Random Observations about...
April 2008

Food Riots

The Malthusians were right after all. But only because they grabbed control. Mass starvation in this modern era is a...

Jim Cone

"I do not in any way disagree with James Cone. Jim is a personal friend of mine." - Jeremiah Wright...

Santa Claus and Conspiracy Theories

From a comment on DailyKos: an argument that the Santa myth helps make children susceptible to conspiracy theories -- which...

Dallas: Unintentional Brochure for Capitalism?

The Washington Post: But no matter how evil various translators tried to make J.R. and his milieu ("Dallas, you merciless...

Expelled: Chris Mooney & DailyKos Make Ben Stein's Point

True story: It's my junior year, and I'm attending a reasonably prestigious university with a reputation for being just a...

Grateful To Be Insulted By Canada's Elite

"Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don't give it any value." So said a Canadian Human Rights...

Selective Falsifiability

The scientific establishment uses falsifiability the way postmodernists use deconstructionism: selectively, to tear down the ideas of their enemies...

Yoko Ono Sues "Expelled"

Imagine a world (pun intended) where it was impossible to criticize anything because even quoting it, showing a small snippet...

Bob's Chinese Sponsors

Robert Mugabe is a thug. He has destroyed his country's agricultural base, bringing the population to the brink of starvation,...

Expelled: Reviewing the Reviews

"Sleazy" - The New York Times "Bizarre and hysterical." - The Village Voice "Startlingly one-sided" - USA Today "An affront...

Groupies: It's *WRONG* to Ask Obama Any Hard Questions!

ABC News: As you'd imagine, the debate is the talk of the town here today, and not all of it...

Free Markets Make Us Sick?

I'm currently watching the last few minutes of "Is Inequality Making Us Sick?" on PBS. The documentary examines evidence that...

Expelled & Wikipedia

"Wikipedia's zealots" describes how Lawrence Solomon attempted to correct a global-warming-related Wikipedia entry with additional information, and how his changes...

Being on the Left Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Andrew Stuttaford quotes a snippet of the UK's The Independent preaching about biofuels back in 2005: At last, some refreshing...

The Clintons: Soulless Enemies of All Things Decent

... or so now say the people who foisted that couple on us throughout the 1990s. The Clintons are unethical?...

Democrats Oppose Columbian Trade Deal

Just returned from a trip to Mexico; more thoughts on that shortly, hopefully. For the moment, I'll just refer you...

Compassionate Libertarians?

In one of life's little ironies, it turns out that libertarians are, in a sense, "free riders." This proposition might...

The (Non)Development of Science in China

Rodney Stark, explaining, in his history of he middle ages, For the Glory of God (p. 150-151) why many scholars...

Reverse Hypocrisy

In the comments, Mike asked, recently: I guess this leads me to the question, what do you people think about...

High gas prices are caused by greed!

Thomas Sowell, from Basic Economics, page 64: ... too often, results of systemic interactions are falsely explained by individual intentions....

Candian Crime Rates

Macleans: Canadians, though, can't be smug. Really? I got a different impression, somehow. We fare no better than the U.S....

Children: Under the Weather

Wiliam Ayers: Ayers was a 1960s-era political activist and Weather Underground member. He grew up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a...

Hitchens and the Clinton Death Toll

Evil has two hands. With one hand, it rapes, tortures, and murders innocent men, women, and children. With the other...

"Co-Ed" Dorm Rooms

Michael Graham: But liberal academics aren’t content with coupling. They’re demanding cohabitation to make their point that acknowledging gender differences...

2008: The Great Depression

At least that what they're being told in the UK complete with pictures of desperate-looking people standing in line. So...

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