Politics
clock | October 11, 2006I knew this was coming but was unable to get to the computer until right now. John Edwards posted a diary on DailyKos and answered the commenters' questions. If I knew that this was going to be the format, I'd try harder to get on the computer earlier so you could get there in time to ask your own questions. Nevertheless, there are 758 comments on that thread so you'll have whole night to read the questions, answers and comments there.
grrlscientist | October 11, 2006
The title says it all.
tags: surveillance, politics, gays, humor, sarcasm
grrlscientist | October 11, 2006
A friend sent this sticker to me, which is meant to be placed on your telephone, as a little reminder for all of you to use big words when using the phone, and to include "terrorist" or "terrorism" at least once in each conversation.
tags: surveillance, politics, AT&T, verizon, bellsouth
clock | October 10, 2006Since the mere mention of Libertarianism induces so much commenting and traffic, I am assuming people are interested in the topic. That post has a bunch of good old links. Here are three brand new ones - what do you think about each one of them?
by Markos Moulitsas
by Bruce Reed
by Harold Meyerson
(Hat-tip: Ed)
clock | October 10, 2006Except that getting elected for office is not a right and saying that a Creationist is not to be trusted with governing is not bigotry.
(Hat-tip: Lindsay)
j7uy5 | October 10, 2006An initiative to introduce the teaching of Intelligent Design in
Michigan schools suffered a setback today. The state Congress
was supposed to issue new curriculum guidelines recently. In
September, the guidelines were delayed. Nobody knew for sure
how it would turn out. There was concern that Republican
legislators were trying to introduce ID content. As mentioned
the
href="http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060913/NEWS06/609130370/1008">The
Detroit Free Press:
Critics of the delayed vote, including a
representative from the
American Civil Liberties Union, said some…
pharyngula | October 10, 2006I have confirmation from both my son (who was there) and Eva that Patty Wetterling did address the question about whether ID ought to be taught in the schools in a recent debate. Here's what she said:
We need to teach the truth about science. Evolution is scientifically accurate. We can't let our science curriculum to be based on religious beliefs.
Exactly right. That's not hard to say, you know.
There were a few comments in that prior thread that were trying to argue that, since the 6th district has a conservative population, Wetterling was a bad choice to run there—that the DFL should have…
grrlscientist | October 9, 2006
Even within the +/- 3.2% margin of error of this poll, I have to ask;
What is wrong with 22.8-29.2% of Americans??
GrrlScientist Poll Question; (below the fold)
What's wrong with twenty-six percent of Americans?
they think that our congresscritters are above all laws
they think that rethuglicans can do no wrong
they don't think
they have double-digit IQs
they blame Al Gore for losing the election
another answer of your choice (please leave in comments)
According to a recent CNN poll data, a clear majority (52%) of Americans think Hastert should resign (Also, a Bloomberg story).…
j7uy5 | October 8, 2006One thing I saw a couple of days ago, in Kalamazoo, was a protest near
the office
of their US Representative, Fred Upton. It was a small
protest, put on by the Pink Patrol. I did not stop to see
what the protest was about.
Today, I tried to find some reference to it on the Internet, but there
was nothing. So I went to the
href="http://www.house.gov/upton">Fred Upton website,
and a few other places. There really isn't a lot of news
about him. Seems that his biggest sins are supporting media
consolidation, and opposing Internet neutrality. Aside from
the fact that such legislation…
pharyngula | October 8, 2006This morning, I'm off to the Unitarian Church of Willmar to talk about creationism. I'll be back later, but 'til then, you kiddies can watch some TV. Flea has David Rakoff, if you want to laugh at the inanity of the right wing, while Crooks and Liars hosts the latest Olbermann, if you're more in the mood for tragedy, in this case the unraveling of the Constitution.
clock | October 6, 2006David Neiwert: God, evolution, and guns and Naming the enemy
Sara Robinson: The Irony of It All
jlynch | October 6, 2006A trip through the wires tubes that are the Internets:
Olberman on Presidential Lying: "No critic, no commentator, no reluctant Republican in the Senate, has ever said anything that any responsible person could even have exaggerated into the slander you spoke in Nevada on Monday night, nor the slander you spoke in California on Tuesday, nor the slander you spoke in Arizona on Wednesday... nor whatever is next. You have dishonored your party, sir -- you have dishonored your supporters -- you have dishonored yourself." Read more here.
How to spin a comma: "[T]he President is making the point…
clock | October 6, 2006
Hmmm, after a whole week of fantastic traffic, it has suddenly gone down through the floor today, so I better act quickly and post something really provocative - an old anti-Libertarian screed that is bound to attract trolls (and traffic)....
Much of the stuff on this blog is based on the bimodal (bipolar?) view of the world: there are Conservatives and there are Liberals, and that's it. Lakoff, Ducat, Frank and the like spend much time explaining the two, or just trying to explain the strange Conservative animals to the Liberals.
But, as I stated before, only about a third of Americans are…
pharyngula | October 6, 2006
I've been reading Thomas Franks' What's the Matter with Kansas?(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), and then today I read the excellent profile of Michele Bachmann in the City Pages. Yikes. The similarities are terrifying. Bachmann is a clueless ideologue who has harnessed the power of the Religious Right to ride to political power on issues like discriminating against gays and promoting creationism; she's the kind of candidate who preaches piety while legislating for the abolition of the minimum wage, exactly the sort Franks describes as wrecking Kansas while claiming to save its soul.
She's in a tight…
drorzel | October 6, 2006Via Kevin Drum, a story about who's on the no-fly list:
Gary Smith, John Williams and Robert Johnson are some of those names. Kroft talked to 12 people with the name Robert Johnson, all of whom are detained almost every time they fly. The detentions can include strip searches and long delays in their travels.
"Well, Robert Johnson will never get off the list," says Donna Bucella, who oversaw the creation of the list and has headed up the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center since 2003.
"Anyway, that's what he gets for selling his soul to the devil for the ability to play guitar."