Politics
illconsidered | October 22, 2008"It's not really that hard to understand" is the catch phrase in this YouTube video featuring Herman Daly, the subject is the insanity of the economic cult of perpetual growth:
I got this from the most recent posting at Things Break, which you should read and be sure to follow the links.
I would also offer here the very compelling image from New Scientist that isn't actually clickable from TB's post.
(this image is courtesy of New Scientist and is part of this article)
gregladen | October 22, 2008 "If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry Left never will." -- President George Bush, addressing the RNC via satellite feed, September 1, 2008 "I Am The Angry Left." -- T-Shirt seen at demonstration outside RNC, September 2, 2008. * A criminal trial against Eight American Patriots is about to start in Saint Paul. These eight patriots armed themselves with information and guts and planned to attack dogma and repressive politics at the Republican National Convention. They were arrested, treated like animals, and…
pharyngula | October 22, 2008We are so scary. Now the fact that godless Americans exist and that people actually talk to us is the subject of a political ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Watch this: it's got ominous music, it's got atheists saying there is no god, and Daylight Atheism gets another shout out…and that's about it. And it will effectively motivate the fundie base, I'm sure.
It also has various right wing blowhards huffing and puffing over the fact that atheists would like to remove god from the pledge of allegiance and our money. These guys have no imagination. Those are trivial,…
clock | October 22, 2008Al Bundy is back! And after figuring out how much he earns selling shoes, and how much tax-break he would get with each candidate, he made a choice:
pharyngula | October 22, 2008Great. It just gets more and more insane. It seems that while McCain's side knows how to do 'spiritual warfare', Obama has all the witches on his side.
Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama's family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Dr. Marvin sent me the below e-mail from Flo Ellers. Flo is credentialed with the International Fellowship of Ministries which is based in Washington…
drorzel | October 22, 2008Inside Higher Ed this morning has a story about a mock trial to be held at Northern Kentucky University:
The trial centers around the termination of fictitious biology teacher Susan Scott (a traditionally trained evolution adherent), who according to her complaint, encouraged students to "explore creation theories." Scott, who will be played by Simon Kenton High School teacher Heather Mastin, is suing the fictitious Chandler County School Board for wrongful termination and seeks reinstatement, compensatory damages and a judicial declaration that the school board violated her First Amendment…
gregladen | October 22, 2008John McCain just picked up an endorsement that may well turn the election around and put him in front.
The endorsement is from the Anti-American group Al-Qaeda. Since it is known that over half of Americans are Anti-Americans (according to Michele Bachmann), this endorsement is likely to change the popular vote from about 50-40 against McCain to 90-10 for McCain. Mark my words.
Hat Tip Lassi
jrosenhouse | October 21, 2008In an interview this past Sunday with Fox News' Chris Wallace, John McCain said the following. Wallace had asked him whether Governor Palin had turned out to be a drag on the ticket. (The phrase “cold political calculation” cam from Wallace, but I didn't notice McCain being reticent to use it.)
As a cold political calculation, I could not be more pleased. She has excited and energized our base. She is a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America.
She has a wonderful family. She's a reformer. She's a conservative. She's the best thing that could have happened to my…
jrosenhouse | October 21, 2008Browsing through the blog of The New Republic I came across this post, entitled “The Not-So-Soft Bigotry of Rachel Maddow's Low Expectations.”
I was puzzled by the title (and remain puzzled even after reading the post), but I was fairly certain it was not flattering towards Maddow. Since I am a big Maddow fan, I decided to read on. The post was by James Kirchick, and was a response to this piece about Maddow, which appeared in the NYT Magazine.
It was a standard puff piece made up of Maddow's short responses to items like “Worst Part of Job” and “Hobby.” Along the way she was asked about…
drorzel | October 21, 2008Chris Mooney will be visiting Union tomorrow (I'm picking him up at the airport in a couple of hours). He'll be speaking to a couple of classes and then giving a presentation about science and politics in the evening.
If you have any questions that you've been dying to ask Chris, and haven't been able to get him to address on his blog, leave them in the comments. If they're reasonable, I'll see if I can get answers during one or another of tomorrow's events.
pharyngula | October 21, 2008You really don't want to read about another terrifying crazy Republican woman, do you? Too bad. Here it is: a good Christian homeschooling mom who doesn't like gay people. And by "doesn't like", I mean "wants them stoned to death and everything they touch blown up."
A friend recently sent me this article about a "gay-friendly" high school. If we were living in a biblical society, homosexuality would be punishable by death so such a school would be unnecessary. Although I'm against the special accommodations, perhaps this new trend of segregation will protect straight kids from these predators…
pharyngula | October 21, 2008The kind of smug, self-righteous ignorance and bigotry this woman displays is frighteningly common, I'm afraid. It's the one thing that makes me worry about the outcome of the election.
gregladen | October 21, 2008You will recall that John McCain has been trying to get the Cold War going again as part of his ill-fated and hapless campaign for the US Presidency. Now this:
The Russian mission to the UN in New York says it has turned down a request from John McCain to help fund his presidential campaign.
Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin and others received standard mail-outs asking them to help "stop the Democrats from seizing control of Washington".
Spokesmen for the McCain campaign and the mission accepted the letters were "a computer error".
Russians, especially the ones in the embassy, can be…
pharyngula | October 21, 2008Keith Olbermann rips into a certain "unstable congresswoman from Minnesota," Rush Limbaugh, the politics of divisiveness, the McCain campaign, and places the ultimate responsibility on John McCain himself, and demands that he address the smears and bigotry of his supporters. It is great stuff.
I have to say that I am personally more than a bit tired of the yahoos on the right constantly telling me that I'm not a real American and that I hate my country.
And of course Jon Stewart charges in, too.
oracknows | October 21, 2008After having seen the worst, it's encouraging to see that it's not all bad:
Hat tip to Coturnix...
evolvingthoughts | October 20, 2008
Not that I can be all that superior: we have similar problems in Australia (like the outrageous funding of the Australian Institute of Sport).
clock | October 20, 2008This I first posted on June 24, 2004 on www.jregrassroots.org, then republished on August 23, 2004 on Science And Politics. I love re-posting this one every now and then, just to check how much the world has changed. What do you think? Was I too rosy-eyed? Prophetic?
In the beginning there were grunts, tom-tom drums, smoke signals, and the guy on the horse riding from village to village reading the latest King's Edict. That is Phase I in the evolution of media.
Phase II was ushered in by Gutenberg. Remember the beginning of Protestantism? Luther nailing copies of his pamhlet on the doors…
evolvingthoughts | October 20, 2008
So, as many of my readers and all of my friends know, I am a moral vacuum. I routinely brush those earnest young folk aside who seek my signature on their morally worthy petitions with that statement - they usually stand there blinking. I mean, what do you do? Run after the psychopath and try to reason with him? Just try it, young fellow...
Anyway, in a self-conscious attempt to make up for this, see below the fold.
Janet has done all Seed stablemates proud by attempting to get us to donate to DonorsChoose. Since it's an American thing, and I am not American, I have chosen to not get…