Politics
stcynic | September 1, 2006Here's a Washington Post article about the Pentagon offering a $20 million public relations contract for a firm to collect and disseminate good news about the war in Iraq. Now I don't know or care how you feel about the war in Iraq, but the very idea of the government using PR flaks to sell their policies really ought to piss you off. The entire public relations industry is dedicated to the premise that the truth simply does not matter, only what you can do or say that will cast your client in the best light, regardless of whether they deserve to be so cast, matters. In other words, they are…
tsmith | August 31, 2006... Poverty and poor health are intertwined, experts say
So, yeah, the headline is a no-brainer, but the article is worth reading and makes many good points--and notes that fewer and fewer of us can say that "poverty doesn't affect us":
An analysis of poverty rates and health published in the September issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that people living in extreme poverty tend to have more chronic illnesses, more frequent and severe disease complications and make greater demands on the health care system.
"When we talk about poverty, there is the tendency to feel it…
clock | August 31, 2006Nicotine Up Sharply In Many Cigarettes:
The amount of nicotine in most cigarettes rose an average of almost 10 percent from 1998 to 2004, with brands most popular with young people and minorities registering the biggest increases and highest nicotine content, according to a new study. Nicotine is highly addictive, and while no one has studied the effect of the increases on smokers, the higher levels theoretically could make new smokers more easily addicted and make it harder for established smokers to quit.
oracknows | August 31, 2006Boy, oh, boy, I had to control myself on this one. Yes, dear reader, while I was away this last week and a half, many were the times that I wanted to let loose about this. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) lack of Internet access at some times and other vacation activities at other times interceded. Now that I'm back home (although not back to full blogging, as I'm still on vacation until Labor Day), it's time to weigh in.
As you know, I've written extensively (some might say too extensively) about the Abraham Cherrix case, the case of a 16 year old boy who won…
clock | August 31, 2006Since Chris Mooney's book has just come out in paperback and the critics often invoke false equivalence between abuses of science on the Right and the Left, I thought this would be a good time to repost this August 05, 2005 post (reposted here on January 16, 2006):
According to Michael Shermer there are:
- science
- borderlands science
- psuedoscience, and
- nonsense
Science is a methodology of figuring out, with as great confidence as possible, how the world works. Evolutionary theory is one of the biggest, strongest and best-supported bodies of all of science.
Borderland Science refers to…
clock | August 31, 2006Frist might face fine on M.D. license renewal
The senator, a surgeon, failed to complete continuing education required by Tennessee.
And he lied about it.
terrasig | August 31, 2006Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.
But we at least have Keith Olbermann, and an all-too-small handful of journalists willing to call it like it is.
You can read the text of his lovely essay and see the 30 August video here.
Hat tip: PZ and Crooks and Liars.
pharyngula | August 30, 2006Everyone is going to be linking to this: Keith Olbermann eviscerates the Bush administration as a gang of arrogant, incompetent wanna-be fascists. Exactly!
Ending it on an Edward R. Murrow quote wasn't presumptuous at all, and was entirely appropriate. It's good to see a few journalists still see civic responsibility as part of their job.
stcynic | August 30, 2006Senator Ted Stevens' spokesman confirmed that he was indeed the senator that put a "secret hold" on a bill that would increase government transparency and help us find where our tax dollars are going to. Apparently, the memo about committing political suicide got stuck in the tubes when one of his aides sent him an internet.
jlynch | August 30, 2006Apparently, I'm a liberal. Whoda thunk it?
Liberals represent 17 percent of the American public, and 19 percent of registered voters.
Basic DescriptionThis group has nearly doubled in proportion since 1999, Liberals now comprise the largest share of Democrats and is the single largest of the nine Typology groups. They are the most opposed to an assertive foreign policy, the most secular, and take the most liberal views on social issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and censorship. They differ from other Democratic groups in that they are strongly pro-environment and pro-immigration,…
pharyngula | August 30, 2006When you see the sun over the ocean in California, I think it means the sun is setting. Maybe it was just subconscious honesty that the Lieberman campaign used a stock sunset photo to illustrate his status. He's Holy Joe, he can't help but tell the truth.
clock | August 30, 2006Joe Lieberman's communications director, Dan Gerstein, claims the sun rises in the West. Seriously. And will not back down. What more proof you need to know that Lieberman is a Republican, waging his own "independent" war on science in hope of appeasing Inhofe & Co. all in the spirit of moderaiton and bipartisanship?
clock | August 30, 2006Rush thinks one needs to slaughter a cow in order to get butter. And he blames liberals and the UN for being a fat idiot.
stcynic | August 30, 2006A bill in the Senate that would increase government transparency and accountability has been put on "secret hold" by one or more Senators, who, by Senate rules, can pretty much kill the bill in this manner:
A bill to promote government transparency faces an uncertain future because of a far-from-transparent hold placed upon it in the Senate.
An unknown number of senators have blocked legislation to create a public, searchable Web site of all federal grants and contracts. Senate rules permit any senator to anonymously block consideration of a bill on the floor, effectively killing the measure…
drorzel | August 30, 2006So, you're interested in discussing politics or religion or other Deep Issues with other people. What do you do?
You could go on the Internet, but you end up talking to, like, freaky physics professors and stuff, so you'd prefer to talk to real people face to face. You could randomly approach strangers, ask their political affiliation, and refuse to talk to Republicans or Democrats, but that's kind of weird. So what's a would-be conversationalist to do?
Inside Higher Ed has a suggestion: tie an orange rag to your backpack:
Shruti Chaganti, an undergraduate at James Madison University, loves…
evolvingthoughts | August 29, 2006A recurring theme in the blogosphere is that our reaction to the terrorist threats is disproportionate and fundamentally subversive of our social structure and freedoms. This is usually cast in terms of the rollback of civil liberties, the denial of natural justice and the overweening ambitions of the present Administration in the United States, and possibly also Britain. But it happens here in Australia too.
Here is a case in which an Australian who trained with Al Quaeda, but took no part in terrorist activities, was arrested in Pakistan and tortured for a confession, was acquitted due to…
jrosenhouse | August 29, 2006Slate offers up this depressing article, by Amy Sullivan about how religious people view the Democratic Party:
Which is why it is startling that in the two years since this Democratic revival began, the party's faith-friendly image has dimmed rather than improved. The Pew Research Center's annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is "friendly" to religion. That's down from 40 percent in the summer of 2004 and 42 percent the year before that--in…
jrosenhouse | August 29, 2006Chris Mooney's excellent book The Republican War on Science is now available in paperback. So if you didn't buy it in hardcover, shame on you! But now you have a chanc eto redeem yourself.
Kidding aside, Mooney does a first-rate job of confirming what anyone who has been paying attention has long suspected: That the power brokers in the Republican Party are almost uniformly hostile to science and its findings. Buy it and read it immediately!
razib | August 29, 2006Real Clear Politics has a column titled The Secular Right which reflects upon the Mac Donald vs. God affair. Interestingly, the author linked to my post where I followed the debate in The Corner. A few months ago my summary of John Derbyshire's summary of Judith Rich Harris' work was linked from her site. Ultimately, I think this should be a clue to NRO that they need to invest in a more robust and user friendly content management system: their archiving blows.