February 4, 2008
Chris Mooney, one of the originators of ScienceDebate2008 quotes the press release:
The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine are joining the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Carnegie Institution, the Council on…
February 1, 2008
A few days ago I wrote a long post about the importance of ideas, which included this observation:
Let us pause, as slacktivist does, to marvel that "Here is a man who speaks off the cuff in complete sentences and complete paragraphs. The contrast with our current president couldn't be more stark…
February 1, 2008
70% of voters in MoveOn.org's membership poll backed Barack Obama. This clears the 2/3 threshold needed in order for the group to issue its first primary campaign endorsement ever. "A few weeks ago," MoveOn writes, "MoveOn members we surveyed were split. But with John Edwards bowing out,…
January 31, 2008
It's pretty hard to see how McCain could fail to romp through Feb. 5, especially if Romney isn't running any ads in the 22 states holding primaries or caucuses.
As Steve Benen notes, this creates an opportunity for the Democratic candidates to break the circular firing squad and start showing who…
January 30, 2008
Guest blogging at Balkinization, Jeffrey Tulis considers Obama’s Beef, concluding:
Senator Obama has the beef, Senator Clinton the hamburger.
Leaving the Republicans with ...
January 30, 2008
One of the things that impressed me about Obama when I met him in 2006 was his nearly palpable intellect. In a situation like that interview, a five-minute session with a little blogger in Kansas, wedged between a private chat with Governor Sebelius and an address to the state's Democratic…
January 29, 2008
As Florida gears up to revise state science standards, they seem insistent on topping the anti-science nonsense which earned Kansas such mockery. The St. Petersburg Times education blog reports:
Another key lawmaker says it's likely the Legislature will weigh in on the evolution controversy. And…
January 28, 2008
Mr. Speaker! The Preznit of the Untied States of America.
Congresscritters, esteemed Cabinet members and other besuited Washingtonians, I stand before you to tell you that the state of the union is … tolerable. After all, there'll be an election in November, and then it'll all be someone else's…
January 23, 2008
Mike has some astute observations about the Disco. Inst.'s Dissent from Darwinism List. Noting that Rob Crowther claims:
Signers of the Dissent List have signed the list because it is their professional opinion that the evidence is lacking for the claims for the ability of random mutations and…
January 23, 2008
Cato's Andrew Coulson actually applies that "logic" to a different government program, but it makes just as little sense. Yes, Americans tend to reject evolution, though not, as Coulson claims, 2 in 3; a survey by FASEB this month found that 6 in 10 support evolution. That doesn't mean we should…
January 22, 2008
Kevin Drum evaluates the Democratic frontrunners on their ability to move an agenda through Congress:
Congress is a different kettle of fish [than the public, which he allows Obama could probably swing to his side], and obviously a lot depends on just what kind of majority the new president has to…
January 22, 2008
Tony Campolo, generally considered a member of the Christian Left, writes a staggeringly wrong essay on evolution. After rightly dismissing typical creationist complaints that evolutionary "theories contradict their literal biblical belief that creation occurred in six 24-hour days," Campolo jumps…
January 21, 2008
PZ watches a clip from a creationist video game and wonders:
Now here's the question: is this the work of a sincere creationist, or is this the product of the evil atheist conspiracy, made with the intent of making creationists look like talentless, tasteless hacks? I can't tell.
This is an example…
January 21, 2008
Glenn Greenwald has questions about an Obama brochure explaining that the Senator is a "Committed Christian":
Finally, just to underscore the point (again), I'm not arguing that Obama has done anything wrong here. As I said, I thought much of the criticism of Huckabee for making overt religious…
January 19, 2008
One session I attended at the Science Blogging Conference related to making your blog more interactive.
In that spirit, I invite your response to the following proposed truth:
Kansas City Barbecue is superior to North Carolina barbecue.
