Politics
pharyngula | September 29, 2008The mayor of Fort Mill, South Carolina forwarded one of those stupid chain emails that throws around absurd accusations — in this case, the Bible predicted that the anti-christ would be a Muslim in his 40s, and that Barack Obama was therefore the anti-christ. There is so much wrong there; Obama is not a Muslim, the Bible doesn't say such a thing (especially since it was written before Islam), and you would expect such a devout Christian to know this. But he sent it on anyway.
Now if he were somebody of normal intelligence, at this point he'd be saying, "oops, hit the wrong button, I meant to…
gregladen | September 29, 2008The Republicans failed to come up to the plate, and with 66 voting for and 132 voting against, the critically important bailout bill has failed in the house. As the vote turned against the bill, we watched the stock market dive precipitously. The Dow stands now at about 500 down, but it was much lower a few minutes ago.
Make no mistake: This is a situation where the elected representatives need to make a decision: Do they act in their own self interest and vote against the bill (which makes sense because the average American does not want this bill), or do they act in the interest of the…
gregladen | September 29, 2008
560 Billion Dollars
Cost of the Iraq War to the US so far.
700 Billion Dollars
Cost of the one time bailout to compensate for deregulation and greed in the financial markets.
560 Billion Dollars Pluse 700 Billion Dollars
The cost of two terms of Republican Leadership
Five
The approximate percentge of Democratic Candidate Barack Obama's lead over Republican Candidate John McCain
8.5
The average difference between winner and loser in percent of the popular vote in US Presidential elections since 1960.
Zero
The minimum difference between winner and loser in percent of the popular vote in US…
illconsidered | September 28, 2008So I was just listening (a little late, I know) to Friday's DemocracyNow, and they had a segment on the impending 700 billion dollar obscenity congress is about to roll over on.
One of the guests said he anticipates another 1 million foreclosures still to come over the next two years.
Offered as perspective, not a policy recommendation:
700 billion dollars is enough to give all 1 million defaulting mortage holders $700,000 dollars each.
gregladen | September 28, 2008The proof is finally in. John McCain has the uncanny ability to say whatever he wants no matter how utterly untrue it is and retain support in the double (albeit diminishing) digits. The Chinese are also able to say whatever they want (like, this girl can sing, and hey, look at the cool fireworks) even when it is not true and somehow get away with it.
Well, suddenly it all makes sense. On Thursday, the Chinese space agency released a story about the successful launch of their space craft, including taped dialog between ground control and the astronauts and everything. The launch, of…
gregladen | September 28, 2008The waiting is over. Republican house representatives initially reluctant to support the newly crafted legislation to fix the markets have been meeting for the last two or three hours. It took a lot longer for these Republicans to go over the bill than it did for the Democrats, owing I assume to their reduced intelligence.
So, after meeting for a few hours, they've come out of the meeting and are being rather mealy mouthed about the results. On one hand, they are claiming to support the package, but only if they can blame the failing economy on Obama. Always blame it on the black guy. OK…
pharyngula | September 28, 2008
There may not be a god, but apparently there is a goddess, and her name is Tina Fey.
pharyngula | September 28, 2008Today is Pulpit Freedom Sunday, that day when the wingnut churches were all planning to preach endorsements of political candidates in defiance of the restrictions imposed on them by their tax-exampt status. I hope the IRS harvests a windfall here — it's simply absurd that they can demand freedom from taxation because they are religious organizations caring for the spiritual needs of their flocks, and then turn around and demand that they also be given the right to be a political organization. It's one or the other. Let the preachers preach for McCain/Palin, but not on the government's dime.…
oracknows | September 28, 2008At least when it comes to politics, Saturday Night Live has been pretty funny so far this season:
The resemblance is uncanny. I have to admit, also, that SNL did a pretty good job parodying the first Presidential debate, too, given that the writers and comics had only a little more than 24 hours after the end of the debate to whip up a sketch:
I can't wait to see what The Daily Show and The Colbert Report do with this. Actually, though, given how much both candidates, including Barack Obama, dodged answering direct questions, I think the pie-eating contest mentioned in the sketch would be…
evolvingthoughts | September 28, 2008
It all began with Larry Arnhart giving a "Darwinian" account of the case for financial bailouts. Then David Sloan Wilson rejected the argument from the Invisible Hand. Then Massimo Pigliucci entered the fray. What's at issue?
