Posted on June 3rd, 2007 by Brad
Dear Mr. Cole,
Don’t fuck with the angels until you’ve learned to fly.
May I present you with the music stylings of “Macho Man” Randy Savage:
Respec’. Macho in da hizzie:
Posted on June 3rd, 2007 by Brad
Zakaria on the GOP presidential candidates:
“They hate you!” says Rudy Giuliani in his new role as fearmonger in chief, relentlessly reminding audiences of all the nasty people out there. “They don’t want you to be in this college!” he recently warned an audience at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. “Or you, or you, or you,” he said, reportedly jabbing his finger at students. […]
The presidential campaign could have provided the opportunity for a national discussion of the new world we live in. So far, on the Republican side, it has turned into an exercise in chest-thumping. Whipping up hysteria requires magnifying the foe. The enemy is vast, global and relentless. Giuliani casually lumps together Iran and Al Qaeda. Mitt Romney goes further, banding together all the supposed bad guys. “This is about Shia and Sunni. This is about Hizbullah and Hamas and Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood,” he recently declared. […]
The competition to be the tough guy is producing new policy ideas, all right—ones that range from bad to insane. Romney, who bills himself as the smart, worldly manager, recently explained that while “some people have said we ought to close Guantánamo, my view is we ought to double [the size of] Guantánamo.” […]
In 2005 Romney said, “How about people who are in settings—mosques, for instance—that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror? Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping?” This proposal is mild compared with what Rep. Tom Tancredo suggested the same year. When asked about a possible nuclear strike by Islamic radicals on the United States, he suggested that the U.S. military threaten to “take out” Mecca.
For some reason, reading these four paragraphs made me laugh my ass off.
I’ll be laughing a lot less if one of them actually gets elected.
Posted on June 3rd, 2007 by Brad
Jonathan Alter (via Drum):
So why the move to permanent bases in Iraq? For years, I have been reluctant to embrace the oil theory of American policymaking in the Middle East. I’ve subscribed to the notion that oil is only part of a complex set of strategic, political and moral issues animating American interests. I still believe that in the short term. Bush and the few remaining supporters of his policy are motivated by more than oil. They want to avoid a failed state in the middle of a volatile region.
But what does that aim have to do with permanent bases? The only two reasons to station troops in the Middle East for half a century are protecting oil supplies (reflecting a pessimistic view of energy independence) outside the normal channels of trade and diplomacy, and projecting raw military power. These are the imperial aims of an empire. During the cold war, charges of U.S. imperialism in Korea and Vietnam were false. Those wars were about superpower struggles. This time, the “I word” is not a left-wing epithet but a straightforward description of policy aims—yet another difference from those two older wars in Asia.
Good job, Jonathan. The idea that the Iraq war was an imperial action was completely bloody obvious to most sane people, but I understand it takes a while for mainstream press folk to catch on, so I suppose you can be forgiven to being so slow.
Note to Democrats: you can do something about this. You can immediately and unconditionally cut off funding for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq. Please do so, and I’ll almost-half-forgive you for caving to Bush on the recent war funding bill.
Posted on June 3rd, 2007 by Brad
Consumers were advised yesterday to discard all toothpaste made in China after federal health officials said they found Chinese-made toothpaste containing a poison used in some antifreeze in three locations: Miami, the Port of Los Angeles and Puerto Rico.
Although there are no reports of anyone being harmed by the toothpaste, the Food and Drug Administration warned that the Chinese products had a “low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury� to children and people with kidney or liver disease.
The United States is the seventh country to find tainted Chinese toothpaste within its borders in recent weeks.
But hey, I’m sure the people paid to manufacture the toothpaste are working under slave labor conditions, so I guess it all evens out.
