GOP's Factual Relativism
Time was, Republicans worried that liberals wanted to infect the United States with cultural relativism, a school of thought whose predilection for understanding other cultures and respecting their...
View ArticleBoth Pro-Choice and Pro-Life?
As someone who feels that the framing of the abortion debate is a little ridiculous, I was really excited when I came across this "interpolation" in the essay "Authority and American Usage," by David...
View ArticleMore Factual Relativism
As I wrote in this diary, of the GOP's many awful tactics, one common thread concerns the devaluation of facts and/or evidence as the foundations of a coherent argument. Two more examples of this...
View ArticleUPDATED Umm, Don't We Like Democracy?
I was surprised to see this headline on the New York Times website:U.S. and Israelis Are Said to Talk of Hamas OusterI mean, stop me if you've heard this one, but once upon a time, a large, prosperous...
View ArticleCheney: Let's Keep Our Eye on the Ball
Did you hear about how Cheney shot that lawyer he was hunting with? Really? Where did you hear about it? Oh, that's right, absolutely everywhere on earth. I get that this is an important story, a story...
View ArticleThe Case of Facts v. Bush (with Graphs)
One thing that makes arguing with Republicans so hard is that they don't seem to care about the facts. Even though we inhabit the reality-based community, they apparently do not. It's like beating your...
View ArticleGlacial Melting Accelerates
Here's some good news:Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, the result of a warming trend that renders obsolete predictions of how quickly the Earth's...
View ArticleThe Republican Victimhood Tactic
On February 17th, George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, said the follwing during a discussion on the war on terror:I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I...
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A Museum Shows the Way
I visited the American Museum of Natural History today, and, as usual, I was amazed at the depth and breadth of the exhibits there. It being the Sunday of a holiday weekend, the place was full to...
View ArticleFerrer Speaks About NYC Mayoral Election
This American Prospect Article made me think. Ferrer's assertions about the influence of money on the race resonated with my memory of the campaign. As I thought more about the money issue in...
View ArticleThe Human Future in Space
I saw this CNN headline (Atlantis Slated to be First Shuttle Retired) and felt a twinge of sadness. I still feel that wondrous feeling when I see photos of a shuttle launch, and I can often shake off a...
View ArticleGeorge Will: Ignorance is Bliss
Reading George Will's column in the Washington Post, a funny thing happened. I found myself agreeing with him. He writes in response to a survey:A survey by the Pew Research Center shows that...
View ArticleFBI opposed Guantanamo Tactics
Well, it appears that the tactics in use at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility seemed unnecessarily harmful and aggressive to . . . the FBI:FBI officials who were interrogating terrorism suspects at...
View ArticleWP Attacks Dems on Lobbying Reform
This doesn't quite seem right:No one, though, should fall for phony enforcement of the sort peddled by Senate Democrats in their lobbying reform bill.That's a snippet from the end of a Washington Post...
View ArticleBankruptcy Bill Shown to be Pointless
A Washington Post story reveals some enlightening information about bankruptcy in this country. You all may remember the Bankruptcy Act of 2005, which the Washington Post reports:requires people to...
View ArticleBush Doesn't Want You to Know
A disturbing story from the Washington Post notes that President Bush has used national security as an excuse to change laws that would have declassified his Presidential papers after he had been out...
View ArticleCreators of History
It can be so easy to lose heart. We threw our hearts into the Gore campaign, only to see him fall to the unrelenting tide of smear attacks. Mischaracterizations, baseless accusations, and name-calling...
View ArticleRaise the Gas Tax?
I saw an interesting story in the New York Times, about a gasoline tax, and people's feeling about said tax. There weren't very many surprises in the facts of the article. For example:Eighty-five...
View ArticleBush's Failure to Handle Iran
This doesn't look very good for anybody:Iran's chief negotiator renewed a threat to interrupt petroleum exports if the IAEA board of governors followed through on its vote last month to report Iran to...
View ArticleArticle Details Bush's War on Science
There is an excellent article in the New Yorker this week, but it is not available online. "Political Science," by Michael Specter, investigates this administration's unprecedentedly ideological...
