Politics
oracknows | December 4, 2008I've long had an interest in World War II history. Ever since I was around 11 or 12 years old, a major portion of my reading diet has consisted of books and articles about World War II. Back when I was young, my interest was, as you might expect, primarily the battles. The military history of World War II fascinated me, and I build many, many models of World War II fighter aircraft and warships when I was in my early teens. (No cracks about how the airplane glue obviously affected me, although it is true that back then it was real airplane glue, chock full of toluene and lots of other organic…
evolvingthoughts | December 3, 2008
Note the careful ambiguity there: this is not a blog of another antipodean philosopher, but another blog of this antipodean philosopher. The ins and outs of Australian politics and policies are not of interest to much more than 0.3% of the world, so my asseverations are even less interesting to you all. Hence I have started an intermittent blog, The Drought Resistant Philosopher, wherein I will whine (or as we say here, whinge) about the latest stupidity from our representatives and public service, and so on. All ISP filtering posts will go there from now on.
No more mister nice silverback…
evolvingthoughts | December 3, 2008
When my kids were in school, I noticed an interesting phenomenon that went something like this:
Headmaster: No, your kids can't be being bullied. We have a policy against bullying.
I came to call this the "Policy policy": so long as there's a Policy in place for some longstanding problem, action is unnecessary and complainants can be silenced by reference to the Policy.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the present government (AKA the Clean Feed Censorship Party) wants to establish a Bill of Rights in Australia to protect citizens against laws that are unconstitutional and…
razib | December 3, 2008I've been doing some political blogging at the Secular Right site for about a week. I have to say that production is way easier when it comes to political blogging, but maintenance is way more exhausting.
grrlscientist | December 3, 2008
Offensive Christmas Ornament created by Seattle artist, Deborah Lawrence.
Image: Deborah Lawrence.
Seattle artist, Deborah Lawrence, was one of 370 artists who were given the honor of creating a Christmas ornament for the White House's official Christmas trees. This was after Laura Bush invited all 435 Congresscritters to choose artists from their congressional district to design ornaments for the White House Christmas trees. Unfortunately, Lawrence's 9-inch ball was the only one that was banned from the White House trees, even though it fulfilled all the requirements set out by the…
gregladen | December 3, 2008There is increasing evidence, or at least informed conjecture, that there will be a redistricting in Minnesota leading to the vaporization of a congressional district. If this happens, even if the Republicans are in charge for that process, there is a reasonable chance that Michel Bachmann ... loved by the undermenchen masses of her white trashy sixth district, but perceived liability for the ubermenchen Republican Big Chiefs ... will be squeezed out of the House of Representatives like so much peppermint flavored goo from a sample-size tube of toothpaste.
But the undermenchen are known to…
ddobbs | December 2, 2008A few that keep slipping out of my hands:
It's All in Your Head -- Sally Satel, in the Wall St Journal, on a recent study showing about half of American doctors use placebos in practice. Satel, who wrote an interesting piece NY Times Magazine piece a while back on her search for a kidney donor, also has an interesting piece on a Senate bill designed to allow states to reward organ donors.
PhamaLot on Pharma's Influence on the Media.
On a related note, a Columbia Journalism Review piece on Science Reporting by Press Release
Andrew Sullivan on The AP's Cowardice.
Hospitals Fail to Take Basic…
evolvingthoughts | December 2, 2008
The only problem with Queensland, apart from the occasional severe storm, is that they filled it with Queenslanders. Here's a bunch of northern bigots protesting a Muslim school being built on the Gold Coast "because they won't integrate" with Australian society by being, I don't know, Christian or something.
Resident's spokesman Tony Doherty said Muslim schools did not encourage multiculturalism.
"It's segregation, not integration," he said.
"They're not trying to integrate into the rest of society.
"Since we have started protesting against this our churches have been covered in hate-…
drorzel | December 2, 2008Via Ezra Klein, Adam Serwer takes dim view of conservative attempts to blame the Mumbai attacks on Indian culture, specifically the relative lack of guns among the geenral population:
This is a really strange and immature coping mechanism that manifests on the right in times of high profile tragedy. Rather than contemplate being a victim of a terrorist attack, the subject imagines him or herself as the star of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. I'd say it's simple racism, but it really is fear masquerading as bravado, a cultural chauvanism that directs itself at other Americans as readily as it does…
pharyngula | December 2, 2008This is a depressing collection of short clips on the economy from Fox News. I know — why would anyone want to watch that?
