Politics
jrosenhouse | December 29, 2010Essays like this must be the reason I am a fan of Sam Harris.
While the United States has suffered the worst recession in living memory, I find that I have very few financial concerns. Many of my friends are in the same position: Most of us attended private schools and good universities, and we will be able to provide these same opportunities to our own children. No one in my immediate circle has a family member serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. In fact, in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, the only sacrifice we were asked to make for our beloved country was to go shopping. Nearly a…
pharyngula | December 29, 2010If any of you are writing to Governor Beshear of Kentucky about the life-sized Noah's Ark the state will be underwriting, don't wait for a reply — he's sending out a standardized form letter, which many people have been forwarding to me. Here it is, in case you haven't got one.
Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about proposed "Ark Encounter" tourist attraction. I appreciate knowing your views.
Bringing new jobs to Kentucky is my top priority, and I believe this project will be beneficial to our future, providing an estimated 900 jobs and $250 million in annual revenue for the…
drorzel | December 29, 2010Most of what would ordinarily be blogging time this morning got used up writing a response to a question at the
Physics Stack Exchange. But having put all that effort in over there, I might as well put it to use here, too...
The question comes from a person who did a poster on terminology at the recently concluded American Geophysical Union meeting, offering the following definition of "data":
Values collected as part of a scientific investigation; may be qualified as 'science data'. This includes uncalibrated values (raw data), derived values (calibrated data), and other transformations of…
gregladen | December 28, 2010Sarah Palin has accidentally revealed her own 500 dollar haircut, her own Chappaquiddick, her own Monica Lewinsky. On a recent trip to Canada, during a speech, she revealed the fact that when she lived in rural Alaska as a child, her family regularly slipped across the Canadian border to avail themselves of the Canadian Healthcare System.
Yes, folks, Sarah Palin was an illegal in Canada, as I assume the health care system there is for Canadians, not Unitedstateseans. And, yes, folks, Palin's people are socialist commies who engage in socialist commie Obamacare Canadian style then lie about…
pharyngula | December 22, 2010Oh, actually, shaved apes would be an upgrade from Josh Brecheen, who is more like a shaved and bipedal member of the subgenus Asinus. He's a new legislator who has announced his intention to introduce creationism into Oklahoma schools (or, as perhaps I should refer to them, "skools") for a set of reasons he laid out in a notably ignorant column in the Durant Daily Democrat.
His column is amazing. The faculty of Southeastern Oklahoma State University are covering their eyes in shame right now, since apparently this creationist-cliche-spewing plagiarist and professional goober managed to…
pharyngula | December 21, 2010Soon, it will be the end of the year. Soon, all those various forms will come trickling into your mailbox, telling you how much money you earned. Soon, you will have to fill out a whole bunch of other forms and pay out your share to the state and federal government. For most of us, it's a big bite, but if only we were ministers of the lord, it wouldn't hurt so much.
Read this summary from a tax preparer who did a local priests taxes, and feel your wallet cringe.
The minister gets paid from his church, from which he received cash of $105,000 in 2009. He received a W-2 with wages of $40,000…
jrosenhouse | December 18, 2010Another semester has come and gone. Turned in my course grades today. Much happiness.
Oh, and DADT was repealed. Eight Republicans decided to stop being evil for a few minutes and voted the right way.
pharyngula | December 18, 2010I'm so used to our do-nothing Democrats accomplishing nothing that I'm pleasantly surprised that they actually managed to repeal the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy afflicting our military. Congratulations, gay servicepeople!
Unfortunately, now we have to worry about marines' legs falling off, and Fox News has gone whining to popular opinion with a poll (big numbers there, we probably won't budge it much).
Will Ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Affect America's Ability to Defend Itself?
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/12/18/decide-dont-ask-dont-tell-military-gays/#ixzz18V7Ahe00
No…
drorzel | December 14, 2010As usual, the most sensible commentary on the Southern organizations celebrating the 150th anniversary of secession comes from the Daily Show. Specifically, Larry Wilmore:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The South's Secession Commemoration
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>
The Daily Show on Facebook
This whole business makes me think the British have the right idea regarding the commemoration of treason. We should have an annual Jefferson Davis day, but along the lines of Guy Fawkes day, not a…
jrosenhouse | December 13, 2010Here's Dana Milbank making stuff up in The Washington Post:
This is a hopeful sign that Obama has learned the lessons of the health-care debate, when he acceded too easily to the wishes of Hill Democrats, allowing them to slow the legislation and engage in a protracted debate on the public option. Months of delay gave Republicans time to make their case against “socialism” and prevented action on more pressing issues, such as job creation. Democrats paid for that with 63 seats.
