Policy and Politics
tfk | December 13, 2007Philll Kline to investigate AG Morrison's alleged improprieties.
I must say that I don't see Kline's logic here. Morrison may well have done something wrong, and if so, his enemies' best move would be to sit back and let him fall apart on his own, and to force the Democratic governor to follow through with an investigation of the Democratic AG. Either way, the allegations will tarnish Morrison's reputation, and if a fair investigation turns up nothing, his enemies won't look bad as a result. On the other hand, no one will take the result of Kline's investigation seriously. Morrison…
tfk | December 13, 2007Like various fancy bloggers and very serious people, I'm in favor of a debate among the presidential candidates about science and science policy.
Mark Hoofnagle has added some good points, addressing common concerns others have expressed about the idea.
Mike the Mad Biologist remains on the fence regarding:
If the debate revolved around the parties' and candidates' different approaches to address agreed-upon problems, then a debate might be useful (or at least harmless). But if there is no agreement on the problems or challenges, or for that matter, the fundamental nature of scientific…
tfk | December 12, 2007Greg Orman filed papers to run against Pat "Memory Pills" Roberts in the US Senate race. Roberts ran unchallenged 6 years ago, but will face a strong challenge this time.
AG Morrison is accused of carrying on an affair with a staffer from his days as Johnson County DA, who also alleges various sorts of impropriety, from witness tampering to sexual harassment. He acknowledges the affair but denies most of the particulars and all of the criminal claims, and has called for an independent investigation. Gov. Sebelius says that, if the charges are true, Morrison should step down. It's hard to…
tfk | December 10, 2007A bunch of bloggers and some other fancy folks have gotten together to endorse a simple request:
Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we, the undersigned, call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Medicine and Health, and Science and Technology Policy.
The hope is for a…
tfk | December 5, 2007For a while, I had this plan to follow up on my synecdoche post from a few days ago with a post about the revelation that the Bush administration actually knew that Iran stopped its nuclear program in 2003, and had known that for months, while still ratcheting up the rhetoric. I was going to make the point that the criticism of Bush in that regard is, again, synecdoche. The problem isn't that Bush is a warmonger who will do whatever he must to invade Middle Eastern nations, the problem is that the administration he represents is a pack of mendacious warmongers who would rather send our…
tfk | December 4, 2007It's been days since the public became aware that Chris Comer, an award-winning science educator in the Texas Education Agency, was fired for daring to forward an email announcement of a talk about why intelligent design isn't science. Coverage of the story has hit the AP wires, the pages of USA Today, the New York Times, Nature's news blog and many other sources. The Times editorial page even weighed in with concern over Ms. Comer's firing.
The Disco. Inst., usually quick to complain about any academic personnel decision touching on ID in the least way, has remained totally silent.…
tfk | December 2, 2007Noah Shachtman quotes General Petraeus:
In one part of the country, the military is reinforcing the society, building things; in another, it's breaking them — waging "major combat operations" that aren't all that different from what might have gone down in 2003.
As I understand it, the "Mission Accomplished" in the famous photo at the right was that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Dunno where I got that idea, since we're still "waging major combat operations."
This gets me to a point I've been pondering lately. Folks occasionally compare critics of President Bush to the…
tfk | November 29, 2007Chris Comer's firing has been getting a lot of attention, and one question keeps getting asked: "What kind of soul-torturing electronic missive about an academic talk could be so dastardly as to result in someone getting fired merely for forwarding it?"
Read on only if you are prepared to enter a Lovecraftian world filled with squishy tentacles and phrases like "expert testimony":
Subject: Barbara Forrest in Austin 11/2
Dear Austin-area friends of NCSE,
I thought that you might like to know that Barbara Forrest will be speaking on "Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse" in Austin on November 2,…
tfk | November 28, 2007The Austin American Statesman reports that Ms. Chris Comer, Texas state director of science curriculum, was fired after forwarding an email announcing a talk about intelligent design in the Austin area. The talk "Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse," was by Barbara Forrest, a historian and philosopher who has studied the ties between ID and earlier generations of creationism. It focused on her work in the Dover trial and her book Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.
The Statesman explains:
The call to fire Comer came from Lizzette Reynolds, who previously worked in the…
tfk | November 28, 2007Q: Mr. former Attorney General, would you be willing to be waterboarded:
A: "The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do"
Q: Indeed. Can you think of a less awkward way to phrase that?