Extra points for the most creative gustatory or geographical…
January 19, 2008
At the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference today, I ran into Professor Steve Steve. Panda's Thumb denizens Tara Smith and Reed Cartwright accompanied various of Prof. Steve's avatars. As you can imagine, the presence of so much dogmatic (pandamatic?) Darwinism in one location unleashed…
January 16, 2008
I'll be traveling tomorrow, heading east to the Scienceblogging conference in North Carolina.
On Friday, I'll be at NESCent, addressing the challenges of "Talking to the Media about Evolution and Creationism." TfK fans are welcome to swing by, or leave comments suggesting other times to meet up.
January 15, 2008
Governor Sebelius, the popular Democratic Governor of Kansas, has been chosen to respond to George Bush's final State of the Union address. Diane has a good review of some of her recent achievements. It's a tremendous testament to her and to the state of Kansas that she's being given this…
January 14, 2008
Times Public Editor:
Hiring Kristol the worst idea ever? I can think of many worse. Hanging someone from a lamppost to be beaten by a mob because of his ideas? … [I]t is not the end of the world.
Is this what American journalism is reduced to? Not being as bad as a lynch mob or Armageddon? C'mon…
January 12, 2008
The Scientist tells about North Carolina's success promoting its biotech industry. Commercial success didn't come quickly. Obviously:
The state's educational institutions, from community colleges to research universities, also play a seminal role in North Carolina's success in biotechnology. For…
January 10, 2008
Via Jake, we get a candidate selector for the US election. While the company behind it is Dutch, the questions seem fairly well-tuned, and the results seem to be right. The same company has apparently been pretty popular in the Netherlands. The only thing that will make the results wonky is…
January 10, 2008
The expectations game is a fickle mistress. Two weeks ago, I doubt anyone would have been surprised at Hillary Clinton winning the New Hampshire primaries, and indeed the big surprise would have been that she and Obama essentially tied (both candidates got the same number of delegates).
Of course…
January 9, 2008
At hearings on new science standards in Florida, bizarre misconceptions seem to be the rule:
"I think they could be teaching a lie," Oscar Howard, superintendent of Taylor County Public Schools said of evolution. "There's not a place on me where they took the tail off."
Unless he is suggesting that…
January 8, 2008
Well, Hillary came in two points ahead of Obama in New Hampshire, and 22 points ahead of John Edwards. Edwards insists that he's still in it for the remaining 48 states, but I have a hard time imagining how he will do any better in those states than he did in Iowa, where he camped out for the last…
January 8, 2008
Chris Comer, fired last November for having the temerity to think that the Texas Education Agency's Director of Science Curriculum might be allowed to tell people about a talk about why intelligent design isn't science, is going through a rough patch. Her politically motivated ouster has made it…
January 8, 2008
Shorter Dave Neiwert: Liberal Fascism would be an oxymoron, if it weren't just moronic.
David Neiwert is reviewing Jonah Goldberg's Bizarro History, a book which has been appropriately and adequately mocked by Sadly, No! already. I was particularly struck by this passage:
Liberal Fascism is like a…
January 3, 2008
Kevin Drum sums it up:
I have to say that Barack Obama's victory was mighty impressive. Not only did he win by a pretty solid margin, 38% vs. 30% for both Clinton and Edwards, but he won in virtually every subcategory. He won among both men and women; he won among Democrats, independents, and…
January 2, 2008
If I were living in Iowa, I'd be caucusing for Barack Obama. It'll be a month before my primary, and by then it may all be academic, so I may as well talk about it now.
I'll start out by saying that I wouldn't feel bad about caucusing for John Edwards, and I won't have any problem campaigning hard…
January 2, 2008
Thoughts from Kansas has won two Best of 2007 contests. An entry about the vacuity of intelligent design will be in Open Lab 2007, an anthology of the best science blogging of 2007. And my nomination of "The Vitteruvian Man," David Vitter, for Talking Points Memo's Golden Dukes award, prevailed…
December 26, 2007
Casey Luskin is upset. Iowa Citizens for Science responded to Luskin's press conference on behalf of Guillermo Gonzalez a few weeks ago with their own press release, a release which mentioned that "None of his [Gonzalez's] graduate students had completed their programs." Luskin complains that the…
