Politics
evolvingthoughts | May 25, 2007
Razib at Gene Expression has a nuanced and well supported argument about the proportion of religion-supporters versus the proportion of religiosity in various European and Asian cultures. I strongly recommend it.
One of his claims is that the "default" state of humans is a kind of religiosity; I think I agree with him. Humans have all kinds of default "wild type" programs in their psyche and cognition which in a high density population will tend to fall out as religion. Does this mean that atheism is doomed? Or that secularism (which is a different thing) is doomed? I think there will be…
grrlscientist | May 25, 2007tags: Keith Olbermann, political opinion, streaming video
Everyone in our government has failed the American people and ignored their demand to extricate us from this war based on lies. [Keith Olbermann 7:52]
tsmith | May 25, 2007A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I reviewed the HIV/AIDS chapter in Tom Bethell's book, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science." I discussed his characterization of AIDS in Africa:
As the chapter title suggests, Bethell claims that AIDS in Africa is a made-up epidemic; AIDS is really due to simple malnutrition and dirty water supplies, rather than a virus. Government officials, scientists, and journalists are either too brainwashed or too scared to speak against the "AIDS orthodoxy." The evil liberals aren't concerned about AIDS because the real concern of the left,…
jrosenhouse | May 24, 2007From last night's Hardball:
MATTHEWS: OK. I want to get to your issue about mine-resistant equipment over there and armage (ph) equipment over there. But let me ask you this, first of all. Rudy Giuliani--he seems to get away with a lot of factual mistakes. He was on David Letterman the other night. And I know David Letterman's not a newsman. It's not his job to fact check. But listen to this. Let's take a look at--here's the former mayor of New York, the most respected man in the Republican Part right now, if you look at the polls, and here's what he's saying about the Iraq…
grrlscientist | May 23, 2007tags: Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzales, US Attorney General, US Attorney firings, politics
So what is Monica Goodling's excuse for her poor memory? She's a terrible liar if the best she can come up with is that she "didn't intend to commit a crime," that she "crossed the line, but didn't mean to." Meanwhile, Justice Department documents show that Goodling attended numerous meetings over a year's time about the plans to fire the U.S. attorneys and she corresponded with the White House and at least one of the fired prosecutors before the dismissals were ordered. It's no wonder that she pled…
grrlscientist | May 23, 2007tags: beliefs, Republican, politics
You might find yourself agreeing with this list (how could you not?), and possibly adding a few more of your own points to it after you've had a chance to read it. Of course, it wasn't always like this, as one commenter pointed out. But the Republican party has been hijacked by the same evil liars who hijack truth, freedom and everything else we hold dear in this country.
Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when…
j7uy5 | May 23, 2007
It has been a party, sure enough; more like an exercise in
Bacchinalian debauchery.
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201653.html?hpid=topnews">Changes
Spurred Buying, Abuses
By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Scott Higham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 23, 2007; Page A01
...Congress
created the GSA's buying program in 1949 to make it easier for the
burgeoning federal bureaucracy to buy furniture, office supplies and
other products. The government sought to leverage its position as the
world's leading buyer to get the…
oracknows | May 23, 2007Well, well, well.
Remember about a year ago, when Libertarian wingnut Vox Day shot himself in the foot big time by using a warped logic to argue that because it was "possible" for Hitler to round up six million Jews in four years then it's not "impossible" for us to round up 12 million illegal immigrants, a contention that I had a great deal of fun royally fisking (as did Sergey over at Holocaust Controversies) and that was so bad that it was apparently deemed too offensive even for WorldNet Daily, which edited it to water down Vox's horrible historical analogy? (If not, please check out my…
grrlscientist | May 23, 2007tags: history, middle east, streaming video
This streaming video gives a brief overview of the situation in the Middle East, and why we are there now, fighting our former allies. [3:03].
clock | May 22, 2007Well, it's been a while.... since I hosted the CotL #3 about a year and a half ago. It's ripe time to do it again. Not that it was ever easy to choose ten best written and most creative posts out of dozens of great entries! I spent the last few days agonizing and wishing I could include 20 or 30 or 40...but rules are rules, so here it goes, the brand new Carnival of the Liberals:
The Ridger of The Greenbelt digs for deeper causes in Not slavery - abolition:
Upsetting tyrants is noble, isn't it?
