Conservatives
mikethemadbiologist | July 30, 2006The NY Times has a very interesting article about an evangelical minister who decided that subordinating his religious beliefs to the Republican Party and the Holy Defender of the Blessed Blastocyst was a bad idea:
After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called "The Cross and the Sword" in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a "Christian nation" and stop glorifying American military campaigns.
"When the church…
mikethemadbiologist | July 29, 2006...to give Paris Hilton a tax cut on money she never earned. Over at DailyKos, David Grossman comments on the Republicans' attempt to permanently repeal the estate tax:
So the Republicans in the U.S. House stayed up until almost 2am tonight to give Paris Hilton some extra money (there's something funny about millions of dollars being showered on Paris Hilton in the dead of night, but I'll leave that joke for someone else to finish).
How much extra money? Try a cool $91,089,200.
Read the whole post to find out more (and try not to vomit).
Any Democrat who fails to use this for political…
mikethemadbiologist | July 28, 2006See, I can actually say nice things about Republicans (dogmatic conservatives, on the other hand...although I always did think Jack Kemp was honest and sincere, if crazy). Former Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey has called for a Democratic Congress.
No, I'm not making this up. His statement, by way of Seeing the Forest, is below:
THE NEED FOR A DEMOCRAT MAJORITY IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN 2007
I have found it difficult in the past several weeks to reach a conclusion as to what a citizen should do with respect to this fall's forthcoming congressional elections. I am a…
mikethemadbiologist | July 28, 2006
(from firedoglake)
By way of Pam at Pandagon comes this story of the moral values of the 'heartland', which is apparently a place where gays are considered to be the moral equivalent of Nazis. A store owner hung a rainbow flag outside of his inn/restaurant. He had purchased the flag for his son at a Wizard of Oz museum, because his son thought it reminded him of "somewhere over the rainbow." Up rose the good Christians of Meade, KS (italics mine):
Knight says the radio station has called him threatening to remove the restaurant's commercials if he does not remove the flag. A local pastor…
mikethemadbiologist | July 25, 2006400,000 to-be-discarded embryos? The Mad Biologist has a very evil, nefarious, and sinister idea for them:
(photo from here)
They're mine. All mine! I will rule the world galaxy! I will adopt a menacing deep, baritone voice!
It's really hard to take the blastocyst liberationists very seriously...
mikethemadbiologist | July 24, 2006
Former enthusiastic neocon supporters running for cover heroically deploying towards a rearward area.
Perhaps it's just human nature, but I've always disliked Johnny-Come-Latelys. It's never made sense to me how those of us who figured out that the Iraq War was going to become a pandimensional clusterfuck (and didn't require special intel or brilliant intellect to do so) are still denigrated and not taken seriously, while those who got it wrong and now admit their mistake are still considered 'serious' thinkers. And not in the sense of 'seriously stupid.'
Billmon nails exactly what I…
mikethemadbiologist | July 23, 2006From Paul Waldman's book Being Right Is Not Enough--What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success:
But the stance of those in the Radical Religious Right toward homosexuality is unlikely to change anytime soon. Since they believe the Bible absolutely prohibits homosexuality, they don't see any room for compromise. As American opinion evolves, their views will grow further and further from the mainstream. Whether it takes ten years or forty years, there will come a day when gay Americans have full legal rights, and antigay prejudice becomes a hallmark of fringe thought. At some…
mikethemadbiologist | July 22, 2006One of the implicit assumptions regarding Iraq and the whole militarization of U.S. society is that the bellicose neocons are manly, and those of us who opposed invading the wrong country the Iraq War were wimpy or 'girly'. This is one of the oldest tricks in the facist playbook: the 'feminization' of your opponent. So when Chris Matthews says this, I'm starting to think the wheel really has turned:
We've killed 50,000 Iraqi's in a war that was supposed to be a two-day wonder. When are we going to notice that the neocons don't know what they're talking about. They're not looking at this…
mikethemadbiologist | July 20, 2006
In a post over at Media Matters about the right-wing's attempt to figure out if the Israeli-Hezbollah-Palestinian-My Uncle Morty conflict is World War III, IV, or V(?!), Larry Kudlow rises above the herd with this spectacular piece of ass-hattery (italics mine):
Lawrence Kudlow, discussing a book by former deputy undersecretary of defense Jed Babbin, said "World War IV is the terror war, and war with China would be World War V.
Note Kudlow said "would." Not could. Not might be. But would. How batshit loopy do you have to be to have planned out all of our future wars? Or as Juan…
mikethemadbiologist | July 20, 2006This is a modified post from the old digs, moved over here to the new site.
