Policy and Politics
tfk | June 2, 2008The Associated Press reports:
Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and a national co-chairman of Clinton's campaign, said Sunday: "It does appear to be pretty clear that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee. After Tuesday's contests, she needs to acknowledge that he's going to be the nominee and quickly get behind him."
Indeed.
tfk | June 2, 2008The National Examiner talked politics with the National Spelling Bee participants:
Texas’ own Raymond Soriano, 14, remembered that “Bush misspelled ‘business’ one time. That’s embarrassing.” Eleven-year-old Vincent Medina from Florida told us, “Anyone can out-spell Bush.” Jonathan Schut, a 13-year-old from Canada, thinks he can out-spell Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice too. Those are some big words for middle schoolers.
Many participants also shared their thoughts about the upcoming presidential elections.
Hannah Gerdes, a 14-year-old Ohioan, said, “I don’t think Hillary Clinton has a chance…
tfk | May 31, 2008I used to tout every bit of media interest I've gotten, but lately it's hardly seemed worth it. Press outreach is part of my job, so a quote in a newspaper in Florida, or a radio interview in Pennsylvania, doesn't do much for the ego any more.
I will note with interest this article at conservative news site CNSnews, relating to anti-science bills that have been introduced in several states. The author talks to Expelled producer Walt Ruloff, Expelled star Carolyn Crocker, Disco. 'tuter Casey Luskin and the legislator who introduced Louisiana's version of the noxious bill. Pleasantly enough…
tfk | May 30, 2008Remember this?:
Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk radio host and bestselling author, has joined the Discovery Institute in the role of senior fellow. The position cements a longstanding friendship and recognizes a commonality of values and projects across a spectrum of issues.
“Michael Medved is an intellectual entrepreneur, a political and cultural polymath with great insights, judgment and wit. We are delighted to have this new relationship with him,” said Discovery Institute president Bruce Chapman. …
Chapman saluted Medved “as the national radio host–make that ‘media host’–who is…
tfk | May 29, 2008On June 3, Californians will vote. There are a bunch of jackasses running for local offices, all clogging my mailbox with their fearmongering. I haven't sorted through the candidates, and their fliers all go into the recycling anyway. I'll work that out, though, with endorsements before the election.
There are also a couple of local initiatives, both of which just update small local taxes, and I'll be voting yes on measures F and J. I'll grumble a bit about the stupidity of a system of government which requires that minor tweaks like this constantly being stuck on the ballot to be decided…
tfk | May 29, 2008Call Arnold To Tell Him You Totally Support Gay Marriage, Or Else:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is receiving large numbers of phone calls from the supporters of "Limits on Marriage" (The constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage in California ) about his comment to a group of Log Cabin Republicans that he wouldn't support a constitutional amendment.
We don't want him to go back on his word. He must hear from us too. The aide I spoke to yesterday was so glad I called as most of his calls were from the "other side." Now it is automated and you will not talk to anyone, just push the…
tfk | May 29, 2008Nature's Climate Feedback blog points out that the post-World War II cooling is a mirage:
The 1945 temperature drop is nothing else than the result of the sudden but uncorrected change from warm US measurements to cooler UK measurement…
That’s a rather trivial explanation for a long-standing conundrum, so why has it taken so long to find out? Because identifying the glitch was less simple than it might appear, says David Thompson of the State University of Colorado in Boulder. The now digitized logbooks of neither US nor British ships contain any information on how the sea surface temperature…
tfk | May 29, 2008Lindsay alerts us to the death of Utah Phillips. Not a great singer, but a great story-teller, and a repository of a quirky part of American labor history. He'll be missed.
tfk | May 27, 2008Is Barack Obama Muslim?:
No.
The internet: cause of and answer to all of life's problems.
tfk | May 27, 2008Before the weekend, I had a half-composed post about Hillary Clinton's asinine invocations of RFK's assassination, but I wasn't done when weekend fun-n-games began, and now it's dated and irrelevant. I only mention it because I would've linked to Atrios's excellent and correct advice to the Clintonites: Stop Sticking Finger in Brain. The post had the same title as today's and quoted the observation that "the various historical comparisons the Clinton campaign is making are in the 'isn't it great that people are so stupid that they'll swallow this horseshit' category. It did not take her…
tfk | May 27, 2008
I was out and about yesterday, but my belated Memorial Day memorial is to say, as I did last year, "On this day when we remember our war dead, it's worth looking back at the when and the how of the … US military fatalities in Iraq." Then it was 3455 dead, now we're up to 4083 American soldiers dead, with a total of 4394 fallen coalition soldiers.