View ArticleRepublicans Value Dollars Before Citizens
This article at the Nation hits the nail on the head. I often call Bush the faith-based President, but this columnist seems to have discovered a context in which his actions are perfectly rational:It...
View ArticleNarrowing Freedom of Religion
This Washington Post column describes the inconsistency of military prayer with our country's freedom of religion. In doing so, it also hints at the much broader problem of narrowing individual...
View ArticlePresident Bush's Total Failure in Iraq
We have come to a point where all the contradictions and deceptions of the Iraq War are beginning to fall asunder, and the full measure of President Bush's mendacity and incompetence are starting to...
View ArticleBorrow and Spend Republicans
We've all heard the smear about tax and spend Democrats. These mythical creatures infuriated Republicans around the country by taking their hard earned money and throwing it away on "useless" spending...
View ArticleGOP Wants Tyranny of the Majority
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (diaried earlier today by caribmon) recently gave a speech about threats on her life that, she feels, grew from statements made by GOP leaders who were unhappy with judicial...
View ArticleHouse Majority Leader Boehner Loves the Lobbyists
Former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, stepped down as part of a money laundering scandal. He is also noted for his close relationships with lobbyists, particularly Jack Abramoff, who faces trial...
View ArticleNo Coherent Message from Republicans
A Washington Post story details the challenges that face the Republican party as it struggles to define a clear national message for the 2006 elections. The article presents a few issues that the party...
View ArticleBush Incapable of Leadership
President Bush is not able to recognize and respond to the worsening situation in Iraq. Reporting in a Washington Post story, headlined Old Forecasts Come Back to Haunt Bush, analyzes the phenomenon of...
View ArticleMore Bad News on Global Warming
This Washington Post story details the new challenges Inuit people are facing as a result of the warming climate. Hunting methods that have worked for generations are suddenly failing. Animal species...
View ArticleThe Subtle Lies of George W. Bush
Robert Scheer has pointed out, in this piece at The Nation, that people are beginning to get tired of Bush's repetitive rhetoric on the War in Iraq. For example, take this episode from a Bush speech...
View ArticleOf Billionaires, Income Gaps, and Progressive Taxation
I often wonder, during discussions about tax policy, why some people don't understand the logic behind progressive taxation. There are really, to my mind, three premises:The government requires some...
View ArticleRepublicans: Party of Fiction
There is so much data out there now that confirms the climate models of human caused global warming, it is sometimes hard to believe that many Americans believe the issue is still not settled. Of...
View ArticlePredictable Failure of Lobbying Reform
When the Jack Abramoff scandal was the scandal du jour, and Tom DeLay's money laundering indictment made headlines every day, Republicans knew they had to act quickly to clean up the reputation of the...
View ArticleBirnbaum column: When Balance Creates Incoherence
The Washington Post's Jeffrey Birnbaum has written a column titled, "Looks Like It Will Be A Lost Year In Legislation." While I agree with his main premise, that Congress ought to be working harder to...
View ArticlePresident Bush Decries Iran War "Speculation"
We learn from the Washington Post that President Bush is miffed. Miffed that news sources would print articles about his administration's plans for dealing with Iran. From the article(quoting the...
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Brave Soldiers Still Dying
Just spent some time analyzing the most recent casualty figures in the Iraq War. Our brave soldiers are still dying, and my analysis revealed that, despite what pundits and politicians are saying,...
View ArticleSix for 06: Clinton vs. Bush on deficits
According to a Washington Post article, House Democrats are laying out a "legislative agenda" as part of their "midterm election push." Of course, that is not unusual--it is Congress' job to make laws,...
View ArticleBiofuels Won't Fix Everything
For many decades, oil was available to meet all of our energy needs. It flowed from the earth; the challenge was to extract and refine it. The supply itself has only recently become a problem, and...
View ArticleBillary and Underlying Bias
Frank Rich's column on the problems of the Clintons' current campaign tactics has already been diaried by k2winters, NYFM, and johnviking. NYFM, in particular, highlighted the issue of gender bias in...
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