The Continuing Decline Of Western Civilization

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Edumacate yourself

Quick links relating to the NSA mess:

G.O.P. divided over NSA wiretapping.

Breakdown of Washington Post story, leading edge developer of data-mining technology calls them "civil liberties enfringement engines".

Republican chair of sub-committee which oversees NSA calls for Congressional inquiry (may require registration, use ours if you like [tcdowc]).

Russ Feingold condemns the Administration's 'pre-1776 world-view'.

posted by tcdowc - 9:22 pm - 02.08.06

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Trapped in their heads

I'm constantly amazed at the moronic beliefs that can be held by otherwise intelligent people. Case in point: conservatives who ostensibly love big business who are convinced that Hollywood is a den of sin, bent on perverting the world. Kung Fu Monkey lays down the smack on a fool who should know better.

JASON: Everyone in Hollywood loves to spot trends, myself included. So now that this year�s Oscar nominees have been announced, everyone around town is reading tea leaves or examining entrails - all wondering what this particular constellation of nominated films �means� for the movie industry.

KUNG FU MONKEY: No. No we're not. We're all arguing over simultaneous theater and DVD day-and-date release, DVD residuals, and what the hell Big Momma's House 2 opening at $28 million dollars 'means'. Because we are in the business of making money. Seriously, the grown-ups who actually work in Hollywood who don't have any movies in the Oscar running, we nod politely and get back to work. The nominee folk cackle at the uptick in box-office they hope to garner as a result of the nominations, and the DVD bump they'll get with a win. Do you see a common theme there?

Go read it for a detailed roundhouse kick to the face of idiotic conspiracy theories.

posted by tcdowc - 8:04 pm - 02.08.06

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Overturning the Age Of Enlightenment

This isn't news, strictly speaking, but I've been reading a lot about this in various places, so I thought I'd throw down a few links on women's rights.

First up is Scott Lemieux, with a well reasoned argument on why 'middle-of-the-road' abortion arguments are logically wrong, and what the consquences of this approach to abortion law will be.

Think all is well in the hetero world of consensual sex? Go read this comment. Still not convinced? Then go read this.

Next check out this, where a leader of the pro-family movement (Phyllis Schafly) says this:

A good man's life has been sacrificed, and three children have been denied their father, by the malicious feminists who have lobbied for laws that punish spousal rape just like stranger rape and deny a man the right to cross-examine his accuser. They have created a judicial system where the woman must always be believed even though she has no evidence, and the man is always guilty.

Despite being demonstratably wrong, and without concern for the case at hand, what is she really saying? Can we say 'wife as a commodity'? The fight is not over ladies and gentlemen.

posted by tcdowc - 7:21 pm - 02.08.06

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To Infinity, unless the preacher objects

In case you missed the Prez's State Of The Whatever talk, you should be aware that he devoted significant time to talking about the importance of more funding for the sciences, more funding for research, that sort of thing. Good news right? One might think so, even if the President's idea of basic research is creating a longer lasting corn chip. And it is true that on a personal level is he kinda forward thinking; his ranch is heated by geothermal power. However, if you pay a little more attention to what is actually happening at the juncture of the Bush Administration & Science it�s clear that this is just going to be just another excuse to bankrupt the country so his friends can get wealthy. Consider this commitment to scientific research, from the NewYorkTimes on the 29th:

The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.

Dr. Hansen, 63, a physicist who joined the space agency in 1967, directs efforts to simulate the global climate on computers at the Goddard Institute in Morningside Heights in Manhattan.

This, it turns out, was not an isolated incident designed to silence a vocal critic of the Administration, but an orchestrated campaign by political appointees within NASA, as the Times reported the next week on the fourth:

Other National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists and public-affairs employees came forward this week to say that beyond Dr. Hansen's case, there were several other instances in which political appointees had sought to control the flow of scientific information from the agency.

They called or e-mailed The Times and sent documents showing that news releases were delayed or altered to mesh with Bush administration policies.

In October, for example, George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word "theory" after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to the Times...

In interviews this week, more than a dozen public-affairs officials, along with half a dozen agency scientists, spoke of growing efforts by political appointees to control the flow of scientific information.

In the months before the 2004 election, according to interviews and some documents, these appointees sought to review news releases and to approve or deny news media requests to interview NASA scientists.

Repeatedly that year, public-affairs directors at all of NASA's science centers were admonished by White House appointees at headquarters to focus all attention on Mr. Bush's January 2004 "vision" for returning to the Moon and eventually traveling to Mars.

Which makes sense, we have to understand the oceans here before we can truly understand the oceans of Mars. Also, in case you were wondering, the Big Bang is not a theory, it is an observed fact. The only theoretical part of the Big Bang Theory concerns what happened before and in the first moments of the Big Bang. And you might also be asking yourself, 'self, why doesn't this guy who works at NASA understand what the word Theory means in scientific usage? And who the hell is he?'

Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose r�sum� says he was an intern in the "war room" of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he was also the public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen's public statements.

In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word "theory" needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator."

It continued: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."

That's right. A recent journalism graduate whose only work experience is in the Bush/Cheney 'war room' has declared that half of NASA's job is to educate people about a pseudo-scientific religious theory that was designed explicitly to get creationism taught in public schools. At the urging of whom, I wonder? But, as you would expect, the incompetence never stops. Turns out that Mr. Deutsch never got that journalism degree from Texas A&M, and he has now resigned.

Which, for the intents and purposes of the media, means that this whole thing is over. Except, was he the only one at NASA doing this? And was he acting alone? Are you willing to invest in this fantastic opportunity to own one of the world's most famous bridges?

Well, The Washington Post wanted to get in on the action too.

But Bush's relationship to science can be illustrated by the fact that he is speaking rapturously of producing ethanol from (of all things) switch grass -- but not saying a word about what many scientists say may be the greatest disaster facing humankind: global climate change.

A Time magazine cover story today shines a spotlight on Bush's relationship of convenience with science. Mark Thompson and Karen Tumulty write that "growing numbers of researchers, both in and out of government, say their findings -- on pollution, climate change, reproductive health, stem-cell research and other areas in which science often finds itself at odds with religious, ideological or corporate interests -- are being discounted, distorted or quashed by Bush Administration appointees.

Sigh. These guys are not changing their tone, they're just refining their public message, and I think we all know how often that approximates the truth.

posted by tcdowc - 4:20 pm - 02.08.06

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