The count at icasualties.org has us on the verge of 30,000 wounded US soldiers, a sum which does not include subtle psychological errors, or wounds too minor to require evacuation. This is a shocking and devastating sum. As has been noted…
tfk | May 23, 2008Nitpicker's Terry Welch puts John McCain in his place:
I'm bothered by John McCain's response to Barack Obama, who pointed out that Webb's remodeled G.I. Bill is something McCain should get behind.…
I feel a true disdain for noncommissioned officers in what McCain is saying when he says the bill would encourage "people not to choose to become noncommissioned officers." Does McCain really believe those who choose to remain in the military and serve as NCOs only do it because they don't have a chance to go to college? Does he really think money is the only thing that makes a man or woman want…
tfk | May 22, 2008Coral Ridge Ministries asked their members a question:
How dangerous are the following to the spiritual health of America?
Very
Somewhat
Not very
The ACLU and similar groups
96
3
1
Pro-homosexual indoctrination
95
4
1
Abortion
93
6
1
Islamic terrorism
91
8
1
Hollywood
89
10
1
News Media
87
12
1
Darwinism/evolution
85
14
1
Cults and false religion
82
16
2
Atheism
82
16
2
Courts
81
18
1
Apathetic/uninformed Christians
79
20
1
Colleges and Universities
78
21
1
Public education (K-12)
69
29
2
Congress
63
35
2
C'mon atheists, get on the stick! You…
tfk | May 22, 2008Former congressman Jim Ryun's baby boy Ned opines on marriage equality in California. He calls for state and federal constitutional amendments, saying:
if the other side on this debate wants to push their agenda down our throats thru the judicial system, we push back.
But what, exactly, is being pushed down his throat? How does it affect him whether a gay couple has the right to call themselves husbands or wives, or to get the benefits afforded to married heterosexual couples?
We can set aside the various anti-constitutional blathering about how courts shouldn't overturn laws that have…
tfk | May 20, 2008Is Expelled the 5th highest-grossing political documentary, or is it just gross? Here are the inflation-adjusted gross takes of the leading political documentaries:
Fahrenheit 9/11 $135,552,029
Sicko $25,425,497
Bowling for Columbine $25,764,452
An Inconvenient Truth $24,146,461
Roger and Me $11,618,404
Expelled $7,486,000
Fog of War $4,901,894
You'll note that this differs in two ways from Denyse O'Leary's list. First, Expelled comes in 6th; second, Bowling for Columbine moves ahead of An Inconvenient Truth. The reason is simple, a dollar now is worth much less than a dollar was in 1989,…
tfk | May 19, 2008Neal Desai took first place in the contest. Desai is a 10th grader in Kansas City, MO's Pembroke High School, but clearly identifies as a Kansan, and the Alliance for Science assures me he lives in the Sunflower state.
The contest allowed students to address either of two topics: Agriculture and Evolution or Climate and Evolution. Desai's essay addresses agriculture, and especially the complex moral, economic and social consequences of plant breeding and the use of evolutionary biology to engineer lines of crops. "Because we, as farmers and scientists, were looking to create plants with '…
tfk | May 15, 2008Bush's Brain, aka Turd Blossom, comes to Wichita to help "Memory Pills" Roberts remember how to run a campaign. Apparently Bob Dole is back in Kansas, too, bringing his special brand of medicine to boost a different part of the Roberts campaign. Looks like he's scared of Jim Slattery.
Meanwhile, State Senator Donald Betts, challenging mother-hating Todd Tiahrt in the Kansas 4th, is featured on this MTV website.
And who else but George W. Bush, Mr. 27%, is heading out to stump for Dennis Moore's opponent. I hope he does as much good for Moore as his last-minute visit did for Nancy Boyda's…