Politics
oracknows | March 16, 2007Continuing Orac's quest for truly stupid quotes from The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar, this time a couple of tasty stupid morsels about free speech:
Here's entry number 1, from the February 17, 2007 entry in the calendar:
"We forbid any course that says we restrict free speech!"--Dr. Kathleen Dixon, Director of Women's Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, commenting on the resignation of Dr. Richard Zeller, who wanted to teach a course in how liberalism has led to political correctness.
Here's entry number 2, from the July 4, 2001 entry:
"What we have is two important…
evolvingthoughts | March 15, 2007
After the sermon comes, as we all know, the benediction. I just wanted to say that I welcome religious believers here. I want you to read me, and the other Science Bloggers, whether they are aggressively atheist or assertively theist, bored, or just good mannered, because discussion is what it's all about. So come forth... err, go into the blog... whatever, look forward to hearing from you.
Chris at Highly Allochthonous (I just love typing that name) calls this a "robust exchange of views". Where I grew up, the phrase "robust exchange of views", or "full and frank exchange" basically meant…
pharyngula | March 15, 2007Wow. Pete Stark has been raked over the coals by the Christian Seniors organization—what a wicked man he must be.
"It is sad but not surprising that the current Congress has produced this historic first—one of its members has denied God," said CSA Executive Director James Lafferty. "The liberals in Congress want to throttle any school child who bows his or her head in prayer, but they want to establish a right for liberals to bash Christians and berate God around the clock.
Well, you know there is a real shortage of schoolchildren to throttle. If we liberals went at it at the pace we wanted…
drorzel | March 15, 2007From the first invention of human language right up to the present moment, there has never been an instant when "He did it first" was a winning argument.
Counterexamples?
evolvingthoughts | March 14, 2007
Ordinarily, sermons should be reserved for holy days, such as when football and cricket is being played, but this is occasioned by some Scibling conflicts...
When I were a young lad, me ol' mam told me to keep a civil tongue in me 'ead. [Actually, she told me something else, but this is a family post.] Have you ever wondered about the notion of civility?
Etymology is something of a guide here - it comes from the Latin civis, meaning "city". That is, it is the mode of behaviour, the manners, of the city. In Greek, the term is polis, which means "city" also. From these two words we get…
evolvingthoughts | March 14, 2007
OK, day 4, and I'm still not smoking (Hi, I'm John... Hi John). This is attempt number 247 or so, but one thing that has motivated this attempt is the danger of passive smoking to my as yet unsullied son, who lives with me (and has a sensible attitude to smoking - it's bad, and you should stop it Dad).
But the published evidence on passive smoking is equivocal. Or is it? In Nature this week is a report that funding from tobacco companies was given to a study on passive smoking (concluding against the claim that passive smoke is harmful) that is methodologically challenged.
Given the…
pharyngula | March 14, 2007That article I wrote on the Albert Mohler's bizarre endorsement of gene therapy for gay fetuses got quoted in an AP article on the subject. Unfortunately, they don't provide enough info for readers to find their way back here, but it does give a good range of perspectives anyway.
tsmith | March 14, 2007The most recent edition of Tangled Bank, your one-stop science blogging carnival, is up over at Living the Scientific Life.
In addition, there are a few other posts I've been meaning to plug:
Nick on Texas House overturning mandatory HPV vaccination.
Burt at Panda's Thumb on Why you should care if cattle get fourth-generation cephalosporins and why doctors need to know about evolution (a takedown of this Discovery Institute essay).
And a nice follow-up to those: Mike on why antibiotic resistance matters.
evolvingthoughts | March 14, 2007
Marine General, Peter Pace, expressed the official view of the US militaryhis personal opinion that gays are immoral, and shouldn't be allowed to fight. Given that the Australian armed forces, and probably the British, Spanish and other allies allow gays in their military, it seems to me Gen. Pace is making a statement about who should be permitted to fight alongside the US...
