Conservatives
mikethemadbiologist | August 12, 2010By way of Digby, I came across this poll of white attitudes towards various ethnicities (including whites) based on self-identified Tea Party support (note: respondents were only from four states, NV, MO, GA, and NC). One of things that struck me while looking at the data (pdf and pdf) was the extent to which whites who identified strongly with the Tea Party didn't trust other whites.
72% of skeptics of the Tea Party thought other whites were trustworthy, while Tea Partiers thought only 49% of whites were trustworthy (p = 0.0022). The other significant result, and which is puzzling is…
mikethemadbiologist | August 11, 2010Or I suppose I could have used a monosyllabic word, such as lies. I realize Glenn Beck lying, to children no less, is hardly news, but it is worth knocking down one ludicrous claim:
"I learned on your show that Thomas Jefferson actually signed a lot of his documents 'in Christ,' but a lot of people say that he was a deist, so is he a Christian or a deist?"
Well, Jefferson did sign many government documents 'in Christ' because he was legally required to do so (italics mine):
Barton bases this lie on only one document -- a document that was nothing more than a preprinted form required to be…
mikethemadbiologist | August 7, 2010Can we once and for all recognize that movement conservatives do not believe in the fair exchange of ideas?
A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives. An undercover investigation has exposed this effort, which has been in action for more than one year.
"The more liberal stories that were buried the better chance conservative stories have to get to the front page. I'll continue to bury their…
mikethemadbiologist | July 27, 2010Well, we can always hope. In a recent column about global warming, Paul Krugman makes this ancillary point (italics mine):
Nor is this evidence tainted by scientific misbehavior. You've probably heard about the accusations leveled against climate researchers -- allegations of fabricated data, the supposedly damning e-mail messages of "Climategate," and so on. What you may not have heard, because it has received much less publicity, is that every one of these supposed scandals was eventually unmasked as a fraud concocted by opponents of climate action, then bought into by many in the news…
mikethemadbiologist | July 12, 2010Like Digby, I had the same thought pop into my head when I read this LA Times story about the continued suppression of scientific findings in government agencies: this is the work of Bush-era 'burrowers'--conservative apparatchiks who refuse to carry out the mission of the agency. What I don't get is this bit (italics mine):
Officials at those agencies maintain that scientists are allowed and encouraged to speak out if they believe a policy is at odds with their findings.
The director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, John P. Holdren, said in a statement last month…
mikethemadbiologist | June 29, 2010Scott Brown apparently thinks helping conservative Southern senators is more important than helping Massachusetts:
A Senate bill that extended unemployment benefits, funded summer jobs and provided cash to balance state budgets is no more after a Republican-led filibuster couldn't be broken. Senator Scott Brown supported the fillibuster - he once voted against one - to prevent increasing the deficit.
The Senate bill provided $700 million in federal aid to Massachusetts that was expected to help fund the fiscal 2011 budget. Sen. John Kerry said it was a "terrible blow" to the state to lose it…
mikethemadbiologist | June 27, 2010By way of ScienceBlogling Ed Brayton, we discover that the Right Reverend Schenck is back in action, anointing political structures hither and yon. From Ed (italics mine):
This week begins the confirmation hearings for President Obama's nominee to the United States Supreme Court, Elena Kagan. I waited for that announcement before making one of my own: A firm foundation of prayer has been laid for this confirmation process.
Today, Wednesday morning, Rev. Pat Mahoney and I went to the US Senate Office Building across the street from our ministry center.Upon arrival, we proceeded to the hearing…
mikethemadbiologist | June 26, 2010If a Democrat said something as half as derogatory about someone's background, he or she would be pilloried non-stop as an 'out-of-touch, liberal elitist.' But if John Kasich, former Republican Congressman who is running for governor of Ohio, is any guide, IOKIYAR is still operative:
The first line of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's campaign biography boasts the Democratic governor is "the son of a steelworker" who "never imagined he'd be able to go to college."
Indeed, Strickland's humble upbringing is just the type campaigns love to highlight, and never more so during an economic climate that…
mikethemadbiologist | June 24, 2010The Texas GOP--from the same state party that gives Representative Joe "I'm sorry" Barton--has gone out of its mind. Someone over at Media Matters, who clearly needs to be given hazard pay, looked through the Texas Republican Party platform. While there is so much stupid in there, for me, this one takes the cake:
Further, we urge Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights.
Um, then what should the Court do? Argue over whether blacks get three-fifths of a vote? This is insane, and it's the only way people like…
mikethemadbiologist | June 21, 2010Well thank goodness for that. It must be perfectly fine then, I suppose. Nevada Republican Senate candidate, Sharron Angle supported a prison anti-drug program that raised some controversy due to its ties to Scientology. Angle, in an interview, replied (italics mine):
Seeking to "clear the record," Angle told us "I am not even sure that the Church of Scientology fits into it at all. You have to make some quantum leaps here."
