Mike Dunford
tqa
Posts by this author
August 31, 2009
Judging by the comments, it would appear that I wasn't as clear in my last post as I should have been. I apologize. Let me try again.
Here's what PZ wrote:
I think I'd have a few questions for this pope. Like, "What about over-population, Ratzi dear? What's the devout Catholic plan for dealing…
August 30, 2009
PZ Myers is upset - and rightly so - at something that Pope Benedict XVI said in a speech he gave at Wednesday's General Audience. The Pope, while speaking on the topic of environmentalism, suggested that disrespect for the environment stems from disbelief in God:
Is it not true that…
August 26, 2009
PZ called my attention to the fact that former US Army 2nd Lieutenant William Calley has, for the first time, publicly apologized for his conduct at My Lai. Something that Paul wrote got me thinking, particularly while I was running some errands on base this morning:
There is no doubt that…
August 25, 2009
I don't know if it's me, or if it's really becoming harder and harder to figure out what is actually a right-wing rant and what's satire. Case in point: an anti-Steven-Colbert rant written by someone who bills himself as, "an Investigative Journalist, Motivational Children's Party Entertainer and…
August 18, 2009
In his latest column, Cal Thomas takes another swing at explaining the perils of health care. Last week, you might remember, he claimed that health care proponents want to kill off the old because we're evolutionists. This week, we're Hitler:
Anyone wishing to revise America's medical system and…
August 18, 2009
If you're poor, sick, and can't afford good - or even adequate - health care, it's your own fault for being poor, and your own problem. That's the clear message of an editorial that appeared on the National Review's website yesterday:
Defined at a high level of abstraction, rationing is…
August 14, 2009
If you're holding out any hope that Harry Reid might actually be concealing - deep, deep down - an untapped well of leadership potential, it's probably because you haven't seen this story yet:
The Senate Finance Committee will drop a controversial provision on consultations for end-of-life care…
August 11, 2009
Why, exactly, do Democrats want to kill the elderly with their health care? It's a question that's baffled billions since at least last week. Politicians, philosophers, theologians, and comedians have all been at a loss to explain the motivation for the proposed geriatric genocide. Fortunately for…
August 7, 2009
A friend just pointed me to this... illuminating bit of polling data on the Daily Kos website:
QUESTION: Do you believe that America and Africa were once part of the same continent?
24% of Republican respondents answered "yes". 47% answered no.
That's right - Republicans rejected plate…
August 7, 2009
Earlier this week, the Des Moines bus system abruptly removed ads from their vehicles that had been purchased by an atheist group. The bus system had received numerous calls and complaints, and apparently some people actually refused to ride busses that had the ad. The Governor of Iowa, when asked…
August 6, 2009
Yesterday, I took the kids to the doctor for their school physicals. I wouldn't normally subject you to an account of the day-to-day minutia of my personal life, but given the current debate about how we should handle health care in the United States, the details might be of interest.
We arrived…
August 5, 2009
"Decisions are made by those who show up."
Around the country, right-wing activists, backed by well-funded groups working for the insurance industry, are showing up at the town hall events that Congresscritters are having in their districts during the recess. They're showing up and making their…
August 4, 2009
One of my occasional readers just forwarded me the following email. A quick google search reveals that the same story has been making the rounds of the wingnuttier segments of the intertubes overfew months. (By the way, nutbars, the word you're looking for is "gaff", not "gaft".
UNBELIEVABLE…
August 3, 2009
It's been a very long month or so. Family matters of various sorts have kept me running around through most of the Eastern Seaboard for the last several weeks. Fortunately, things have finally started to settle down.
We've got pretty much everything unpacked in our new digs in family housing at…
July 15, 2009
I just saw a shuttle launch! I haven't been this excited since Christmas Eve, 1985!
I would have mentioned I was going to the launch ahead of time here, but things happened kinda quick. Here's a condensed version of events:
As you might expect, there's extensive medical support at shuttle…
June 17, 2009
âIt is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.â
Senator John Ensign (R-NV)13 July, 2004
June 16, 2009
NASA called off today's planned launch of the shuttle Endeavour earlier this morning when a hydrogen leak was discovered near the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate. The GUCP was also the location of the leak that shut down Saturday's launch attempt, so it appears that the repairs made to that system…
June 16, 2009
For those of you who are wondering where I've been, we're currently in the middle of our third family move in the last 25 months. We're starting to get good at it, but it still takes a while. Since I've got a few minutes to spare this morning - and I'm fed up with boxes and tape - I thought I'd…
June 4, 2009
On June 5th, 1989, the world got to see exactly what courage is. One man, in a white shirt and dark pants, carrying shopping bags, faced down a company of tanks. The whole world saw the images of his simple courage. His name and his fate remain a mystery - all that is known about his entire life…
June 3, 2009
James Kirchick has an op-ed up in today's Wall Street Journal that addresses the reaction to the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Or so he might want to believe. In actuality, Kirchick is responding to the portion of the reaction that he wants to see, and not to the range of opinion that is out there…
June 3, 2009
PETA is continuing their ever-successful quest to prove that mind-numbing insensitivity and flaming stupidity are not restricted to any particular portion of the political spectrum. This time, they're using the murder of Dr. George Tiller as the hook for a new set of pro-Vegetarian billboards in…
June 1, 2009
It's easy, as Nicholas Kristof points out, to think and talk about international affairs in abstract terms. Most of us are living comfortable lives in comfortable countries. We have the luxury of being able to afford to think about things that are happening beyond our own borders, even when they'…
May 31, 2009
As you might have guessed from my earlier post, I was angered and saddened when I learned of the death of Kansas doctor George Tiller earlier today. Dr. Tiller was gunned down while serving as an usher at his church while services were underway. As I mentioned earlier, the suspect arrested in the…
May 31, 2009
Wichita NBC affiliate KSHB-TV is reporting that the suspect being held in the assassination of Dr. George Tiller is a man named Scott Roeder. Posters in the forums at the DemocraticUnderground have identified at least one posting at Operation Rescue's website (currently down, link to Google cache…
May 29, 2009
...and very well may not ever do again: tell you that I actually enjoyed reading a post on the Discovery Institute's blog.
I haven't commented on the whole Ida the fossil hoopla before now, but, like a good chunk of the science blogging community, I think calling the whole thing overblown is a…
May 26, 2009
I'm not sure how I missed it when it first appeared, but it seems that a few days ago one of the other bloggers on this network - Greg Laden - wrote a post that discussed some of the advertising that you may have noticed here recently. I just noticed and read the post, and I honestly wish I hadn't…
May 26, 2009
Today's quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson; the picture was taken at the Linnean Society last summer.
But these young scholars who invade our hills,Bold as the engineer who fells the wood,And travelling often in the cut he makes,Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not,And all their…
May 26, 2009
It's being widely reported that President Obama will announce his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter within the next hour. According to the reports, Obama has chosen Sonya Sotomayor for the job. Sotomayor was appointed to the Federal bench by George H.W. Bush in 1991, and…
May 26, 2009
Just to give those of you who might care a heads-up, my blogging is likely to become somewhat sporadic over the next two-to-three months, mostly due to family commitments. We're moving again in early July. This time, it's a relatively short move - Pensacola to the Dothan, AL area, but there's…
May 24, 2009
Like my friend Henry, I'm overweight and trying not to be. He is, I think, a couple of "stone" heavier than I am. (Whatever the hell that means - you'd think that dealing in pounds and kilograms alone would be confusing enough for the British, but apparently there's no such thing as excessive…