War Commentary

No Sense Of Humor

Think of this next time someone says that George Bush has “destroyed civil liberties” in this country:

“While the outcome of the recent arrests in connection with SMS messaging is not clear yet, what is certain is that SMS jokes have already put some people into serious trouble,” wrote the website Rooz Online.

The clampdown is in line with the authorities’ uncompromising stance on the internet and bloggers. Wary of modern communications as a means of spreading political dissent, Iran is second only to China in the number of websites it filters – using technology made in America.

Large numbers of the nation’s estimated 70,000 to 100,000 bloggers have faced harassment or imprisonment. The regime has acknowledged monitoring text message traffic. It first admitted it had access to text traffic last December when a military plane carrying more than 100 journalists crashed shortly after take-off at Tehran airport.

Science And Society

A Rare Editorial

From Paul Hsieh, on global warming.

I don’t expect this one blog post to immediately change many minds on this contentious issue. For now, I’d be satisfied with making the point that the issue is not the simple slam-dunk as is typically portrayed in the usual news media. Nor are the opponents of global warming hypothesis/Kyoto treaty necessarily stupid or corrupt.

Philosophy

Mazel Tov

For those lacking patience, I give you the two-minute Haggadah.

Speaking of children: We hid some matzoh. Whoever finds it gets five bucks.

The story of Passover: It’s a long time ago. We’re slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh is a nightmare. We cry out for help. God brings plagues upon the Egyptians. We escape, bake some matzoh. God parts the Red Sea. We make it through; the Egyptians aren’t so lucky. We wander 40 years in the desert, eat manna, get the Torah, wind up in Israel, get a new temple, enjoy several years without being persecuted again. (Let brisket cool now.)

Happy Passover.

[via Joe Katzman]

Space

Welcome To The Conspiracy, Mark

I guess it’s time to give Mark Whittington the secret decoder ring, and initiate him into the Secret Brotherhood of Internet Rocketeers:

Clearly recent experience teaches us that simply telling the current NASA to go forth and build a lunar base is the last thing anyone would want to do. For NASA the construction of a lunar base would be the work of decades and at least tens of billions of dollars. If you like how NASA has managed the International Space Station, you

Media Criticism

No Media Bias Here

For a textbook case, let’s dissect this story, from the San Francisco Chronicle. Start with the hed:

Democrat leads in bid to claim GOP House seat

Rep. Cunningham was convicted of taking bribes

Note that it’s a two parter. The first is about the election, the other is old news, but it never hurts to remind the readers that, you know, Republicans Are Corrupt. It’s that old “culture of corruption” thing (recall that this is Nancy Pelosi’s hometown rag).

Now while it’s true that the Democrat got more votes than anyone else in the race, it’s misleading, because it gives you no hint as to what will actually happen in the election in June, but you’d think from the headline that the Dem is the front runner. Here’s the real story, buried about halfway down:

Busby, a Cardiff school board member and daughter of an Italian sausagemaker, received 44 percent of the vote by spotlighting a proposed ethics policy that would bar lawmakers from secretly meeting, taking money or accepting gifts from lobbyists, “no exceptions.”

The Republican vote was divided among 14 GOP candidates, with Bilbray finishing with 15 percent of the vote, about 900 votes ahead of Roach, according to election-night figures.

Emphasis mine.

In other words, the one Democrat running in the race could only muster 44% of the vote. Unless she can somehow persuade seven percent of the district electorate (or at least of those voting in this election) that are Republicans to vote for her instead of the eventual Republican candidate, she doesn’t have a prayer of winning, despite the implication of the headline. That 44% is her max, unless they can somehow increase donkey turnout, and decrease Republican. But the readers of the Chron have to figure this out, because the paper is not only not going to tell them, it’s going to attempt to imply that she actually has a chance.

Of course, this kind of cocooning is exactly why the Dems continue to lose each election, and be chronically (pun intended) disappointed–they continue to overhype their chances to their base, both from the official party organization and from their accomplices in the newsrooms.

Political Commentary

Where’s The ACLU?

I don’t know if this is true, but given the loony bins that modern universities have become I can easily believe it:

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield

Political Commentary

Where’s The ACLU?

I don’t know if this is true, but given the loony bins that modern universities have become I can easily believe it:

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield

Political Commentary

Where’s The ACLU?

I don’t know if this is true, but given the loony bins that modern universities have become I can easily believe it:

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield

Political Commentary

Speaking Of The Hammer

When I read this story, all I could think was WTF? I mean WTFF?

The White House is looking at a list of cost-cutting candidates to head the Office of Management and Budget, and Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, may be on it.

Would that be the same Tom Delay who said that there was no fat left in the federal budget? That “cost-cutting candidate”? That appointment would indicate that the administration is completely unserious about cutting spending (not that there hasn’t been abundant evidence of that over the past five plus years).

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!