Politics
grrlscientist | March 23, 2007I dunno about you, but this streaming video is just a wee bit scary to me. By the way, can anyone understand what the older woman was saying and what language it is?
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tags: cult, religion, George W Bush
oracknows | March 22, 2007As odd as it seems, my timing in posting about removing chemotherapy ports yesterday was eerily coincidental.
I've alluded to this before, but I'm most definitely not a big fan of John Edwards and would never vote for him for President. That being said, I can't help but feel for him and, even more so, his wife Elizabeth, given their announcement today that Elizabeth's breast cancer has recurred (see here as well), with a biopsy proving that it has metastasized to a rib. Neither she nor he nor their family deserve this, nor does any patient with cancer. I've gotten a few e-mails asking what…
oracknows | March 22, 2007I just heard on the radio last night while driving home what has to be one of the worst analogy about global warming that I've ever heard, and, at the risk of annoying fellow SB'ers who frequently write about these topics, like Chris Mooney or Tim Lambert, I felt like commenting.
Oddly enough, the soundbite came from Al Gore, of all people, the last person I would expect to make such a flawed analogy:
The planet has a fever," Gore said. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told…
grrlscientist | March 22, 2007Generally, I don't think much of Donald Trump but in this case, I agree with him wholeheartedly (streaming video below the fold).
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tags: streaming video, Donald Trump, Iraq War
clock | March 22, 2007 Will Edwards suspend his campaign due to the return of Elizabeth's cancer? So far, the campaign is denying it (and chastising media that states so, e.g., CNN and Politico):
Philgoblue
CNN
Kos
Edwards blog
chuckles is liveblogging from the press conference.
Update: Cancer was caught early, is treatable, she looks good and campaign is moving on with no interuption.
j7uy5 | March 22, 2007What
can you say?
Arch Gen Psychiatry is one of those non-open-access journals that
publishes one free-access article in each issue. Usually the
free article is not particularly interesting; they do not seem to make
use of the open-access articles routinely to make material of general
public interest available to all. This is an exception.
At first, I was almost offended that this article was published.
Why bother to even pose the question? The question,
in this case, being whether there is any scientific basis for
distinguishing between torture and other bad things.
href="http://…
voltagegate | March 22, 2007The other day I made a passing comment about the issue of using celebrity as a face for conservation:
I have a few tough questions for the organizers of the event, mostly about the questionable choice of using celebrity to promote and give a face to conservation. It has worked for promoting purely humanitarian causes in the past, but is this movement different and should it be addressed in a different manner? Furthermore, where are the young Goodalls and Attenboroughs of the world? Surely they would be glad to step up and reach out to people instead of a polarizing, disconnected celebrity.…
voltagegate | March 21, 2007Here's what other folks are saying about the rally:
A faith based review from BPT
A nice photo essay and review from JohnKerry.com
A review from the Daily Kos
Some bland irreverence from a bland dissenter (C'mon, man. I know you can do better than that!)
What Sour N Sweet learned at Action Day
Sylvia's experience at the rally and her thoughts on Barbara Boxer
Zandria really meant to go, but the DC metropolitan area can be a bit confusing
If you've written a post reviewing the event (or plan on it) leave a comment on this post or e-mail me; I'll add your link to the post.
voltagegate | March 21, 2007It was a beautiful day for a rally yesterday, and the turnout was pretty good. One article claimed 1,500 attendees, but that number seems a bit high.
This was the latest rally sponsored in part by the Alaska Wilderness League, the last one held at the Capitol in 2005 focusing on ANWR and the plight of native wildlife and indigenous peoples in the area. The focus this year was much the same, with more emphasis on global warming than oil procurement. Speakers ranged from John Kerry to Alaskan leaders and villagers to the legendary DC DJ "The Weasel", promoting 94.7 The Globe, the area's first "…
aardvarchaeology | March 21, 2007As reported profusely in the mainstream media, the Chinese government is investing in iffy African regimes to secure access to the troubled continent's raw materials. For years, Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe has for instance received Chinese tech and training to control information flow: phone-tapping, radio jamming and internet-monitoring. You scratch my dictatorial back, I'll scratch yours, little brother.
British-run short-wave radio station SW Radio Africa is routinely jammed in Zimbabwe's cities. Now, reports the BBC's global tech news program & podcast Digital Planet, the radio…
oracknows | March 21, 2007Back in October, I wrote about an appalling case in Germany, in which a German anti-Nazi activist named Juergen Kamm was fined â¬3,600 for selling left-wing garb adorned with modified Swastikas designed to mock neo-Nazis because he ran afoul of a law in Germany that forbids the use of Nazi symbols, regardless of context. It turns out that the appeal recently went to trial, and the ruling demonstrated a degree of common sense that we seldom see coming from the European Union lately, as reported in the Telegraph:
Anti-nazi groups in Germany yesterday won the right to display the swastika after…
evolvingthoughts | March 20, 2007
Some more or less random links that I am grouping under the epistemology of philosophy of science.
For those who have not reached Level 9 or higher in the Illuminati, "epistemology" has nothing to do with getting drunk, but with how knowledge is acquired (episteme means "understanding, skill or knowledge of some field").
First, Medlar Comfits has a nice essay on what science is compared to the sort of "believe authority" view of creationists. Also, this is a really nice blog I hadn't previously seen, with for instance articles on the use of English to communicate by ESL writers. Well…
clock | March 20, 2007A few months ago, Mike defined the Compulsive Centrist Disorder and I have argued something similar a number of times in the past, e.g., here and here. In short - there is no such thing as a political middle. There is no line between "Left" and "Right" that you can put your own dot on. Most issues are quite binary - there is a "for" position and an "against" position, with each perhaps having additional modifiers. On each issue, one makes a decision. If on most issues you take a conservative option, you are predominantly conservative, and likewise for liberal option. Most people hold…
jlynch | March 20, 2007
Iraq - 3/20/2003 to 3/20/2007
3218 US soldiers dead and 23,417 US soldiers wounded (source)
123 UK soldiers killed (source)
116 journalists killed (source)
~60,000 civilians killed (source)
Number of Al-Quaeda operatives responsible for 9/11 caught in Iraq: ?
grrlscientist | March 17, 2007Let's say what we really mean .. Courtesy of the Al Jazeera News station.
j7uy5 | March 17, 2007
I know people come here to read about psychiatry, mental health,
neuroscience, and political/social issues related to those topics.
No, scratch that, I have not idea why people come here.
But this post is straight politics. Well, it's
politics and a little sociological musing and opinion.
The
cartoon came in an email from the left-leaning Center for
American Progress. They rarely send me anything, so
I figure they figure this is a big issue. The cartoon is
window dressing. The article they link to is not.
href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/03/now_you_tell_us.…
evolvingthoughts | March 17, 2007
Funny Slogan of the Week
No. This isn't funny. This is as true as it gets...
This is from the ACT UP protest against Joint Chief of Staff General Pace's bigoted remarks:
Via Mike the Mad Biologist
clock | March 16, 2007Apparently, it is so.
Veljko Kadijevic, a former Yugoslav General who was indicted for War Crimes (mainly for the brutal destruction of the Croatian city of Vukovar early in the conflict) was never brought to justice (or even pursued by Croatia to be arrested - wonder why?) is apparently advising the US Department of Defense in Iraq.
As a West Point alumnus, Kadijevic had many connections with the US military throughout his career. But his poor military performance in the early nineties, if not his criminal status, should have been enough to keep him out of any kind of "advising" about…