Politics
gregladen | March 16, 2008There is trouble in Tibet. And some reports indicate that things are only going to get worse in the near future.
Protests over Chinese Rule, controlled by both police and Chinese military, have spread beyond Lhasa, according to recent reports, and the Dalai Lama has called for an international inquiry into the deaths of many protesters.
The clashes in Aba, known as Ngawa in Tibetan, happened around 1200 local time on Sunday, according to Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet....
"According to reliable reports the police opened fire," said Ms Saunders, who is in London but…
clock | March 16, 2008Will one man's tryst mean a $200-billion heist will go unreported?
Reading Habits of the Liberal Media (via Melissa).
Getting the Politics of the Press Right: Walter Pincus Rips into Newsroom Neutrality
High-level right-wing discourse
Immigration irrationality
What's Wrong With This Broadcast: NPR Edition
America will not rest until Obama says Jesus had blue eyes
Feds shift strategy in bid to snare Spitzer: Campaign finance
Your Funny for Today
The Press Has Always Been Sycophantic...
The Fake Science News: Eisen Resigns in Disgrace Over Scandal
pharyngula | March 16, 2008Remember Sally Kern, the Oklahoma legislator caught on tape babbling about the gay conspiracy? It's worse than it sounded: it seems Kern has a gay son who she has essentially deleted from her public life.
And these are the people who claim ownership of the word "family"…
Here's something even worse than the self-destruction of her own family: Kerns is the sponsor of Oklahoma House Bill 2211, the "Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act". You can tell from the title what it is: a bill that would privilege religious opinions over scientific information in public school classrooms. The…
gregladen | March 15, 2008Saturday March 22 at 3:30 p.m. at Mayday Books.
301 Cedar Ave. S, Minneapolis.
(Located below Midwest Mountaineering and The Hub Bike Co-op, on the West
Bank side of the University of MN campus)
If you want to be truly subversive, read to the bottom of this post.
CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Seventy percent of Americans now oppose the war in Iraq yet the U.S. occupation
continues. We've signed petitions, called our representatives, and attended
vigils. We've rallied and marched locally and nationally. Yet after 5 years,
the war is still on. A coalition of Twin Cities activists believe it's…
gregladen | March 14, 2008I've seen one or another version of this before, and I'm never quite sure what the point is. But it is interesting in parts:
Is this meant to be sobering, or scary?
gregladen | March 14, 2008A lesbian couple will become the first same-sex couple in Greece to marry when they exchange vows in a civil ceremony next week in an Athens suburb.
The LGBT rights group OLKE said Thursday it had found a loophole in a 26 year old update of the Greek civil marriage law that refers only to participating "persons," without specifying gender.
OLKE said that by not naming gender the law, albeit inadvertently, allows same-sex marriage.
The organization did not name the lesbians who will test the law, but said that the left-of-center mayor of the Athens suburb of Kessariani has agreed to perform…
oracknows | March 13, 2008I happen to be in Chicago right now attending the annual meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology. It's a meeting that I try to make it to almost every year, and usually it's a necessary update to my knowledge base. Consequently, I only just this morning noticed my fellow ScienceBloggers Mark Hoofnagle, Mark Chu-Carroll, and P.Z. Myers piling on the latest example of the sexist misogyny that is Vox Day, this time in (where else) WorldNetDaily, in an article entitled The real assault on science. Vox's article, in essence, views the application of Title IX to science education to increase…
clock | March 13, 2008Lindsay Beyerstein: Spitzer linked to prostitution ring
Spitzer's Nixonian hubris
Sex and taxes: How Spitzer allegedly got caught
Spitzer and Suspicious Activity Reports and sex stings
Enough is enough: Feds probe Spitzer's records back to 1999
Amanda Marcotte: Cut out the stand by your man routine
Ask for facts, get the facts
Elizabeth Pisani: Spitzer's true folly
Spitzer: cementing a cross-party tradition of hypocrisy
Spitzer: some better ideas for the lapsed abolitionist
Calling "These women": tell us about your disorders...
Scott Swenson: RealTime: Prostitution Pledge for Politicians
Ed…
oracknows | March 13, 2008As an NIH-funded surgeon/scientist, I just had to read this report at BrokenPipeline.org when I became aware of it, courtesy of Bora and Drugmonkey. Basically, it describes how bleak the NIH funding situation has become, particularly for young investigators. The report (PDF) comes from several prominent research universities and warns that we are at risk of losing a generation of new biomedical researchers. Even taking into account the knowledge that this report is anything but unbiased (indeed, it is explicitly in favor of increased NIH funding), the situation it paints is still pretty grim…
drorzel | March 13, 2008We live in a short-attention-span age. I have a huge array of feeds spewing information at me like the proverbial firehose, so I often don't do more than look at the headline and RSS excerpt, and I don't think I'm alone.
