Much of the mainstream media analysis of the Paul Ryan selection as the Republican vice-presidential candidate has been predictable. Ryan is hailed as a ‘serious’ thinker with a ‘bold’ vision for tackling America’s allegedly biggest problem, the budget deficit. They say that his pick signals the start of a serious debate on economic policy. [Read more…]
I know that the readers of this blog depend on me to keep them updated on Rafalca’s progress in the dressage event, an event that I had never heard of before this Olympics, but which has captured my imagination. [Read more…]
Well, not explicitly, because nuns don’t use use that kind of language, at least in public. But that is how I read the subtext of the statement that was released yesterday following the annual national meeting of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious that represents 80% of the 57,000 US nuns. (Clarification thanks to Irreverend Bastard.) The assembly was attended by 900 of the 1500 nuns who make up the LCWR. [Read more…]
With his choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate, we are seeing a replay of the 2008 race. Last time John McCain was trailing steadily in the polls and not able to break through. He gambled on a young woman with strongly conservative views as his running mate, hoping that a fresh face might galvanize his lukewarm supporters and draw in sufficient new ones to win. [Read more…]
Someone has done an excellent job of splicing together the animation of the landing of the Mars Curiosity rover with the actual real-time narration of the event from NASA, the latter done in the familiar mission control voice with the deadpan, emotionless style we’ve come to expect from them, and set it all to background music. [Read more…]
The concept of infinity is hard to grasp because it is an abstraction. There are no tangible objects in our lives that are truly infinite in number so we really have nothing to compare it to. The only way to get an infinite number of anything is by invoking infinity elsewhere, which doesn’t really clarify matters much. [Read more…]
The blogger Tbogg, in his inimitable style, exposes the myth, propagated by some of the oligarchy’s media lackeys as part of their attempt to stave off the coming pitchfork revolt, that working class people admire the rich. They regale us with stories of how their own parents, though poor, were inspired by seeing ostentatious displays of wealth such as huge homes and multiple expensive cars. [Read more…]
I wrote before about the website The Thinking Housewife in the context of their idea that the increasing acceptance of feminism and homosexuality is leading the country, if not the world, into disaster and only a return to ‘Christian patriarchy’ can save us from doom. [Read more…]
Almost everyone has heard the story about how Orson Welles produced a radio drama based on H. G. Welles’ story The War of the Worlds that was broadcast October 30, 1938, the night before Halloween. The dramatization largely took the form of a series of news bulletins that interrupt regular programming about the Earth being attacked by Martians. The story goes that people who heard it thought it was a real news story and there was mass panic and hysteria, with people all over the country running out of their homes and into the streets in fear. [Read more…]