tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40442352012-01-11T09:10:57.375-05:00The BogA relentless, hard-driving mix of political commentary, recipes, idle ramblings, and so on.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.comBlogger1121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164698182080268262006-11-28T01:21:00.000-05:002006-11-28T02:21:05.896-05:00Oh Blessed Day!The New York Times gets it (partly) perfectly, beautifully right on education - give it a gold star.In the Sunday paper, Paul Tough examines What It Takes To Make A Student: the overlapping race and class achievement gaps, research that looks at the results of class-based childrearing practices, the strategies used by some of the painfully few schools that seem to be making Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164598701809193972006-11-26T21:47:00.000-05:002006-11-27T00:24:47.433-05:00Cohen, Iraq, Therapy, and The Myth of Regeneration Through ViolenceRichard Cohen's column on (his changing attitudes towards) the Vietnam and Iraq Wars has probably been knocked from one end of the left blogsphere to the other by now - see for example digby and Hilzoy. While his account - by turns painfully sincere and breathtakingly un-self-aware - of somehow making essentially the same Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164565923286097912006-11-26T13:01:00.000-05:002006-11-26T13:40:06.856-05:00Thanksgiving Poem" . . . Morgan said he still wants his pupils at Cleveland Elementary School in San Francisco to celebrate Thanksgiving. But "what I am trying to portray is a different point of view." Others see Morgan and teachers like him as too extreme. Even American Indians are divided on how to approach a holiday that some believe symbolizes the start of a hostile takeover of their Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164470455463090952006-11-25T10:17:00.000-05:002006-11-26T17:57:47.176-05:00Face Inwards, Aim . . .and Fire!A little while back Amanda wrote a very interesting post arguing that by aggressively pushing creationism into public/scientific spaces, fundamentalists set up the conditions for a backlash:See, I think the reason that creationism (and pseudo-scientific variations) survives much at all is they really take advantage of most people’s polite unwilllingness to get Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164467280522493302006-11-25T09:58:00.000-05:002006-11-25T10:16:37.753-05:00Diana of the Hunt.In U.S., women go wild for hunting.FREEPORT, Maine (Reuters) - It's deer season in Maine and although the hunting department of outdoor retail specialist L.L. Bean is packed, this is no old-boy's club.Among the aisles of aerosol deer urine and digital duck calls, there are racks of women's clothing in mossy-oak camouflage, as well as plenty of fluorescent hunter orange.Lined up Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164233207502960242006-11-22T17:05:00.000-05:002006-11-22T17:07:06.570-05:00Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 5Violence in Iraq increasingly targeting women.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164232999416440182006-11-22T16:55:00.000-05:002006-11-22T17:04:45.663-05:00Iraqis - Human Beings or Inanimate Objects?Inquiring minds want to know!A letter in today's Philadelphia Inquirer reads:Much as I might want it, there may not exist any better answer than to continue to keep a lid on it as it sputters along for another six to 10 years.Of course, that is as long as the casualty rate remains tiny. I am hoping that the leadership of both parties will have the Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164205504812224862006-11-22T09:23:00.000-05:002006-11-22T09:27:16.386-05:00Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4(Elvis Costello)Well you can laugh at this sentimental storyBut in time you'll have to make amendsThe sudden chill where lovers doubt their immortalityAs the clouds cover the sky the evening endsDescribing a picture of eyes finally closingAs you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fireWe'll I'm the lucky goonWho composed this tuneFrom birds arranged on the Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164205053126308192006-11-22T09:12:00.000-05:002006-11-22T17:11:31.500-05:00Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 3:Dolchstosslegende control.To the Editor [of the Philadelphia Inquirer]:In a recent column, neocon Charles Krauthammer paraphrases Ben Franklin and claims, "We have given the Iraqis a republic and they do not appear able to keep it." This statement seeks to shift the responsibility for our failures onto the Iraqi people: it is both dishonest and reprehensible. NoDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164114373683622022006-11-21T07:57:00.000-05:002006-11-22T17:27:08.486-05:00Couldn't Call It Unexpected, No. 2:Mind the Gap! (The Children of Color Left Behind Act).In other unfortunate and entirely unsurprising news, Schools Slow in Closing Gap Between RacesWhen President Bush signed his sweeping [No Child Left Behind] education law a year into his presidency, it set 2014 as the deadline by which schools were to close the test-score gaps between minority and white Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164112976048869842006-11-21T07:03:00.000-05:002006-11-21T07:51:30.216-05:00Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 1:Attack of the Frankengrass! (GM Grass Gone Wild)From NPR, Super Grass Spreads Beyond Its Oregon Test PlotA new genetically modified strain of grass has proved to be resistant to a reliable weed killer. Now the plant has spread beyond its test plot in central Oregon, and scientists and environmentalists are concerned about the possibility of "superweeds."The Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164078001023369402006-11-20T21:25:00.000-05:002006-11-21T00:08:26.780-05:00Lots More Kathryn From The CornerSo, I'm still trying to figure out Kathryn Jean Lopez's argument, apropos of the appointment of anti-contraception anti-abortion oxytocin-obsessed Eric Keroack to oversee the $280 million reproductive health Office of Population Affairs (new motto: 1.8 unwanted pregnancies prevented a year = 1.8 million missed opportunities for forced childbearing. Yeah, it's a Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164064585207429492006-11-20T18:13:00.000-05:002006-11-20T18:16:25.220-05:00To The Muse. . . . Oh Jenny,I wish to God I had made this world, this scurvyAnd disastrous place. IDidn't, I can't bear itEither . . .-James Wright, To The Muse.