Uh, wait a minute…
Posted on June 2nd, 2007 by Brad
Posted on June 1st, 2007 by Brad
Liberals May Be Descended From Apes, But This Conservative Was Created by the Lord, Our God, in His Divine Image
Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) says this in response to the “do you believe in evolution” question:
People of faith should be rational, using the gift of reason that God has given us. At the same time, reason itself cannot answer every question. Faith seeks to purify reason so that we might be able to see more clearly, not less. Faith supplements the scientific method by providing an understanding of values, meaning and purpose. More than that, faith — not science — can help us understand the breadth of human suffering or the depth of human love. Faith and science should go together, not be driven apart.
The question of evolution goes to the heart of this issue. If belief in evolution means simply assenting to microevolution, small changes over time within a species, I am happy to say, as I have in the past, that I believe it to be true. If, on the other hand, it means assenting to an exclusively materialistic, deterministic vision of the world that holds no place for a guiding intelligence, then I reject it.
Agreed. If macro-evolution means anything, then there was once a creature of some sort which, by an extraordinary long sequence of accidents, evolved into me typing on this computer, and a sperm whale swimming out there in the ocean. This, in my view, is an unreasonable idea – bluntly, its rather stupid.
I dunno guys… what do you think?
Posted on June 1st, 2007 by Brad
The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic–they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, “We’re gonna tell the bigots to shut up.” On Fox last weekend he vowed to “push back.” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want “mass deportation.” Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are “anti-immigrant” and suggested they suffer from “rage” and “national chauvinism.”
This is basically how Bush goes about drumming up support for every policy: he calls opponents of the policy homos or assholes or terra-lovers. I must admit, I’m enjoying watching Bush’s base- the same base that cheered lustily every time the administration accused war opponents of helping the terrorists and undercutting the troops– get all hot and bothered when the same tactics are used against them.
(Thanks to Oliver for the tip.)
Posted on June 1st, 2007 by Brad
In his column today, Eugene Robinson sez (my emphasis):
Al Gore has been in town launching his new book, “The Assault on Reason,” and you could have predicted the buzz: Is he about to jump into the race? What you probably wouldn’t have predicted is the counter-buzz that Gore, poor fellow, is just too ostentatiously smart to be elected president.
In the book, you see, Gore betrays familiarity with history, economics, even science. He uses big words, often several in the same sentence. And in public appearances he doesn’t even try to disguise his erudition. These supposedly are glaring shortcomings that should keep Gore on the sidelines, rereading Gibbon and exchanging ideas about the structure of the cosmos with Stephen Hawking. […]
The conventional wisdom says that voters are turned off when candidates put on showy displays of highfalutin brilliance. I hope that’s wrong. I hope people understand how complicated and difficult the next president’s job will be, and how much of a difference some real candlepower would make.
Coupla things:
1.) Of course you could have predicted the counter-buzz. Our elite mainstream pundits hate, hate, hate Al Gore, and they’ve been trashing him since he ran for president in 2000.
2.) Our elite mainstream pundits hate, hate, hate talking about intelligent things. They find Bill Clinton’s dick and John Edwards’ haircuts to be much more interesting.
3.) The reason “conventional wisdom says that voters are turned off” by smart candidates is because the press has been hammering it into their brains since Reagan got elected.
Eugene, you seem like a bright enough guy, but please- you need to start reading Bob Somerby, and you need to start reading him every day.
Posted on June 1st, 2007 by Brad
Question: which of the following trans-post-human features do you find most appealing?
Me, I like the idea of extra organs. I’ve always dreamed of having an extra pancreas or liver stashed away in my chest.
UPDATE: This will be the greatest conference in the history of the world:
[T]he theme of TransVision 2007 is: Transhumanity Saving Humanity: Inner Space to Outer Space, and will feature three full days of compelling dialogue with the greatest minds of today about creating the civilizations of tomorrow. TV07 brings extraordinary people from across the globe together with more than 30 distinguished speakers, entertainers and visionaries including: award-winning inventor, futurist, author Raymond Kurzweil; acclaimed longevity scientist, Aubrey de Grey; and Emmy award winning actor, William Shatner.
Beam me the frack up, Scotty!