May 15, 2008
California is set to join Massachusetts as a hotbed for equality:
Same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The court’s 4-to-3 decision striking down state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman makes California…
May 15, 2008
Rolling Stone chronicles The Fear Factory, the self-justifyingly excessive response of the FBI and local law enforcement to the war on terror:
The two officers tell me about a close call at the Taste of Chicago food festival last year. Millions attend the annual street feast, with Chicago-style…
May 14, 2008
NARAL and John Edwards endorse Barack Obama. Obama currently has the most pledged delegates, the most superdelegates, and Democrats are unifying around him.
As someone (hilzoy?) pointed out a few days ago, this is a remarkable event: for the first time in my political life, my favored candidate…
May 14, 2008
The Department of the Interior explains:
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced that he is accepting the recommendation of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The listing is…
May 14, 2008
Buswell fends off quokka rumours | The Australian:
WEST Australian Opposition leader Troy Buswell has admitted to chair-sniffing in the past but today he denied having done anything untoward to a quokka.
Mr Buswell, who has also admitted to snapping the bra of a Labor staffer, faced question at…
May 12, 2008
Hilzoy quotes Steve Benen, quoting Roll Call:
After months working behind the scenes, House Republican leaders this week will finally start rolling out their rebranding effort aimed at rallying the party around a comprehensive policy and message agenda.
Titled “Reasons to Believe,” the plan is…
May 12, 2008
May 23rd, according a random email I got today, is World Turtle Day.
One presumes that it is supported by a turtle, which is itself supported by a turtle, and so on, all the way down.
Either that, or it is a day to celebrate the inversion of dinghies.
May 9, 2008
In Kansas, it was a party line vote:
Nay KS-1 Moran, Jerry [R]
Aye KS-2 Boyda, Nancy [D]
Aye KS-3 Moore, Dennis [D]
Nay KS-4 Tiahrt, Todd [R]
The bill, HR 1113, is a nonbinding resolution "celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day."…
May 8, 2008
NCSE wants your help:
The National Center for Science Education, a non-profit organization that defends the teaching of evolution in the public schools, seeks candidates for a position in its Public Information Project.
Staff members in the Public Information Project provide advice and support to…
May 8, 2008
I'm away from the office, helping historians beat up on creationists, so enjoy some fine music in the mean time.
"Fall Of The Pigs" by COLISEUM from the album No Salvation (2007, 2:55).
"She's Got A New Spell" by Billy Bragg from the album Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg (…
May 6, 2008
This is the third of four videos NCSE commissioned to help explain how evolution works, and to help people understand the threats posed to accurate science education. It's remarkable what you can fit into a brief video.
It's also worth noting that a lot won't fit into a video. If the issue of…
May 5, 2008
Hillary has lost it.
First, she signs on with John McCain's idiotic plan to eliminate gas taxes for a while. This is stupid, because it won't actually cut prices (the price of a good like gasoline is dominated by how much customers are willing to pay, and fiddling with the tax won't change demand…
May 2, 2008
I'm used to creationists. Every day, I get up, check my email, and get questions straight from the Index of Creationist Claims. Drawings of dinosaurs that prove people lived with dinosaurs, the young sun would have been too cold, the ocean has too much salt, etc. It's fun. I point people toward…
May 1, 2008
And so, 5 years after President Bush declared that "major combat operations in Iraq are over," the 4,374th coalition soldier has died in Iraq. The evidence continues to support my contention that the surge hasn't done much or anything to stem the tide of violence, and that the lull in violence…
May 1, 2008
Governor Schwarzenegger addresses insider trading tycoon Michael Milken and a few of their richest friends:
"…I always encourage the legislators in Sacramento, because some of them come from those little towns," Schwarzenegger said. "You know what I'm saying? They come from those little towns, and…
April 30, 2008
As former Kansas congressman Jim Slattery kicks off his campaign to replace Senator Pat "Memory Pills" Roberts, Roberts is already having trouble keeping his facts straight. Sean Tevis explains:
I heard that Senator Pat Roberts, who is seeking his third Senate term, issued an ad criticizing…
April 29, 2008
It's not just the science groups who are upset with Expelled's misuse of the Holocaust for petty political advantage. The venerable Anti-Defamation League says that the anti-evolution film misappropriates the Holocaust:
New York, NY, April 29, 2008 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued…
April 29, 2008
Expelled is a really, truly, awful movie. Even setting aside its errors and its Holocaust nigh-denial, it's just a badly assembled bit of cinema. It's offensive and absurd to compare the events of the Cold War to the treatment of the supposed martyrs: the folks who variously were called bad names…
April 28, 2008
No time for bloggery today, but enjoy the music.
