Politics
pharyngula | August 23, 2006If you've heard the strange little anecdote about GW Bush that's going around, you will find Tild hilarious today. The illustration is perfect.
clock | August 22, 2006Ezra Klein: BOOKS OF SAND (in keeping with my blog's book theme this week) and The Job Sen. Clinton Should Want
Amanda: Money and divorce go together like a horse and carriage
Dave Neiwert: Terror and Hate
tsmith | August 22, 2006Over at Unqualified Offerings comes this quip regarding analyst Kenneth Pollack:
In Washington, he gets to write new articles, as if he were an epidemiologist and not Typhoid Mary.
Whether you agree with the criticism or not, you have to admit it's a nice turn of phrase.
pharyngula | August 22, 2006Forbes has an article on billionaires who oppose the stem cell ban (free reg required): the subtitle is "Billionaire cash has kept embryonic stem-cell research alive—just barely," which really says it all. It discusses the extremely generous gifts private donors (and also some state funding by referendum) that have kept stem cell research afloat in the world of GW Bush and the religious right. There's quite a bit of money flying around out there.
Michael Bloomberg: A reported $100 million gift to alma mater Johns Hopkins included cash for its stem-cell institute. At a speech there, he…
drorzel | August 22, 2006there's a fascinating article in the TimeS this morning about Chinese physicist Xu Liangying, a man who has led an interesting life, to say the least:
The first time he was purged, Xu Liangying was 27, an up-and-coming physicist, philosopher and historian and a veteran of the Communist underground. He had to divorce his wife, leave his sons and go live on his mother's farm in the country.
Three decades later, only a heart attack saved him from imprisonment or worse during the massacre that ended the democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.
During the Cultural…
tsmith | August 22, 2006 The International AIDS conference is barely over, but already it's getting results when it comes to working against stigma and combatting denial--and is receiving help from one U.S. politician. Stories after the fold...
First, from Buisness Day comes harsh words for South Africa's leaders:
Former International AIDS Society president Mark Wainberg has launched a blistering attack on the South African government for failing to contain the country's HIV epi demic, widely acknowledged to be one of the world's worst.
Describing the government as "obtuse, dilatory and negligent" on the treatment…
clock | August 21, 2006This is not a real review - I never got to writing it - but it is about a book I mention quite often in my blog posts and think is one of the most insightful about the conservative mindset. Written originally on October 21, 2004:
Whenever a big black SUV with a "W" bumper sticker passes me on I-40 going 90mph in the work zone, my first thought is: "What is this guy compensating for?"
While I argued strongly before that Nurturant Parent model is not feminine, and is only seens as such by people adhering to the Strict Father model to begin with, I have always felt that the childrearing process…
terrasig | August 21, 2006I try to not to be too much of a homer here, especially since moving to ScienceBlogs.com. Instead, I have been running a second blog called Bull City Bully Pulpit for items of local interest that our some of the Terra Sig audience might not care about so much.
But with the university academic year kicking back in and some other stuff happening here of national and even international interest, I may put up a few things from one of the South's most vibrant small cities and best places to live.
I'm also not too much of a political blogger, but the following was just simply too rich not to…
clock | August 20, 2006I know, I know, David Brin is one of those "high-moral-ground", fervently ideological, vehemently frothing at the mouth centrists, but he sometimes writes really good stuff. And this post is pretty good:
Now try this. Imagine a person who holds all of the correct views except one.
Suppose - on just that one issue - a person strongly takes the opposite view. Not quietly, but openly, and vigorously.
Now picture how that person would be received in most liberal gatherings.
What name would they be called?
Read the post. He may put it a little too harsh, but he is not wrong.
pharyngula | August 20, 2006
These are policemen who do not understand their obligations as officers of the law. These are policemen who ought to be summarily dismissed from their jobs.
They won't be.