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1164028248287903482006-11-20T08:07:00.000-05:002006-11-20T08:11:55.490-05:00The Republic of Dreams, The Country of Nightmares. . . . I was a moderate liberal. In my imaginary republic, there was space for everybody — Baathists, socialists, liberals — as long as you didn’t hurt people or persecute them or impose your style of thinking or living on others.When the Americans invaded, I was ready to shake hands with the devil himself to remove Saddam Hussein from power. I Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163993586721706512006-11-19T21:36:00.000-05:002006-11-20T07:49:45.046-05:00Crazy? I Was Crazy Once . . .. . . they put me in a rubber - which one shouldn't pass out without any deeper context or conversation, or it will be degrading, to men and women. Right?Ah - ok, maybe this needs a bit of context. The first part's an odd little middleschoolish chant; I can't find any mention of an origin, and it may be an actual piece of childlore (or an obvious piece of piece ofDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163970154691273072006-11-19T15:49:00.000-05:002006-11-19T16:07:38.386-05:00The March of Regress.Over at Feministe, Jill asks, "If it’s wrong for public schools to be segregated by race, why is it justifiable to segregate them by sex?" Excellent question, but "wrong for public schools to be segregated by race"? . . . That's next.Via Atrios: Ruling: Classes divided by race: At Preston Hollow, principal tried to appease affluent parents, halt white flight, judge says.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163961802177113242006-11-19T12:38:00.000-05:002006-11-19T21:36:21.783-05:00Media Queen Bees . . . or Wannabes?(Or, Fast Times at Beltway High).There's a nice back and forth blogversation between Digby and (the wonderful) Sara Robinson at Orcinus about the sudden return of what's been dubbed Kewl Kids/Mean Girls (horrible-high school-flashback) journalism. Digby starts out talking about how folks are almost instantly back to operating on Clinton Rules Redux:They are Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163896859052974452006-11-18T19:34:00.000-05:002006-11-18T19:43:57.410-05:00The Best _______ Ever, Atheist Edition.Best quote: Amanda Marcotte, responding to a claim that "The atheist must also deny the validity of historical proof":Atheists completely turned our noses up to the fact that they found Jesus fossils right in the ground! Now they have a completely rebuilt Jesus at the Smithsonian just as scientists imagined he would look in the day, hunching slightly with Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163892321189924742006-11-18T18:04:00.000-05:002006-11-18T19:44:15.720-05:00Unnecessary, undesirable, impractical, or impossible.So, lately I've been scanning in and doing assorted work with large numbers of donor-advised fund agreements (how's that for an eye-catching and attention-grabbing first sentence, huh?). They're mostly standard boilerplate* legal language - the original form has blanks for the donor to fill in - which every now and then leads to some very oddDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163883234999266252006-11-18T14:21:00.000-05:002006-11-18T18:03:34.706-05:00The Gross Clinic in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.Bit o' background: For everyone who doesn't follow Philly and/or art-world news, The Gross Clinic is a 19th century masterpiece by native son Thomas Eakins that's hung for countless years in Thomas Jefferson Medical College (at Thomas Jefferson University). Most appropriately, it depicts Dr. Samuel Gross teaching a group of Jeff students Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163877531021036972006-11-18T14:13:00.000-05:002006-11-18T14:20:56.130-05:00Haiku:Sky, empty branches;At dusk, fallen leaves return -Oh! Sparrows, sparrows.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1163012245459696432006-11-08T13:53:00.000-05:002006-11-08T13:57:25.460-05:00Yay!Just yay. Yay yay yay yay yay yay yay.What? You want actual content?Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1162924417112077072006-11-07T12:44:00.000-05:002006-11-07T15:01:53.503-05:00Get Out The Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Vote (GOTOCDV).Or, What's Your Excuse?Note: In my case, it's usually very much in the background, a hardly noticed nuisance that is decidedly subclinical. However, it does flare up on occasion . . . .)The use of dialogue, I hasten to add, is a narrative convention, not an actual perception; it represents an interior monologue/argument with oneself. Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1162905367923921062006-11-07T08:07:00.000-05:002006-11-07T08:16:07.923-05:00Quasi-open thread: Materialism, mind-body dualism, and the vanity of 'intelligent design' . . . This post exists for the sole purpose of providing a forum for a debate on the above topics that started elsewhere but has since descended into the purgatory of archival storage.I've taken the liberty of posting my interlocutor's most recent responses, to begin with.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1161576405092254162006-10-23T00:01:00.000-04:002006-10-23T00:06:45.096-04:00Leaving a sinking ship with their long knives out . . .AP: GOP losses could spark partisan warfareFurthermore, some of Bush's fighting in the trenches is likely to be with fellow Republicans as they seek to find a new standard bearer for 2008 — and distance themselves from an unpopular war, the unpopular president who waged it, and congressional scandals that include inappropriate e-mails to Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1161575919272276432006-10-22T23:54:00.000-04:002006-10-22T23:59:29.363-04:00Exactly right.Digby:This world is just too complicated for schoolyard thinking and tinkerbell planning.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1161575648212487442006-10-22T23:42:00.000-04:002006-10-22T23:54:08.223-04:00And they said it could only come from a Divine Lawgiver!In my iTunes message window right now, while currently updating podcasts: 'Downloading "Morality"'It's taking an awfully long time, though . . . .(the podcast in question being Zachary Moore's Apologia, a "friendly forum for both theists and non-theists to come together in search of some common understanding.")Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1161542798512746462006-10-22T15:16:00.000-04:002006-10-22T15:25:46.906-04:00Book review review:David Brooks wrestles Andrew Sullivan in a fight for The Conservative Soul.(Oh, don't you just hate that? You get up from the computer for a snack and some errands, and the next thing you know it's 21 months later and we're still in Iraq. But anyway . . .)Over at the New York Times, conservative Op-Ed columnist David Brooks is reviewing Andrew Sullivan's new book The Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1106454041683882792005-01-22T23:16:00.000-05:002005-01-22T23:20:41.683-05:00Send in the lions, already!