Here's Paul Krugman rightly calling him out:
Um, that's not what happened -- and I followed the health care…
drorzel | December 13, 2010A bunch of smallish items that have been failing to resolve into full-fledged blog posts for a little while now, thrown together here because I don't have anything better to post this morning:
-- When is doubt, start with self-promotion: Physics World includes How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in their holiday gift books guide, and says wonderfully nice things about it:
Chad Orzel talks to his dog about quantum physics. It is not clear what the dog gets out of this arrangement, but the rest of us ought to be grateful for it, because Orzel's book about their "conversations" is sure to become a…
pharyngula | December 11, 2010This time, it's the Vatican. Wikileaks has released documents related to the Irish priest scandals.
Pope Benedict refused to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into alleged child sex abuse by priests, according to U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, The Guardian newspaper reported.
Benedict was also reportedly furious when Vatican officials were called upon in Rome, The Guardian reported Saturday.
The Murphy Commission of Inquiry into sexual and physical abuse "offended many in the Vatican," according to a cable dated February 26, 2010…
oracknows | December 11, 2010Has it really been six years?
Six years ago today, on a dim and dreary Saturday in December, almost on a whim I sat down, went to Blogspot, and started up the first version of Respectful Insolence with an introductory post with the cliched title, Please allow me to introduce myself. Here it is, six years later. On this cold December Saturday, I still find it difficult to his blog is considered one of the "top" medical blogs by one measure, and some actually--shockingly--consider me somewhat of a "famous" skeptic. I know, I know, I still can't wrap my head around the concept myself. At least,…
pharyngula | December 10, 2010The fellow who leaked all those classified documents to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, is getting badmouthed by the residents of his hometown, who are now recollecting all the signals of his future perfidy. Apparently, he was godless, refused to recite the pledge of allegiance, and used big words.
Uh-oh. That sounds like my youth, too. I guess I'm going to be under suspicion now.
Oh, wait — he was also gay. I'm safe!
By the way, they're threatening him with 50 years in prison. I think they should give him a medal, but I know they won't.
aardvarchaeology | December 8, 2010In October, I wrote about a ruling of the European Commission against Sweden's restrictions on metal-detector use. The angle, kind of irrelevantly one may think, was that our rules counteract the free mobility of goods, which is of course a central concern of the EU.
On 30 November Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied to the European Commission. The gist of the reply is that "We think protection of the cultural heritage, which is also central concern of the EU, should trump the free mobility of goods in this case".
Up until §27 there is little new here. But then we get this (and I…
pharyngula | December 8, 2010According to their sacred literature, anyway. Would you believe this collection of angry ignorant kooks whining about their taxes in local American politics is actually written up in the Bible? Yeah, this is the fourth Tea Party movement: the first was after the death of Solomon, the second was led by Jesus Christ himself, the third was the Boston event, and the fourth was begun by a ranting overprivileged ass on the Chicago stock exchange, which makes Rick Santelli some kind of prophet, apparently.
Man, these guys are lunatics. American politics is more than a little embarrassing for…
jrosenhouse | December 7, 2010Here's an interesting nugget from Ezra Klein:
If you look at the numbers alone, the tax cut deal looks to have robbed Republicans blind. The GOP got around $95 billion in tax cuts for wealthy Americans and $30 billion in estate tax cuts. Democrats got $120 billion in payroll-tax cuts, $40 billion in refundable tax credits (Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and education tax credits), $56 billion in unemployment insurance, and, depending on how you count it, about $180 billion (two-year cost) or $30 billion (10-year cost) in new tax incentives for businesses to invest.
But that's not…
pharyngula | December 5, 2010Hey, if you aren't listening to atheists talk radio, watch this 1946 film for schools from Encyclopedia Britannica. It's practically a cliche: black & white, dreadfully wooden 'acting', the serious narrator, but it's also describing how to tell a democracy from a despotism, and the warning signs that your culture is in trouble, in ways that are relevant.
It's a little disturbing, too. It's like they're describing us.
pharyngula | December 3, 2010It's hard to listen to this. It isn't just racist, it's stupid. I have to suspect that Limbaugh is back on the oxycontin.
For a great communicator, he sure does have a knack for drawing out his discussion beyond what is necessary; pithy and cogent are not words to apply to Rush. Here's the relevant part of his talk.
How many native americans were killed by the arrival of the white man through disease and war?
…
how many people have died since the wm arrived due to lung cancer, thanks to the Indian custom of smoking? Who are the real killers here?
…
Where are our reparations?
The…