Politics
oracknows | February 4, 2009Lately ScienceBlogs has been "buzzing" with a story that, at the risk of needing to don an asbestos suit for the insults that may come my way, I find utterly ridiculous. Here's the context:
The Blogosphere is abuzz about an article in the LA Times regarding Second Lady Jill Biden's preference to be acknowledged by her honorific title of "Doctor," which references her Ph.D in education. The article states that many prominent newspapers, including the LA Times and the Washington Post, only use the honorific title in articles if the doctorate degree in question is in a medical field, calling…
amillikan | February 4, 2009The Blogosphere is abuzz about an article in the LA Times regarding Second Lady Jill Biden's preference to be acknowledged by her honorific title of "Doctor," which references her Ph.D in education. The article states that many prominent newspapers, including the LA Times and the Washington Post, only use the honorific title in articles if the doctorate degree in question is in a medical field, calling into question the context in which the "Dr." title is used in other situations, and whether it is more accepted for males to be acknowledged by this title than females.
Related ScienceBlogs…
gregladen | February 3, 2009Human Events is a right wing email newsletter and magazine/publishing thingie that regularly spews out the puss produced by such notable festering sores on the asscrack of humanity known as Anne Coulter and Pat Buchanan, with frequent contributions by Chuck Norris and others. I used to subscribe in order to keep an eye on them.
But now that they have been rendered utterly irrelevant (and will soon be joining David Duke in the new party to replace the Republican Party, which in turn was totally ruined by being led by a black guy), I've stopped paying attention.
That is all.
oracknows | February 3, 2009Ten months ago, I thought I was joking. I really did.
Regular readers may (or may not) remember back in March, when, in one of my usual flights of fancy, I decided that I could write a short fictional interlude, a combat scene. True, I didn't do it because I wanted actually to write a fictional story (although I have always wondered if I could write decent short stories or a novel if I put my mind to it). Rather, I did it to make a point, and argument, a reductio ad absurdum, if you will, of a program in the Air Force to bring "battlefield acupuncture" to the our fighting men and women in the…
terrasig | February 2, 2009I've been having this 3:30 am (EST) insomnia for about the last two months, so I often pull the laptop up and survey the blogosphere in the still of the night. A simple look at the Last 24 Hours at ScienceBlogs and elsewhere in the blogosphere tells me that some knuckleheads in the mainstream press have taken issue with Dr Jill Biden, doctor of education, using the honorific, "Dr."
Keep in mind that the article in question comes from the L.A. Times - the very same paper that graces my e-mail account weekly humping their fishwrapper's science and environment coverage. I did just look up some…
jlynch | February 2, 2009Andy Schlafly over at the Eagle Forum on Springsteenâs performance at the Super Bowl half-time show:
Springsteen sang nearly all his top hits ... except there was one glaring omission. He did not sing "Born in the U.S.A.," one of his most popular tunes of all.
Wonder why??? The Obama mind controllers would not have been happy if he sang that title! Obama still has not proven that he was born in the U.S.A.
Seriously folks, let it go. Youâre only embarrassing yourselves.
And on a related note, Iâm going to the Springsteen concert here in April.
oracknows | February 2, 2009I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned this before at least a couple of times, but I am an alumnus of the University of Michigan twice over. I completed a B.S. in Chemistry with Honors there and then I stayed on to do obtain my M.D. Several of my longtime friendships were forged or solidified during those years. Consequently, I still care about the place. That's why it distresses me when I see my alma mater shoots itself in the foot. Now, I'll grant you that what I'm about to discuss probably doesn't bother me as much as the plight of the Michigan Wolverines bothers me, given that never before…
clock | January 31, 2009Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction by Eugenie C. Scott.
Written at this time.
oracknows | January 31, 2009I've been a bit remiss about writing about this story. For that, I apologize. I realize a lot of you sent me links. For some reason, this week was an embarrassment of riches in terms of blogging material, and I didn't have time to get to it all.