(via The Lippard Blog)
oracknows | August 20, 2006Well, this might cause a fuss:
Newly reordained brand whore Kate Moss has landed herself another job, this time for a new ad campaign for Calvin Klein. One of the ads, located directly across the street from the Madina Masjid Mosque on east 11th street, features a topless Moss flirtingly touching a man from behind. This surely must not be a favorite for devout East Village Muslims especially since their rigorous prayer routine requires at least 5 viewings of the wide eyed infidel daily.
Here's the billboard:
I'm not sure this was such a good idea on the part of the advertising company. One…
j7uy5 | August 19, 2006Sometimes I see links on other sites that exaggerate or misstate what
is to be found on the other end on the link.
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/">Huffington
Post
is notorious for this. They come up with sensationalist
titles, then link to articles that may be rather tepid.
That is what I expected when I saw this link on
href="http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org">e Pluribus
Media:
href="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1220089.ece">Members
of Parliament from our biggest ally in Bush's war of choice (Britain)
reach a popular consensus: Bush really is Crap…
j7uy5 | August 18, 2006I don't think there is anyone left in the USA who seriously believes
that the war in Iraq was a good idea. Most accept it as fact,
that lies were told to get the public on board with the war, and that
war crimes have been committed.
It is clear at this point that the only motive for this was was profit.
It certainly had nothing to do with national security.
Although the war could have been led with an humanitarian
goal (to free the people of Iraq from a dictator), that clearly was
never the intent.
But what I'm writing about today is different. Today, we see
that the Administration is…
pharyngula | August 18, 2006The latest in Pharyngula-approved carnivals:
The Friday Ark #100 (Woo-hoo! Nice round 3 digit number!)
Carnival of the Liberals #19
I and the Bird #30
Skeptics' Circle #41
Now, open that thread and sing!
razib | August 17, 2006Update: Heather offers a follow up. Mario Loyola offers an interesting response. Here is what I find worth noting:
One of them expresses a weirdly postmodern view: We cannot know the nature of the Gods, but a good person knows in his gut the difference between right and wrong, and good people should venerate the religious rites and beliefs of their ancestors and fellows.
The problem with this assertion is that I suspect the issue here is that a particular sort of evangelical Christianity is not about the custom and tradition of the ancestors. It isn't about silent respect for the forbears…
stcynic | August 17, 2006Here's the latest episode in Katherine Harris' months-long campaign to seize the title of America's most batshit crazy politician. Several members of the US House of Representatives were listed on her campaign website as having endorsed her candidacy for the Senate. The problem? None of them had done so.
Several members of the U.S. House called the Harris campaign to complain Wednesday after the St. Petersburg Times notified them of the endorsements listed on Harris' Web site. Minutes later, their names were removed.
The list of politicians whose names came down includes Reps. Ginny Brown-…
clock | August 16, 2006The third part of the series on authoritarian psychology by Sara Robinson is now up on Orcinus. It tackles the strategies for dealing with (and hopefully healing and converting) the victims of authoritarian upbringing who turned out authoritarian themselves. The whole series is a must-read.
jlynch | August 16, 2006Sullivan on the British bomb plot:
So far, no one has been charged in the alleged terror plot to blow up several airplanes across the Atlantic. No evidence has been produced supporting the contention that such a plot was indeed imminent. Forgive me if my skepticism just ratcheted up a little notch. Under a law that the Tories helped weaken, the suspects can be held without charges for up to 28 days. Those days are ticking by. Remember: the British authorities had all these people under surveillance; they did not want to act last week; there was no imminent threat of anything but a possible "…
oracknows | August 16, 2006I bet that this probably isn't applicable to too many women:
One Israeli woman has received an unexpected boost from her breast implants during the Lebanon war -- the silicone embeds saved her life during a Hezbollah rocket attack, a doctor said.
"This is an extraordinary case, but it's a fact that the silicone implants prevented her from a more serious and deeper wound," Jacky Govrin, of the hospital in Nahariya that treated the woman, told army radio Tuesday.
"The young woman went through surgery two years ago to have a larger chest," he said. "During the war she was wounded in the chest by…