Conservatives
mikethemadbiologist | September 27, 2006Sen. George "Macaca" Allen (R-VA) is quite possibly one sick puppy:
Shelton said he also remembers a disturbing deer hunting trip with Allen on land that was owned by the family of Billy Lanahan, a wide receiver on the team. After they had killed a deer, Shelton said he remembers Allen asking Lanahan where the local black residents lived. Shelton said Allen then drove the three of them to that neighborhood with the severed head of the deer. "He proceeded to take the doe's head and stuff it into a mailbox," Shelton said.
If this is substantiated further, it's clear the man is missing circuits…
mikethemadbiologist | September 27, 2006And one of my favorite liberal wonks was wearing glasses while doing so. That has to hurt. Seriously, Waldman did a brilliant thing: he shifted the discussion onto his terms. Instead of the storyline being "liberals are mean to Bill O'Loofa O'Reilly", it became "why can't conservatives respond to criticism in any other way than crying 'Smear'"? Nicely done.
(link here)
A completely unrelated aside: Our Benevolent Seed Overlords want a picture of the Mad Biologist for their own nefarious purposes. So I ask you: what do you think a Mad Biologist would look like? Click here to offer your…
mikethemadbiologist | September 26, 2006Fellow ScienceBlogling Chris Mooney comped me a copy of the second edition of his book, The Republican War on Science, and I have finally managed to get around to writing a review of it. Here's the short version: buy this book.
It details exactly what the Bush Administration has done to U.S. science. Chris also does the truth a service; he refuses to engage in Compulsive Centrist Disorder. Yes, here are idiots on the Left who hold anti-science beliefs, but the predominant threat--one that holds the reigns of power in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches--is from the Right…
mikethemadbiologist | September 21, 2006Ed Brayton describes the support of intelligent design creationism by the Republican candidate for governor of Michigan. Says the hopeful candidate:
I would like to see the ideas of intelligent design -- that many scientists are now suggesting is a very viable alternative theory -- that that theory and others that would be considered credible would expose our students to more ideas, not less.
If by "credible", he means utterly unsubstantiated and without a single testable hypothesis, then, yes, intelligent design creationism is "credible."
Moron.
mikethemadbiologist | September 21, 2006 In the November general election, South Dakota will have a referendum that could overturn its law that bans abortions, even where the woman has been raped, is the victim of incest, would suffer long-term medical problems, or would be unable to have future children. The first of the political ads are running, so I thought this post would be appropriate (and certainly in the style my readers have come to expect....). From the archives:
Well, that got your attention, didn't it?
Of course, I realize that it's utterly inappropriate to introduce religion into the abortion debate.
(Thankfully,…
mikethemadbiologist | September 21, 2006
No, this post isn't about William Shatner albums. Over at Orcinus, there's a great post about the rendition (rendering? My torture lexicon is rusty...) of terrorist suspects to other countries. Here's the description of the U.S. citizens who live near the airbases and facilities used to conduct these operations:
But the two most interesting places were the rural town of Smithfield and Kinston down the road, where there's another airstrip that a company called Aero Contractors uses. Aero is the company that flies many of these missions for the CIA. We went there and talked to a pilot who…
mikethemadbiologist | September 15, 2006From Kristine at Amused Muse:
People are always pointing at scientists and screaming, "Why don't you find a cure for cancer?" Well, now that scientists finally have, loopy-loo fundies deny the treatment for their daughters! Screw them. Not only should this vaccination be required for all young girls, any parent who seriously thinks that this "encourages immorality" should have his or her children taken away. They aren't fit to be parents.
Pregnancy as punishment, cancer as coercion. Welcome to Bush's America.
mikethemadbiologist | September 14, 2006With all the Neville Chamberlain talk flying around, the neocons are right about one thing: there has been too much appeasement. Appeasement of Bush, that is. tristero writes about the rattling of sabers--and nukes--at Iran (boldface mine):
As for Iran, let me explain: YOU may think it's highly unlikely - the famous 1% probability, as a commenter mentioned - that Bush won't use nukes and is setting us up for conventional warfare. That is because you are sane and sensible. But the Bush administration thinks it's very likely. Hersh is alarmingly clear that there was close to a mutiny at…
mikethemadbiologist | September 8, 2006Just in case you thought that maybe the U.S. wasn't being run by crazy people, a new book claims that Karl Rove "enlisted a trio of clergymen to exorcise Hillary Rodham Clinton's left-wing spirit when he moved into her West Wing office in 2001." The story is corroborated by Deal Hudson, a former Fordham University professor and Republican political operative.
Sen. Hillary Clinton summed up the reaction that any person who is not completely fucking insane would have, saying, "I'm speechless." It's hard to make a politician speechless. It's even harder to make the Mad Biologist so...
My…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2006Or as Lovecraft would have put it:
Aaaiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Iran R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aaaiii!!!!
Fareed Zakaria sums up the silliness of comparing Iran to Nazi Germany:
Can everyone please take a deep breath?
