Politics
jrosenhouse | October 18, 2006David Kuo, author of the new book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, appeared on the MSNBC show Hardball last night. It was a strange interview.
I've not yet read Kuo's book, but his main point seems to be that the Bush administration simply uses evangelical voters as a ready source of votes, but does not really care about their issues. In public he professes great fondness for evangelical leaders, but in private his staff refers to them as nuts and goofy. It's pretty damning stuff considering the extent to which Bush relies on evangelical voters.
At the start of…
grrlscientist | October 18, 2006Failing to fight global warming now will cost trillions of dollars by the end of the century even without counting biodiversity loss or unpredictable events like the Gulf Stream shutting down, a study recently showed. But acting now will avoid some of the massive damage and cost relatively little, said the study commissioned by Friends of the Earth and the Global Development and Environment Institute of Tufts University in the United States.
Most scientists now agree average temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius by the end of the century, driven by so-called…
grrlscientist | October 18, 2006
A friend who owns a dog emailed this design that is being used on t-shirts, so I am sharing it with you because I have a tradition of sharing such things with you. The website where this image is found, ObeyThePureBreed, has world domination by dogs as its primary focus. You can get your very own t-shirts with this and other humorous designs on them by clicking on the image above.
[NOTE: I don't get anything for mentioning and linking to ObeyThePureBreed (heck, they don't even know that I've linked to them) although I would happily wear one of their shirts (medium size) if it was offered…
clock | October 18, 2006The latest issue (Fall 2006) of the Social Research Journal has as its theme "Politics & Science: How their Interplay results in public policy", based on a recent conference. The table of contents looks very promising. Unfortunately, none of the articles are online (yet?), so I cannot comment on any one of them. The upcoming Winter issue also looks promising - the topic is "Politics and Science: An Historical View".
I hope all the articles come online soon (with permalinks so we can link to them) so we can all read them and dissect them on our blogs.
grrlscientist | October 18, 2006I couldn't resist this quiz -- seriously now, guess which president I am most like? And which president are you most similar to?
You Are Most Like Bill Clinton
No doubt, your legacy may be a little seedier than you'd like.
But even though you've done some questionable things, you're still loved by almost all.
What Modern US President Are You Most Like?
Hrm, jelly beans were one answer, but not cigars .. I am confused as to how I am most like Bill Clinton.
grrlscientist | October 17, 2006
Gallup Poll Results of
Congressional Job Approval by
American voters,
9-12 October 2006.
If I was a republican, I'd be upset with the party leadership because they are clearly not listening to the average American voter. Instead of circling the wagons, key republicans should be asking difficult questions of their colleagues -- questions that are necessary to begin purging the party of those individuals whose blind ambition and personal corruption are trashing all republicans.
As the midterm elections approach, members of Congress understandably can be nervous about being able to keep…
razib | October 17, 2006What is a Good Society? What values should we has a society hold to be Good and True? These aren't light questions, but we often neglect them. I believe that many "political" differences can ultimately be traced back to the weights placed on these initial axioms of value. Ruchira Paul comments on a new book who explores happiness and amity from an economic and philosophical perspective:
I frequently irritate champions of the unbridled free market who trumpet the triumphs of nations such as India and China and the recent impressive rise in their GDP, economic growth indices etc. I keep…
grrlscientist | October 17, 2006There are so many misbehaviors, such as the Foley sex scandal and "PlameGate" (need I say more?), that deserve attention and action by the Rethuglicans, yet these issues fester while BushCo signs the terror bill into law.
Bush's plan becomes law just six weeks [italics mine] after he acknowledged that the CIA had been secretly interrogating suspected terrorists overseas and pressed Congress to quickly give authority to try them in military commissions.
If I was a rethuglican, I'd be very angry with the discrepancy between the attention that the administration focuses onto the terror bill,…
clock | October 17, 2006As the mid-term elections are approaching and the new polls are coming out every day, you may want to refresh your poll-reading skills as well as your general statistics knowledge, plus send your not-as-well-informed readers to learn about it at Echidne's place: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
When Part 5 (and beyond, if any), gets posted I will link it here in this post for future reference.
Update: Here is Part 5
j7uy5 | October 17, 2006Answer: They both look the other way.