With that out of the way, let me just say that I find it very ironic that this particular story came to light during the week of the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. If the Pope is truly appointed by God to rule over the Roman Catholic Church, in this case God chose someone who has an exquisitely bad sense of timing. Actually, he…
drorzel | January 31, 2009I'm getting twinges in my neck indicating that I've been spending too much time looking at the computer, and I've got some computer-heavy work coming up in the next couple of weeks, so expect reduced blogging in the next few days. I couldn't let this essay in the New Yorker (via Matt Yglesias) pass without comment, though. It's arguing for a model of endowment-supported nonprofit journalism, but along the way it takes a shot at my alma mater:
Not to pick on any one institution, but, from a constitutional perspective, how did we end up in a society where Williams College has (or had, before…
tqa | January 31, 2009
The first thing I thought when I saw the "Lawsuit argues Clinton ineligible for state post" headline was, "what group of wingnut wackaloons suffers from a case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome severe enough to cause them to file this suit?" The very next thought to cross my mind was "gotta be Judicial Watch." Surprisingly enough, I was right.
catdynamics | January 29, 2009Grauniad reports Iceland to be fast tracked for EU membership.
We'll see, public could swing either way on the issue in the interval.
Real problem is the fish. If the grounds are opened to EU vessels and Iceland loses control of the catch allotment, then the fish will all die.
Yup, this has hit the Icelandic papers also.
Current spin is how good it'd be for the EU - as good as finding a whale...
tqa | January 29, 2009
In today's political news, Karl Rove just compared himself to an aggressive and hard-to-harpoon whale.
grrlscientist | January 28, 2009tags: taxes, pet taxes, humor, satire
Image: Orphaned. Please contact me for proper attribution [larger view].
This form should look familiar to those of you who live in the USA, but if you click on the "larger view" link, you'll realize this is yet another change that has been made to our existing tax code.
I am not sure about you guys, but I am already preparing my income taxes. Since I don't earn enough to qualify for the "economic stimulus package," I need to know how much I have to cough up this year so I have enough time to somehow come up with this sum so the IRS doesn't send…
jstemwedel | January 28, 2009Remember the scares around December 2007 about lead in children's toys manufactured in China? Back then, people cried out for better testing to ensure that products intended for children were actually safe for children. Partly in response to this outcry, a new law, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, was passed. The intent of the law is to protect kids from harm from lead (and other substances) in children's products. However, the effect of the law may be something else altogether.
I've been meaning to post on this for awhile, but I've finally been spurred into action by my…
clock | January 28, 2009
Will Bunch of Attytood recently published an interesting and important book - Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future.
On his blog, Will provides an excerpt and commentary:
Twenty years gone - but Reagan still matters. About this time one year ago, unceasing Reagan idolatry hijacked the race for the White House. Sometimes it was voiced in the name of policies on immigration or toward Iran that were the exact opposite of what really happened a generation ago. The power of this political fantasy - expressed mainly, of course, on the GOP side…
tqa | January 28, 2009
I might have mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again: if you want to know what got me actively working on a political campaign last year, it was the cumulative "final straw" effect of some Congressional Republicans who saw fit to question the "Americanism" and "patriotism" of their political opponents. Well, I'm definitely an opponent of the Republicans, and I was really, really, really sick of having my patriotism and commitment to America questioned, so I finally got off my butt and started to work for change.
I mention this because I just found the following gem of a…
tqa | January 28, 2009
Yesterday, I had to modify a post on this blog shortly after publishing it. I had quoted material from a Politico.com story, and it turned out that Politico had made a very large error. Georgia Rep. Phil Gingery had given them a quote that was highly critical of Rush Limbaugh, and they somehow or another managed to attribute that quote to Rep. Tom Price instead.
Not only did they get the quote wrong in the article, they also apparently told Rush that Tom Price was talking about him. Here's a paragraph from the original version of the Politico article in question:
Asked to respond to…
drorzel | January 28, 2009The American Physical Society has sent out another of its email alerts encouraging people to write to Congress in support of more funding for science. Actually, they're urging people to send two messages: a thank-you to Speaker Pelosi for the generous science funding in the House stimulus bill, and a letter to your Senators asking for more funding.
The explanation from the message:
As you may be aware, the U.S. Congress is currently formulating a
stimulus package to help spur the recovery of our economy. In
addition to the tax cuts in the draft packages being discussed,
the packages include…