president
oracknows | August 18, 2016I’ve been debating whether to write about this for a while now, given that the first article that I noticed about it was first published a week and a half ago. Part of the reason for my reluctance is that it would be too easy for politics to be dragged into this more than I generally like. Of course, I don’t make a secret of my political leanings, but I usually don’t go out of my way to be an explicitly political blogger. I do, however, frequently write about areas where science and medicine intersect, and when I do I always come down on the side of science and rationality.
This brings us to…
oracknows | July 20, 2016I’ve frequently said that a tendency towards pseudoscience knows no political boundary. For example, antivaccine views, contrary to common belief, are not detectably more prevalent on the left than on the right, as I’ve discussed on more than one occasion. It’s just that for so many years, antivaccine beliefs were associated in the media with crunchy, back-to-nature lefties, and still are to some extent. (I’m talking to you Jill Stein.) However, last year the battle over SB 277, the new California law that eliminates nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates, and the Republican…
oracknows | October 9, 2015Over the years, I've frequently made the points that the vast majority of physicians are not scientists and, in fact, that many of them suffer from a severe case of Dunning-Kruger when it comes to science. Even going back to the very early history of this blog, you can find examples, the most common of which seemed to be physicians denying evolution and embracing creationism. Of these, the doctor I wrote about most frequently back in the day was the creationist neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, but with the onset of the 2016 Presidential race there's been a new creationist neurosurgeon in town with…
illconsidered | November 21, 2008I received this via unsolicited email and thought it important analysis to share:
Stunning Break with Last Eight Years
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth. But Mr.…
amillikan | November 16, 2008With the announcement of Barack Obama's plan to deliver a weekly YouTube address, speculations are arising of how the new administration will make use of "facebook age" technologies to communicate with the public. ScienceBlogger Coturnix from A Blog Around the Clock discusses this and the potential clash between traditional policies requiring the president to abstain from informal communications—because everything is recorded—and modern inclinations to use networking programs and technological devices.
grrlscientist | November 5, 2008tags: Barack Obama, politics, victory speech, election2008, streaming video
This is the third and last part of Obama's victory speech delivered on 4 November 2008 [9:47]
grrlscientist | November 5, 2008tags: Barack Obama, politics, victory speech, election2008, streaming video
This is the second part of Obama's victory speech delivered on 4 November 2008 [10:31]
grrlscientist | November 5, 2008tags: Barack Obama, politics, victory speech, election2008, streaming video
This is the first part of Obama's victory speech delivered on 4 November 2008 [4:12]
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: Barack Obama, election2008, politics, NYC, Times Square
Image: orphaned [larger view].
One of the nice things about living in NYC is the fact that there are often fun things happening that are both spontaneous and free-of-charge. One of those events occurred last evening and continued through the wee hours of today, when I spent election eve in NYC's Times Square, along with half a million other people.
Even though I am not normally very tolerant of crowds, I do really enjoy walking around Times Square at night, and this was a pleasant evening; not too warm nor too cold, and the…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: Barack Obama, election2008, President Obama, politics, American politics
Image: Doug Mills/The New York Times [larger view].
Congratulations on your historical victory, Senator Obama. I am happy for this country.
However, I am sad for you and for your family. After all, you were chosen by the electorate to act as a janitor for George Bush, Dick Cheney and all their ultra-rich cronies as well as for all the selfish bankers, CEOs and Wall Street jackasses who have invested their lifetimes into destroying this country and others' creations as well as stealing what little money that…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2008tags: presidential primaries, super tuesday, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Democratic primaries
Image: NYTimes.
This picture represents my fantasy: I see a great presidency resulting from the combination of two intelligent and passionate minds together: two people who discuss things between themselves (and with others) before making important decisions -- unlike the typical relationship between a president and vice president in this country, where the president more or less ignores the vice president. But Hillary and Barack are not like all those others that came before them, so why…