Civil Liberties
revere | June 12, 2007This was the kind of fallout from the TB case I was most concerned about:
States should have the power to restrict the movement of patients with contagious diseases even before they have the chance to disobey doctors' orders, federal health officials say.
The need for such authority to order someone quarantined emerged as lesson No. 1 from the case of the Atlanta lawyer who went to Europe despite having a dangerous form of tuberculosis.
[snip]
"First of all, up front, before the patient left the United States, we believe that we could strengthen our states' ability to restrict the movement of…
mikethemadbiologist | June 9, 2007..."Fellow liberals, never forget that fifty years ago, this man would have been lynched. Progressives and liberals are the reason he isn't lynched today", the picture below is exactly what I was talking about:
(larger image here)
mikethemadbiologist | June 5, 2007Inspired by this Jeffrey Feldman post, I'm putting together a post about abortion, evolution, and the dislike by some scientists of framing. Feldman argues that reframing abortion is necessary to deal with anti-abortionists like Rev. Joel C. Hunter:
Abortion continues to be one of the most hurtful and divisive facts of our nation. I come from the part of the faith community that is very strongly pro-life. I know you're pro-choice, but you have indicated that you would like to reduce the number of abortions. Could you see yourself, with millions of voters in a pro-life camp, creating a common…
mikethemadbiologist | May 16, 2007Last night, the Republican presidential candidates were asked what they would do in a "24" situation. Intelligent Designer help us, but McCain (and Paul) were the only sane ones.
McCain noted that the "24" scenario is ridiculous. He also pointed out that torture causes us to lose our moral credibility. Doesn't McCain realize that morality is to be applied only to fetuses and prayer in schools? Giuliani and Romney went Full Metal Bauer, as digby notes:
I think it's clear that this group has come to fully understand that winning the GOP nomination is all about the codpiece. These guys have…
mikethemadbiologist | May 16, 2007The 'godly' singing "The Old Rugged Cross." Or something
The last thing most people in the Coalition of the Sane want when they are being treated for a serious illness in the hospital to have the staff try to convert you to another religion. And when you force a sick patient to choose between following the dictates of his religion or not eating in an effort to convert him, that is not 'godly', that is inhumane. It's also par for the course for Christopathic Uruk-hai.
From the Des Moines Register (italics mine):
U.S. Navy veteran David Miller said that when he checked into the Veterans…
mikethemadbiologist | April 29, 2007We can't have that. A high school journalism teacher was banned from teaching journalism because the student newspaper ran an editoral calling for tolerance of gays:
WOODBURN, Indiana (AP) -- A high school teacher who faced losing her job after a student newspaper published an editorial advocating tolerance of gays can continue teaching at another school.
Amy Sorrell, 30, reached an agreement that allows her to be transferred to another high school to teach English, said her attorney, Patrick Proctor.
"The school administration has said in no uncertain terms that she's not going to be given…
mikethemadbiologist | April 22, 2007Yesterday, PZ and Amanda both argued that a model for the acceptance of atheists should be the suffragist movement. I think that's the wrong model: the appropriate model is the mainstreaming of Jews into American society.
Overall, despite an incident in Delaware, Jews have entered mainstream society quite well: if polls are to be believed, we are less likely to be discriminated against electorally than evangelicals (although maybe that's just a respect for our innate business acumen). But around sixty to seventy years ago, that wasn't the case. Jews were routinely discriminated against,…
mikethemadbiologist | April 19, 2007One of the things that has been revealed by the VA Tech shooting is that the government keeps a database of prescription drug users. This has bothered some. Glenn Greenwald writes (italics mine):
Let me ask you this question: let's say I come into your office (I'm a mentally competent adult -- at least in our hypothetical) and tell you that I want to take a Schedule II drug (or Schedule III) for Medical Problem X (or even just garden-variety insomnia, depression, or anxiety). You tell me that I shouldn't, that there is a high risk of addiction, that the problem doesn't warrant that…
mikethemadbiologist | April 17, 2007Instapundit is arguing that, had the Virginia Tech students been armed, fewer students would have died. Even if this were correct, it ignores all of the other times students would have guns. Do you really think drunk college students should be carrying?
If college hasn't changed too much since I went (which wasn't that long ago), there are a lot of students who start drinking Wednesday night, and don't really stop until Sunday night. Do you really want them to have firearms? How many shootings would happen because someone was drunk and stupid? As this horrible slaughter shows, just even…
mikethemadbiologist | April 12, 2007I've never really considered myself an anonymous blogger, even though I blog under the pseudonym "Mike the Mad Biologist." I think about fifteen minutes of serious investigation would reveal my identity (nefarious as it is). It's more of a minor affectation than anything else. But two incidents in the past week illustrate why not having your name directly linked with criticism of Little Lord Pontchartrain might be a good thing.
