Politics
clock | September 13, 2008
This was first posted on http://www.jregrassroots.org/ forums on July 10, 2004, then republished on Science And Politics on August 18, 2004. That was to be just the first, and most raw, post on this topic on my blog. It was followed by about a 100 more posts building on this idea, modifying it, and changing my mind in the process. You can see some of the better follow-ups here. Also, I have since then read Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz, which is a much better and more scholarly work than E.J.Graff's book. Below the…
gregladen | September 13, 2008Ay yi yi,
McCain weighs in on Palin's qualifications
As long as you're being rational about this,
McCain and Sleazy Campaigning
And yet another political roundup...
gregladen | September 13, 2008
Uffda. Sorry world. We'll try to get her unelected, OK?
Hat tip PZ Myers
clock | September 13, 2008Under the fold....
WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN?:
When Republicans say that Democrats "just don't get it," this is the "it" to which they refer. Conservative positions on gays, guns, god, and immigration must be understood as means to achieve one kind of morally ordered society. When Democrats try to explain away these positions using pop psychology they err, they alienate, and they earn the label "elitist." But how can Democrats learn to see--let alone respect--a moral order they regard as narrow-minded, racist, and dumb?
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Unity is not the great need of the hour, it is…
razib | September 13, 2008My earlier post which showed that large numbers of people around the world are skeptical about the "official" story regarding the perpetrators of 9/11 really needs an American baseline as a comparison. I have posted data from a Zogby poll as well as a Pew survey of American Muslims. Note that I selected only some of the fields; if the N's were too low or I found the category uninteresting I left it out (what's uninteresting? Don't care if you participate in Little League).
Question: "There are three main schools of thought regarding the 9/11 attacks. The first theory is the official…
drorzel | September 13, 2008A while back, at dinner, I made my usual complaint that Slacktivist doesn't get enough attention. Kate expressed some doubts, because he certainly seems to have a large number of readers and commenters.
The problem is, it's not read by the people who really need to be reading it, and today provides an excellent example. Steve Benen at the new and prolific Washington Monthly is mystified by Sarah Palin:
Let's not play games. Yes, there have been a variety of foreign policy maxims dubbed the "Bush Doctrine" over the years. If Sarah Palin heard the question and said, "Which one?" I would have…
pharyngula | September 13, 2008Once again, the Daily Show punctures the pointless vapidities uttered by politicians — in this case, the phrase "small town values" that was flung about with fervent abandon at the Republican convention, by lots of people who seem to have never been anywhere near a small town.
I live in a small town, I like living here, and there are definite advantages to it — it's easy to get to know other members of the community, the life style is a bit more laid back, and a lot of the hassles of just moving around are absent. But small town values? The ones the Republicans are worshipping seem to be the…
evolvingthoughts | September 12, 2008
Here is a roundup of links and stuff that I don't have time to blog on right now.
A. C. Grayling replies in a piece of beautiful snark to Steve Fuller's response to his review of Dissent over Descent. Thony is not permitted to point out any further historical inaccuracies...
Leiter reports that a philosopher who blogs, from Yeshiva, James Otteson, may have been removed because he said things on the blog that are sexist, or at least interpreted to be, according to Inside Higher Education.
Will Thomas at Ether Wave Propaganda has the first of a series on the historian Simon Schaeffer, on…
clock | September 12, 2008Under the fold....
Alaska is right next to Russia:
She was referring to the Diomede Islands which straddle the International Date Line in the Bering Straits. Big Diomede is on the Russian side of the line and Little Domede is on the Alaskan side. There is a village of about 150 Eskimos on Little Diomede who live mostly by fishing and walrus hunting. The islands are only two and a half miles apart, so it's easy to see one from the other on a clear day. In the winter when the ice is frozen you can walk across in about an hour.
Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch, #82:
That,…
jrosenhouse | September 12, 2008I liked Matt Damon even before this, but now I am definitely going to see any movie he is in:
I think there's a really good chance that Sarah Palin could be President, and I think that's a really scary thing. Because I don't know anything about her. I don't think in eight weeks I'm going to know anything about her. I know she was a mayor of a really, really small town, and she's governor of Alaska for less than two years. I just don't understand, I think the pick was made for political purposes, but in term sof governance it's a disaster. You do the actuary tables there's a one out of…
clock | September 12, 2008Ezra explains in words, but a Picture is Worth a Thousand of those:
BTW, the whole 'drill, baby, drill' chant at the RNC Convention, like pretty much everything in the scenography and theatrics there, was deeply sexual, designed to appeal to sexually anxious males. What do you think their reptilian brains were thinking of drilling in Alaska? Google "femiphobia".
clock | September 12, 2008Or, in this case, "I am not a liar".
Remember, don't think of an elephant?
Saying that Palin is not a liar elicits the 'liar' frame together with her name. Mentioning her name and the word "lying" in the same sentence reminds people she is lying.
When Nixon said he was not a crook, everyone thought of him as a crook. Inserting the word "not" means nothing - that is not how a human mind works.
So, did they lose their framing magic?
Which is the same reason that Obama's ad "Not maverick" has the unintended opposite effect - reminds people that McCain is supposed to be a maverick:
Come on,…
evolvingthoughts | September 11, 2008
I think they are: they give credence to verbal slips, egregious misinterpretations of ordinary phrases, take words out of context, and ignore what really matters in the most important political competition in the world.
How can a nation be clinically insane? By listening to what the media tell it. And this is a worry when the nation is the 800lb (363 kg) gorilla in the room. So lighten up! Get serious! Stop it, or you'll go blind... er.
clock | September 11, 2008Don't Think of a Maverick! Could the Obama Campaign Be Improved?:
In 1980, Richard Wirthlin -- Ronald Reagan's chief strategist -- made a fateful discovery. In his first poll he discovered that most people didn't like Reagan's positions on the issues, but nevertheless wanted to vote for Reagan. The reason, he figured out, is that voters vote for president not primarily on the issues, but on five other factors -- "character" factors: Values; Authenticity; Communication and connection; Trust; and Identity. In the Reagan-Carter and Reagan-Mondale debates, Mondale and Carter were ahead on the…
clock | September 11, 2008For those who object I only bash McCain and never say anything nice about Obama:
- I bash conservatism and GOP. It is irrelevant who is their candidate. This time they are serving up a real doozy, but all the others they had in the primaries are just as bad.
- I want to stop them, and since the Democratic Party is the only credible opposition, I will support Mickey Mouse as a Democratic Candidate. It is not that I am Obamamaniac, or that I agree with most of his proposals. But his proposals are at least decent and in the right direction. And he is a smart, decent man who would make me…
gregladen | September 11, 2008I know that by blogospheric standards this is ancient but I just came across this particular video and thought I'd share (This is from yesterday).
Hat Tip: Minnesota Campaign Report
clock | September 11, 2008Sure, she would attack Russia, but at least she is not aware that she can do it pre-emptively.
But that's OK. She'll learn at the foot of the master.
Ooops!
gregladen | September 11, 2008Boob ogling is not the only place where male power brokering and sexual politics play out. It turns out that when the crazy Republicans at the RNC were shouting "Drill Baby Drill" they were not merely making an inappropriate (for prime time) sexual reference about oil drilling, they were (inadvertently?) describing what Republican Appointed oil industry regulators are actually doing.
An Interior Department investigation describing a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" by workers at the agency that issues offshore drilling leases and collects royalties hit lawmakers Wednesday just…