Stem cell research has always been a very personal issue for me: a close family relative is a type I diabetic (this is an autoimmune form of diabetes caused by the body's destruction of the pancreatic cells that produce insulin, and is not related to diet). Over the years, I have watched this relative, despite her best efforts, suffer various side effects, ranging from heart disease (despite no family history and an excellent diet) to a detached retina (another common side effect of type I diabetes). And in one way,…
mikethemadbiologist | July 19, 2006
(via Shakespeare's Sister)
I've always found it odd that Christian conservatives constantly claim victim status, particularly when so many of them, when it comes to foreign policy are so convinced that will can overcome anything. It's sort of like Norman Vincent Pearle but with fighter bombers. Then again, logical consistency isn't exactly the Christian conservatives' strong suit.
The latest hue and cry of discrimination revolves around pharmacists and other healthcare workers who refuse to provide legal procedures and medications such as contraception and birth control. Shakespeare's…
mikethemadbiologist | July 18, 2006At the old digs, I asked about Sen. George Allen of VA:
Can we please have presidential candidates who are not psychological basketcases? ... Is it possible for the Republicans to nominate someone who is not cracked in the head? Please? Just in case.
(Shakespeare's Sister, by the way, thinks not).
By way of Mondo at the Carpetbagger Report comes this charming childgood tale of James Dobson, right-wing nut and conservative 'Christian' extraordinare:
Myrtle Dobson was an amiable and social woman, but she didn't hesitate to whack her son with a shoe or belt when she felt it was required.…
mikethemadbiologist | July 15, 2006
There has been lots of discussion on the internets about a Department of Education study that compared fourth and eigth grade reading and mathematics skills in the U.S. (The full report in pdf format is here). While many have been concentrating on good news for the public schools--that there's no overall difference between public and private schools once social factors are considered--what intrigued me was the poor performance of the conservative Christian schools (note: Catholic and Lutheran schools were not counted as conservative Christian). After adjusting for social factors,…
mikethemadbiologist | July 15, 2006
(by way of Shakespeare's Sister)
...and aren't you against this sort of thing.
I just can't help myself...
mikethemadbiologist | July 12, 2006
So, an evangelical group has come out against the National Religious Campaign Against Torture because it's focusing on Guantanamo, and not repressive regimes. There are several reasons why that's an idiotic argument to oppose the NRCAT:
Just because another country does more torture or more awful forms of torture does not excuse our behavior.
If your country is engaged in torture, ultimately it's your responsibility to stop it, particularly if you live in a democracy.
Like most of the batshit loopy 23% percent, they do not actually state what should be done about Guantanamo--except to deny…
mikethemadbiologist | July 12, 2006From the National Journal comes this story about pay raises (and the lack thereof) in the Bush White House (italics mine):
President Bush's most senior aides -- the ones who hold the coveted title of "assistant to the president" -- recently received a $4,200 cost-of-living bump-up in compensation and now earn a top pay rate of $165,200, according to an internal White House list of staff salaries. The list was compiled by the administration for the year that ended June 30 and is displayed both alphabetically, and by dollar ranking, below. Those at the bottom of the White House staff pay scale…
mikethemadbiologist | July 11, 2006You're probably more familiar with Ben Stein as a movie actor, but, believe it or not, he's actually a moderately conservative economist--one definitely in the neo-liberal mold. So I was shocked by his last NY Times column: he sounded like a shrill librul.
First, he laments CEO salaries:
When I was a lad, the chief executive of a major public company was paid about 30 or 40 times what a line worker was paid. Now the multiple is about 180. What did they do in the executive suite to become so great? Upon what meat do they feed? Why, as we are being killed by foreign competition, do we need to…
mikethemadbiologist | July 9, 2006
Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham in 2003, who received $2.4 million in bribes and is now a felon (photo from Vanity Fair). Not only is he corrupt, but he's a dork too.
mikethemadbiologist | July 9, 2006I'm trying to move posts from the old site that I plan on linking to in the future. Believe it or not, this will have something to do with microbiology. From the archives of the Mad Biologist (originally published May 28, 2006):
(image from Pandagon)
Amanda has an excellent post about the Right and its obsession with 'will.' If only the U.S. had the will to prevail in Iraq, it would do so. Of course, things like adequate supplies, good tactical and strategic positions, and an intelligent strategy have nothing to do with success. There's an old military adage: amateurs study tactics,…
mikethemadbiologist | July 8, 2006I suppose the Republicans have concluded that the best way to solve the problem of global warming is to destroy the government agencies that collect the data and fund the research in this area. The latest target: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. For a full report on what the Republicans want to do, the Friends of NOAA has a very helpful pdf; for the short version, this MyDD.com diary has a good summary. Basically, every area of NOAA is slashed, but this particular cut takes the cake for both pettiness and short-sighted idiocy (italics mine):
The House Mark does…