"We Looked Like Giants" by Death Cab For Cutie from the album Transatlanticism (2003, 5:32).
"Slippery People" by Talking Heads from the album Speaking in Tongues (1983, 5:06).
"Grassy Grass Grass" by Elizabeth Mitchell from the album You Are My…
April 25, 2008
David Klinghoffer complains about responses to his Hitler-praising column. He links to this blog four times, despite the fact that I only wrote about him twice (three times once I post this). His complaint:
By these Darwinist propagandists, it is asserted that I agree that “Hitler was right about…
April 24, 2008
Orac doesn't think Expelled's Nazi claims are a form of Holocaust denial. I disagree.
Orac has some good points, and "denial" may be a strong word. Orac gives the basic criteria of Holocaust denial as rejecting at least one of these statements:
1. The Holocaust was the intentional murder of…
April 23, 2008
The video at ExpelledExposed.com highlighting Chris Comer's story was one of last week's most viewed and most discussed on YouTube. In a week, it basically tied the YouTube trailer for Expelled, and exceeded the viewership of the Dick-to-the-Dawk viral video put out by the producers of Expelled.…
April 23, 2008
Yoko sues Expelled filmmakers over Imagine | Entertainment | Reuters:
John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his sons are suing the filmmakers of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" for using the song "Imagine" in the documentary without permission. …
Yoko Ono, son, Sean Ono Lennon, and Julian Lennon…
April 22, 2008
Hilzoy compares three candidate comments on the alleged autism/vaccine link:
Last month I wrote about John McCain's statement claimed that there is "strong evidence" that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. I expect better from Democrats, and while saying that we don't know whether vaccines cause…
April 22, 2008
I'm still digging out of the post-Expelled craziness. Our video about Chris Comer has gotten more views than the Expelled trailer on Youtube or the rapping Dawkins video, and traffic keeps streaming in to ExpelledExposed.com.
If you haven't done so already, there's still time to locate a stupid…
April 21, 2008
Seeing the sun set across Pinnacles National Monument, while the full moon rises out past the San Andreas fault (below the fold) is pretty awesome.
It would've been nice to see some condors, too. Though the horned lizard was pretty excellent.
April 21, 2008
Kara explains:
In the story of Exodus, we learn much about the story of Passover, which involves shank bones, lice, blood smearings, and unpleasant stale crackers, much like the nurse's office in elementary school.
Ma nishtana?
April 20, 2008
On Saturday night, we celebrated the first night of Passover. It's a day on which Jews have, since time immemorial, celebrated out freedom, and greater freedom to come. The seder is a profound and moving ceremony, and its form connects us through the generations, back to the ancestors who laid…
April 18, 2008
Here's the New York Times on porn actress/producer Jenna Jameson's new movie, Zombie Strippers:
Strewn with some surprisingly decent effects, this unevenly paced film delivers, if nothing else, on the promise of its title: lots of surgically enhanced nude dead women strutting their stuff. ……
April 17, 2008
Expelled apparently features "Imagine" by John Lennon , and the Lennon estate is not pleased.
But according to a lawyer for Ms. Ono, the filmmakers did not have permission to use the song [Imagine], for any amount of money.
Ms. Ono's lawyer, Jonas Herbsman, of Shukat, Arrow, Hafer, Weber &…
