Politics
evolvingthoughts | September 11, 2006Five years ago now, I was watching an episode of The West WIng, and channel surfing in the ads, as is my wont and my family's despair, when I happened on a news flash that there was a fire in the World Trade Center. I had visited New York six weeks earlier and stood at the base of those enormous edificies, so tall that from the plane as it approached they were the only thing that looked three dimensional. I put Martin Sheen's presidency out of my mind as horrified I saw a plane appear on the TV screen and hit the second tower. At 4am my wife came out to tell me off for staying up so late. All…
clock | September 10, 2006Lance Mannion: It takes talent to make good schlock TV
Andrew Sullivan: The Rove Campaign
Paul Craig Roberts: Bush the Pitiful
The Nation: Bush Aims to Kill War Crimes Act
Publus: THE TWO 9/11s
razib | September 10, 2006One of the things that I like emphasize on this site is that human psychology isn't as straightforward as we might assume. In the area of religion this is important because religion intersects a great deal with public policy and culture, and, I think my fellow atheists often have a fallacious model of how religious people think. The complexity and separability of mental processes and chains of inference are important to keep in mind when we posit a model of how humans "tick," and we shouldn't dismiss rationalization or irrationality as aberrations. Here is an interesting passage from The…
oracknows | September 10, 2006Yesterday, I posted about a story indicating that a Danish newspaper had published some of the cartoons from the Iranian Holocaust Cartoon contest, pointing out how, when the original Danish cartoons poking fun at Islam were published, we saw riots, death threats, and demands for punishment. When Iran, supposedly to make fun of the Holocaust and the West's supposed "double standard" with respect to the Holocaust, holds a contest and publishes a bunch of anti-Semitic cartoons, the reaction is largely a worldwide shrug of the shoulders and some fairly minor protests. Some of the collective yawn…
oracknows | September 9, 2006Here's something very telling:
A Danish newspaper has printed cartoons about the Holocaust commissioned by Iran after cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad triggered violent protests.
The newspaper - Information - published six of the cartoons, which are on display in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Several of the cartoons contrast the plight of the Palestinians with that of the victims of the Holocaust.
Editor-in-chief Palle Weis said he had thought carefully about publishing the cartoons and said it was not a stunt.
He told the BBC the cartoons accompanied a news story about the exhibition. He said…
oracknows | September 8, 2006This is just hilarious. I particularly like the part about "hooligans," "Godless Sodomites," and "fag-enabling fools." And don't forget: "the Satanic spirit of mockery." (I wonder if Respectful Insolence⢠would qualify.)
Funny, but Phelps looks and sounds much as I pictured him. Actually, I couldn't watch more than the first half of it, as it rapidly gets tiresome and repetitive. Still, it's disturbing to see that the Westboro Baptist Church nutcases are now doing video, and the production values are actually better than I would have expected. Too bad it's all to dress up truly vile, hate-…
pharyngula | September 8, 2006This is much happier news. Our county Democratic-Farmer-Labor party is having a fundraiser on 5 October, and we have a big-name guest to draw in donors…
I'll be there!
(One local curiosity: there has always been a fundraiser for the party every year, and by tradition, it's been called "The Bean Feed." I've never gone before—the name just puts me off. It brings to mind a few Monty Python sketches, and Ann Margaret (not so bad) in Tommy (uh-oh). We've got some new people on the local committees, though, and they've made a few changes. This is one hint that new blood in Democratic activism is…
pharyngula | September 8, 2006Minnesotans are going to be a little less above average in October, when a gaggle of evil morons hit the state: James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Gary Bauer are having a rally in St Paul to "motivate pro-family conservative Christians." It may also help motivate us pro-family liberal atheists.
Andy wonders which Minnesota politicians will show up for these hucksters for fascism: would Michele Bachmann be a safe bet? Mike Hatch better not; I've seen a few of his ads, and his gun-totin' bird-killin' pseudo-populism is almostas annoying as Mark Kennedy's badly acted family dramas that play up his…
clock | September 7, 2006"Greenwashing is what corporations do when they try to make themselves look more environmentally friendly than they really are."
Will has more, much more....
evolvingthoughts | September 7, 2006There are those who contribute to the world in a positive way. No matter what you think of Steve Irwin's antics on camera, the man did a lot of good for conservation consciousness raising and teaching zoology to young and old alike.
Then there are those who do little but attack the former class, to assuage their own ego and get attention. Such a person is Germaine Greer, who never misses an opportunity to sneer at the broader culture and in particular the country of her own birth, Australia.
So Greer attacked Irwin as a "torturer" of animals, and claims that his death was somehow the "revenge…
pharyngula | September 7, 2006The Secular Coalition for America has put together a Secular Scorecard for our representatives in both houses of congress, evaluating them for how they voted on issues of importance (separation of church and state, science, funding religious organizations, that sort of thing) in the past year. It's interesting in a sad way in how it's split along party lines: the lesson is that the godless should never, ever vote Republican, but that Democrats are only mostly safe. There are a few screwballs like Salazar and Nelson of Nebraska that throw off the general rule that you can divide them neatly by…
oracknows | September 7, 2006I just got a review copy of the new and updated paperback edition of fellow ScienceBlogger Chris Mooney's book The Republican War on Science (website). I didn't get around to reading it last time, but I've already started the first chapter, even though I only received the book the other day. Thus, it would be premature of me to try to review it. However, it's worth pointing out that, although my politics lean more conservative than probably all of the ScienceBloggers with whose politics I am familiar save perhaps Razib (certainly my politics are far to the right of Bora, Mike, and PZ--which…
clock | September 7, 2006From a press release (via e-mail):
U.S. Congressional Scorecards
109th Congress:
Washington, D.C. - The Secular Coalition for America (SCA) today released its House and Senate Scorecards of the 109th Congress. The SCA, an advocacy group for atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and other nontheists, provides roll-call votes to demonstrate the members' commitment to the separation of church and state and their willingness to protect the interests of the nontheistic community.
The scorecards cover votes taken from January 2005 until August 2006. The SCA used ten key votes in both the House and…
clock | September 7, 2006My copy of the paperback edition of Chris Mooney's important book Republcan War On Science arrived in my mailbox yesterday. As there are substantial changes since the hardcover came out, I'll be taking a good look and, one of these days soon, post about it.
clock | September 6, 2006The best local newspaper is free. Independent Weekly is excellent every week, but today, you have to read these two articles:
Godfrey Cheshire: Five years later: We're defeating ourselves
Bob Geary: In America, terror goes both ways
clock | September 6, 2006Obligatory Readings of the Day:
Amanda: Disney emerges from the grave, demands right wing propaganda so he can stop spinning
Publius: ABOUT THAT LENIN ANALOGY
David Neiwert: Projecting fascism
Sara Robinson: Tunnels and Bridges: A Short Detour
RobertDFeinmanOvercoming the Authoritarian Personality
Archy: I break with Olbermann
pharyngula | September 6, 2006…but next time you get on a plane, you are allowed to bring along "personal lubricants". Yes, what it sounds like.
National security will not be allowed to deter new recruits to the Mile-High Club.
stoat | September 6, 2006If you haven't been following UK politics recently, you can be excused, cos its been dull. The main story has been "when will Blair go" and "will he name a date". My reading of this has been, why should he, when no-one has the guts to push him out. Yesterdays news was that the Sun (dubious low-iq semi-porn paper with a large readership and hence influential, hence seems to get more that its fair share of leaks) reported that the date would be next may; this was interpreted as being "given the wink" by Blair since he didn't deny it. So far so dull and much the usual slimy politics.
But today:…