A: Hmm.
Q: Friedrich Nietzsche famously claimed "That which does not kill us makes us stronger. "
A: Ah.
Q: Then again, he went insane.
tfk | November 28, 2007Julie MacDonald was a civil engineer inexplicably appointed to oversee the Fish and Wildlife Service. During her reign, she rewrote the scientific assessments of Interior Department biologists, sent confidential documents to a virtual friend on an online role-playing game and colluded with developers to block endangered species listings. Then just before the Democratic congress got to rake her over the coals, she quit, making her testimony moot.
Seven months later, some endangered species rulings she interfered with have been thrown out:
The Fish and Wildlife Service reversed seven…
tfk | November 27, 2007Billy Dembski, the Isaac Newton of Information, is in trouble. He took an animation that Harvard University commissioned from XVIVO, modified it in various ways (or used a copy someone else modified), put a new title on it, and used it without permission of either Harvard or XVIVO. It appears he requested permission, was denied, and used it anyway. Bad.
Alas, the video of the event gets blurry at the precise moment when it might or might not show the copyright and credits for the video, but the video he used certainly is modified without permission and is used without permission. Both of…
tfk | November 27, 2007When did conservatives become moral relativists? It was always a petty slander when they placed that label on liberals, but it seems so odd that the torture debate of the last month resulted in such unambiguous moral relativism from staunch conservatives.
For instance, Patterico responded to people's qualms about torture by writing "Admitting any ambiguity kills the sweet, sweet high of self-righteousness." And liked the line so much that he repeated it. Repeated it in the course of offering a circumstance which he claims makes torture acceptable.
Of course, the beef is that TORTURE IS…
tfk | November 15, 2007Their mistake was messing with the writers of the Daily Show:
They made a mistake messing with the occupant of this desk:
(Images from NOVA's Judgment Day, I'm the desk's current occupant.)
Alas, their only mistake was living in the path of this monster:
Now's a good time to donate to your favorite aid organization. I happen to favor Oxfam. Watch Chris's coverage for updates on Sidr's path across the subcontinent.
tfk | November 9, 2007Surely the Disco. Inst.'s Rob Crowther doesn't want to cast ID in the role of a murderer or a pedophile, but the parallel is inescapable in his latest whinge about NOVA's Judgment Day (airing next Tuesday on PBS):
First they dramatized the O.J. Simpson trial. Then they acted out Michael Jackson’s courtroom drama. This time around we have NOVA reenacting parts of the 2005 Dover intelligent design trial presided over by Judge John E. Jones.
Later, Crowther complains that the DI wanted to be in the show, but couldn't because, well, let's let them explain:
Initially, when we agreed to sit for…
tfk | November 8, 2007The 83 year-old author of the song which made Mr. Clean a household name died a few days ago. Cadden was a graduate of the KU journalism school; he still has family in the area. He worked in advertising from the 1950s through the '70s, and worked as a freelance composer and writer after that.
He will be missed by one and all, but especially by bald and balding men in need of role models.
tfk | November 8, 2007When told that Jim Ryun's fanboys have established a Second Life outpost for the former track star and ex-Congressman:
Ryun’s campaign spokeswoman was downright wary. “We don’t condone or support it. I don’t think we’re going to look at it anytime soon,” said Jackie Harrison. “It’s intense. You have to download something.”
Once upon a time, Jim Ryun was the fastest man on the planet. In 1967, he ran 1500 meters in 3:33.1, a record which stood for 7 years. He worked hard to get the level of talent and skill that took, and went to three Olympic games along the way. I imagine that was pretty…
tfk | November 4, 2007"The object of torture is torture".
No Attorney General is better than an AG who doesn't understand that, and won't stand up for basic humanity.
tfk | October 26, 2007The Kansas Democratic Party is curious to learn: "Why are you leaving the GOP?" The Kansas AG, Lieutenant Governor, a Kansas member of Congress and several Kansas state legislators all did it. What made you Flee the GOP?
tfk | October 18, 2007The Kansas Department of Health and Environment denied a permit to Sunflower Electric Power, blocking construction of a massive power plant.
"I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing," DHE Secretary Rod Bremby said.
From its position in western Kansas, the plant's mercury, particulate and carbon emissions would have directly influenced air quality throughout the state, while the power itself would have been sold…