I think we should return the favour. Any armed forces that has Gen. Pace in it is clearly an immoral and dissipated organisation, and we should simply refuse to fight alongside him.
pharyngula | March 13, 2007I got a request to spread the word around Minnesota—the anti-vaxers are gearing up again to push a silly bill in the Minnesota congress. I've put the letter below. If any of these people are your representatives, contact them and tell them they are being very, very silly.
There's supposed to be a hearing next week on a bill that would limit the use of vaccines containing thimerosal, because of the belief that they may cause autism. This is the third year that this bill has been presented, and it keeps failing, but they keep bringing it back up, even though it's clearer now than ever that…
oracknows | March 13, 2007Apparently, our President brings "bad energy" wherever he goes, requiring some strong woo to cleanse the area after he leaves:
Maya leaders are to perform a special cleaning ceremony at ancient ruins to clear bad energy after a visit by President Bush.
Mr Bush is due at the Mayan ruins of Iximche in Guatemala as part of his tour of the Latin American region, reports the BBC.
But after he leaves, Maya protesters said they would hold a ceremony to restore peace and harmony to the area.
Morales Toj said: "We will burn incense, place flowers and water in the area where Mr Bush has walked to clean…
grrlscientist | March 13, 2007Well, well, well, it looks like Bush's Attorney General, Alberto R. Gonzales, is scared: he accepted his top aide's resignation in an attempt to divert attention from his firings of eight federal prosecutors. These dismissals appeared to be politically motivated since these prosecutors said they felt pressured by powerful Republicans in their home states to rush investigations of potential voter fraud involving Democrats.
Rove emerged as the Democrats' newest target after weekend news reports said the New Mexico Republican Party's chairman urged deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, the…
pharyngula | March 13, 2007The demonization of Pete Stark begins. Wouldn't you know it would be Michelle Malkin ("imprisonment for being brown is OK!"), and it would be in WorldNutDaily (your daily source of raving right wing lunacy), and she's appalled that he has called someone a "fruitcake" in the past. Why, that's a homophobic slur! He's as bad as Ann Coulter!
She's really reaching. I've never heard "fruitcake" used against gays, although I imagine practically every word has been used as an insult against them—I've mainly heard it to express one's opinion of another's sanity, as in "nutty as a fruitcake". It's too…
sb admin | March 13, 2007It's all over the news. The FBI has violated the PATRIOT act numerous times by using "national security letters" where it wasn't legitimate to do so. Naughty FBI. Clean your house.
The problem is, we need our House to clean up by repealing the PATRIOT act altogether. That act was shoved through congress at a time when few representatives were willing to risk not being seen Doing Something. We were cowed, we were afraid, we were angry, we were indignant, and we pushed this sweeping act through into law without the discussion, consideration, and public awareness that anything anywhere…
oracknows | March 12, 2007
With nearly 20 months to go before the election itself and 10 months before even the first primaries, I'm already bored with the Presidential election of 2008. None of the current candidates does anything for me. One's a total lightweight who's in no way ready to be President, and I utterly loathe two others. My reaction to the rest ranges from mild dismay to downright ennui.
Now it's gotten interesting (or at least entertaining, with the potential for many jokes). Remember Jonathon Sharkey, a.k.a. "The Impaler," the friendly Satanist who ran for Governor of Minnesota on a platform of…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.
Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.
How. Incredibly. Embarassing.
Cited story.
drorzel | March 12, 2007We've got unjustified judicial firings, secret prison networks, and unauthorized wiretaps-- all good, solid scandals based on important ethical principles. Meanwhile, in Israel...
Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.
Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.
Mark Foley, eat your heart out.
j7uy5 | March 12, 2007One
of the embarrassing things about Michigan Politics is that many of the
national politicians, while generally fairly progressive, do not get on
board with mandates for cars that pollute less.
The auto makers argue that it would take too long to develop the
technology to meet higher fuel economy standards, etc.
But now they have been proved wrong.
href="http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/new-vehicle-design-surpasses-0011.html">New
Vehicle Design Surpasses State Global Warming Standards
Engineers
Design Affordable, Clean Car Using Existing Technology and Fuels…