Politics
oracknows | January 10, 2011Remember how early this morning I posted about Mike Adam's despicable and ghoulish attempt to seize on the tragedy of the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) by Jared Lee Loughner as a way of blaming the pharmaceutical industry and government for his violent rampage and intentionally conflating the decrying of violent rhetoric that might have helped to inspire a probably mentally ill individual to commit an act of mass murder? At the time, I observed that, whenever I think that Mike Adams has gone as low as he can go, he always manages to prove me wrong and go even lower…
pharyngula | January 10, 2011I'm seeing a lot of email complaining about my response to the Giffords shooting. Here's just a representative sampling.
You saw fit to use our pain to win political points. Here is my question to you - What if the killer was not a conservative? At least one report describes him as left-wing. His posted video does show any clear political affiliation, and his reading list was from across the spectrum. The local tea party group has denounced the killings, and leaders from across our state have spoken in one voice.
As someone who usually enjoys reading your blog, I was a little dismayed to…
oracknows | January 9, 2011I've written a lot about Mike Adams, the man who founded NaturalNews.com and has been one of the most prominent promoters of quackery on the Internet. Indeed, Mike Adams appears to be battling it out with Joe Mercola for the title of owning the biggest quackery website on the Internet. There's one area, however, where Mike Adams clearly reigns supreme, and that's latching on, ghoul-like, to major tragedies in order to promote his pro-quackery agenda. For example, when former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow died of metastatic colon cancer a couple of years ago, Mike Adams was right there…
jtoney | January 8, 2011Stunned by the horrific news of the shootings today in Arizona, my thoughts are with the families of the 18 people shot, including five murdered victims {according to a live news cast at 7:57 pm on CNBC.) I sincerely hope for a full recovery of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. It is a struggle to write this, but somehow it offers a way to navigate this confusing nightmare.
Wanting to learn about the alleged shooter's mind, I found the following information revealing - the "favorite books" list posted by Jared Lee Loughner, posted on his MySpace page. Such a list provides some insight into what a…
pharyngula | January 8, 2011An Arizona Democrat, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, has been shot and possibly killed by an assassin armed with an automatic weapon. Her offices had earlier been targeted for vandalism for her support of health care reform.
Isn't it amazing that health care reform has become such a polarizing issue, and that the people who are raging the loudest are those who would benefit the most?
I'll take a wild guess here. The scumbag who committed this crime has been caught; I'll bet he'll turn out to be a Teabagger who listens to a lot of AM talk radio.
Holy crap. This was Sarah Palin's idea of a…
drorzel | January 7, 2011A story to improve your opinion of humanity:
Egypt's majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.
From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as "human shields" for last night's mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.
"We either live together,…
jtoney | January 7, 2011
Prof. Cornel West, Princeton University (source).
The media storm about altering Mark Twain's classic "Huckleberry Finn," published in 1885, to replace the "N word" with the term "slave" has sparked debate amongst scholars. How can we teach our children about bygone days, if sharing creative works includes using offensive language in today's vernacular?
I am aware that some of my fellow Sciblings (Greg Laden, Uncertainty Principles), have already shared their views on this topic, and I had hesitated to do so until I read Prof. Cornel West's (Princeton University) Tweet on this very topic (…
pharyngula | January 7, 2011Senator Grassley launched an investigation into the finances of religious organizations, after reports of abuses — you know the sorts of things that are common, like obscene salaries to ministers, active politicizing from the pulpit, etc. The Grassley report has been released, with a dull thud.
According to the review, many of the ministries operate multiple non-profits, with the leaders drawing some form of compensation from each of them.
"The number and types of entities, including private airports and aircraft leasing companies, raises concerns about the use of the church's tax-exempt…
drorzel | January 7, 2011There's a new wrinkle in the endless controversy about Huckleberry Finn, with NewSouth Books preparing an expurgated edition replacing "nigger" with "slave" throughout. Sentiment in the parts of the Internet I frequent is mostly against the change, which has been made with the goal of getting it back on high school reading lists, which it has fallen off in many places because of concerns over the language. (Note that it doesn't appear to have been done in response to any great outcry for such an edition: "Mr. Gribben said no schools had expressed interest yet in teaching the book.")
It's a…
drorzel | January 7, 2011Barack Obama will be visiting Schenectady next Tuesday, and local notables are suggesting things he might do. Particularly notable was this:
Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, a basketball enthusiast like Obama, suggested that some hoop should be organized for the occasion.
"I'd like to challenge him to a two-on-two game .â.â. at the new YMCA in Schenectady," said Tedisco. He floated Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, or state Supreme Court Judge Barry Kramer as possible teammates.