Given that, it's more important than ever that the headlines given to articles actually, you know, match the contents. For example, when I see a story in the New York Times headlined Environmental Agency Tightens Smog Standards, I would like this to accurately reflect the contents of the story. When the first sentence of the story is:
The Environmental Protection Agency…
gregladen | March 12, 2008This is a picture of David Vitter, who was caught up in a prostitution ring in 2007. His face exhibits a certain look, one that may be referred to as an expression of shame.
Here we have New York Governor, or should I say the Former New York Governor, Eliot Spitzer, in a state of shame regarding ... what was it again? (That was so long ago) ... Right .. a thing with a prostitute. Again, we see the same expression on his face ...
Here is Larry Craig, who carried out shameful activities in one of the men's restrooms at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport, with an undercover police officer…
gregladen | March 12, 2008Last week, a secret recording emerged of a disturbing speech by Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern stating that homosexuality is a bigger threat to our nation than "terrorism or Islam." Rep. Kern has refused to apologize for her remarks.
She also said:
"They're going after two year olds...."
"Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays ... and a lot of places in Florida"
Hard to believe. But hearing is believing:
The Human Rights campaign has a petition for you to sign.
Hat tip: Emily
gregladen | March 12, 2008New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is going to resign any moment now.
Mr Spitzer, 48, made a public apology on Monday for what he called his unacceptable behaviour, but did not give details.
He was allegedly identified by federal agents arranging to meet a prostitute in a Washington hotel.
Mr Spitzer made his name as a fearless opponent of organised crime, including prostitution.
[source]
grrlscientist | March 12, 2008tags: Simon's cat: let me in!, animated cartoon, humor, streaming video
As mentioned on Countdown, here's the current resident of the White House, once again mocking Americans by making fun of Brownie, Scooter Libby, Executive Privilege, and the press -- a pack of vomit-eating dogs -- eats it up (and yes, I include Helen Thomas in my indictment, too, since according to my sources, she was there and participating in some of the antics) [2:52].
Profile of the Sociopath
Glibness and Superficial Charm
Manipulative and Conning
They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-…
pharyngula | March 11, 2008Yesterday, the Minnesota legislature introduced H.F. No. 3922, another of those "Academic Freedom" bills that are actually attempts to infringe on academic freedom. It's full of high-minded language, but 1) they have not demonstrated that there is a problem, 2) they simply restate principles academics already hold, but 3) they turn those principles into opportunities for meddling legislators to police our campuses. It's sponsored by Olson (R, 16B), Heidgerken (R, 13A), Drazkowksi (R, 28B), Erickson (R, 16A), and Emmer (R, 19B). I think you can see the common link in their party affiliation…
gregladen | March 10, 2008It turns out that most of our elected representatives, in the U.S., are going to hell. I just found out. Do you want to know why?
Do you remember the dust up regarding newly elected Congresmember Keith Ellison (of the Fabulous Fifth District, Minnesota)? Ellison is a Mild Muslim (has never been seen wearing a suicide bomb belt, etc.) liberal democrat. When he was on his way to Washington, the right wing crazy people got all upset over the prospect of Ellison taking the Oath of Office on the Quran instead of the Christian Bible. My advice to Ellison, which I think he summarily ignored…
clock | March 10, 2008Why are Republicans (and their voters) so insecure about their masculinity? What are they covering up with their aggression and machismo? Why everything they say and do in an election boils down to some mythical and barbaric notion of manliness:
War cheerleaders ask: 'Is Obama man enough to be president?'
Thus, everyone who opposes them is always tagged as a 'sissy', although it is them who are fearful cowards. If you criticize cowards you are shrill and effeminate and hysterical like a woman, is that how it works?
The religion of balance and centrism
How much you want to bet that these…
oracknows | March 10, 2008Damn you, mercury militia.
I had had another topic entirely in mind for this week's post, but, as happens far too often, news events have overtaken me in the form of a story that was widely reported towards the end of last week. It was all over the media on Thursday evening and Friday, showing up on CNN, Larry King Live, the New York Times, and NPR. It happens to be the story of a girl from Georgia named Hannah Poling whose case before the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which had originally part of a much larger proceeding known as the Autism Omnibus, was settled. This settlement…
clock | March 9, 2008A Democrat and a physicist won a special election in the Dennis Hastert's uber-Republican district (also birthplace of Ronald Reagan) yesterday. He is an overall Good Guy.
oracknows | March 9, 2008...Wiley explains:
That about sums it up, as do the rest of the questions in the comic's poll.