Politics
evolvingthoughts | December 9, 2007
Just to head off the obvious:
Do people kill because their religion or ideology tells them that nonbelievers are subhuman? Yes. Do people go to war because their religion or ideology tells them it is their patriotic duty? Yes. Do people walk into a church or missionary school and kill people because of their religion or ideology. Almost never. They do it because they are insane.
Believe it or not, the former actions are adaptive: if you follow the conventions you are accepted in your community, which raises your fitness. It's political, not ideological. The latter - the random killing of…
clock | December 9, 2007This weekend, with 70 degrees F in Chapel Hill, it would have bin a sin to remain indoors. So I didn't. But in the end, at twilight today, my daughter and I went to see Golden Compass, the movie whose first-weekend box-office earnings I wanted to boost.
I made sure not to read any reviews of the movie beforehand. I am, unlike most people who already wrote about it, one of those people who has never read the Pullman books on which the movie is based. Thus, like the majority of the target audience, I was a Pullman "virgin" and I wanted to watch it just like anyone else going out to see a…
jlynch | December 9, 2007Tim Lambert has already highlighted this, but since some of the affair played out on this blog ... John Mashey has posted an extended account of the Oreskes/Schulte affair [pdf]. Regular readers will remember that Naomi Oreskes publicly responded to Schulte here and subsequent developments can be followed here and here. As Tim notes "Schulte seems to be guilty of professional misconduct."
clock | December 8, 2007Indy has the entire issue devoted to the topic of Global Warming, with some excellent articles:
10 years after Kyoto: You're getting warmer by Bill McKibben
10 years after Kyoto: Winners and losers by Sena Christian
James Hansen won't be quiet by Lisa Sorg
Ryan Boyles, state climatologist by Matt Saldana
Energy interests fund Duke University's research on climate change policy by Matt Saldana
State senator parades dubious 'global warming experts' before commission by Mosi Secret
terrasig | December 8, 2007We've been speaking about this issue on behalf of our lymphoma colleagues since late August.
But yesterday's New York Times (Alex Berenson) and Wall Street Journal's Health Blog (Jacob Goldstein) brought greater awareness to the issue of Medicare's proposal to cut reimbursement for "smart-bomb" radioimmunotherapies for lymphomas. So far, it appears that Medicare will move forward with plans to cut reimbursements for two RIT drugs, Bexxar® and Zevalin®, to less than their acquisition costs to hospitals.
This issue had already mobilized Newsweek's Jonathan Alter to write a piercing screed…
gregladen | December 8, 2007Coturnix points out that the following video of Dan Abrams speaking with two women about sex among teenagers is a good example of reporting about a scientific issue mired in a political quagmire.
Keywords and phrases:
Well, what that study actually reveals is...
Well, in a number of cases....
The study said it didn't work. So we need to do more of it to make it work.
I say, if the legislation doesn't work, screw it.
gregladen | December 8, 2007Don't Forget: The Listening Project, December 13, at the Oak Street Cinema!
The City of St Paul is a Free Speech Zone
Some inside info on the upcoming Republican National Convention from our own blogospheric correspondent on the East Side...
I have deep roots in the East Side of St. Paul. It is where I really started getting involved in politics through campaigns. I volunteer as treasurer for one of the legislators on the East Side, Tim Mahoney (DFL 67A.) So, I am happy to see that the cop in charge of security for the 2008 GOP convention is an East Sider.
choofnagle | December 8, 2007All, Mark has been busy becoming a Dr. and I've been busy doing end-of-semester stuff at UC-B. So, sorry for the absenteeism. Maybe when Mark recovers from his hangover we'll have more good content here. But until then, check out Lawrence O'Donnell (who is on HBO's Big Love) rant on Mormonism. Ouch!
I can't resist. South Park, All About the Morons.
evolvingthoughts | December 8, 2007
John, hear me.
What? Who said that?
It is I, God.
Oh come on. PZ, is that you? I'm not buying it.
It is I, God. Look, I'll prove it. [Clouds in the sky form the letters "Yep, It's Me" for a minute and then evaporate.]
Ummm, OK, for the sake of argument, let's say it is You, and I'm not hallucinating. What do You want?
I want to tell you how you all must live your lives.