A recent article in Wired details how Kevin Poulsen
caught a registered sex offender by scanning MySpace
profiles.
href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71948-0.html?tw=wn_culture_5">MySpace
Predator Caught by Code
...I've been invited here to witness the end-game of a police
investigation that grew from 1,000 lines of computer code I wrote and
executed some five months earlier. The automated script searched
MySpace's 1 million-plus profiles for registered sex offenders -- and
soon found one that was back on the prowl for seriously…
evolvingthoughts | October 16, 2006An interview with Iranian physicist Reza Mansouri indicates that a major reason for the nuclear program in Iran is not militarism as such, but a desire to become scientifically competent, and nuclear science is seen as the peak of science.
Not an idiotic thing to say - as recently as four decades ago, this was the ruling presumption in America, Britain, France and Soviet Russia as well. But it indicates that the motives may not be quite so malign as first thought.
I liked the little comment at the end:
Mansouri predicted that Iran's commitment to education and science could bring it closer to…
clock | October 16, 2006Read these two one after another:
This is a new angle and thinking outside the box: Sara's Sunday Rant: The Culture of Planning, Part I
Lance has a nice rant on politics and education: Yahoo culture
clock | October 16, 2006Revere, Janet and Mike have updates on the dire situation of the Tripoli Six as well as excellent suggestions for what YOU can do about it. Please spread the word by blogging and e-mail.
stcynic | October 16, 2006Here's an article about the new book by David Kuo, the former #2 official in the office for faith-based initiatives in the White House. The book is called Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction and it alleges that White House political operatives mocked evangelicals behind their back while publicly courting them through the program that gives money to faith-based groups involved in social services. Anyone who is shocked by that is simply naive about how politics works.
You would be hard pressed to find a more cynical group than political operatives. Forget what they talk about…
drorzel | October 16, 2006Inside Higher Ed today features an opinion piece calling for more basic research funding:
For the first time since we won the Cold War, other nations are mounting an aggressive challenge to the United States' position as a world leader in science. China and India combined produce more than twice as many engineers each year than the United States. Both have exceeded our rate of economic growth over the past decade and, although they're starting from a much lower base, both have increased funding for basic research more quickly than we have.
This presents a challenge because we're currently…
hrynyshyn | October 15, 2006It's only been a few days, but already the Lancet study of excess deaths in Iraq has faded from the headlines. Even NPR seems to have decided that further analysis is not worthy of interrupting this week's pledge drive pleas. Which is a pity, because this is the sort of thing that should decide elections.
Almost as depressing as the media's offensive diminution of the story's import was the bizarre juxtaposition of George W. Bush's reaction to the study with his support of embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Both the media and the presidential handling of the issue betray a dismal level…
grrlscientist | October 15, 2006Wealth accumulated by First World countries is largely based on riches taken from Third World countries. For example, the destruction of India's textile industry, the takeover of the spice trade, the genocide of native American tribes, and African slavery all served to fuel the Industrial Revolution. Below the fold is an interesting article that discusses the links between the accumulation of wealth concomitant with the over-exploitation of nature and how they cause poverty.
I am interested to read your reactions to this article, dear readers.
Two of the great economic myths of our time…
tsmith | October 14, 2006As one commenter at Aetiology pointed out, support for Intelligent design/creationism is included in the Republican Party of Iowa State Platform:
3.4 We support the teaching of alternative theories on the origins of life including Darwinian Evolution, Creation Science or Intelligent Design, and that each should be given equal weight in presentation.
What I don't know is if this is typical of other Republican platforms in other states, or how frequently each candidate uses these points in their own campaign. I've still not heard back either from Nussle or Culver regarding Intelligent Design,…
grrlscientist | October 14, 2006Does anyone else out there in America think this is long overdue?
More than 650 economists, including five winners of the Nobel Prize for economics, called Wednesday for an increase in the minimum wage, saying the value of the last increase, in 1997, has been "fully eroded."
Critics claim that most people who earn minimum wage are teenagers with after-school jobs, but this is just not true. However, even if this were true, I don't think this is a valid argument against paying fair wages.
The economists wrote, "While controversy about the precise employment effects of the minimum wage…