There are two basic extremes in economics: laissez faire and command economies. The former suppose, with the overextrapolation of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, that a truly unbiased and free market will generate goods better than any other economic system. The latter is socialism, and supposes that a central planner, usually the State, will control economies reducing…
gregladen | September 28, 2008Many people are frustrated with the level of debate these days, and it is not uncommon to wax nostalgic for the good old days, the days when debates were entirely live, in person, and went on and on until they were done, unconstrained by a television schedule. Bioephemera takes us down memory lane.
The first televised American presidential debate: NIxon vs. Kennedy. Kennedy won the debate and the election, and most historians of the era would claim that the debate mattered in that election:
And now, a look at a more recent debate, which proves, unfortunately, that it does not matter…
gregladen | September 28, 2008
Hey, she didn't get where she is by eating moose burgers and popping out kids:
Talk to the hand, babe:
ADDED:
evolvingthoughts | September 27, 2008
Some threat display has publicly occurred between two primates vying for the alpha male position of a large troop of feral, introduced, great apes in north America. It is examined here. Apparently one of the contenders failed to make eye contact, which is a dead giveaway of probable loss to the other male, or perhaps an inability to avoid giving the Primate Threat Stare without the ability to follow it up by exposing his canines. Clearly that monkey is less confident than the other one (yes, folks, all great apes are monkeys, or Old World Monkeys at any rate). When the fur and teeth are…
j7uy5 | September 27, 2008I can't top this, so I'll just quote. It's from
href="http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/09/so-who-won-debate.html">Mike
Shedlock, the guy with the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau_word">portmanteau
nickname, "Mish":
Careful analysis shows both Obama and McCain lost the
debate...For the first time in history, I am proclaiming a moderator to
be the
winner of the debate. Jim Lehrer asked very good, pointed questions
that neither candidate would answer. Better yet, he forcibly kept at
it, attempting to no avail to get some answers on the economy.
McCain…
clock | September 27, 2008I should have gone. Greensboro is barely an hour from here. If I did, I would have heard this:
gregladen | September 27, 2008A lot of people think the debate was pretty even. Obama supporters liked Obama, McCain supporters liked McCain, I assume (that is utterly obvious). But what matters is the effect on uncommitted voters. Aside from the effects of the three major gaffs that McCain made (the cost to him, to his party, and to our nation yet to be determined), the uncommitted voter reaction is the most important outcome of the debate. Now, we have the first indication of what this reaction was.
This is from a CBS/Knowledge Networks poll, the first major poll to come out regarding last nights debate. (PDF of…
drorzel | September 27, 2008As I said last night, I wound up watching all of the presidential debate. I turned it on expecting to get disgusted and flip away in half an hour or so, but it was remarkably better than the last two elections' worth of debates. Almost as if both participants were qualified to be President.
I'm not going to attempt blow-by-blow commentary, or to assess trivialities about whose digs were sharper, whose smarmy anecdotes were more effective, or whose demeanor was more Presidential. If you want that stuff, turn you tv on and choose a news channel at random-- it's all basically the same.
The only…
pharyngula | September 26, 2008I entirely skipped the whole McCain/Obama debate nonsense to spend a very pleasant evening in downtown LA, preaching the godless gospel to the already converted. So…who won?
drorzel | September 26, 2008God help me, I watched all of the debate tonight. I'm not sure why, but I did, and I'll say something about it in an overall sense tomorrow. It occurs to me, though, that one moment after the debate sums up everything that has gone wrong with this country over the last N years.
I watched on PBS, so as to get the minimum possible amount of wanker punditry, but the amount was not zero, and they had Mark Shields and David Brooks commenting on the debate immediately afterward. One of them-- I don't recall which-- said (approximately) of the overall tone:
These two acted like they were having a…