She noted "the program itself is a multifaceted program, and it had two protocols: one in the area of withdrawals, and it was a natural withdrawal system. As s you…
mikethemadbiologist | May 26, 2010Amanda Marcotte has a must-read post about Rand Paul, and why we shouldn't just sweep his libertarianism under the rug. I'll get to Amanda in a bit, but, to explain the title, I want to first provide some context by way of deceased Republican political operative Lee Atwater:
You start out in 1954 by saying, "N-gger, n-gger, n-gger." By 1968 you can't say "n-gger" -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally…
mikethemadbiologist | May 20, 2010Thankfully, in principle, it's reversible. The Texas State Board of Education has approved new history standards. Because Texas is a major book buyer, this will have far-reaching effects on the curricula of other states (I haven't been able to find out if this will affect Massachusetts. Intelligent Designer, I hope not). The proposed changes (pdf) are farcial to anyone in the Coalition of the Sane--which, unfortunately, excludes the majority of the Board of Education. While they haven't released the final adoptions, what the Board sent for review is absurd. You can't read a single page…
mikethemadbiologist | May 15, 2010You might have heard by now about the True Republican PAC television ad for the Republican gubernatorial primary in Alabama that attacks one Republican candidate, Bradley Byrne, for supporting evolution (TEH DARWINISMZ! AIIEEE!!!). As far as I can tell Byrne is a 'moderate' in that he thinks both evolution and creationism should be taught ('teaching the controversy'), whereas the True Republican PAC is full-on batshit loony. I wrote "as far as I can tell" because, after reading Byrne's statement, he's, well, kinda out of his fucking mind too:
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and that…
mikethemadbiologist | May 14, 2010The COMPETES Act renewal, which would provide additional funding for scientific research and education, and is targeted towards technological development and commercialization was dealt a blow yesterday as Republicans pulled more obstructionist crap. Before the Republican Party was completely taken over by the enraged Uruk-hai wing of their party, they would have not opposed this. But movement conservativism means party before country (italics mine):
House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., Thursday blasted what he described as a "cynical" motion to recommit…
mikethemadbiologist | May 10, 2010Oy. Anyone who thinks Jews are smarter than other people, well, that's because we gave all of the stupid to Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve). Last week, in The New York Times, Murray had an op-ed about charter schools wherein he scribbled about the failure to find differences in performance between charter and public schools:
So let's not try to explain them away. Why not instead finally acknowledge that standardized test scores are a terrible way to decide whether one school is better than another? This is true whether the reform in question is vouchers, charter schools, increased…
mikethemadbiologist | May 7, 2010Impeach Cuccinelli. Impeach him now (to steal Brad DeLong's phrase). Earlier this week, I discussed Virginia Attorney General Cucinelli's subpoena envy harassment of climatologist Michael Mann. ScienceBlogling Tim Lambert describes what this fishing expedition entails:
Cuccinelli isn't just asking for documents relating to his research grants but all correspondence Mann had with Caspar Ammann, Raymond Bradley, Keith Briffa, John Christy, Edward Cook, Thomas Crowley, Roseanne D'Arrigo, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, David Douglass, Jan Esper, Melissa Free, Chris de Freitas, Vincent Grey [sic],…
mikethemadbiologist | May 3, 2010For those who haven't heard rightwing extremist Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has subpoenaed all of the documents related to climatologist Michael Mann's state-funded research while Mann was at the University of Virginia (italics mine):
In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli's office commands the university to produce a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann's receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while Mann-- now director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State-- was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.
If Cuccinelli…
mikethemadbiologist | April 28, 2010Like InstaPutz, I too am tempted to do horrible things if I read another post about the 'epistemic closure of the conservative mind' (besides, the obvious joke writes itself). Instead, I want to discuss Marc Ambinder's recent post, "Have Conservatives Gone Mad?" To his credit, he's one of the first 'big names' in political punditry to raise what regular readers of this blog already know: the conservative movement is batshit loony. Ambinder also makes this very good point:
Can anyone deny that the most trenchant and effective criticism of President Obama today comes not from the right but…
mikethemadbiologist | April 21, 2010"Will these be enough chickens for an angioplasty? No. Ok, then. Can I get a couple of weeks of chemo then?"
(from )
Sadly, I'm not kidding. Republican candidate for Nevada's senate seat Sue Lowden thinks bartering farm animals is a way to control healthcare costs. No, really:
A couple weeks ago our Eric Kleefeld came up with video showing Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden suggesting that "bartering" for medical care would be a good way to rein in spiraling health care costs.
I mocked her with the headline: "I bid three chickens for that MRI!" But I sort of figured she'd rethink that…
mikethemadbiologist | April 20, 2010Last week, The AP described what living the life of Palin is like:
Among the perks laid out in the contract, the former Alaska governor will fly first class from Anchorage to California - if she flies commercial. If not, "the private aircraft MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger ...," the contract specifies.
Palin also must be provided with a suite and two single rooms in a deluxe hotel near the campus in Turlock in the Central Valley. During her speech, her lectern must be stocked with two water bottles and bendable straws.
I like bendy straws too! People seem shocked that she's earning so much…