To review a bit of history: in 1938, Adolf Hitler launched what became a world war not merely because he was evil but because he was in complete control of the strongest country on the planet. At the time, Germany had the world's second largest industrial base and its mightiest army. (The American economy was bigger, but in 1938 its army was smaller than that of Finland.) This is…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2006In a move to outsource and privatize everything in the federal government, ABC has formed a private-public partnership with the Bush Administration to spew Republican propaganda (it's bad enough when the Republicans do it on the taxpayer's dime). John Aravosis writes:
Good God, and they're sending a copy of the film and a letter to 100,000 American high school teachers written by - who? - the REPUBLICAN chair of the 9/11 Commission. Not the Democrat and the Republican, just the Republican. And a Republican whose son is running for the US Senate seat in New Jersey - oh yeah, no conflict…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2006Brad DeLong is one of those really smart people who I would never want to be really angry at me when the facts don't support me. Why? Because he writes bits like this:
There is a certain horrifying fascination in watching the right wing's minions and useful idiots in the press attempt to attack Paul Krugman on matters of economic substance. The Mickey Kauses, the Andrew Sullivans, the Donald Luskins, the Danny Okrents--all seem unarmed men in a battle of wits, or perhaps an air assault by a circular firing squad of flying attack monkeys.
Ouch. Another pissed off expert.
mikethemadbiologist | September 1, 2006
Here's what the mayor of Salt Lake City, UT said yesterday. You would think he's one of those Northeast liberal elitist, latte-drinkin' types...
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Jackson:
A patriot is a person who loves his or her country.
Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation - and for our world?
And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation's leaders tell us the truth?
Let's hear it: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"
Let no one deny we are patriots. We…
mikethemadbiologist | August 30, 2006There's a reason I've been writing about Confederate racist wannabee and VA senator George Allen so much. He's not an outlier in the Republican Party, but part and parcel of it. Now, there are new revelations about his ties to the white supremacist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens, the successor organization to the segregationist White Citizens Council:
In 1996, when Governor Allen entered the Washington Hilton Hotel to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative movement organizations, he strode to a booth at the entrance of the…
mikethemadbiologist | August 29, 2006
I'm always astonished how so many people can think that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, that the sun revolves around the earth, or that intelligent design is a valid theory. Another idiocy that can joined this esteemed list is the belief that Social Security will go bankrupt.
Bob Kerrey and Warren Rudman have an op-ed piece in the Washington Post about getting the deficit under control where once again they claim that entitlements are going to increase out of control. First, they confuse the issue by conflating (and combining) Social Security and Medicare. This is incredibly…
mikethemadbiologist | August 28, 2006It just gets weirder and weirder with Sen. George "Macaca" Allen (R-VA). It now appears that this wannabee Confederate racist is descended from a distinguished Sephardic Jewish family:
Allen's own African heritage casts a different light on the matter. Though Etty Allen seems not to have dwelled on it during her years in the spotlight as a coach's wife, she comes from the august Sephardic Jewish Lumbroso family. Her father, who was the main importer of wines and liquors in Tunis -- including the Cinzano brand -- was known in France, where he lived after World War II, as part of the family,…
mikethemadbiologist | August 28, 2006The NY Times has an article about how real wages are not keeping pace with productivity increases. Quoth the Grey Lady:
With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers.
That situation is adding to fears among Republicans that the economy will hurt vulnerable incumbents in this year's midterm elections even though overall growth has been healthy for much of the last five years.
The median hourly wage for American workers…
mikethemadbiologist | August 27, 2006King Cranky and Shakes are right: if George Bush doesn't want us to dwell on New Orleans, then it's probably a good idea for us to do so. Regarding New Orleans, Publius asks a very simple question:
So why does no one care?
That's the essential question in a nutshell. Here's my short answer: people stopped caring about New Orleans when they realized that the institutions most capable of handling this crisis would not do a fucking thing about it. Looking back on my posts about the New Orleans disaster, I should have realized New Orleans would become a full-blown pandimensional clusterfuck…
mikethemadbiologist | August 24, 2006...and the Christopaths want to kill it anyway. There is a method that could be used to harvest embryonic stem cells that does not harm development of the embryo:
The new technique would be performed on a two-day-old embryo, after the fertilized egg has divided into eight cells, known as blastomeres. In fertility clinics, where the embryo is available outside the woman in the normal course of in vitro fertilization, one of these blastomeres can be removed for diagnostic tests, like for Down syndrome.
The embryo, now with seven cells, can be implanted in the woman if no defect is found. Many…
mikethemadbiologist | August 22, 2006
(Michael Barone guarding his glass house from the Elitofacist hordes; photo from here)
...because you never know where they'll show up.
Conservative pundit Michael Barone writes about those who oppose the failed Bush Iraq policies (italics mine):
We have always had our covert enemies, but their numbers were few until the 1960s. But then the elite young men who declined to serve in the military during the Vietnam War set out to write a narrative in which they, rather than those who obeyed the call to duty, were the heroes. They have propagated their ideas through the universities, the…