Month: August 2009

I just voted “Yes” in a Facebook poll which asks, Would you vote for an openly gay candidate for president if you agreed with his or her other positions? So far, it seems to be winning handily. However, because I’m a contrarian, it almost makes me want to do a poll along the lines of…

If this anonymous commenter is right in his assessment of the current political climate, then I’m clearly not living up to my responsibilities: In recent months, the totalitarian left has finally begun reveal themselves in public. Masks Off indeed. The radical dems are acting like they never need face the voters again – like the…

Alan W. Bock writing in the Orange County Register has some interesting things to say about how decriminalization in Portugal is going. Since decriminalization lifetime prevalence rates (any consumption over a lifetime) have decreased, especially for the critical adolescent-young-adult population cohort. For 13-15-year-olds the rate decreased from 14.1 percent in 2001 to 10.6 percent in…

Barbra Oakley has a very interesting article in Psychology Today explaining what is wrong with journalists. The whole article is a must read, but I especially liked the closing. As far as investigating the dark side of the Major Issues, there’s a critically important concept that students of journalism are rarely taught. It’s easy to…

Jos&eacute M. Guardia quotes from a piece by Javier Rupérez — Spain’s ambassador to the US between 2000 and 2004 and currently Consul General in Chicago remembering Ted Kennedy: Shortly after the Iraq war started I saw Senator Kennedy in a public session of the U.S. Supreme Court. As we were taking our seats he…

As I suspect is the case with many people who get email, I often get multiply forwarded emails making all sorts of claims, with all sorts of emotionally appealing quotes from famous people. By emotionally appealing, I mean saying stuff I like to hear and want to believe. Like the drinking quotes. There is something…

So “explains” the officer who works at the Fairfax Public School, as he threatens to arrest a man for displaying an anti-Obama sign he does not like. From Veeshir, who adds, This stuff is supposed to happen in North Korea, China and Massachussetts, not Virginia. So where’s the ACLU when you need ’em? MORE: Link…

A fascinating video by Hans Rosling on development, income, and health outcomes. The software he uses in the video can be found at Gap Minder. The exact page is Gap Minder World. It is fun to play with. Possibly even educational. H/T Betruger at Talk Polywell Cross Posted at Power and Control

On the road earlier, I was reminded of the tedious, irritating, and downright dangerous nature of some of the people who are Out There In The Real World (where they clearly don’t belong) talking on their cell phones while driving. When this happens, I always remind myself that stupid people almost always provide the justification…

Just saw this incredibly irritating notice at YouTube: We will be phasing out support for your browser soon. Please upgrade to one of these more modern browsers. No really, here it is: I realize that the above is protected by the First Amendment, but I think it’s worse than so called “hate speech,” because I…

Last night, I made the mistake of flipping through the channels on my television. Whatever movie Robert Osborne was showing on TCM had failed to hold my attention, so I scrolled down with the channel button, and stopped on A&E Biography. It was a maudlin, fawning, sentimental puff piece on Ted Kennedy. Ugh! Worse yet,…

In light of M. Simon’s earlier post, I thought a brief word about Glenn Beck would be in order. As Simon points out, “some folks are unhappy with Glenn Beck and want advertisers to boycott his show.” I don’t like Glenn Beck, and I don’t watch the show. While I agree with a lot of…

It seems that some folks are unhappy with Glenn Beck and want advertisers to boycott his show. An advertising boycott against Fox News host Glenn Beck has succeeded in keeping most major sponsors from running commercials on his show even as the controversial commentator’s viewership has grown. Beck attracted 2.81 million viewers Monday, his third-largest…

It seems that Ted Kennedy had very good relations with the USSR before their much lamented demise. This letter which details Senator Edward Kennedy’s offer to help the Soviet Union defeat Reagan’s efforts to build up the nuclear deterrent in Europe was unearthed by a Times of London reporter in the 1990s after the KGB…

Here’s how Senator Robert Byrd appeared over a year ago, crying about Ted Kennedy and saying…. something. (It’s so incomprehensible I can’t really make out the details.) While it’s sad for anyone to have be in such a deteriorated mental state, because Byrd is a powerful man with enormous responsibility, it’s also a bit scary.…

I blog, you decide! Remember that entire day ABC News turned over to Obama to sell his health care plan? Apparently they don’t. Suddenly they’ve discovered they can’t take sides, at least when it comes to selling time for an ad opposing ObamaCare. “The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not…

It seems like the health care bill needs a new name. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), one of the few to have served in the Senate longer than the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, said in a statement today that health care legislation should be named in his honor. Kennedy famously called health care reform “the cause…

It’s happened before, and according to the ephemeris, it’s happening again today. Glenn Reynolds is having a birthday. And what I want to know is why has the White House been so suspiciously silent about this occasion? They’ve had all day now, so the omission has to be deliberate. The White House has gone out…

Eric put up a post on the death of Ted Kennedy. He is disgusted that some Democrats are taking advantage of his death to push their health care plan. ‘Win One for Teddy,’ Say Dems Pushing for Health Reform Well if they want to get down and dirty: ‘Win One for Mary Jo’ say those…

Such a scenario will be possible in the near future. In light of news reports like this one, some people will be worrying that the “institution of reproduction” is under assault. Others will worry about whether that should that be the government’s business. If you’re willing to pay to utilize such advanced DNA techniques, by…