First, via cookie jill, is this story about an anti-war activist trying to get a passport:
A local activist thinks the federal government is trying to prevent him…
mikethemadbiologist | March 29, 2007That's according to Republican congressman Randy Forbes, member of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. Personally, I think exercising Congress' oversight role and passing some legislation worth a damn might help a bit more, but then again, my prayers wouldn't count for much anyway according to the Caucus. From Americans United (italics mine):
A bipartisan [Mad Biologist: this is incorrect. Every member is a Republican.] group of U.S. House members offered a simple message to the American people today: "Pray, or God will lift his caring hand from the great nation."
Over three dozen…
mikethemadbiologist | March 24, 2007...in Stasi-controlled East Germany. An anonymous internet service provider writes in the Washington Post about the 'national security letter' he or she received:
Three years ago, I received a national security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting business. The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients. There was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had. The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that…
revere | March 22, 2007AP is carrying a distressing story that CDC is working with General Motors' OnStar service to speed provision of emergency responders to serious car accidents. What's distressing about it? My immediate reaction, which I believe is irrational but was natural and spontaneous: Now they'll know where everyone is all the time. Big Brother. It's distressing because of what it says about my attitude toward this government: I don't trust them. At all. I don't believe they have my interests at heart. Even more distressing is that many of you will think that's a perfectly normal and natural -- and…
mikethemadbiologist | March 22, 2007The more you stare at this scandal, the more you feel like one of the proverbial blind men trying to figure out what the hell that elephant is. From ThinkProgress, here is what fired US Attorney Carol Lam might have been investigating:
To recap, the White House awarded a one-month, $140,000 contract to an individual who never held a federal contract. Two weeks after he got paid, that same contractor used a cashier's check for exactly that amount to buy a boat for a now-imprisoned congressman at a price that the congressman had pre-negotiated.
That should raise questions about the White House…
mikethemadbiologist | March 22, 2007Yesterday, I was a little miffed about the coverage of the growing US Attorney scandal. During said crankiness, I asked how we have reached the point where the legality of an action is the only criterion to use when judging if that action is ethical:
...is there any doubt that the reason these USAs were fired was that they either refused to prosecute politically-motivated cases that were unsubstantiated or that they were investigating Republicans? While it remains to be seen if the firing is illegal, you would have to be delusional to think that replacing competent USAs in the middle of…
mikethemadbiologist | February 16, 2007...and William Donohue of the Catholic League says nothing. The Family Research Council is a rightwing faith-tank and advocacy group. And at least one board member and blogger thinks it is also very Protestant. Here's what FRC board member Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote:
Nevertheless, the office he holds is an unbiblical institution based in a monarchial ministry that is incompatible with the New Testament's vision of the church. Furthermore, he claims also to be a head of state -- a situation that adds untold layers of additional confusion…
mikethemadbiologist | February 1, 2007The right wing furor over vice-presidential daughter Mary Cheney's decision to get pregnant and (hopefully) have a baby with her lesbian partner led Cheney to issue the following statement (italics mine):
This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child.
And Jackie Robinson wanting to just play baseball in the majors wasn't a political statement. Or Muhammed Ali's boxing career wasn't a political statement either. But they both realized that what they did transcended…
mikethemadbiologist | January 22, 2007Today is Blog For Choice Day. So I thought I would write about why I'm for legal and safe abortion. It's rather simple: because the alternative is illegal and unsafe abortions. As long as women can get pregnant, some will not want to be pregnant. I trust their judgment that most of the time, they're doing it because it's the best moral alternative. Women can be (and obviously are) independent moral agents. They don't need James Dobson's help.
But now, I would like to turn it over to Atrios, who deals with Compulsive Centrist Disorder, abortion stylee:
As we've been through many times…
mikethemadbiologist | January 10, 2007Let there be no doubt, Bush still has tremendous potential to foul things up (and make lots of people dead). But Little Lord Pontchartrain just cried uncle:
In a concession to the Senate's new Democratic majority, President Bush won't rename four controversial federal appeals court nominees whose confirmations were blocked last year, Republican officials said Thursday.
William Haynes, William G. Myers III and Michael Wallace all asked to have their appointments withdrawn, these officials said. Judge Terrence Boyle was informed of the White House's decision, according to an ally.
Haynes is…
mikethemadbiologist | December 21, 2006Well, the Republicans aren't in charge of Congress anymore, but they still can bring the crazy. Nitpicker, in decrying Rep. Virgil Goode's disgusting anti-Muslim bigotry, links to this piece about "the Family", which is essentially a far-right Christianist cult. God save us from those who believe so fervently in him.