From the NY Times, on the new season of American Idol: In the ensuing battle for the "tickets to Hollywood," the viewers are invited to roar while young people who in many cases appear to be poor, of low intelligence or even mildly disturbed, sing enthusiastically and then stand gape-mouthed with shock while their heroes insult them on national television.So when are Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1106185422111163162005-01-19T21:29:00.000-05:002005-01-19T21:24:25.826-05:00Obscenity and Creationism
The New York Times has a brief article today about how creationists in Cobb County (GA) and Dover (PA) are plowing ahead despite setbacks in their attempt to bring religion into public school science classes.
The school board in Dover, Pa., south of Harrisburg, had an administrator read a one-minute statement to ninth graders in biology class yesterday saying evolutionDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1106190568151566922005-01-19T21:25:00.000-05:002005-01-19T23:08:01.346-05:00Courting Creationism?
In a series of posts, Nathan Newman argues that progressives should execute a "strategic retreat" on the whole creationism-in-the-high-school-science- classroom issue and stop using the courts to keep it out (as in the Cobb County sticker case). He worries that a liberal reliance on judicial decisions (for this and other issues) has fueled a powerful fundamentalist backlashDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-1065844995028327432003-10-10T22:16:00.000-04:002004-11-12T22:36:03.286-05:00Not your favorite blue monster
Josh Marshall reminds us about the NPR Fresh Air interview where Grover Norquist compared the estate tax to . . . .the Holocaust. The relevent text:
NORQUIST: The argument that some who play to the politics of hate and envy and class division will say is, "Well, that's only 2 percent -- or, as people get richer, 5 percent, in the near future -- of Americans likely Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-954600722003-06-09T07:43:00.000-04:002003-06-09T07:47:18.000-04:00Like any other enterprise . . .
I haven't blogged for a long time, but this dragged me back. Long-time NY Times educational reporter wrote an opinion piece on failing charter schools in Texas so Edison Schools President hit back in a letter that inadvertantly does a better job of exposing the dangers of this whole brand of school reform than I ever could. It's that often-repeated rationale in Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-922000732003-04-08T00:43:00.000-04:002003-04-08T00:43:24.186-04:00Some good news
Scientists Clone Endangered Asian Banteng.
Sure, there are all kinds of issues. But it's good that - so far - it worked. More later, maybe.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-918246192003-04-02T00:54:00.000-05:002003-04-02T00:54:53.436-05:00Small daily victories
Good news from Tulia! I don't know how coverage of this issue has been elsewhere; I think the NY Times' Bob Herbert may be at least partially to thank for this long-delayed but welcome arrival of sanity . . .Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-918243082003-04-02T00:48:00.000-05:002003-04-02T00:48:48.623-05:00Ask a stupid question . . .
Kevin Drum discusses a Century Foundation report stating that socioeconomic preferences are a good functional alternative to race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Not only do they work fairly well, but according to polling data, the public likes the idea!
Here's a stupid question: Why? Why would the public prefer socioec. AA over racial AA?
Dismiss Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-917602882003-04-01T01:02:00.000-05:002003-04-01T01:02:10.716-05:00Score one for personal virtue
Remember Cheney going on about how "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy"? Well, according to a New York Times editorial, part of the solution to the California energy crisis was "a vigorous, if largely underreported, program of energy conservation."
