Policy and Politics
tfk | March 18, 2011Theda Skocpol says it's Time for National Greatness Liberalism:
America needs a National Greatness Liberalism -- a brawny brand of politics that makes a tough-minded argument about what it will take from our government and democratic politics to regain our national economic strength and rebuild a broad, secure, and innovative middle class. Our national military and diplomatic strength in a dangerous world depends, too, on our economic renewal as a middle-class capitalist economy. ...
Even a cursory survey of the last century shows that national economic fortunes have always depended upon…
tfk | March 16, 2011Folks are talking about the problem of evil. John Wilkins takes on the problem of the problem of evil and Darwin, arguing that, for theologies where the problem of evil is a problem, evolution probably does less to exacerbate the issue than basic physics, or physiology, or first principles of ecology. And he's right.
But one sentence setting up this argument doesn't work for me:
Evil exists, so if you believe in a âtri-omniâ deity (omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent), you had better find a reconciliation.
This idea of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent god is pretty common, but…
tfk | March 15, 2011As you presumably know by now, the earthquake in Japan damaged a series of nuclear reactors at the Fukujima Daiichi plant. Due to damage from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, safety systems failed and the reactors could not be shut down the way they were supposed. Hydrogen gas built up and several buildings surrounding the reactor cores have exploded, though the reactor cores themselves seem to be holding up (there is some reporting now that the core of one reactor may have been breached, but it's still unconfirmed whether that's true, or how extensive the breach might be if so). It'…
tfk | March 11, 2011Law enforcement agencies move against Sovereign Citizen movement in Fairbanks:
Five people, including militia activist Schaeffer Cox, were arrested Thursday in the Fairbanks area for allegedly conspiring to kill multiple Alaska State Troopers and a federal judge.
The group had stockpiled weapons and conducted surveillance on the homes of two troopers, according to Alaska State Troopers. Some of the weapons known to be in the cache are prohibited by state or federal law, according to troopers.
No one tell Rep. Peter King, or he'll have to haul Glenn Beck up to Capitol Hill to defend the…
tfk | March 11, 2011@Dave Ewing:
The headline you won't be reading: "Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and government building codes". But it's the truth.
My heart goes out to all the people affected the earthquake in Japan, and by the resulting tsunamis which have hit much of the Pacific basin. Heck, we even saw tsunami surge in the San Francisco Bay. The damage and deaths are still being tallied, but it's worth noting that the 5th largest earthquake on record hit near the densely populated coast of Japan, and so far there are a mere 400 deaths reported. The earthquake in Haiti last year, which was…
tfk | March 10, 2011...Is telling the truth. This answers the NPR ombudsman's question:
It's hard to decide which of [fired NPR development director Ron] Schiller's remarks [in a heavily-edited video released by dishonest jackass James O'Keefe] was worse for someone representing NPR.
- That the Republican Party is "anti-intellectual?"
- That Tea Party people aren't "just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic.I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-American gun-toting, I mean it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."
- Or that NPR "would be better off in the long-run without…
tfk | March 8, 2011Via John Sides at the Monkey Cage, a study from the Muslim American Public Opinion Survey finds that the most religious American Muslims are more likely than the least religious Muslims to take active roles in community politics (rallies, letter-writing campaigns, voting, political donations, etc.) and follow national political news more carefully.
The authors explain:
Finally, we find those with high levels of religiosity are overwhelmingly likely to believe that Islam is compatible with political participation in the United States. While 77% of those with the lowest levels of religiosity…
tfk | March 7, 2011BCSE reports, via the Independent:
A prominent British imam has been forced to retract his claims that Islam is compatible with Darwin's theory of evolution after receiving death threats from fundamentalists.
Dr Usama Hasan, a physics lecturer at Middlesex University and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, was intending yesterday to return to Masjid al-Tawhid, a mosque in Leyton, East London, for the first time since he delivered a lecture there entitled "Islam and the theory of evolution".
But according to his sister, police advised him not to attend after becoming concerned for his…
tfk | March 5, 2011As someone who rides BART to work when I don't bike, this is a disturbing finding: On BART Trains, the Seats Are Taken (by Bacteria):
The Bay Citizen commissioned Darleen Franklin, a supervisor at San Francisco State Universityâs biology lab, to analyze the bacterial content of a random BART seat. The results may make you want to stand during your trip.
Fecal and skin-borne bacteria resistant to antibiotics were found in a seat on a train headed from Daly City to Dublin/Pleasanton. Further testing on the skin-borne bacteria showed characteristics of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus…
tfk | March 5, 2011Attention conservation notice: ~5600 words about a ~10,000 word article and two others totaling ~7500 words, all examining the Templeton Foundation. If you aren't interested in the ins and outs of the to and fro over the Templeton Foundation's influence, and the question of whether the longer piece â funded by Templeton critics â actually lands any blows on the Foundation, you might want to skip past this. Or read the bit above the fold to get the gist.
