Politics
tqa | October 15, 2008
A little spat that John McCain is having with YouTube has gotten a bit of press lately. Basically, he's not happy because YouTube has been taking his videos down whenever they get a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice from a copyright holder. Apparently, this has happened to McCain fairly often, possibly because his campaign has gotten into the habit of using other people's material without their permission.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, an internet service provider (like YouTube) is only immune from copyright infringement suits if they promptly take down…
gregladen | October 15, 2008Click here, then click all over the pretty picture. There are enough details here to keep you amused for at least ten minutes. [Hat Tip: PZ]
gregladen | October 15, 2008They used to say that "The problem with Democrats is that the eat their own young."
Not any more.
Christopher Buckley, son of ultra conservative dit William F. Buckley, and an ultra conservative dit in his own right, came out with an endorsement of Barack Obama the other day, and as a result, has been forced to give up his position at The Naitonal Review. The National Reivew is an ultra conservative dit of a magazine that if you read you will turn into a pillar of salt.
Well, I do say.
I had gone out of my way in my ... endorsement to say that I was not doing it in the pages of National…
purepedantry | October 15, 2008An article at RealClearPolitics of interest to those living in the Southwest. (I am looking at you, Mom and Dad.)
Political observers agree that, like in the Northeast, Democrats have made gains because they have broadened their coalition to include those more supportive of gun and property rights and more open to domestic energy exploration. Western voters aren't just choosing the same liberals who win in urban centers like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. Instead, Democrats have presented most Westerners with a new kind of candidate, one more in tune with Western values of limited…
grrlscientist | October 15, 2008tags: Vote McCain, election2008, Hayden Panettiere, humor, satire, politics, streaming video
Hayden Panettiere Public Service Announcement: Three requests for Americans: smoke cigarettes, vote for John McCain, and don't wear seatbelts (and this includes an offensive (but appropriate) word, so don't play it when your boss might overhear) [0:47]
grrlscientist | October 15, 2008tags: Big Sister, election2008, Sarah Palin, humor, satire, politics
Image: Orphaned. Please contact me for proper attribution and linkage.
Sarah Palin wants to be our Big Sister.
At the bottom, the poster says;
War is Peace -- Freedom is Slavery -- Ignorance is Strength
jrosenhouse | October 14, 2008A few days ago I linked to this essay by Christopher Buckley, announcing his intention to vote for Barack Obama.
Buckley seems not to have realized that modern Republicans politics has nothing to do with arguments and ideas. It has to do with extreme stupidity and mindless hate for dissenters. National Review was so inundated with negative responses to Buckley's column, that he was effectively forced to resign. Buckley explains the situation:
I had gone out of my way in my Beast endorsement to say that I was not doing it in the pages of National Review, where I write the back-page column…
pharyngula | October 14, 2008OK, this is the kind of thing that just pisses me off: the tendency for some liberals to go off all loopy and credulous. The perfect example is on Salon right now—an article that goes on at ridiculous length about the judgments of a physiognomist, a ditz who derives McCain's economic policy from the shape of his nostrils, and Obama's idealism from the breadth of his forehead. This is insane, and irritating, and stupid.
The one thing I dread with a Democratic victory is the ascendancy of navel-gazing crystal-healing New Age loons, without a shred of critical thinking.
pharyngula | October 14, 2008Seed and Scientists and Engineers for America are teaming up to promote a youtube challenge — they are collecting videos of scientists stating who they are voting for in the coming election. The first one up is Marty Chalfie, winner of the Nobel in Chemistry this year. Guess who he thinks should be president?
I suspect that the scientific establishment will be showing a profound liberal bias this year, largely because the scientific establishment tends to be pro-reality.
You don't have to be a Nobelist — if you're a scientist, record a youtube video of yourself, tag it with "aVoteForScience…
pharyngula | October 14, 2008Wait until the wingnuts get this: Hindus are presenting Obama with a monkey-god idol.
The idol is being presented to Obama as he is reported to be a Lord Hanuman devotee and carries with him a locket of the monkey god along with other good luck charms. An hour-long prayer meeting to sanctify the idol was earlier organised at Sankat Mochan Dham and by Congress leader Brijmohan Bhama, Balmiki Samaj and the temple's priests. "Obama has deep faith in Lord Hanuman and that is why we are presenting an idol of Hanuman to him," said Bhama.
