ideology
clock | January 16, 2007 *N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences
/Downtown Raleigh/
**Thursday, January 18
"Flock of Dodos" screening with filmmaker, Randy Olson
7:00 p.m. Museum Auditorium
Free
*Filmmaker and Evolutionary Ecologist , Dr. Randy Olson, presents his
new film */Flock of Dodos/*: /*The Evolution / Intelligent Design Circus.*/
"Flock of Dodos" is the first feature-length documentary to present both
sides of the Intelligent Design / Evolution clash and tries to make
sense of the issue by visiting Olson's home state of Kansas. The film
digs below the surface of the debate by examining the language being
used by…
clock | January 9, 2007There is a new manuscript online which I will undoubtedly find interesting, I bet, once I find time to read its 52 pages (OK, double-spaced TXT with a long list of references and an Appendix of stats):
The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives: Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things They Leave Behind (pdf) by Dana R. Carney, John T. Jost, Samuel D. Gosling, Kate Niederhoffer and Jeff Potter.
ABSTRACT: Seventy-five years of theory and research on personality differences between political liberals and conservatives has produced a long list of dispositions, traits, and…
clock | January 5, 2007Here is a post exactly a year old (January 02, 2006)
------------------------------------------
There was an interesting discussion a few weeks ago on The Carpetbagger Report about the viability of third parties in the US political system.
Of course, the US system is officially a multi-party system. There are dozens of political parties out there, each with a name, a logo, a platform, elected officers, a newsletter, etc. Several have managed to field candidates in local and statewide elections. Greens, Libertarians and Reformists have had Presidential canidates and some impact during the…
clock | January 3, 2007If you do not know who Roper is, read this, this and this. A total fundie wingnut in charge of a large teaching hospital! Oy vey! I did not know that fact when I originally wrote this post, but this explains it....(From July 15, 2005)
----------------------------------------
Do you know what's wrong with the US health-care system? It was taken over by MBAs, meddling - again - in areas they know nothing about. They have implemented the "business model" of health-care, which is the most nonsensical way imaginable. Medicine never was, is not, should not be, and cannot be a business. It is…
clock | December 22, 2006So, why do Creationists and other quacks try so hard to sound all 'scienc-y'? (June 15, 2005)
---------------------------------
Check this guy out - Jim Pinkoski - in the posts AND in the comments here, here and here.
OK, he's a creationist, but he is not even trying to be consistently within ONE version of creationism. He freely switches between YEC and OEC and IDC and when asked ONLY for internal logical consistency, not even evidence, he starts using all caps and bold and calls everyone stupid and liars and exhibits all symptoms of a persecution complex. What gives? He appears…
clock | December 15, 2006More than a year ago (September 26, 2005), and what has changed?
-------------------------------------
The other day I saw (on a blog, from an e-mail? Don't remember now...) this article about a porn website on which our soldiers in Iraq exchange gory photos of mutilated Iraqi bodies for a free subscription to porn. War Pornography was published on a news website I was not familiar with, so I posted the link in the comments to a couple of good liberal blogs, asking for the verification of the story.
The next day, Nation published a shorter story on the same topic: The Porn of War, which…
clock | December 12, 2006When the Rockridge Insitute was first founded, there were forums on the site for a few months, which were then shut down. Today, the Institute starts a new blog/forum Rockridge Nation, "a community of progressives working to frame the issues and restore our values to the heart of public life. This blog will draw attention to some of the interesting questions, stories, and analysis that members of Rockridge Nation contribute."
clock | December 12, 2006Of Religion and Morality (December 02, 2005)
------------------------------------------
From I Am An Atheist, via Pratie Place, come these "commandments":
As an atheist you have a number of rights and responsibilities. These include (but are not limited to):
1. Have no gods.
2. Don't worship stuff.
3. Be polite.
4. Take a day off once in a while.
5. Be nice to folks.
6. Don't kill people.
7. Don't fool around on your significant other.
8. Don't steal stuff.
9. Don't lie about stuff.
10. Don't be greedy.
Remember, theists will condemn you for living by this code because you are doing…
clock | December 8, 2006Here's another topic seen through the Lakoffian looking glass (July 23, 2005):
-----------------------------------------------
Why is there a widespread belief that the difference between patriotism and nationalism is one of degree: loving one's country versus loving it even more? I think that the difference is not quantitative but qualitative - the phrase "love for one's country" used by the two kinds of people (patriots and nationalists) is based on very different meanings of the words "love", "for", "one" and "country".