Maybe not sufficient - the Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-917576682003-04-01T00:16:00.000-05:002003-04-01T00:18:59.000-05:00"Just one word: 'plastics'"
A study suggests that a common ingredient in plastic may cause birth defects in people. Crazy eco-drivel? Well, the study was funded in part by the "industry-supported American Chemical Council" . . . Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-917554962003-03-31T23:39:00.000-05:002003-04-02T00:01:35.000-05:00Kent State and Mogadishu
Electrolite saysThe admirably moderate Calpundit has been posting about feeling equally alienated by the extremes of left and right. But the difference between the two is illustrated perfectly here. On the left, an untenured professor at a "teach-in" who calls for a "million Mogadishus." On the right, the New York Post, circulation 600,000.That's 600,000 who read an op-edDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-916953402003-03-31T02:51:00.000-05:002003-04-01T00:48:23.000-05:00Garbage day
Go read Is Diversity Overrated? in Saturday's New York Times. [UPDATE: two good letters on this now in the Times - a NAACP Board Chairman pulls in tipping-point arguments, and Andrew Milne serves it straight: "So universities with more diverse student bodies have more reports of racial discrimination. What a surprise! I would have thought those all-white schools would have much Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-916533422003-03-30T11:32:00.000-05:002003-03-30T11:32:33.170-05:00Today, affirmative action; tomorrow . . .
Waiting for the Supreme Court to get going on affirmative action in admissions is tiringly suspenseful, so much so that two anti-affirmative action groups, wittily called the Center for Equal Opportunities and the American Civil Rights Institute, just couldn't stand it any longer. They've gone and threatened to file federal complaints against 30 Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-915878072003-03-29T00:14:00.000-05:002003-03-29T00:39:51.000-05:00Teaching German
Yes, everyone and their blogging cats have already linked to Dahlia Lithwick's hilarious coverage of oral arguments in the Supreme Court's Texas anti-gay sodomy case. Nevertheless, here it is again. In fact, I'm blockquoting a big chunk of it:Justice Stephen Breyer asks one of his famed three-part questions and, when Rosenthal doesn't answer immediately, Breyer interrupts: "Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-914087252003-03-26T08:12:00.000-05:002003-03-26T08:15:31.000-05:00"Furthermore, because this is a war of choice . . . those who were eager for the choice to be made had an incentive to minimize expectations of inevitable unpleasantness."
Guess what crazed, America-hating liberal said this. Alterman? Krugman?
Ladies and Gentlemen - meet George F. Will.
Granted, he thinks the war is a wise choice and that the public unease over this "inevitable unpleasantnessDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-913265142003-03-25T00:00:00.000-05:002003-03-25T00:03:53.000-05:00Gives new meaning to the term "protest vote." Well, kinda.
On Jeanne's blog, a comment:I think that if there were "register to vote" booths at all events, something useful and positive could come out of all the protests and marches. If there were some indication that these actions might actually effect Bush, he might pay attention. -- Matt BallI don't know if I'd follow it all the way, but the Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-911670552003-03-22T00:55:00.000-05:002003-03-22T00:55:47.000-05:00The people, united . . .
I was going to try to write down my observations about Thursday's Times Square protest, but you can just go read Nathan Newman instead.
The weather was fairly miserable - low 40s or worse with a constant drizzle-to-rain - but that didn't seem to make much of a dent in people's enthusiasm. The police's trick of letting demonstrators march out in tiny separated groups wasDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-911647692003-03-21T23:58:00.000-05:002003-03-21T23:58:26.653-05:00No comment
Minutes before the [Wednesday night start-of-war] speech, an internal television monitor at the White House showed the President pumping his fist.
"Feels good," he said.From the Philadelphia Inquirer
Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-911644292003-03-21T23:50:00.000-05:002003-03-22T00:56:39.000-05:00Drop Bush, not bombs
There is an incoherent op-ed by Bill Keller about why Colin Powell should go. As far as I can tell: Bush doesn't trust him, won't listen to him, and has "chosen a course that repudiates much of what Mr. Powell has stood for - notably his deep suspicion of arrogant idealism." As a result, the State Department has been crippled, unable to attend to attend to those other Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-911622712003-03-21T22:58:00.000-05:002003-03-21T22:59:34.000-05:00By Digby:We have spent years bemoaning the fact that people are politically disinterested, that voters are apathetic, that they don't feel they have a voice. Now, when rather large numbers of Americans have left the comfort of their homes and their shopping malls to make a sincere statement alongside a bunch of strangers, liberals behave as if it is nothing. Outside of college campuses, the fact Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-910681182003-03-20T12:07:00.000-05:002003-03-20T12:08:11.000-05:00One thing to do
Locate demonstrations and suchlike near you; go.
United for Peace
MoveOn.org
Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-910624732003-03-20T10:28:00.000-05:002003-03-20T10:53:19.000-05:00Wow
By kipI know enough to know that this war is that most immoral and most unjust of wars--
Unnecessary.
I know enough to know the struggle for peace isn't over. It has just begun. Just barely begun. Embarking on a war, someone said somewhere at some point, is like entering a dark room; there's no way of knowing what will come. So curse the darkness--repudiate it, spit in its face, drag your Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-910440842003-03-20T01:46:00.000-05:002003-03-20T02:11:04.000-05:00Protesting the previous war
Marching for peace
in early October,
a cold wind off the river
followed us through the streets.
