Politics
sb admin | September 22, 2008This isn't just about politics---really. This has something to do with science.
You see, one of the memes of this campaign is "elitism" (whatever that means). The appeal of Sarah Palin, we are told, is her "everyday-ness"---she's just a regular gal, not like those elitist politicians in Washington (which presumably includes her running-mate).
Sarah Palin is not a "regular gal". She come from an earthy rural background, but she is clearly intelligent, politically astute, and competent, having ascended to the governorship of one of our states while at the same time raising a large family…
gregladen | September 22, 2008The following is an ad from the Democratic Congressional Cmpaing Committee talking about Erik Paulsen. Paulsen is Democrat Ashwin Madia's opposition in the race to fill Republican Jim Ramsted's seat in the Third US Congressional District in Minnesota.
It is also about golfing.
j7uy5 | September 22, 2008No, this is not a conspiracy hypothesis. There really is a
href="http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/27/news/newsmakers/gross_banking.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007112810">shadow
banking system. There is even a
href="https://www.aei.org/research/projectID.15/project.asp">Shadow
Financial Regulatory Committee (although the Committee is
really a study group, not a regulatory body of any sort).
The System is said to be falling apart. This might explain
why the Fed and the Treasury decided to
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/21/AR2008092102060.html…
revere | September 22, 2008Mrs. R. made the very same comment that Echidne of the Snakes did regarding John McCain's prescription of how to fix the US health care system:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation. (Quoted by Paul Krugman, New York Times, from McCain's article Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, just published. Bad timing?)
Oh good, Mrs. R. said. Now we'll finally get socialized medicine.
I…
clock | September 22, 2008An oldie but goodie for the connoisseurs of my long political rants (May 11, 2005):
--------------------------------------------
I am not an economist. Actually, I have no background in economics at all, if one ignores "Capitalism for Beginners" and "Marx for Beginners".
Like all Yugoslavs of my generation, I suffered through a couple of years of "Marxism" classes back in high school and college - classes that both teachers and students hated and did the absolute minimum. My high-school teacher gave us not-so-subtle hints about what she thought about it. When it was time for Marxism class,…
clock | September 21, 2008This post from November 26, 2004 was my fourth (out of five), and longest, analysis of the 2004 election. With Balkans and Creationism sprinkled in. How did it stand the test of time over the past 3.5 years?
Oftentimes, an outside observer can see what a native observer cannot. The native is too deeply immersed in one's own culture, takes too much for granted, sees too many things as "normal" ("doesn't everyone do it this way?") that an outsider finds highly idiosyncratic and unusual.
I spent the first 25 years of my life in a nicest country. Life was great. I had everything I wanted, and…
pharyngula | September 21, 2008Now that I've had the current banking disaster explained to me (short answer: the people responsible will be receiving a huge handout from the taxpayers), I can understand why Obama has decided to quit. It makes sense. Whoever wins the election is going to be in for a world of pain and hard work, if they take the job seriously.
Oh, wait…McCain has already signaled that he won't be taking it seriously.
grrlscientist | September 21, 2008tags: Sarah Palin, religion, The Rapture, Keith Olberman, streaming video
Keith Olberman reports on the peculiar situation where Sarah Palin's pastor, whom Palin gives partial credit for making her the governer of Alaska (does this qualify as cheating?), was involved in chasing an innocent woman out of her home after accusing her of being a witch. We all know that Alaskans love to hunt mostly anything that moves, but .. witches?? What's next; will we be throwing misbehavin' women into ponds to see if they float? Or maybe all muslims will be perceived as witches .. what then? Because Palin has…
drorzel | September 21, 2008Charles Kuffner is the latest to note that people would rather watch football with Obama than McCain. As always, they try to delve into the reasons:
"I think he'd be fun to sit back with and hear his experiences, all his stories," said Kyle Ferguson, 28, a Republican from Santa Rosa, Calif., who picked McCain. But reflecting a sense some voters have of McCain based on the complaints of a few Senate colleagues, he added warily, "I bet he'd probably get pretty angry and lit up if his team was losing."
The temper isn't the real issue, though. You see, it's all about the leagues.
McCain is from…
grrlscientist | September 21, 2008tags: politics, federal budget, funding freeze, science funding, technology funding, McCain, Ike Brannon
United States Federal Budget Discretionary Spending.
