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 Sunday, July 4, 2004
Misogyny and disillusionment [Pharyngula]
Pretty interesting list of female superheroes and the terrible things that happened to them. I was unhappy to see that several of my old favorites had been blinded, mutilated or killed. Not a nice place to be a woman with superpowers. 9:18:26 PM 
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I think I'll say something nice about a Republican [Pharyngula]
I just can not see how Lincoln could get elected today with his attitude toward religion, correct as it is. Cuomo's book on Lincoln may well be worth getting. We do seem to toss up some incredible people during times of crisis. Hope it happens soon. 9:15:15 PM
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"All Journalists are Cowards," or an Essay on Christopher "it would be unfair to whores to call me one" Hitchens. This item, commenting on Hitchens' polemic against Michael Moore, gets it about right, though is far too gentle on journalists... [The Leiter Reports: Editorials, News, Updates]
Courage and journalism do not often come together, at least for those who appear in large media markets. Sometimes a small-market person, one who really believes in honesty, will get the ball going, providing cover for the rest. For example, why is Novak allowed to keep his job after leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent working on WMD?That certainly was a cowardly act, taken purelu for partisan reasons and for money. Remember during Nixon when several members of the Justice Dept. resigned instead of firing the independent coucil? Nixone eventually found someone who would, a guy named Bork. So, in some people's eye, what thos emen did was for nothing. Nixon was still able to find a hack to do his work. But what those men did was a remarkable instance of courage abd honesty. I'm still looking for some of that today. (Everyone seems to resign for personal reasons, then writes a book. Why not tell us why you are resigning first?) 8:53:18 PM
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"Liberal" Bias in the Media?. This study by some political science and public policy types is being widely cited as showing that there is "liberal... [The Leiter Reports: Editorials, News, Updates]
Read the whole thing and you will be reminded why political science or social science actually bear little resemblance to science. There is little objectivity. Only a twisting of statistics to reflect what they want to prove. Data is way too fungible here to be useful for anything other than proving a particular point. 8:44:01 PM
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Who are the real patriots?.
Former Republican Pete McCloskey puts Cheney, DeLay, and Bush (note the order in which he mentions their names) in their place in history alongside those enemies of liberty, Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover:
The word "patriot" is too precious to allow it to be used by the thundering rhetoric of politicians that patriotism requires not only "supporting the troops" but also supporting the foreign policy that puts them at risk.
Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy once accused a number of honorable State Department employees of being "unpatriotic." They had caused us "to lose China" in 1948, McCarthy argued. It was "patriotic" to support Chiang Kai-shek, but "unpatriotic" to accept Mao Tse-tung.
Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once truly believed, and so stated, that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a threat to the nation's security, and by implication "unpatriotic."
Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, a multiple amputee combat veteran of Vietnam, was castigated as unpatriotic when he opposed a part of President Bush's war policy in Iraq. A true war hero, John McCain, rose to his defense, but was himself later castigated as unpatriotic by House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay when he opposed another administration policy of refusing the honor of a public reception to wounded soldiers returning home.
Ironically, the politicians who most eagerly use the term "unpatriotic" have often declined to take the risks taken by Nathan Hale and the signers of the Declaration of Independence: facing hostile rifle and artillery fire, or worse, being hanged. Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay and George W. Bush somehow never chose to face machine-gun or artillery fire during the wars of their own youth.
As patriotism justifies honor, it also requires honor on the part of those who would claim it.
Pete McCloskey served as a Marine lieutenant in Korea in 1951, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. As a Republican congressman, he represented the Peninsula from 1967 to 1982. He is now a lawyer and farmer in Rumsey (Yolo County).