Why? Because You say so? Or because it will benefit us? I mean, you have a track record of delivering arbitrary rules for no apparent benefit to us, and plenty to those who say they represent You. Haven't you…
pharyngula | December 8, 2007American River College has, as most colleges do, a student body organization that is elected by the students. They recently had their elections, and got a bit of a surprise: the right-wing Christian group had organized, appealed to the student on the basis of their shared religious beliefs, and swept the election. It also helped that they could call on ethnic identities — Sacramento apparently has had an influx of Slavic immigrants with an odd(er) and often rather nasty form of the Christian cult. These are the Slavic Christian groups that are hysterically homophobic—it's evident on their…
jrosenhouse | December 7, 2007There were a few bright spots in the way the media reacted to Romney's disgusting speech. Keith Olbermann offered these characteristically wise words:
In a milestone speech in 1960, the national candidate for the Democratic Party, John F. Kennedy, told this nation why his Catholicism would not interfere with his responsibility as president, explaining he believed religion was a private matter, that separation of church and state should be absolute, that his presidential decisions should be made without any regard to any outside religious pressure. Tonight in our third story on the…
jrosenhouse | December 7, 2007Mitt Romney gave his big religion speech yesterday. It is a standard piece of anti-atheist propaganda. America is a relgious nation, those darn secularists are trying to take God out of the public square, I'm as crazy religious as all those evangelicals I'm pandering to even though they regard my church as a cult, blah blah blah. Here are a few choice nuggets:
Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.
It…
clock | December 7, 2007You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us bloggers got to meet Rep. Brad Miller (D - NC13) and talk about the effects of new media on politics. Now you can read two accounts of the meeting by Seth Wright and Emily Burns.
gregladen | December 7, 2007First, I want to say that we should not forget that this was a horrific event, and that I'm sure we all mourn for the dead and their families.
A fellow blogger in the science and technology world lost a close friend in this shooting, and has written about it here.
Now, I want to ask two difficult questions.
Before I ask the questions, though, I want to say something else. Yesterday, I had the idea of writing this post (this one, the one you are reading now). Didn't get to it right away. Then, I read Webs' post about the loss of his friend. It made me think: I'm thinking about writing a…
evolvingthoughts | December 7, 2007
I'm angry. The business with the CIA and the torture tape leaves me angry. Why oh why have the Democrats not immediately impeached Bush, Cheney, the Attorneys General involved, the Secretaries of State and Foreign Affairs, the heads of the CIA and the military, and anyone else involved in torture? When did America become the next Inquisition?
If I ever met one of the Congressional Democrats, I would refuse to shake their hands. They are cowards.
Maybe they'll try to supervise the unrestrained adventurism of the so-called Intelligence community. This is the worst case scenario of the…
clock | December 7, 2007This year I have no time to follow even the Democratic primary race (in which I am interested) and am certainly not going to waste my time on the GOP race. I took a brief look once they all announced and picked up some news here and there on the blogs or NPR, and realized they are just a circus car full of clowns.
But I could not resist reading (thanks, Ed) this WSJ commentary on the reception of the Romney religion speech by his target audience, the hopelessly brainwashed:
Romney Address Wins Mixed Evangelical Reviews:
Some Christians didn't want to hear such preaching about plurality. The…
pharyngula | December 7, 2007Well, Mitt Romney just lost the secular vote.
Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom
opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most
profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure
together, or perish alone.
Oh, wait. He never had it.
That speech was an appalling piece of dreck. He claimed the mantle of John F. Kennedy, but no, he's no idealistic Democrat, and he sure mangled the Kennedy sentiment that we should elect our presidents as secular leaders, with no allegiance to any church, into an obscene insistence that our…
terrasig | December 7, 2007I've been terribly remiss as of late in both promoting and submitting to blog carnivals. However, I wanted to draw your attention to an interesting new carnival and the latest edition of an old stalwart.
The Cancer Research Blog Carnival is hosted this week at nosugrefneb.com/weblog written by Ben Ferguson, an MD/PhD student in cancer biology and a capella jazz singer at the University of Chicago. Ben also writes for Medscape's med student feature, The Differential, and produces the Pritzker Podcasts for prospective students interested in the University of Chicago. In his spare time, he is…