I just learned that, according to Ike Brannon, an economist and senior policy adviser to presidential candidate, John McCain, all funding -- including funding for scientific research -- will be frozen for one year if McCain is voted into the White House.
"The purpose of the freeze is to evaluate each and every program, looking at which ones are worthwhile and which are a waste of taxpayer dollars," Brannon told the Task Force on the…
grrlscientist | September 20, 2008tags: political views, politics, physiology, threat response, psychology, philosophyfight or flight, nature versus nurture
Most Americans have been actively engaged in the frustrating sport of arguing about politics, which often leads to the common refrain; "You just don't get it!" So this made me wonder why people who seem to have similar life experiences can end up with such dramatically different personal philosophies -- philosophies that ultimately affect their political views and voting behavior. Apparently, I am not the only one to wonder about such things, because a paper was just…
gregladen | September 20, 2008Sarah Palin thinks that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by the founding fathers, according to the Daily Kos.
See also: IT Failures Nudge Out Democracy
pharyngula | September 20, 2008John McCain made some pleasant noises about supporting science in his Science Debate 2008 responses. They were outright lies, however. If you want to get pissed off at a politician, read the analysis of McCain's voting record on environmental and alternative energy issues. His voting record is nearly indistinguishable from James Inhofe's — he has routinely either skipped out on crucial votes or voted against renewable energy and environmental conservation.
And it's not just the environment! If you want to be really frightened, read what he said about health care:
Opening up the health…
oracknows | September 20, 2008I know I don't blog about pure politics much, but it's the weekend, I'm too tired to do anything heavy-duty about medicine or science, and this depressed me.
As much as I'd like to delude myself that things have changed, it turns out that they haven't changed nearly as much as I'd like to think, as this poll demonstrates:
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks -- many calling them "lazy," ''violent" or…
jstemwedel | September 20, 2008The congresscritter in question being Sherwood Boehlert, who represented New York's 24th Congressional district (1983-2007), and chaired the House Science Committee (2001-2007). Boehlert offers this advice in a video called "Speaking for Science: Bringing Your Message to Policymakers," available for download from the American Chemical Society website.*
The video presents two scenarios in which a group of scientists meets with their Congressional representative (who happens to be a member of the House Science Committee, played by Boehlert). As you might guess, the idea is to contrast the…
clock | September 19, 2008It is great when you write a blog post about somebody, then that somebody shows up in the comments and clarifies his position thus starting an interesting conversation (both in the comments and via e-mail), then you realize that his book-signing tour is bringing that somebody to your town, so you go there and meet that somebody in person and have a great conversation, which inspires you to write yet another blog post - the one under the fold....
It's too late and I am too tired to write a long post on this, but I know I won't have time tomorrow. All dirty, scrungly and unshaven after a day…
tqa | September 19, 2008
Apparently undeterred by last week's marijuana misadventure, DaveScot just decided to add another topic to the growing list of things he has absolutely no understanding of but writes about anyway. In today's installment, he joins the growing list of right-wingers who have decided to blame the current subprime mortgage crisis on the Democrats who passed the Community Reinvestment Act of 1975. Predictably enough, it doesn't take much effort or research to figure out that this claim has very, very little resemblance to the truth.
The basis behind the claim that the CRA caused the subprime…
clock | September 19, 2008 You probably know that I am quite interested in the history, current state, evolution and future of the institution of marriage, mainly because it is an important indicator of societal attitudes towards sex and towards gender-relations, which is the key to understanding political ideology. Between May 29, 2005 and February 23, 2006 I frequently mentioned Stephanie Coontz and particularly her latest book - Marriage, A History, e.g., in New History Of Marriage, Stephanie Coontz On Marriage, Op-Ed on the 'End of Marriage', Don't Know Much About History.... and What 'traditional' marriage?.…
grrlscientist | September 19, 2008I just learned that Sarah "What would Todd do?" Palin, the darling of mindless right-wing robots in this country, is nothing more than a vindictive asshole who freely abuses her position of power, and apparently believes she should be able to get away with it. Seriously, do we REALLY want someone who behaves in such an arrogant, despicable and unethical (un-Christlike!) way representing our country to the world in the White House?
The Republican vice-presidential candidate is under investigation over allegations that she improperly fired her public safety commissioner in July after he…