. In other news, the image to the right is my submission for my work pass photo. I'm hoping they'll use it, even if cropped a little. The image below is prettier but I suspect wouldn't pass even the cursory scrutiny pass…

The Sciencedebate.org Presidential Debates and Questions

Sciencedebate.org has managed a seemingly impossible task. They developed 20 distinct (but often interrelated) questions about science policy, based on vast amounts of public input, and then got all four presidential candidates to address them. Congratulations to Sciencedebate.org. This is important, and I know that was not easy to do. The questions, and answers, are here. Here are my reactions to the candidates responses for some of the questions. 1. Innovation. Science and engineering have been responsible for over half of the growth of the U.S. economy since WWII. But some reports…

Talking About Islam

It seems like everyone's losing their minds about Islam these days. On the one hand there are many on the left who will accuse you of bigotry or Islamophobia if you criticize anything at all about Islam. Apparently we're not allowed to notice that there are fifty-some Muslim countries in the world, but you're hard-pressed to find a single one that is respectful of the rights of women or religious minorities. In fact, it seems like most of them are just despotic tyrannies with little respect for liberal values at all. In Bangladesh, for example, it has become fashionable to execute atheist…

2016: The year bullshit was weaponized

This will almost certainly be my last post of 2016. Unless something so amazing, terrible, or just plain interesting to me happens between now and tomorrow night, I probably won't be posting again until January 2 or 3. Many bloggers like to do "end of year roundup"-type posts that list their best or most popular post, trends noted in 2016 relevant to their area of blogging interest, or predictions for the coming year as their last post of the year, but that's never really been my style. I don't remember the last time I did a post like that, and I'm too lazy today to bother to go and look it…

Bad idea, putting me on a poll

It's just a silly online poll, and I don't have a stake in how it comes out one way or the other, except for one thing: I must defeat Brad Pitt. I like the guy, and I've enjoyed his movies, and I'm happy that he's come out as an atheist, but you know…I'm looking forward to being able to go into the bedroom and tell the Trophy Wife™ that I'm better than Brad Pitt at something. And she will say, "I know, baby, I know," no matter what, but it would just be nice to have some statistical backing for the claim. Atheist of the Year 2009 Richard Dawkins 32% Bill Maher 15% PZ Myers 17% Greg…