Politics
hrynyshyn | July 25, 2006Fill in the blank in this excerpt from a statement by 10 leading climate experts:
These ________ trends are setting us up for rapidly increasing human and economic losses from hurricane disasters, especially in this era of heightened activity. Scores of scientists and engineers had warned of the threat to New Orleans....
The missing word is not "warming" or other comparable references to climate change. The missing word is...
...demographic.
The statement, which is signed by scientists described by the New York Times as being "sharply divided over whether global warming is intensifying…
jlynch | July 25, 2006Dick Morris on Fox yesterday:
What we don't understand is in Iraq, a civil war is progress, because it means it's no longer a war against us.
I doubt the Iraqis see it as "progress". Dick.
stcynic | July 25, 2006Living the Scientific Life has the press release from the Union of Concerned Scientists that details a study on government manipulation of science at the FDA.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today released survey results that demonstrate pervasive and dangerous political influence of science at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Of the 997 FDA scientists who responded to the survey, nearly one fifth (18.4 percent) said that they "have been asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or their conclusions in a FDA scientific…
stcynic | July 25, 2006When Karl Rove told a Denver newspaper that Bush would exercise his first veto of the stem cell bill a couple weeks ago, he included one big whopper in his claim:
Recent studies, he said, show that researchers "have far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells."
This is a ridiculous fiction being told by the religious right constantly on this issue. They've taken the fact that adult stem cells are useful in some treatments (which is true) and exaggerated it beyond belief, now claiming that they have more promise than embryonic stem cells. But that is a claim that not…
jlynch | July 24, 2006The American Bar Association issued a report yesterday on the use of "signing statements" by Bush (in particular) and future Presidents (in general). They note that the practice is "contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers." Some examples,
Whenever Congress directs the president to furnish information, Mr. Bush reserves the right to withhold it.
When Congress imposes mandates and requirements on the executive branch, the president often says he will read them as advisory or "precatory."
When Congress tries to define foreign policy ... Mr. Bush…
stcynic | July 24, 2006And rightly so. One of the hallmarks of the Bush administration has been their policy of not allowing any dissent or protest anywhere near the President anywhere he appears. And we're not just talking about protests. There have been dozens of incidents where even people with a Kerry/Edwards sticker on their car, or a button on their shirt, have been removed from the premises wherever Bush is speaking. In Kalamazoo, where the President was speaking at a campaign stop in 2004, a group of students were kicked out of the event merely because members of a Republican group on campus identified them…
j7uy5 | July 24, 2006Mike, at The Questionable Authority, has a
href="http://scienceblogs.com/authority/2006/07/nation_building_versus_nation.php">valuable
perspective on what
I wrote earlier, in
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/07/first_do_no_harm_part_ii.php">First,
Do No Harm, Part II. He corrects some of my sloppy
thinking on the matter, plus, he knows more about the subject than I
do. I replied that, even though he has more direct
information than I do, I still think I am right.
The question is whether we should stay, or get out, of Iraq and
Afghanistan. I am not claiming to…
stcynic | July 24, 2006During last week's debate over Bush's veto of the stem cell research bill, we heard a lot about embryo adoptions. The bill, which would allow stem cell research only on those frozen embryos left over from IVF clinics, was vetoed and there weren't enough votes to override it. The religious right likes to talk about embryo adoptions, including Sen. Brownback's surreal "please don't kill me" picture on the floor. The reality? Such adoptions, even with years of promotion by the Federal government, are virtually non-existent:
There are 400,000 embryos languishing in storage tanks at fertility…
pharyngula | July 24, 2006How could I have ever said a charitable word about Alan Dershowitz? In penance, I urge you all to read Juan Cole's dissection of Dershowitz's grading of civilianity, or if you'd prefer something lighter, try Kung Fu Monkey's demolition by amusing anecdote.
If anyone were in the mood to revisit my earlier post, you could easily undermine my appreciation of Dershowitz's argument there by pointing out that it is Alan Dershowitz talking about morality, and I would have to sheepishly admit that he has no credibility on the matter.
pharyngula | July 24, 2006Digby's argument, that the Bush administration language about the war in the Middle East is loaded with code words to pander to the looney fundamentalist base, isn't entirely convincing. Just the fact that Rice used a word, "birth-pang," that Rapture nuts have loaded with all kinds of millennialist meaning doesn't mean she consciously chose it to make the fundies all giddy.
I admit, though, that the only reason I reject the hypothesis is that this administration has been so incompetent that I suspect they babble this kind of stuff all the time without putting any effort into thinking about it…
oracknows | July 24, 2006Not surprisingly, since the court decided that Abraham Cherrix, a Virginia teen who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease at age 15, underwent chemotherapy, relapsed, and then refused to undergo any further chemotherapy, opting instead for an "alternative medicine" treatment known as the Hoxsey treatment, to be administered at the Biomedical Center in Tijuana, the blogosphere has been abuzz with chatter about the decision. Not surprisingly, I find myself in the minority in approving of the decision, even if I do so reluctantly. Indeed, not only do I find myself in the minority, but I find…
jlynch | July 23, 2006It seems the administration's plans to bring democracy to Afghanistan have been successful. The Times of London notes that the "Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was set up by the Taliban to enforce bans on women doing anything from working to wearing nail varnish or laughing out loud, is to be re-created by the government in Kabul." Good job all round guys, and I mean guys.
grrlscientist | July 23, 2006
.
Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature flag portraits of George W. Bush into piles of dog poo in public parks.
"This has been going on for about a year now, and there must be 2,000 to 3,000 piles of excrement that have been claimed during that time," said Josef Oettl, parks administrator for Bayreuth.
The series of incidents was originally thought to be some sort of protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq. But then when it continued, it was thought to be a protest against George W. Bush's campaign for re-election. But it is still going on and the…
clock | July 23, 2006Officer Faces Court-Martial for Refusing to Deploy to Iraq (from AOL news, sicne NYT is behind the wall):
On Jan. 25, "with deep regret," he delivered a passionate two-page letter to his brigade commander, Col. Stephen J. Townsend, asking to resign his commission. "Simply put, I am wholeheartedly opposed to the continued war in Iraq, the deception used to wage this war, and the lawlessness that has pervaded every aspect of our civilian leadership," Lieutenant Watada wrote.
----snip--------
Lieutenant Watada said that when he reported to Fort Lewis in June 2005, in preparation for deployment…
oracknows | July 23, 2006Eh Nonymous has posted a first hand account of a speech by Judge John E. Jones III, who decided the Kitzmiller v. Dover case on "intelligent design" creationism in Dover. We need more judges like him. My only thought is: How on earth did this guy get appointed to the federal bench by the Bush Administration? He's way too reasonable and unwilling to let religion influence his decision-making process.
I'm sure it's a mistake the Bush Administration won't make again.
clock | July 23, 2006Pam: 'Creationist' says IRS is out to get him on Kent Hovind
Shakespeare's Sister reviews (again) Fussell's 'Class'
Lance: Castaway (Thoreau, Darwin, Sexton)
Paul the Spud: As The World Burns on Inhofe and global warming.
Pam: Q of the day - Unfortunate interiors on the horrible interior decorating style of the 1970s.
Lindsay links to an interview with George Lakoff and some of her commenters display the usual misunderstanding of Lakoff's ideas and of the concept of framing, and believe that Truth and policy proposals will win on their own.
Lance: Sharks, seals, foxes, pink jellyfish, and…
jlynch | July 22, 2006Or why Presidential appearances are like Dembski's blog echo chamber. Must be something to do with "Christian" conservatism, I guess. See here.