We had hand-lettered signs,
lit candles.
There were shouts,
astonished children,
a barking dog,
a person clapping.
But this is what happened:
We sheltered our candles carefully,
cupping our hands,
protecting the little lights
from extinction.
Mine went out,
and a womanDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-910435012003-03-20T01:30:00.000-05:002003-03-20T01:32:53.000-05:00Wrong season, alas
The Season of Phantasmal Peace, by Derek Walcott
Then all the nations of birds lifted together
the huge net of the shadows of this earth
in multitudinous dialects, twittering tongues,
stitching and crossing it. They lifted up
the shadows of long pines down trackless slopes,
the shadows of glass-faced towers down evening streets,
the shadow of a frail plant on a city sill -
Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-910415102003-03-20T00:46:00.000-05:002003-03-20T02:19:38.000-05:00Cape Cod Elegy
Where Massachusetts' outstretched arm wrestles the Atlantic,
the waves augur change.
Winter storms keep the mapmakers busy.
With the kayak rented for the hour,
I floated in the Goose Lake shallows,
among the pickerelweed stands by the shore
Rooted in the mud and gravel, their purple flowers
rose above the water,
grasping the air.
A band of small boys, summer children,
Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-910347552003-03-19T22:46:00.000-05:002003-03-19T22:51:00.000-05:00Like fireflies on a summer night
Oh yeah, now that we've started bombing, now Bush is talking about how tough it might be. Perhaps he could have brought up all those possibilities (dead U.S. soldiers, civilian casualties, military difficulties) a little earlier? I find it hard to imagine any reason besides not wanting to weaken the limited public support for war until it was truly - by any Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-909036002003-03-18T00:02:00.000-05:002003-03-18T00:02:52.890-05:00That would be nice
" . . . and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. "
-Isaiah 2:4 (JPS version)Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-909026012003-03-17T23:44:00.000-05:002003-03-17T23:54:17.000-05:00Kaddish
. . . Y'hei shlamah rabbah meen sh'mahyah,v'chahyeem
aleynu v'al kohl yisrael, v'eemru: Amein
Oseh shalom beem'roh'mahv, hoo ya'aseh shalom,
aleynu v'al kohl yisrael v'eemru: AmeinDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-909019022003-03-17T23:31:00.000-05:002003-03-18T08:35:57.000-05:00That's it
"And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop's to bomb Saddam
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die. "
-Country Joe and the Fish, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag"
(with slight updating)Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-907501742003-03-15T00:39:00.000-05:002003-03-16T01:02:03.000-05:00Where have all the flowers gone?
Via Digby:"'It couldn't hurt,' the official said. 'But to sell [the war] on the basis that this is going to cause 1,000 flowers to bloom is naive.'" Silly official! Of course it will cause 1,000 flowers to bloom. Just look at the old WWI battlefields in France and Belgium . . .
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark ourDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-907495742003-03-15T00:24:00.000-05:002003-03-15T00:27:30.000-05:00Moran's Lott
Representative James P. Moran (VA-D) stepped down Friday from a House leadership post at the request of Nancy Pelosi, a week after saying that we were rushing to war because of the Jewish community (a fact, I might add, that came as a great surprise to this here member of the Jewish community). An excellent reply to this kind of nonsense came from Jonah Goldberg. And just when I'dDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-906521982003-03-13T11:23:00.000-05:002003-03-13T11:23:37.090-05:00The Senate just voted to ban so-called "partial birth abortion." The bill will now go to the House, the place whose political courage and good sense extends to putting freedom fries on the menu.
Oddly enough, they voted down a proposal that would make contraceptives easier to get through private health care plans and provide better prenatal health care for poor women. Huh. Funny, that.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-903447992003-03-08T01:39:00.000-05:002003-03-08T01:42:24.000-05:00So in 1999 West Nile virus came to New York, and the city sprayed malathion trying to contain the mosquito-borne disease. And then the lobsters in western Long Island Sound died, unimaginable numbers of them, millions. Lobstermen blamed the pesticide, researchers claimed a disease was to blame, other researchers claimed the malathion weakened the lobsters' immune system leading to an epidemic .Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-903031732003-03-07T10:06:00.000-05:002003-03-07T11:05:04.000-05:00From the NY Times: In the deteriorating town of Qalqiliya in the West Bank, the zoo is unable to bring in any new animals to replace the ones who die of old age, accidents, tear gas . . . Instead the corpses are stuffed by the zoo's vet and put on display.As the animals vanish from the tidy cages, they are reappearing, stuffed, in the zoo's museum. The zoo's director, Said Zaki Daoud, fears the Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-903021712003-03-07T09:48:00.000-05:002003-03-07T09:48:50.513-05:00Ha!