I am assuming that this confusion arises from the fact that…
clock | December 7, 2006Amanda just reviewed Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma and also recently wrote a post on the same topic while under the influence of the book. I agree with her 100%, so go and read both posts.
I have read the book a couple of months ago and never found time to write a review of my own. I also remember that I finished the book on a Thursday afternoon - an important piece of information as it is on Thursday afternoons that there is a Farmers' Market here in Southern Village, barely a block from me. The first thing I did when I closed the book was to walk up to the Farmers' Market…
clock | December 3, 2006Neil's attitude towards vaginas is very positive.
Lindsay asserts that swearing is a fascinating philosophical topic.
Amanda debunks the old tired counter-arguments.
And many, many comments on all three threads will keep you busy for a while. Mind you, considering the topic, the language in those posts is NOT safe for work (or your work may not be safe for it, in which case you should quit).
clock | December 1, 2006An oldie but goodie for the connoisseurs of my long political rants (May 11, 2005):
--------------------------------------------
I am not an economist. Actually, I have no background in economics at all, if one ignores "Capitalism for Beginners" and "Marx for Beginners".
Like all Yugoslavs of my generation, I suffered through a couple of years of "Marxism" classes back in high school and college - classes that both teachers and students hated and did the absolute minimum. My high-school teacher gave us not-so-subtle hints about what she thought about it. When it was time for Marxism class,…
clock | November 29, 2006You know that Bush-apologists say crazy things. They get cited, chastized and mocked for it every day on the liberal blogs, after all. You may have also wandered, by mistake, onto comment threads on Little Green Foodballs, or The Corner, or other nasty Right-wing blogs and suspected that those people are not really 'all there'. And you may be aware that there is actually quite a large body of scientific evidence that Conservatives are Crazy and Dangerous, er, that conservative/authoritarian ideology correlates strongly with a number of (environmentally induced, i.e., through upbringing and…
clock | November 25, 2006Love for animals, even the dead ones, can sometimes go too far, dontcha think?
clock | November 22, 2006Dick Armey on NPR on Friday:
"Dialogues are what Democrats do, not what Republicans do. Only liberals think that if you've had a dialogue about something, you've done something."
Bill Hooker responds:
No matter how sure I am, no matter how careful I've been, no matter how smart I like to think I am, no matter how intellectually and emotionally satisfying I find my position, I might be wrong. And the corollary: if I am in fact wrong, I will be better off knowing about it, and preferably sooner rather than later so that I don't waste effort on mistakes that will later be pulled down around my…
clock | November 17, 2006Another one on psychology of political ideology (form April 08, 2005):
------------------------------------------
Ezra Klein, Majikthise and Revere of Effect Measure are having another round of discussion of the Lakoff's scheme.
One of the problems in this discussion, I think, is the confusion between Conservatism Vs. Liberalism as Systems of Government on one hand, and Conservatism vs. Liberalism as Personality Traits on the other.
Going back in history and arguing for or against the two archetypes by invoking Nixon, Reagan, McCarthy, Stalin, Hitler, Clinton, Carter, whoever...misses the…
clock | November 7, 2006I know, I know, Tuesdays are supposed to be for touchy-feely personal posts or navel-gazing posts about blogging, but today is an election, so I decided to go with provocative, hard-hitting stuff instead (originally posted on June 27, 2005, click on the clock-spiderweb to see the original):
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Back in 1991, before I left Belgrade, we were demonstrating against Milosevic. Many plackards and graffiti at the time compared Milosevic to Saddam. They were mostly NOT comparing him to Hitler. Why? Not because we liked Milosevic and did…
clock | November 3, 2006This post (from January 14, 2005) is how I see the political/ideological landscape in the USA.
----------------------------------------------------
We use the words Left and Right to describe Liberal and Conservative ideological and political leanings. The phrases stem, if I remember correctly, from the seating arrangement in the first French Parliament in the late 18th century. That was a long time ago. By now, most people realize that a straight Left/Right continuous line does not represent the ideological spectrum very well, yet the terms are still in constant use and, more importantly,…
clock | October 30, 2006A hat-trick from Orcinus:
Sara explores new frames in Adult Supervision. Funny, as well as insightful.
Dave on Science And Republicans and Those Republican values.