Mike Dunford
tqa
Posts by this author
August 15, 2007
Right now, I'm sitting under one of the outer rain bands associated with newly-formed Tropical Storm Erin. We're seeing a moderately heavy thunderstorm right now. The rain's coming down fast and heavy. There's a lot of lightning right now, with thunder that's loud enough to set off the occasional…
August 15, 2007
Deadeye Dick Cheney, talking about why we shouldn't invade Iraq:
That was back in 1994. It's sad how right - and prophetic - he was ten years before the big screw-up started.
August 12, 2007
There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.George W. Bush17 September, 2002
It seems like just yesterday that AT&T was telling us that their decision to silence…
August 9, 2007
There are a lot of news articles out today that feature some just-published research on early human research. The research itself - a paper in the journal Nature by a team of scientists including the mother-daughter combinationon of Meave and Louise Leakey- features two partial skulls found east…
August 8, 2007
Today, while at the Johnson Space Center, I accidentally heard a very disturbing conversation. A young boy, probably five or six years old, was asking his mother about the moon. She proceeded to explain to him how the moon got here. It was created by God, she told him, on the fourth day.
It was…
August 8, 2007
Today, Mitt "I Like To Veto, Veto" Romney outdid himself in the "things candidates say" category of hysterical stupidity. After Mitt called for a "surge of support" for the war in Iraq at an Iowa campaign stop today, he took some questions. One of the questioners asked him why none of his five…
August 7, 2007
Jason Rosenhouse thinks that PZ, Ed Brayton, Revere, and I have reached a "strange conclusion" about the recent Democratic cave-in on wiretapping. It doesn't make sense, at least to him, that we'd blame the Democrats, given that 80% of the Democrats in Congress didn't vote for the wiretapping bill…
August 7, 2007
In the news today, we've got two more examples of inappropriate behavior conducted by Evangelical Christians in the military. Both of the stories are very scary, for different reasons.
The first story comes courtesy of Ed Brayton. He reports that a handful of junior enlisted soldiers attempted…
August 6, 2007
Citizens of the great state of Texas, where I now live, are very proud of their state. Proud enough, in fact, that they've got their very own state pledge of allegiance. We found out about this a few months back while we were researching schools, because every morning all public schoolchildren in…
August 6, 2007
John Lilyea of "This Ain't Hell" just left a comment on yesterday's post about political speech in uniform. He brings up a couple of points that I'd like to address in some detail. First, here's Lilyea's comment in full:
Funny, you picked the one quote I made in jest and nailed it to your cross…
August 5, 2007
So far, there hasn't been a lot of good news for the US Military in recently published scientific papers this month. A few days ago, there was the JAMA paper that looked at the increase in child abuse and neglect that happens at home while a parent is deployed. Now, there's a paper in the British…
August 5, 2007
Right wing blogs of various types are beating drums on behalf of an as-yet-unidentified US Army soldier who got into a bit of a confrontation with the moderator at a YearlyKos panel discussion. The soldier was a sergeant in uniform; the moderator was (or is, I'm not sure which) a reserve officer.…
August 4, 2007
From Paul Kane's column in today's WaPo:
Throughout the spring newly empowered Democrats watched their approval ratings plummet, with a liberal base upset at their inability to stop the Iraq war and independents complaining that not enough meaningful legislation was being passed.
Gee, I guess…
August 4, 2007
Denyse O'Leary notes some of the differences between creationists and Intelligent Design proponents:
Then the creationists in turn help the ID theorists by making clear what creationism is and what it is not. Creationism is about the BIBLE, see? It's not about intelligent design theories like…
August 3, 2007
Only in New York could something like this happen:
A man in a Revolutionary War-era submarine was cited by the U.S. Coast Guard for drifting into a security zone, and for unsafe sailing in New York's East River near the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner, the Coast Guard and New York City Police…
August 3, 2007
Today's dose of accidental humor comes (like most, these days) from our Commander-In-Chief. Today, while meeting with his counterterrorism team, he said:
We take a clear-eyed view of the world. The people on this team, assembled in this building see the world the way it is, not the way we hope…
August 1, 2007
Retired army General Barry McCaffrey testified before the House Armed Services Committee yesterday:
No one is actually at war except the Armed Forces, their US civilian contractors, and the CIA. There is only rhetoric and posturing from the rest of our government and the national legislature.…
August 1, 2007
There's a paper in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association that examines the impact of combat deployments on child abuse and neglect. The authors, lead by Deborah Gibbs of RTI International, found that the overall rate of abuse and neglect increased by more than 40% when…
July 31, 2007
Rudy Giuliani just announced his health care plan. It's not a winner. Of course, Rudy being Rudy, he couldn't just announce what his ideas are without any preparation. First, he had to warm up by spending a day or two imitating a wingnut talk radio host and calling the Democratic candidates "…
July 31, 2007
Go read what Wilkins has to say about the "soft on terrorism" accusations that get thrown around so casually today. He's an Australian writing about a situation in Australia, but everything he said certainly applies here in the US.
Particularly this bit:
Kevin Andrews also says that critics…
July 28, 2007
Over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, Ed Brayton just highlighted a new, dishonest, and despicable attempt at spinning the casualty figures from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This new spin is simple: military deaths under Bush aren't much different than the deaths under Clinton, so why is…
July 26, 2007
Yesterday, my wife and I were talking about current events over dinner. Part of the discussion got a little bit...interesting:
Me: "It looks like some of the families at Fort Lewis are upset with the post CG [commanding general].Wife: "Oh? What'd he do?"Me: "It looks like he thinks that the…
July 25, 2007
I've been looking at the Ward Churchill case more than I expected. I don't know why, exactly. It might be because Churchill is such a fantastically outrageous character - both in the tone of his published works and in the depths of his academic malfeasance. It might be because of the delicious…
July 25, 2007
I'm now living in a state where the Governor thinks that a creationist is just who we need running the schools. Absolutely wonderful. I'd say more, but the Bad Astronomer did a much better job.
July 25, 2007
A few of you might remember Ward Churchill. He's the University of Colorado professor who caused a stink a few years ago with an essay that compared 9/11 victims in the World Trade Center to Nazis. His remarks generated a surge of demands that he be fired. Yesterday, he finally was - but not for…
July 23, 2007
The Fish and Wildlife service announced on Friday that it would review ten endangered species listing decisions that were identified by regional directors as having been inappropriately influenced by former Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald. MacDonald, as some of you may recall, was the…
July 19, 2007
It's rare that I think one of these test results really fits me, but I'm afraid this one does.
Your Score
: Smartass
You are 85% Rational, 57% Extroverted, 57% Brutal, and 71% Arrogant.
You are the Smartass! You are rational, extroverted, brutal, and arrogant. In fact, you could very…
July 19, 2007
It's another day, and Casey "The Energizer Bunny" Luskin is at it again, claiming that ID successfully predicted that "junk DNA" would be found to have a function. He has yet to explain how and why he believes that "Darwinism" somehow stifled research into those areas of the genome, and ignores…
July 18, 2007
The answer: massive, monumental, unashamed, unadulterated hypocrisy. The question: name one reason that Congress has an approval rating that's rapidly heading for negative numbers. It's the flipping hypocrisy. It's huge, its taken over the joint, and its on both sides of the aisle.
I'm ranting,…