Was over at Sisyphus Shrugged and saw this. It made me laugh. Sounded rusty, like I hadn't in a while. Thank you.I'm downloading the gospel song of the day from Interesting Monstah, and at some point (I'm on dial-up at home, so it takes a while) I look at the list of open windows, and one of them says "66% of This Too Will Pass"
Well, I certainly hope so. Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-902665172003-03-06T18:32:00.000-05:002003-03-07T09:39:36.000-05:00Political ornithology
I was spellchecking a letter to the Philly Inquirer, and Word tried to replace "warblogger" with "warbler." That's kinda sweet. Although I don't see it ending up among the rest of the feathered tribe inhabitating the land of political discourse. Hawk, dove, chickenhawk, occasionally ostrich, mebbe vulture - any others?
Speaking of names, am I the only one who thinks Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-901539402003-03-04T22:44:00.000-05:002003-03-04T23:31:38.000-05:00From the people who brought you the "she was dressed provocatively!" defense
Read Ampersand's post on how Ashcroft is reconsidering a proposed Clinton administration policy that was designed to make it easier for victims of gender-related persecution - such as domestic violence or honor killings - to gain political asylum in the United States. He has a angry and articulate takedown of the Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-900493352003-03-03T09:01:00.000-05:002003-03-03T09:02:52.000-05:00Credibility guppy
So, if all the reports are true:
Both federal and state (NJ) authorities have wildly inflated the number of terrorism cases they claim to have sucessfully prosecuted. Crazy homeless guy making threats? It's a terrorism case . . .
Bush argued that the latest Blue Chip survey of business economists showed support for his economic plan. The author of the report doesn't "know Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-900320292003-03-02T23:34:00.000-05:002003-03-03T08:33:42.000-05:00Learnt from frizzy logic via languagehat: seems that since google bought blogger, it's been targeting blog*spot ads. It looks like it's basing them on blog title and/or words in recent posts - ie, languagehat's ad banner has two links to welsh-language learning products, following a post on "languagehat" in welsh; another blogger who talked about tea has links to tea-related products; a third Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-896192872003-02-23T18:07:00.000-05:002003-02-23T18:12:55.000-05:00Groovy SUV?
You know the story. It’s the plot of countless kiddy and teenage movies. The ones about the outsider, the ugy ducking, the picked-on kid whose worth in revealed in the moment of crisis, redeemed by a instant of formulaic grace. He’s the one with glasses and an unfortunate nickname who steps up to the plate at the bottom of the ninth - with two outs and bases loaded - hits that Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-895830192003-02-22T23:54:00.000-05:002003-02-23T01:01:06.000-05:00A few weeks ago Ampersand blogged about an analysis of the affirmative action situation by Goodwin Liu, work which argued that the effect on white applicants was miniscule - barely significant only for poorly qualified folks. Therefore, actual litigants are generally going to be people who due to their limited qualifications didn't really get in anywhere - at least anywhere they would have Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-895794022003-02-22T22:24:00.000-05:002003-02-22T23:13:38.000-05:00A "litigious society" . . .
Documents dredged up in a current lawsuit show that Bayer knew its anti-cholesterol drug Baycol had serious problems years before it was pulled from the market due to FDA pressure.The documents, made public by lawyers suing Bayer, include e-mail messages, memos and sworn depositions of executives that suggest that Bayer promoted the drug, Baycol, even as a company Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-895769862003-02-22T21:19:00.000-05:002003-02-23T01:03:41.000-05:00Give me an "A", give me an "N" . . .
In today's New York Times article about Bush and the environment, the writer ponders How, then, to sort out the rival assessments on issues so complicated that they are commonly referred to in shorthand, by names like Kyoto, Superfund and ANWR?I could be wrong, but last I looked, besides general reportage, the folks using primarily "ANWR" for the Arctic Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-894718232003-02-20T22:00:00.000-05:002003-02-20T22:00:49.936-05:00Coming up:
More on the "GE's just another word for any kind of food" fallacy,
white privilage and what it means to be an American,
lead - it's no longer what's for dinner,
and affirmative atheism. yay!
Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-894712152003-02-20T21:48:00.000-05:002003-02-20T22:00:32.000-05:00Pour it in a glass and call it good whisky . . .
From Emma's Late Night Thoughts, part of her Advice to the Democratic Party:The ongoing scramble for position by those who would be president augurs another season of the merry slimeball fight the party engages in every four years; by the time the survivor gets to the actual election he looks like he's been trampled by slugs. And the poor bastard Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-894117652003-02-19T23:31:00.000-05:002003-02-19T23:41:40.000-05:00. . . he said, sitting on a pile of disputed Florida ballots . . .
Regarding the enormous antiwar protests this last weekend, Bush
said "democracy is a beautiful thing," and he supported the dissenters' right to express their views. But he said the protests would not influence his decisions or those of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest ally.
"You know, the size of protests is likeDan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-893663562003-02-19T07:24:00.000-05:002003-02-19T23:43:44.000-05:00Biotech roundup
You coulda read it here first . . .
Interesting NY Times editorial today on Roundup-resistant weeds and the shortsightedness of industrial agriculture. Posted something about it here, almost a month ago . . .
