Basic Human Decency
mikethemadbiologist | February 6, 2009'Blue dog' conservative Democratic Senator Nelson's list of proposed cuts from the National Recovery and Reinvestment Act was leaked to Huffington Post (the documents are available at TPM). I've never understood the Blue Dogs. While conservatives are full blown batshit loony (Tax cuts today! Tax cuts tomorrow! Tax cuts fo'evuh!), there is at least some kind of ideology there (albeit twisted). What motivates the Blue Dogs? Do they like the power of being spoilers? Does it make them feel good when they can be the ones to make the deal? Do they not realize that 'stimulus' means spending…
mikethemadbiologist | February 4, 2009In the midst of the Conservative War on Contraception, there's a broader assault by conservatives on public health initiatives. At Salon, Alex Koppelman does a good job rebutting the conservative opposition to vaccination, infection control, and figuring out if someone has AIDS (further fisking is available from IDSA). There's no reason to repeat this fine work, but it really does highlight just how unserious movement conservatives have become.
This mindless backlash reminds me of Michael Fumento, and his opposition to influenza prevention:
In my post, I challenged him to offer alternative…
mikethemadbiologist | February 1, 2009http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_UwGgLdmdI&eurl=http://www.salon.com/op…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8KwUSQL9zc&eurl=http://www.salon.com/op…
No doubt, I'll be accused of being an anti-Semitic Jew or something, but the two videos of a 60 Minutes segment (posted below) are worth watching:
Part 2:
And before the Likudniks blow a gasket, the founders of this country rose up against the British, and several of the grievances were:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the…
mikethemadbiologist | January 25, 2009I'm becoming more enthusiatic about Eric Holder as Attorney General. It's nice to see some clarity about waterboarding--that is, partial drowning interrogation. From Steve Benen:
The exchange was helpful in learning about both the senator and the nominee. [Republican Senator] Cornyn wanted Holder to admit that he'd torture a terrorist in a "ticking-time-bomb scenario," in order to "save perhaps tens of thousands of lives." Holder responded sensibly, noting that we have interrogation methods that aren't torture, and that torture wouldn't produce reliable intelligence anyway.
Cornyn was…
mikethemadbiologist | January 19, 2009From the archives:
One of the things that is often neglected on Martin Luther King day is his dedication to economic justice. What is forgotten--often willfully--is that he was an advocate for racial and economic justice. From a speech he gave to striking sanitation workers in Memphis on March 18, 1968 (italics mine):
My dear friends, my dear friend James Lawson, and all of these dedicated and distinguished ministers of the Gospel assembled here tonight, to all of the sanitation workers and their families, and to all of my brothers and sisters, I need not pause to say how very delighted I…
mikethemadbiologist | January 12, 2009I don't take blog awards seriously, unless, of course, I'm nominated, in which case They Are Profoundly Important. But it's obscene that the right wing kook The Anchoress is anywhere near Driftglass in the Best Individual Blogger category in the 2008 Weblog awards. When driftglass brings his A-game, is brilliant. Here's a good taste, if you're interested.
Now go vote for drifty.
mikethemadbiologist | December 18, 2008I really wasn't going to say much about the decision to have Rick Warren, civil rights opponent and evolution denialist, until Pam Spaulding bravely put on her slime guard and went to see what the rightwing denizens of Free Republic had to say. Warning--not safe for workdecent human beings:
LOL the homo's are taking a right beating lately. This is just great, what is it ah yes change we can believe in have you got that homo's? change you never thought LOL
Since his election to the position of President Elect, Obama has shown increasingly that he may be (emphasis on "may be") a pure old…
mikethemadbiologist | December 16, 2008I finally can get around to writing about Jan Kemp, the University of Georgia professor, who, even as Georgia was winning football championships, had the courage to point out that the football players were graduating utterly unprepared for post-collegiate life. Kemp herself put it best:
"All over the country, athletes are used to produce revenue," she told The New York Times a month after the trial. "I've seen what happens when the lights dim and the crowd fades. They're left with nothing. I want that stopped."
For her honesty, she was fired, but successfully sued for compensation. During…
mikethemadbiologist | November 27, 2008I realize that's kinda 'socialist' of me. One of the things about the era of internet commerce is that, even when everything is closed for Thanksgiving, you can still spend money. Or even give money to those who need help.
If you're in Boston, the Greater Boston Food Bank could use your help. To find out where your nearest food bank, go here.
With the economy the way it is, many need your help. And if you already gave, if you can, dig a little deeper.
Thank you.
mikethemadbiologist | November 16, 2008I've been meaning to post about the corruption case involving former MA State Senator Dianne Wilkerson because it really lays out the most corrosive effect of corruption--a loss of trust:
What is the real deal with Columbus Center?