Given that Tedisco is a Union alumnus, and was at one time a regular player in the noon hoops…
drorzel | January 7, 2011What with one thing and another, I forgot to tag anything for the links dump yesterday, which means no links dump this morning. But that's all right, because Fred Clark's post about humorless prigs deserves a more prominent link. The proximate cause is yet another story about a crazy religious group working themselves into a tizzy over what turns out to be an online parody. This by itself is unremarkable-- as Fred says, "So in other words, it's a weekday."
What's notable about the post is the bit that comes next, though:
We've previously discussed how an addiction to self-righteous…
catdynamics | January 6, 2011I really look forward to reading by what right Congress keeps naming local post offices.
Ok, I.8.7 could be argued to implicitly give them the right, as part of the establishing of such, but you gotta be careful with those "implicit" rights these politicians keep assuming for themselves.
I, for one, would like to hear Scalia's take on the issue, after the new Congress explains in the next such bill just by what constitutional right they presume to go around naming post offices.
jtoney | January 6, 2011
Guantanamo Bay
(Image Source: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Darren Hester, rpmaxwell, Will Montague)
This week's issue of Science has an insightful article on a very important topic: US sanctioned torture of enemies, using enhanced interrogation techniques. The article is co-authored by my colleague Dr. Allen Keller, from the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. Dr. Keller and I serve on and participate in the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program. I will be attending their meeting next week in Washington, DC and will be reporting on our activities.
According to the…
pharyngula | January 5, 2011The Mount Soledad Easter Cross has a long and contentious legal history. It's a 43-foot-tall concrete cross standing on public land, initially erected by Christians, and used as the focus of Christian religious ceremonies, and is clearly intended and used for a sectarian religious purpose. It is clearly a violation of the separation of church and state to use public land to promote a specific religion, yet a federal judge ruled that "the memorial at Mount Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily nonreligious messages of military service, death and sacrifice," and decided…
jtoney | January 5, 2011This Friday, a new bill will introduced in the 112th session of Congress by Rep. Cantor (R-VA), the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act."
Such a provocative title! This may be time for a basic overview of the Affordable Care Act, regardless of your political affiliation. The video below, produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation, is one of the best that I have seen; in fact, I have used it for teaching purposes to begin discussions about the current law.
pharyngula | January 4, 2011I'm on Bradley Manning's list of 'likes' on Facebook. There you go, now the CIA probably has a thin little dossier on me for that.
But it's OK — I like Bradley Manning, too, and am appalled at the torture he's receiving at the hand of our free democratic government which respects the liberty of the individual.
jtoney | January 4, 2011
EPA/SHAWN THEW
US President Barack Obama delivers opening remarks at a bipartisan meeting to discuss health reform legislation at the Blair House in Washington, DC USA 25 February 2010.
Renewed debate is imminent about so-called "ObamaCare" {a term used by some as a pejorative for health care}. It's a good time for a refresher of how we got to where we are, with the Affordable Care Act.
President Obama hosted a televised health care summit with Republican and Democratic lawmakers in efforts to craft healthcare overhaul legislation.
Just before this summit, email messages from Nancy-Ann…
pharyngula | January 2, 2011I hadn't realized how bad the economy was until I saw the front-page headline in the Wall Street Journal — that sober, serious financial paper read by bankers and economists.
Need a Job? Losing Your House? Who Says Hoodoo Can't Help?
Tough Times Boost Sales of Spider Dust, Spells for Good Fortune, Mojo Powders
There isn't one word of criticism, not one objection or reservation…the WSJ simply reports this as a "good business" and that "sales are booming". When the WSJ is promoting dried spiders, goofer dust, and corpse powder…I think we're in big trouble.
(via Hank Fox)
jtoney | December 30, 2010
Photo source.
As you prepare for your New Year's celebration, here's something to consider: researchers have found that having more friends may play a role in whether you identify yourself as a liberal or a conservative.
How did they determine this?
The researchers studied a group of about 2,000 adolescents with different variants of the dopamine receptor ("allele 7R"). The dopamine receptors in our brain are associated with pleasure, cognition, memory, learning and fine motor control to name a few key functions, and the "allele 7R" has been linked to "novelty seeking behavior." They…
pharyngula | December 30, 2010The British government has been getting a bit mother-henish lately, arresting people for cruelty to religious texts, and clearly has it in mind to provide special legal protection for a certain class of books. My first thought would be that that is insane, books are mere objects that are easily replicable, and providing for a special privilege that we don't also grant doorknobs or transistor radios or light bulbs is absurd. But a man named Eugenio has a better idea: we need to leap on the sacred book bandwagon.
I am therefore writing to you today to request that legal protection be accorded…