"Open-source molecular agronomy"
There's a really interesting piece from Nature: "Public-sector research into classical crop breeding is withering, supplanted by 'sexier' Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-886327142003-02-06T00:28:00.000-05:002003-02-06T00:31:32.000-05:00What with my new job and some (very welcome) part time scraps from my old job, I'm working 10hr/day 7 days/week . . . so I haven't had much time to add things here, not to mention that the last few days I haven't felt much like watching the news or reading the paper or anything of that sort. Just hang on for a day or two and there will be brillant and insightful new stuff. Well, new stuff, Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-879446092003-01-24T01:53:00.000-05:002003-01-24T01:57:09.000-05:00The big fat shape of things to come . . .
I spent a good part of the day buying and putting together bookcases from the new Ikea in Conshohocken, PA. It's enormous, and it got me thinking about the logical next step, which is drive though super big box stores. Think about it: folks get in their SUV, go to the store, and drive right in, navigating among extra-wide isles. No need to walk, let Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-879434962003-01-24T01:21:00.000-05:002003-01-24T01:41:22.000-05:00Monsanto vs. the Red Queen*
It seems that several weeds have been evolving resistance to the herbicide Roundup (gylphosate). If you have no idea why this matters, here’s some background: Monsanto Co. invented Roundup back in the 70’s, but things really took off in the late 90’s, when Monsanto figured out how to genetically engineer crops to be Roundup-resistant (talk about synergy!). Weeds Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-879299342003-01-23T20:32:00.000-05:002003-01-23T20:32:39.900-05:00Mixed bag for inner city kids, too
Ready, Set . . . Fail
Bad news first: Disadvantaged kids attending publically funded preschools (incuding Head Start) in a New York study "are exposed to fewer books and have less opportunity to learn to read and write than other preschoolers." The three publically funded preschools in the study served "predominantly low-income, African-American families in Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-879023172003-01-23T10:34:00.000-05:002003-01-23T10:38:10.000-05:00Mixed bag in Senate
On one hand, strong opposition in the Senate has led Bush to rescind a policy letting states restrict coverage of emergency services for people on Medicaid. On the other hand, they crushed John Edwards’ attempt to delay Bush’s gutting of the Clean Air Act from going into effect. Well, that kinda works: when freak weather conditions caused by global warming create a giant Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-878994262003-01-23T09:30:00.000-05:002003-01-23T09:30:41.763-05:00Super Bowl roundup
The INS has rounded up a number of immigrants working at the Super Bowl, arresting at least 6, with more arrests expected. About 80 people were singled out and roughly half as many detained. The majority seem to be from the Middle East and Latin America. The Detroit Free Press has the slightly older but more informative Reuters account.
Latin America?
Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-878747722003-01-22T21:21:00.000-05:002003-01-22T21:22:06.000-05:00More things in heaven and earth . . .
It's not just any dinosaur, it's a four-winged dinosaur!
Wow.Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-878643142003-01-22T17:37:00.000-05:002003-01-22T17:57:13.000-05:00Roe v. Wade turns 30: compromise and consensus?
The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting article from a few days ago on "Going Beyond the Politics of Abortion" to look at women’s real - often complicated and ambivalent - experiences and attitudes. There’s also a related reader essay by William LeFleur, the author of Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan. He looks at Japan:
where Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-878589402003-01-22T15:49:00.000-05:002003-01-22T16:00:01.000-05:00In the news today: drugs, the SEC, welfare, and the estate tax
This is your twin . . . on drugs
According to the NY Times, a twin study has supported the marijuana-as-a-gateway-drug argument
Early marijuana smokers were found to be up to five times more likely to move to harder drugs than were their twins. They were about twice as likely to use opiates like heroin and five times as likely to Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-878551102003-01-22T14:30:00.000-05:002003-01-22T15:58:22.000-05:00Random tidbits
Every global warming has a silver lining
Raising temperatures are causing glaciers everywhere to melt, revealing a horde of ancient treasure* from over the last 10,000 years - giant piles of caribou dung, human tools, frozen seeds and animals in the Yukon, even frozen/mummified people like Otzi (the Iceman) in the Alps and some less-famous guy in British Columbia. Me, I’m hoping Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-878487422003-01-22T12:13:00.000-05:002003-01-22T12:22:07.000-05:00Rendell for President in 2012?
Yesterday Ed Rendell was sworn in as the governor of Pennsylvania. Rendell, a Democrat and former two-term Philadelphia mayor, is the first candidate from Philly to be elected governor in almost 90 years. His inaugural address discussed the looming state fiscal crisis and promised "bold new ideas." He is well suited in this area, as the Philadelphia Inquirer Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-877934602003-01-21T13:19:00.000-05:002003-01-21T13:28:29.000-05:00Sure, it sounds crazy . . .
Tucker Carlson, writing in the Sunday NY Times, advises Democrats to: 1) "[become] more Bush than Bush" and 2) get a sense of humor. Maybe, but apropos of Matthew Yglesias' post on Tatu, I have a better idea. The Democrats should become the party of Russian teenage lesbian popsingers! (Video available here)
Sure, it sounds crazy at first, but think: they're young,Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-877891112003-01-21T11:46:00.000-05:002003-01-21T12:04:18.000-05:00Today in the New York Times:
Did you have a good Martin Luther King Jr. Day?