Since last June, I've basically been sitting out the fights over the Templeton Foundation. The Templeton Foundation has a lot of money…
tfk | March 3, 2011I've dropped out of the Kansas blogging scene in the years since I moved out to California, but I still have fond memories of the other bloggers in the area. Perhaps the most prolific, and undoubtedly the most influential, of the Kansas City bloggers was Tony Botello, of Tony's KC. He's a provocateur, sometimes spinning elaborately bigoted tales that leave readers wondering just how big a jackass he really is, all while skewering local politicians and spinning a personal myth involving living in his mother's basement.
Via NYU professor Jay Rosen, I just learned that The KC Pitch Weekly…
tfk | March 2, 2011If unhinged wingnuts can be believed, your own TfK is responsible for Rep. Peter King dropping plans to invite Ayaan Hirsi Ali to speak at his anti-Muslim hearings. Also, a bunch of clergy have asked him not to pursue his race-baiting hearings, as did a Congressman once interned by the US government because of his parents' nationality.
While Rep. King's hearings are still seen by sane people as designed "to cast suspicion upon all Muslim Americans and to stoke the fires of anti-Muslim prejudice and Islamophobia," his changes to the lineup have begun to frustrate the sort of people who can…
tfk | March 2, 2011Shorter Casey Luskin, Disco. 'Tute Complaints Department: Want a Good Grade in Allison Campbell's College Biology Course? Don't Endorse Intelligent Design:
A college professor in New Zealand grades students down for using debunked creationist claims in college essays. Therefore, Tennessee needs a law allowing high school science teachers to teach debunked creationist claims.
tfk | February 27, 2011Kevin Drum meditates on the conservative movement hating on vegetables:
A first lady campaigning against obesity and in favor of breast feeding is now the target of all-out war from the right. I imagine that if she were taking on illiteracy, teenage drug use, or planting flowers, the Republican Party would suddenly find itself opposed to reading, defending Mexican drug cartels, and in favor of vacant lots. And yet we're supposed to take these people seriously.
No. We're not, and we shouldn't.
tfk | February 26, 2011Martin Cothran, friend to bigotry of all kinds, wonders "Has the Obama admininstration [sic] endorsed Big Love?"
No.
He is reacting to the Obama administration's decision not to defend section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, and to Francis Beckwith's erroneous comments on that decision.
Before delving into the argument, a few basic facts. DOMA was passed in 1996, and polygamy was illegal without section 3 of DOMA. Striking down DOMA's section 3 will not change the status of polygamy laws, because marriage laws have generally been a state matter, not a federal matter, and because anti-…
tfk | February 25, 2011The Wonkroom's Brad Johnson takes on USA Today's Dan Vergano over geoengineering. Geoengineering is the idea that we could combat global warming by pumping sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, thus blocking some solar radiation and keeping things cooler.
Vergano is a sharp science writer and his take is hardly boosterish, but Johnson dings him for having:
failed to accurately interpret the scientific literature. The only risks he has depicted â ones that involve the potential deaths of millions if not billions of people â are the âknownâ ones, the ones easily modeled by imperfect…
tfk | February 24, 2011Jerry Coyne is confused:
Iâm surprised that accommodationists and the National Center for Science Education donât criticize [other] evolutionists for describing the evolution and natural selection as âpurely natural and materialistic processes,â for that steps on the toes of the faithful just as hard as saying that evolution is âunguided and purposelessâ. In both cases divine intervention is explicitly ruled out.
Not sure why he omitted the word "other," but the first sentence doesn't make sense without it.
That he would find this confusing is simply further evidence that Coyne does not…
tfk | February 23, 2011It's three years late, but the White House and the Department of Justice have finally concluded that the misnamed Defense of Marriage Act â which forbids the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal â is unconstitutional and discriminatory. The Attorney General recommended to the President, and President Obama agreed, that the government should not defend the act in court. Perhaps more significantly, they declared an intent to treat discrimination based on sexuality as a cause for "strict scrutiny," a harsher test than the "rational…
tfk | February 23, 2011I have no good excuse for not having followed events in Libya, Bahrain, and Wisconsin as closely as I ought. Both events, popular uprisings against a repressive executive bent on crushing the rights of citizens, highlight the ability of regular people to stand together in solidarity.
I've watched in awe as Libyans braved aerial strafing and artillery barrages, as pilots and warship captains defected to foreign nations rather than fire in protesters, and as a people oppressed for 40 years take back their country against unspeakable odds and against astonishing brutality. It's stunning to…
tfk | February 23, 2011Not that Glen Beck's wankery is a surprise, but Mark Chu-Carroll has a nice takedown of Beck's culturally illiterate attack on the rabbis who think he's an antisemitic wanker. Enjoy.