Schadenfreude, baby.
These are from a year to two years ago. They've all got this fellow, Peter Schiff, who is explaining that our debt, our artificially inflated real estate market, and various other problems are going to throw us into a recession, the stock market is going to tank, and we're going to face a financial crisis (he's a real Cassandra, and like Cassandra, he was right). Fox News throws in a series of their pet analysts, including the odious Ben Stein and…
sheril | December 1, 2008
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates
National Security Adviser Gen. James L. Jones
Secretary of Homeland Security Gov. Janet Napolitano
Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
Welcome the 'new dawn of American leadership'.
So folks, what do you think?
revere | December 1, 2008Barack Obama will become President of the United States in just 50 days, but the still-President, George W. Bush, is still trashing the place prior to going out the door. The latest outrage is the rush to complete a rule the new President is strongly opposed to. Somehow I don't think that's the way it's supposed to work, but that's the way it's working. If you are committed to safer workplaces in this country, the new rule is a monstrosity that will make jobs more dangerous for whoever will still have a job after this administration's policies have played out:
The rule, which has strong…
oracknows | December 1, 2008Chalk this up under "Yet another example of U.N. incompetence":
UNITED NATIONS - Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech.
Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85-50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and will enter into the international record after an expected rubber stamp by the plenary later in the year.
But while the draft's sponsors say it and earlier similar measures are aimed at preventing violence against worshippers regardless of…
pharyngula | December 1, 2008You all may recall the Holy Joe mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, who had a great plan to deal with urban crime: he bought 2,000 burlap bags so community leaders could dress in sackcloth and ashes and pray. Unfortunately, the federal authorities stuck to the old fashioned scheme of dressing sensibly and pursuing the evidence, and have now arrested Larry Langford on multiple counts of corruption. Curses! If only the Feds had gone with biblical policing scheme!
(via Techskeptic)
gregladen | November 30, 2008An enjoyable overview of the Coleman Franken Recount process all it attends to ...
"What do we want?" Franken shouts.
"PATIENCE!" the volunteers respond.
"When do we want it?" Franken asks.
"NOW!" the crowd demands.
Here
Hat tip: Ana
gregladen | November 27, 2008The word on the street is that Colleman recount watchers have shifted strategy in order to increase an apparent lead over Al Franken. It seems that many of the Coleman people are challenging perfectly good Al Franken ballots in order to make the miniscule Coleman lead appear to grow, possibly allowing Coleman to have Yet another Victory Press Conference.
According to Joe Bodell:
...a view from inside the recount operation shows just how the Coleman operation is working: not just challenging questionable ballots, but challenging ballots that are clearly Franken votes for the sake of…
evolvingthoughts | November 27, 2008
The Greens (who I am considering joining, despite their unreasonable opposition to nuclear power) have said they will oppose the "clean feed" proposal in the Senate, so unless the Coalition decides it is a good idea after all, or put it to a conscience vote (because let's face it, a number of conservatives think censorship is a legitimate form of governance), it's dead. This is a Very Good Thing.
But it raises some more general issues: why is Australia so damned intent upon censoring anything? Why do we have among the most draconian censorship laws in the democratic world? Isn't it about…
clock | November 26, 2008Here - a compilation of ten facts:
Congratulations, liberal/progressive/terrorist! This is the first Thanksgiving in eight years where you represent the political majority. Because you know who voted with you? Oh, just fifty-three percent of the United States of America. HELL YEAH! Who's a member of the fringe lunatic this holiday season? Not you!
But what happens if your right-wing relatives still want to debate the outcome of the election? Defang your conservative loved ones with these ten helpful facts!:
But since when are facts supposed to be of any interest to Republicans? Their modus…
clock | November 26, 2008What do you think? I think he has not seen change.gov and change.org yet, as they undermine his (otherwise useful) argument. But you have to read (or listen to) the entire thing - it is long and below are a few short snippets:
Noam Chomsky: "What Next? The Elections, the Economy, and the World":
.....And I agree with it. It was a historic election. To have a black family in the white house is a momentous achievement. In fact, it's historic in a broader sense. The two Democratic candidates were an African-American and a woman. Both remarkable achievements. We go back say 40 years, it would…
gregladen | November 26, 2008Another local blogger, Jeff Rosenberg, is following the recount and providing his own analysis.
Here.