And in other news, we have a lovely brass statue of the…
clock | October 14, 2008Get a camera, film yourself, post your video on YouTube and join many others doing the same:
Are you a scientist? Tell the world who you are voting for this year. McCain? Obama? None of the above? Upload your YouTube video explaining who are you, who you are voting for and why you are voting for them. Tag your video with "avoteforscience" and we'll favorite it.
Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund and Scienceblogs have teamed up to bring you "A Vote For Science." Here we will feature videos of scientists explaining who they are voting for and why. If you are a scientist and you…
drorzel | October 14, 2008Via Physics and Physicists, a breathtaking blog at the Washington Post proudly proclaiming the author's ignorance of algebra:
I am told that algebra is everywhere - it's in my iPod, beneath the spreadsheet that calculates my car payments, in every corner of my building. This idea freaks me out because I just can't see it. I sent out a query on my blog last week asking, Who among us in the real world uses algebra? Can you explain how it works?
This is exactly the sort of intellectual innumeracy I have ranted about countless times. The whole concept of the blog (subtitled "A year reliving high…
sa smith | October 14, 2008Uh oh. I must be leaking 'Mean Girl' toxins into our water supply, or something, cause now Rachael Maddow is infected.
Civil discourse! Wont anyone rise to the challenge of civil discourse??
Sure, McCains camp is encouraging people at their rallies to kill Obama, but Maddow talking about Troopergate or the economy is just as bad!! Mean Girl!!
Notice also how Maddow understands the importance of being silly-- getting scary/confusing information across to viewers in a 'playful' way.
I like this Mean Girls club.
jrosenhouse | October 13, 2008Following on the heels of Christopher Buckley's surprising endorsement of Obama, now Hitchens comes on board:
On “the issues” in these closing weeks, there really isn't a very sharp or highly noticeable distinction to be made between the two nominees, and their “debates” have been cramped and boring affairs as a result. But the difference in character and temperament has become plainer by the day, and there is no decent way of avoiding the fact. Last week's so-called town-hall event showed Sen. John McCain to be someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both…
jrosenhouse | October 13, 2008With Obama in the Naples role, of course:
The Estero High football staff gathered in head coach Rich Dombroski's office late Friday, almost in stunned silence.
Earlier that night, Estero lost to Naples High by 13.
Not by 13 points. By 13 touchdowns. That's right: Naples 91, Estero 0.
The rout fallout has been growing since the game ended.
'“Hey,'” offered Estero defensive line coach Pat Hayes after the one-sided affair, '“I didn't even know 91 was a multiple of seven.'”
With that, the coaches all got a much-needed laugh.
pharyngula | October 13, 2008On politics, Hitchens and I rarely agree…but this time he and I are singing in harmony. Obama is not a perfect candidate by any means, but McCain/Palin are a national disgrace, and there's only one way rational people can vote.
It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.
Throw all the rascals out, but be prepared to have to work hard to prod the Democrats into doing…
drorzel | October 13, 2008Throughout the unfolding financial meltdown, I keep finding myself thinking that there might be one small, positive effect to come out of this: namely, a much-needed dose of realism and humility for market advocates. Because, really, after reading this Steven Teles post:
All through the financial crisis, governments have failed to act in a powerful, concerted way when markets were susceptible to a signal of a major shift in direction. The nature of market panics is that they don't necessarily find their bottom when they reach some measures of the "fundamentals"--they reach their bottom when…
pharyngula | October 13, 2008This is just the craziest thing I ever heard. Politics where you can actually have politicians who don't believe in god, and where you can talk about removing the privileged status of religion from the legislative body, and where all the major political parties have organized representation by freethinkers? Yeah, and they also have gumdrop trees and rivers of chocolate and beer volcanoes, too, I bet. Where is this magical place? Middle Earth, maybe? Nah, it's called England — which I could be persuaded is also a mythical fantasy land.
There is a great tradition of free thought in the…
evolvingthoughts | October 12, 2008
As I recall it, Australian history was deadly dull. Most of it could have been taught in a single half-year, with time to cover the second world war to spare. That's what happens when a very few individuals live on a continent for (at that time) less than two centuries, most of which is tied up with much larger colonial and imperial matters.
But nascent cultures and countries have to establish themselves, and the prevailing nationalisms of the past 50 years in Australia have meant that school students were force fed this material over and over. I always wanted to know about Europe and…
pharyngula | October 12, 2008I lived in Philly for seven years, so I do have a connection and retain my affection for the city, and a respect for the addytood Philadelphians have always had. I felt a real tingle of sentiment when I heard that Philadelphia sports fans booed Sarah Palin. Clenched fist salute for Philadelphia!