A Harvard study has found that schools are rapidly resegregating, and I mean rapidly:
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 20 — Sanetra Jant still wonders where all the white kids went. Only last spring, they made up a quarter of her class, not to mention her friends. And then, poof, they were gone.It seems, black-white contact in Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-876463172003-01-18T13:43:00.000-05:002003-01-19T00:21:15.000-05:00Feature blog of the day
Making Light has posts on: the creepy yet sad world of pathological animal collecting; modern day flint-knappers; and the Jewish love of Chinese food. What more can you ask for?Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-876100172003-01-17T16:54:00.000-05:002003-01-19T00:31:46.000-05:00The triumph of dopes over self-interest?
Or maybe it’s the triumph of dupes over self-interest? David "Bobos in Paradise" Brooks’ piece "The Triumph of Hope Over Self-Interest" (on why Americans vote against their own economic interests) has already made the rounds of West Blogopia and Upper Opedistan, but I’ve just got to have a go at it. Too many people are agreeing to its conclusions (which Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875903202003-01-17T09:27:00.000-05:002003-01-17T14:09:48.000-05:00If you sez it again and again . . .
The administration says the U. of Mich admissions programs are racial quota systems in disguise. Ok, and I say that Bush is a space alien in disguise. That doesn’t make it true.
The administration’s argument:
The system provided 20 points to minority candidates in a 150-point formula that assessed their qualifications. Also, minority students often had Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875888782003-01-17T08:50:00.000-05:002003-01-17T09:30:18.000-05:00New reality show: Who wants a stunted, small-skulled baby?
A study following pregnant African-American and Dominican women in the South Bronx and Upper Manhattan has found that high levels of air pollution can cause smaller skulls in African American babies. The New York Times refers to "everyday pollutants in automobile exhaust, cigarette smoke and incinerators." Ok, car exhaust and Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875779442003-01-17T01:37:00.000-05:002003-01-17T08:37:03.000-05:00Watch this space
Coming soon: David Brooks and "The Triumph of Hope over Self-Interest:" Can we trust a man who can’t get the "Jenny From the Block" chorus right?Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875770292003-01-17T01:10:00.000-05:002003-01-17T01:42:15.000-05:00Well, on one hand . . .
Pandragon has a marvelous post, full of piss and vinegar and righteous anger, on the reality of white privilege and the absurdity of the angry rich white man. Come back soon, Jesse! For an interesting comparison, here’s an NY Times op-ed on "Afrikaner rage:"
Seeds of hatred continue to fester among Afrikaners who feel that the new democracy in South Africa and the Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875752172003-01-17T00:24:00.000-05:002003-01-17T00:44:05.000-05:00Oh, definitely frivolous. . .
After weighing in against affirmative action on MLK Day, what could Bush do for an encore? Perhaps entering the fray over malpractice - "pushing for strict limits on . . . jury awards," blaming "frivolous lawsuits" and "a litigious society" the same day the news covered a study on medical mistakes that found "operating room teams around the country leave sponges, Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875733062003-01-16T23:41:00.000-05:002003-01-17T08:56:55.000-05:00Class warfare
The Administration is now allowing managed care providers to limit and restrict coverage of emergency services for poor people on Medicaid. This reverses several years of policy, including that of the current administration as stated this last summer. Since 1997 Medicaid has used the "prudent layperson" standard - if your average Joe could reasonably assume there was an Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875385122003-01-16T11:16:00.000-05:002003-01-17T01:35:03.000-05:00Refinance now, white people!
There’s a letter in the NY Times today that claims affirmative action’s got to go because it’s racism and after all, as Einstein said, you can’t solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it. Hmm, let’s see: the idea that, for example, blacks are more or less subhuman creatures suitable only for slavery, apartheid, lynching, job & housing Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875317912003-01-16T08:42:00.000-05:002003-01-16T08:44:44.000-05:00 Legacy student goes after affirmative action . . .
So, says Bush, weighing in against affirmative action in the U. of Mich Supreme Court case,
"I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education," Mr. Bush said in a nationally televised address. "But the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed. At Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875308232003-01-16T08:15:00.000-05:002003-01-17T00:32:24.000-05:00Blaming the rollover victim
GM is now bashing the top auto regulator from my previous post (head National Highway Safety Administration guy Dr. Jeffrey Runge) and insisting that their SUVs are perfectly safe, and any deaths that might have occurred are the fault of stupid people who don’t buckle their seatbelts. Uh-huh. The NY Times article continues:
Heavier vehicles generally stand up Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4044235.post-875300392003-01-16T07:52:00.000-05:002003-01-16T08:19:22.000-05:00Munchies, terrorism and SUVs, oh my!
Recently a little ad has been appearing on the online New York Times courtesy of the Anti-Drug people; it has a little pot leaf, babbles about how drugs support terrorism, and links to their site with more of the same. Now, let’s make no mistake, this is a valid point. The only problem is that - as far as I can tell - the site offers about as much evidence Dan S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10274772087850836689noreply@blogger.com0