Politics
clock | June 15, 2006Al Gore's movie is opening locally tomorrow (though not in the theater up the street) and I am really looking forward to seeing it. I have just read what is, in my opinion, the best review of the movie: Brokeback Earth by Godfrey Cheshire. It is long but well worth your time.
The first page or so is actually about the movie, about the science behind the movie and about Al Gore himself. The latter part, where it starts delving into politics is perhaps the best. Here is just a tiny little excerpt to whet your appetites:
.........snip............
By my not entirely scientific calculations…
clock | June 15, 2006Bush to Create World's Largest Marine Protected Area Near Hawaii
".....A turning point came in April, when Bush sat through a 65-minute private White House screening of a PBS documentary that unveiled the beauty of -- and perils facing -- the archipelago's aquamarine waters and its nesting seabirds, sea turtles and sleepy-eyed monk seals, all threatened by extinction.
The film seemed to catch Bush's imagination, according to senior officials and others in attendance. The president popped up from his front-row seat after the screening; congratulated filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the…
oracknows | June 15, 2006I've come across Michael Savage's radio show a few times now and then. Basically I dismissed him as being even more obnoxious as Ann Coulter and not nearly as intelligent. I hadn't known he was an anti-Semite as well, but check out this quote from his radio show the other day referring to George Soros:
Hey George, let me tell you something, I don't have as much money as you. I have 50,000 times the influence that you do, you punk, lying, coward, Satanist, backstabbing freak. You're the people -- people like you give Jews a bad name, Soros. It's people like you who brought about the Holocaust…
goodmath | June 15, 2006Janet over at Adventures in Ethics and Science has gotten a bunch of us SB folks to get involved in raising money for school science programs. As the only current resident math geek around here, I'm expanding it from just science to also math.
What we're doing is trying to get people to donate to DonorsChoose.org. That's an organization where teachers who's classrooms lack the supplies that they need can submit proposals, and donors can select specific proposals that they want to support. Each of the participants from SBs has picked a bunch of proposals that we think are valuable, and we're…
pharyngula | June 15, 2006Lots of stuff about the intersection of science and politics in the US today—here are three things to read over breakfast.
Bruce Sterling suggests that American science is experiencing creeping Lysenkoism, and reports that "the Bush administration has systematically manipulated scientific inquiry into climate change, forest management, lead and mercury contamination, and a host of other issues." He predicts a rather grim end for our science and science policy.
Before long, the damage will spread beyond our borders. International scientific bodies will treat American scientists as pariahs.…
evolvingthoughts | June 14, 2006It seems the Republican party in the US is continuing its war on science they don't like. The Sex Drugs and DNA Blog reports that House Republicans vote AGAINST science integrity amendment. The amendment would have protected scientists from censorship by governments and their officials, from victimisation by supervisors when they are doing good science, and from political litmus tests for employment in government agencies.
Via Scientific Activist.
jlynch | June 14, 2006Charles Haughey has died at the age of 80. For most readers, that will mean nothing. For those who grew up in Ireland, this death will either bring sadness or a quiet sense of satisfaction. I am in the latter group. Haughey was the epitome of the 'cute hoor', an Irish idiom for an individual who does whatever they want to get whatever they want. Think DeLay or any of the reptiles in Congress, and you're not too far wrong. To me, Haughey epitomized everything that was wrong with Ireland in the 70s and 80s. Over at Crooked Timber, fellow ex-pat (and Arizona resident) Kieran Healy has a…
drorzel | June 14, 2006The esteemed Dr. Free-Ride has a post about politics responding to Sean Carroll's recap of Yearly Kos. Both of them say things about the practice of politics that nicely encapsulate why I'm not a political activist-- I'm too much of an academic:
Sean:
Deep down, though, I learned once again that an environment of political activism is not for me. I've volunteered and been active politically in very minor ways in the past, and I am always reminded that I should go back to academia where I belong. Of necessity, political action feeds on fervent commitment to the cause and a deep-seated…
oracknows | June 14, 2006I can't stand Ann Coulter, but this response to her vileness is just plain stupid and plays right into her hands as "evidence" supporting the attacks Democrats that she makes in her book:
QUIGLEY/STENDER CALL ON NJ MERCHANTS TO BAN SALE OF 'VICIOUS' COULTER BOOK
Hate-filled Attacks on NJ 9-11 Widows Has No Place on NJ Bookshelves
(TRENTON) - Assemblywomen Joan M. Quigley and Linda Stender today castigated political commentator Ann Coulter for vicious remarks made against four New Jersey September 11th widows in her new book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism."... In response to these…
pharyngula | June 14, 2006Friday, at 3:15 ET, on NPR's Science Friday…it's Mooney vs. Bethell. Bethell doesn't stand a chance.
