June 5, 2008
Intelligent design is about discrimination.
June 3, 2008
My friend DarkSyde makes an important point:
The cliche is, 'we are watching history being made.' But that's not quite it, not tonight, not for us. We are part of making history. We will remember this evening for the rest of our lives.
This primary season stretched over months, and hit every state…
June 3, 2008
The AP's need to send out news stories before events happen is odd, but often enlightening. For instance, their basis for concluding that Obama clinched the Democratic nomination:
The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also…
June 2, 2008
If you don't want 400 words about who to vote for if you happen to live in Oakland, read no further. Californians are reminded to vote against Prop. 98, and (reluctantly) for 99. Both suck, but this is the only way to minimize the suckage.
After long and studious consideration, I'm gonna…
June 2, 2008
Dr. Waldo Fielding revisits memories of the time before Roe v. Wade. There are a number of important reminders in it, the first being that women seeking abortions were, and still are, in dire straits. These are not women making an idle choice (the arrogant assumption underlying state laws…
June 2, 2008
New York's experiment in organ donation is intriguing:
with a $1.5 million grant over three years from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, a team of medical experts and bioethicists is looking to expand the city’s donor pool by deploying a “rapid organ-recovery ambulance” to…
June 2, 2008
Neil Sinhababu writes:
It's good to see Nancy Pelosi get some positive coverage. I wish the article went into more detail on what's probably the grandest achievement of her political career to date -- holding the Democratic caucus together to destroy Bush's Social Security Privatization initiative…
June 2, 2008
The Associated Press reports:
Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and a national co-chairman of Clinton's campaign, said Sunday: "It does appear to be pretty clear that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee. After Tuesday's contests, she needs to acknowledge that he's going to be the nominee…
June 2, 2008
The National Examiner talked politics with the National Spelling Bee participants:
Texas’ own Raymond Soriano, 14, remembered that “Bush misspelled ‘business’ one time. That’s embarrassing.” Eleven-year-old Vincent Medina from Florida told us, “Anyone can out-spell Bush.” Jonathan Schut, a 13-year-…
May 31, 2008
I used to tout every bit of media interest I've gotten, but lately it's hardly seemed worth it. Press outreach is part of my job, so a quote in a newspaper in Florida, or a radio interview in Pennsylvania, doesn't do much for the ego any more.
I will note with interest this article at conservative…
May 30, 2008
Remember this?:
Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk radio host and bestselling author, has joined the Discovery Institute in the role of senior fellow. The position cements a longstanding friendship and recognizes a commonality of values and projects across a spectrum of issues.
“Michael…
May 29, 2008
On June 3, Californians will vote. There are a bunch of jackasses running for local offices, all clogging my mailbox with their fearmongering. I haven't sorted through the candidates, and their fliers all go into the recycling anyway. I'll work that out, though, with endorsements before the…
May 29, 2008
Call Arnold To Tell Him You Totally Support Gay Marriage, Or Else:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is receiving large numbers of phone calls from the supporters of "Limits on Marriage" (The constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage in California ) about his comment to a group of Log Cabin…
May 29, 2008
Nature's Climate Feedback blog points out that the post-World War II cooling is a mirage:
The 1945 temperature drop is nothing else than the result of the sudden but uncorrected change from warm US measurements to cooler UK measurement…
That’s a rather trivial explanation for a long-standing…
May 29, 2008
Lindsay alerts us to the death of Utah Phillips. Not a great singer, but a great story-teller, and a repository of a quirky part of American labor history. He'll be missed.
May 27, 2008
Is Barack Obama Muslim?:
No.
The internet: cause of and answer to all of life's problems.
May 27, 2008
Before the weekend, I had a half-composed post about Hillary Clinton's asinine invocations of RFK's assassination, but I wasn't done when weekend fun-n-games began, and now it's dated and irrelevant. I only mention it because I would've linked to Atrios's excellent and correct advice to the…
May 27, 2008
I was out and about yesterday, but my belated Memorial Day memorial is to say, as I did last year, "On this day when we remember our war dead, it's worth looking back at the when and the how of the … US military fatalities in Iraq." Then it was 3455 dead, now we're up to 4083 American soldiers…
May 24, 2008
A friend wants LGBT books for tweens:
So far, the best we’ve been able to do in terms of LGBT fiction for kids who have moved beyond picture books is:
Boy Meets Boy, by David LevithanSo Hard to Say, by Alex Sanchez
Geography Club, by Brent Hartinger
The Order of the Poison Oak, by Brent Hartinger…
May 23, 2008
Happy Friday!
"One Dime Blues" by Blind Lemon Jefferson from the album The Best of Blind Lemon Jefferson (2000, 2:47).
"Whirlpool" by They Might Be Giants from the album Why Does The Sun Shine? [EP] (1993, 2:10).
"Gin Soaked Boy" by Tom Waits from the album Swordfishtrombones (1983, 2:25).
"One…
May 23, 2008
Nitpicker's Terry Welch puts John McCain in his place:
I'm bothered by John McCain's response to Barack Obama, who pointed out that Webb's remodeled G.I. Bill is something McCain should get behind.…
I feel a true disdain for noncommissioned officers in what McCain is saying when he says the bill…
May 22, 2008
Shorter John McCain:
Kids these days, with their long hair and their rock-n-roll…
May 22, 2008
Coral Ridge Ministries asked their members a question:
How dangerous are the following to the spiritual health of America?
Very
Somewhat
Not very
The ACLU and similar groups
96
3
1
Pro-homosexual indoctrination
95
4
1
Abortion
93
6
1
Islamic terrorism
91
8
1
Hollywood
89…
May 22, 2008
Former congressman Jim Ryun's baby boy Ned opines on marriage equality in California. He calls for state and federal constitutional amendments, saying:
if the other side on this debate wants to push their agenda down our throats thru the judicial system, we push back.
But what, exactly, is being…
May 20, 2008
Is Expelled the 5th highest-grossing political documentary, or is it just gross? Here are the inflation-adjusted gross takes of the leading political documentaries:
Fahrenheit 9/11 $135,552,029
Sicko $25,425,497
Bowling for Columbine $25,764,452
An Inconvenient Truth $24,146,461
Roger and Me $11,…
May 19, 2008
Neal Desai took first place in the contest. Desai is a 10th grader in Kansas City, MO's Pembroke High School, but clearly identifies as a Kansan, and the Alliance for Science assures me he lives in the Sunflower state.
The contest allowed students to address either of two topics: Agriculture and…
May 19, 2008
Who wrote:
A manifestly unsound system like that of Darwin exercises a much more powerful influence than the deepest speculations, just because of its “practicability.“ And so we have seen the idea of evolution develop itself till it spread from biology and geology to all spheres of thought and…
May 15, 2008
Bush's Brain, aka Turd Blossom, comes to Wichita to help "Memory Pills" Roberts remember how to run a campaign. Apparently Bob Dole is back in Kansas, too, bringing his special brand of medicine to boost a different part of the Roberts campaign. Looks like he's scared of Jim Slattery.
Meanwhile,…