Charles H. Green knows that Trust Matters and right now you should trust me that his post is well…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2007tags: Julie MacDonald, Interior Department, politics
Julie MacDonald, a Bush appointee who resigned earlier this month as Interior Department deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, is being investigated by Democrats because she was involved with delisting an endangered species to protect her financial interests. According to the Contra Costa Times, MacDonald removed the threatened Sacramento splittail fish from the federal threatened and endangered species list while she was profiting from her farm that lies within the habitat area of the threatened fish.
Today,…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2007tags: Wolfowitz, humor, politics
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
A friend sent this cartoon to me, but there was no accompanying link, so until I or someone else manages to find it, this is officially an orphaned image.
evolvingthoughts | May 21, 2007
First, having dumped on the Smithsonian in the last post, let me cheer them for putting over 6000 images on Flickr... most of which are public domain. There's a wicked Dunkelosteus skull and nearly 800 of Muybridge's motion photographs (cyanotypes).
Second, let me note the good work of Andrew Bartlett of the Australian Democrats, in raising awareness of the Queensland lungfish that is being threatened by the Queensland government's plans to build a probably useless dam. Thanks to Jason, who Has Connections, for the links.
evolvingthoughts | May 21, 2007
The Smithsonian, it is being reported, toned down an exhibit on the Arctic for fear of reprisals in funding levels from the Bush Administration. While there is no evidence that the Administration directly threatened the Institute, the atmosphere of "do science our way" is so palpable that even the premier scientific institution of the United States would dumb down its knowledge... but apparently it is not the first time the Smithsonian has done this, according to the article. I guess that comes from being a political toy.
In a more general and direct case of attacking science, the…
pharyngula | May 21, 2007In California, the state's spending on prisons is about to exceed their spending on universities. They're about to spend $7.4 billion on new facilities, with an operating budget over $10 billion.
I wonder how much of that budget is consumed in ridiculous efforts to punish non-violent drug users, or in the zealous application of three strikes laws?
evolvingthoughts | May 20, 2007
Why did Edith Rodriguez die unattended by medical staff in an ER? Was it because she was obese? Or Hispanic? Or because the US health system, and in particular this hospital, is so stretched that triage is by rapid prejudice rather than medical criteria?
As a subsidiary question, how is it that people could ignore a screaming woman on the floor?
pharyngula | May 20, 2007I know everyone is talking about this demented blog supporting Brownback's candidacy that, among other things, denounces heliocentrism. I honestly can't decide whether it's satire or genuine—I've met a few people who sincerely believe ideas that stupid. It's just that they usually lack the technical competence to put a website together.
But then, of course, all you have to do is read Brownback's official campaign site, or his official blog colony, which is almost as looney, and you have to wonder how crazy an idea would have to be to be rejected by a Republican presidential candidate. After…
aardvarchaeology | May 20, 2007Blogging here at Sb has many advantages, one of which is a free subscription to Seed. I received the latest four issues the other day and have been reading them with great interest. It's a very pretty mag with great content.
One detail surprises me. Almost all Most of the models in the ads are black. I have an inkling what this may mean: let me explain.
Most of Seed's readers are in the US.
In the US, black people are on average less well-educated and affluent than white people.
Therefore, marketing a US pop-sci mag primarily to black people would be a bad idea.
The ads are instead in all…
pharyngula | May 19, 2007South Dakota: very conservative, very Republican, very concerned with women's reproduction, and none of it in a good way. This story just personifies the worst of South Dakota's repressive residents perfectly.
A former South Dakota lawmaker is accused of molesting his own foster children and legislative pages.
Ted Klaudt, 49, a Republican rancher from Walker, faces a long list of charges: eight counts of rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of witness tampering, sexual contact with a person under 16, and stalking.
Court documents mention five possible victims. Three…
clock | May 19, 2007Amanda Marcotte, that is. And there are two way to look at her from the 'other side' or 'not-as-well-known-side' or 'what-really-happened-side': the first is BlogPac Hero: The Amanda Marcotte Story You Haven't Heard by John Javna and the second is Brimstone and cat spit by Amanda Marcotte.