Hang on, close your eyes, don’t click on the “Read on…” link at the bottom of this post; I’ve put an obscene picture of explicit prurience below the fold. It might arouse you to engage in wild monkey-sex in your workplace, or worse, inspire horrific violence. Don’t view it if you are a sensitive person!
Chad reports a not-so-subtle message from a science conference:
The annoying thing was the peripheral message– she took pains to state several times that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress support science, in a tone that basically came across as chiding us for thinking otherwise. That was annoying by itself, but at the very end of the talk, she specifically warned against taking partisan positions, citing the letter supporting John Kerry that was signed by a couple dozen Nobel laureates as something that made it harder to keep science funding. She said that after that, when she met with administration officials about budget matters, she could see them thinking “Damn scientists…”
When the government says or does something scientifically stupid, it is our solemn duty to go along with it.
Right-wing crank Mark Steyn plagiarizes his way through another exercise in formulaic hackery. Alas, he will not have died a painful and horrible death by page 2.
I’d flunk him, too, and I’d also report him to the academic integrity committee. He’d probably complain that I’m out to get him, though.
Looks like I’m going to be sitting on a panel with Wesley Clark—he’s on the climate change bandwagon.
While we’re delving into the right wing fever swamps, take a look at this unintentionally funny post by Indian Cowboy. I was astounded: I thought Lucky Ducky was only a joke found in the comic strips and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, yet there the concept lies, taken seriously by someone.
For all the people saying this massacre couldn’t have happened, and that those who expose it are traitors: let me remind you of My Lai. It has been 38 years, so many have forgotten.
Gary has a link there that will lead you deep into the right wing fever swamp. It’s creepy how those on that increasingly discredited side are more upset that a senator mentioned this than that a 3-year-old girl may have been willfully murdered by our soldiers.
We become more cosmopolitan day by day. As of tomorrow, our fair city will have its very own Drinking Liberally chapter (it’s even on the map!). I can walk to it, instead of driving for three hours. Here’s the info:
When: Thursday, May 18, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 or whenever.
Where: Old #1 in Morris, near the horseshoe-shaped part of the bar.
Why: To have a relaxed, informal place for progressive political
discussion and socializing.For more information, visit drinkingliberally.org, or contact local
host Jeff Lamberty (Lambo) at [email protected].
Amanda Marcotte on Pandagon discusses Sam Harris on Alternet, and they’ve both got smart things to say…but you have got to read the comments. Sam Harris says things like this:
The cheerleaders are losing their enthusiasm. I don’t think we ought to let them off the hook: the policies and plans they went rah-rah over are imploding, and they don’t get to foist all the blame on their new scapegoat, Bush. Bush is merely the protruding tip of their inane ideas, and that they’ve lost the courage of their congenital idiocy does not excuse them.
Watch this video of police action against an anti-war protest in Portland. It clubs you over the head with the Nazi imagery interspersed with video footage taken from police cameras, which is unfortunate and unnecessary overkill: they could have left it out, and you’d still be thinking it. The most effective moments are when the television airheads all parrot the claim that the hoses and pepper spray and pellet guns and nightsticks were all applied in response to someone in the crowd “throwing a bottle”, which is already a rather lame excuse…but then you get to see the police making their plans, and it was clearly not a spontaneous reaction to crowd violence, but intentional, organized suppression of a peaceful demonstration.