[Sid's Fishbowl]
Sometimes the adults come out for the Republican party. I love the fact that some 'patriots' claim that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Yet the Declaration of independence surely was. Every single one of those who signed it were guilty of treason and would be hung as such by the British. It ends with this line: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The Founding Fathers were willing to die because they felt there was something of greater value. Cheney, DeLay and Bush have never demonstrated this level of committment. Until we get leaders who are, I am afraid that America will not find its way back easily. 8:34:42 PM
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Happy Fourth of July from a few great Americans. "Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning." -- Frederick Douglass "All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." -- James Madison "I distrust who... [Body and Soul]
Apparently you can not question this Administration, at least not in their presence. The establishment of 'free-speech' zones, where anyone carrying signs against current policy are put while those carrying signs for current policy are allowed to be seen by the President, is a sign of the inability of this Administration to deal with real questions. Dissent is marked by arrests. NY should be a very interesting time this year. I expect that thousands with be arrested because they will not be allowed to petition their government in any meaningful way. 8:26:54 PM
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American Myths [BOPnews]
A Canadian giving a eloquent view of what makes America a great country. At base it is that we fix our mistakes. We may not get it right the first time. But we examine ourselves and try to do better the next time. You CAN tell a lot about a culture by its stories, the myths it tells itself. We know how we are supposed to behave based on these stories. And these are the stories we tell the rest of the world, the ones that demonstrate hope for tomorrow. We may forget them sometimes, because we are human, we forget ourselves. But, our culture has always been self-correcting. We get to the right place eventually and more often than other cultures. We will get back there again soon. 8:22:15 PM
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Some really nice photos from Saturn. Still the prettiest planet in the Solar System./EM> 8:16:21 PM
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Prisoners Swapped. by TChris The Bush administration traded five terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia in exchange for the release of five Britons and two others convicted of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. This news follows Friday's denial by the... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
Must not upset the Saudis. Looks like one of the best ways to avoid Gitmo was to have friends in Saudi Arabia. How many of the 9/11 terrorists were from Iraq? Too bad. 2:49:58 PM
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Happy Independence Day. by TChris The NY Times reminds us that the freedoms we enjoy are worth celebrating -- and worth protecting from further erosion. People too often get the impression that the only people who use the nation's civil liberties protections are... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
Read the article. The line is particularly telling: The founding fathers wrote the Bill of Rights specifically because they did not believe that honorable men always do the right thing. Whether this Administration lies or not is not really what is important. This would require us to know what is in their heart. This is a nation of laws. Look at how they treat the law to get an idea of whether they are doing the right thing. look at the terror memos, or read what the Supreme Court just said, a Supreme Court that is about a conservative as it gets. The honorable thing is to follow the law, not twist it for your own political purposes. But what do you expect from a group of people who do not believe that even science can produce objective facts? To them, the law must seem like a piece of wet oilet paper that can easily be manipulated into any shape they want. 2:48:29 PM
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Survey: More Americans Support First Amendment Freedoms. Finally....some good news to report this holiday. A new survey shows that support among Americans for First Amendment freedoms is back to pre-911 levels. Americans’ support for their First Amendment freedoms — deeply shaken by the terrorist attacks of Sept.... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
This is very good to see. The equilibrium of Americans is being restored. The one thing you can guarantee about abuse of power, by ANY ideoology, is that always go too far. The liberals did and and I believe the conservative are in the process of doing it. I hope that is a proper world we will see a realignment of the parties as the information age take hold. Just as the Democrats were the party of slave holder but became the party of civil rights leaders, so too do i think that the current parties will realign in the new era. It just may be very troubling during the transition. 2:42:56 PM
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If true, this does not look good. Trying to create the image that Iraq is running Saddams trial by censoring what gets said, against the wished of the judge, really does make it apear to be a sham trial under our control. I truly hope this is simply a matter of miscommunication. History will not treat this well if we control the trial by preventing proper reporting of it. Check out this information about of kangaroo court/A> or the Star Chamber. 2:18:56 PM
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1776. The introduction to Tom Paine's Common Sense: "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind":
Thomas Paine: Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry) and as the King of England had undertaken in his own Right, to support the Parliament in what he calls Theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.
In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise, and the worthy, need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion.
The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested...
[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)]
Everyone should read Paine at least once. I like to check him out every so often, just as I like to reread the Declaration of independence. These works were created by men who had a direct knowledge of what tyranny was and found eloquent ways to describe why it was worth fighting against. It is also striking because we do not seem capable of finding such people today, those who can use the power of words to create something incandescent. Has the discourse of the body politics become so degraded that this approach can no longer be valuable? I do not believe so. One of the thinngs that makes America great is its ability to recreate itself, to look at its mistakes, admit they were made and try to fix them.
As Paine said, 'Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.' I just hope we have enough time. 2:07:36 PM
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The Conservative War on the Truth. THE CONSERVATIVE WAR ON THE TRUTH....As I was catching up on a few things this morning I ran across this Knight-Ridder story about the latest right-wing action program:Conservatives across the country decry news coverage of the war as relentlessly and... [Political Animal]
I have seen this Administration work very hard to shackle scientists whose research my present facts that are not politically useful for the government. This artilcle perhaps explains some of the reason why. My fear about igorig scientific research is explained here: Conservatives who don't like the message these days either shoot the messenger or else hire their own more compliant messenger. It doesn't change the facts, mind you, but for a short while it makes them feel better.
Vetting scientists based on the outcome of their science is a recipe for increasing irrelevance for our science. People who do not prize education, who feel that scientific facts are fungible, are harmful. When they are high up in the government, they can harm us all. 1:55:59 PM
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I've been making some changes in my blogroll and seem to be having problems upstreaming. Hope it works now. 1:51:56 PM
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