Why did Wilkerson throw herself behind the controversial and now-stalled project with such passion? Why did she go to the mat again and again to get support and public subsidies for the $800 million hotel, residential, and retail complex over the Massachusetts Turnpike when many of her constituents opposed the project? What was her relationship with Columbus Center…
mikethemadbiologist | November 10, 2008At least if you work for the National Review's The Corner. Because the Peace Corps is as horrific as the mass murder of European Jewry. By way of Spencer Ackermann:
Oh good, for a moment I thought the Second Holocaust was off. In response to this plan put forward from Obama --
The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation's challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy…
mikethemadbiologist | November 3, 2008...or one more reason why decent people should vote Democratic. Republican Senator Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania bluntly spells out the only way McCain wins his state:
There are a "couple of hidden factors" in this election, said Specter. "The first is that people answer pollsters one way, but in the secrecy of the ballot booth, vote the other way."
Yes. That is what he said, to a chorus of hopeful affirmation. Arlen Specter was openly -- in public, into a microphone -- crossing his fingers, and hoping for racism.
Keep in mind that this isn't some wackaloon attending a Sturmabteilungen…
mikethemadbiologist | November 2, 2008I think this quote by Nell Minow sums up what most people feel about bonuses for employees at bailout-receiving investment banks:
"I'm just flabbergasted that the financial community has failed to show any sense of leadership on this issue and doesn't seem to understand how angry people are at them,'' said Nell Minow, editor of Corporate Library, a Portland, Maine-based corporate-governance research firm. "They are just a bonus away from having the villagers come after them with torches.''
Actually, I think some people would like to skip the 'bonus away' and go straight to the torches…
mikethemadbiologist | October 29, 2008By way of Skepchick comes this excellent video which bluntly shows just how bigoted and hateful claims opposing gay marriage are:
I suppose this puts me in league with known domestic homosexualists....
mikethemadbiologist | October 20, 2008...people. A chilling story from Cullowhee, NC:
A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.
Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.
"It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head," Johnson said.
The bear cub was shot. For a…
mikethemadbiologist | September 4, 2008First, Roland Martin attacks Palin for her comments about community organizers:
And ScienceBlogling Matt Nisbet has the quote of the day:
Weren't Jesus and Mother Teresa community organizers? Didn't they, in the words of Palin, have "actual responsibilities?" Aren't Evangelicals such as this group "Christians for Community Organizing" or this group "Evangelicals for Social Action" dedicated to community organizing? Aren't faith based initiatives built on community organizing?
Matt is absolutely right on the merits, but, make no mistake about it, "community organizers" is code for 'uppity…
mikethemadbiologist | September 3, 2008Because nothing says compassionate conservatism like not helping hungry people. While many people have noted the incongruency of Palin's slashing funds for assistance to unwed mothers, her halving of a budget item to help the Fairbanks food bank has gone unnoticed.
The specific item:
Fairbanks Community Food Bank-Computer Upgrade, Utility Assistance, and Refrigeration Improvement
Here's the image:
This was cut from $50,000 to $25,000.
It's a goddamn food bank. Asking for help in keeping food refrigerated and for paying the utility bills isn't 'pork.' Good thing the economy's tanking--it's…
mikethemadbiologist | August 13, 2008This is creepy (italics mine):
Pigtailed and smiling, Lin Miaoke, age 9, stood in a red dress and white shoes during Friday's Olympic opening ceremonies and performed "Ode to the Motherland" in what would become one of the evening's most indelible images: a lone child, fireworks blazing overhead, singing a patriotic ballad before an estimated one billion viewers.
Except that her proud father, Lin Hui, noticed "that the voice was a little different from hers." On Tuesday, Mr. Lin said in a telephone interview that he had assumed "the difference might be caused by the acoustics."
Acoustics had…
mikethemadbiologist | August 13, 2008
This displeases us greatly.
I received an email from ScienceBlogling Mike Dunford that Reed Elsevier had excerpted one of my posts. No problem there--I like it when people read my stuff....except for one thing:
The fuckers copyrighted my words.
MINES!!!
Lookee:
(click to embiggen)
Mike Dunford lays out why this is such a fucking shitty thing to do:
This blog, like almost all blogs, is an open-access publication. There's no charge to read this blog. If you've got an internet connection and time to waste, you can scroll through the things I've written to your heart's content. The thing is,…
mikethemadbiologist | August 11, 2008Commenting on John Edwards, Joe Klein makes two excellent points:
--Just about anyone under the age of 60 who has lived in this permissive society during the past 40 years, has done something that might be unfit for a Hallmark Greeting Card. In fact, I have profound qualms about any would-be politician who hasn't allowed him- or herself a moment of untrammeled human or chemical exploration. I fear that the media have driven an awful lot of interesting people away from public service for reasons that would have seemed extreme to the second generation of New England Puritans.
--These sort of…