razib | June 13, 2006Every few months I take a political test just to see where I "fit in." Jason Soon reminds me of The Libertarian Purity Test. Funniest question?
58. Should the courts be privatized?
Yes
No
I scored 35, "Your libertarian credentials are obvious. Doubtlessly you will become more extreme as time goes on." They probably got the directionality wrong, but oh well....
grrlscientist | June 13, 2006While no one was looking today, congress voted to give itself yet another pay raise, despite record low approval ratings.
So much for the delusion that this country is a meritocracy.
oracknows | June 13, 2006Ed over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars has been on a tear lately defending the ACLU against spurious attacks from right wingers and religious. Now I see that that dreaded atheistic, America-hating organization has invaded a little too close to home, coming into my area of the country.Clearly any real God-fearing American can't let this be tolerated. Look at how the ACLU has managed to provoke a fawning editorial is doing yesterday:
Awesome God is a wildly popular signature song of religious praise music. The lyrics refer to crucifixion, to God's mighty power, to his imminent return to…
oracknows | June 12, 2006A few days ago, given that light of the "intelligent design" creationism movement, William Dembski, had bragged about how much he had helped Ann Coulter write the chapters in her latest screed (Godless: The Church of Liberalism) attacking evolution, I had wondered what he might think now of being associated with her, given some of what we now know to be also in her book, such as her vicious attacks on liberals in general and certain 9/11 widows in particular ("I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much" and "now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up…
evolvingthoughts | June 12, 2006No comment needed:
Gitmo Suicides Comment Condemned, U.S. Official's 'Publicity Stunt' Remark Draws International Backlash - CBS News
stcynic | June 12, 2006Wow, another classic from Olbermann - a stunning bit of audio that has Bill O'Reilly telling a caller that he was going to get a visit from Fox security because he mentioned Olbermann's name on the air. It's just incredible to hear. Here's the report from Olbermann's show:
stcynic | June 12, 2006Youtube is fast becoming the greatest and most useful webpage in existence. It allows us to post video footage directly to our blogs without having to upload it all. Here's one I came across on Captain Rational's site and just had to post here. It's Keith Olbermann shredding Bill O'Reilly and catching him in a lie about American troops during WW2 - not once, but twice. View it below:
pharyngula | June 11, 2006The young partisan hack appointed to NASA, who took it upon himself to filter the science a little bit to suit right-wing biases? It seems he was a demonstrably bad boy.
I wonder what ever happened that unqualified creep? I know he resigned from NASA, I'm just wondering if he has now fallen upward to a Republican think-tank or something, the usual wingnut reward for incompetence.
pharyngula | June 11, 2006We wouldn't want to leave everyone with the feeling that YearlyKos was heaven made manifest on earth, so I'll just mention that Socratic Gadfly is blogging up a whirlwind of anti-Kos sentiment. I think it's a bit overdone, but there is a germ of truth to some of his complaints.
I'd worry a little bit about an excess of Kos idolatry, but it was less in evidence than you might think from the name of the conference, and what you might read in dKos diaries. Firedoglake, MyDD, Glenn Greenwald, Atrios, and AmericaBlog were all big players here, and the attendees were highly egalitarian, more so…
pharyngula | June 11, 2006I've been off at the big meeting, and it's been a long and tiring weekend in Las Vegas. It's been strange, too: we're surrounded by slot machines and show girls, and our crowd hardly notices them; I took a moment to step outside, and I had to tell my wife, "the sunshine…it hurts…" and we went back in. We were intense, nerdly aliens in a neon world.
It was a good weekend, though. I'll dump a few of my impressions below the fold.
Blogophiles are a diverse bunch. Every age from teenagers to geezers was represented, some were in t-shirts, others in suits. Whatever your stereotype of the rabid…