…from Senate Republicans.
A Defense Of The Humanities
This is not what Chad Orzel wants.
I think that he misses another point — that what “the humanities” have gotten badly watered down over the decades, since the New Left took over campi, lacking rigor and polluted by all the “studies” majors.
[Afternoon update]
This seems related: Ten questions for Camille Paglia. She is a national treasure.
The “Phony” IRS Scandal
Finally, a criminal investigation is taking place.
But remember, there’s not a “smidgen” of corruption.
[Afternoon update]
Here’s the story from the Washington Post:
According to Camus, the IRS’s technology specialists told investigators that no one from the agency asked for the tapes. His comments raised doubts about whether the IRS did its due diligence in trying to locate Lerner’s emails, or possibly greater troubles.
You don’t say.
“There is potential criminal activity,” Camus said.
…Koskinen acknowledged last year that the inspector general’s office was reviewing the circumstances surrounding Lerner’s hard-drive crash and the missing emails, but Thursday marked the first time that the office said it was specifically conducting a criminal probe.
The Silicon-Valley Space Race
A good perspective on the new industry, and why it’s different than the 90s.
Fuel In Space
Is it a job for the oil and gas industry, or space miners? I think the former has a lot of expertise and experience to offer.
Those Terrible Tea Party People
…want to bring back segregation and end womens’ rights.
What lunacy.
The “Skeptical Seven” Witch Hunt
Roy Spencer says it’s just beginning. Yes, unless we inflict severe pain on the new Cotton Mathers.
[Update a while later]
More from John Hayward:
I must admit I find myself in strong disagreement with Dr. Pielke about the wisdom of these measures, being an out-and-proud unreconstructed climate skeptic myself, but it would never occur to me to hound him off the public stage or target him with intimidating government investigations. I’ve got some very old-fashioned ideas about how “science” and “debate” are supposed to work.
As Pielke goes on to observe, the “crime” that brought this “investigation” to bear was saying something true – “it is incorrect to associate the increasing costs of disasters with the emission of greenhouse gases” – and being a prominent scientist while doing it. It’s great that congressional Democrats have time for this sort of thing, isn’t it? They’re worse than useless when it comes to the IRS abusing its power against American citizens, the Department of Veterans Affairs turning into a horror show, the Administration lying about a deadly attack on a U.S. consulate, or the Justice Department running guns into Mexico, but they’ve got plenty of time and resources to crack down on uppity climate scientists.
The media’s all over this abuse of government power, right? Not so much, says Pielke: “So far, I have been contacted by only 2 reporters at relatively small media outlets. I’d say that the lack of interest in a politician coming after academics is surprising, but to be honest, pretty much nothing surprises me in the climate debate anymore. Even so, there is simply no excuse for any reporter to repeat incorrect claims made about me, given how easy I am to find and just ask.”
There might not be any excuse for it, Dr. Pielke, but there certainly are reasons. Come have a few sustainable, renewable drinks with the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy sometime, and we’ll compare notes on how modern “journalism” works.
Or doesn’t.
[Update a few minutes later]
If you’ve ever called someone a “denier,” read this. It’s about you.
Kevin Williamson
Politifact made him mad. That’s never a good idea.
The ObamaCare Fallback Plan
Of course they’re lying about not having one. Everything they do with regard to health care has been a lie. And of course, all this talk of chaos if SCOTUS rules against the administration is just an attempt to influence their decision.
Scott Walker’s “Insidious Agnosticism”
Ann Althouse takes the odious Dana Milbank to the wood shed.
It’s quite amusing to see all these non-Christians in the media (almost literally) pontificating on who is and isn’t Christian. It reminds me of the radio interview I had with Thom Hartmann a few years ago, when he tried to insist that McVeigh was a Christian terrorist. I said, no, he said himself that he was agnostic. “But wasn’t he born a Christian,” he asked, as though it was a race? Ultimately, he had to back down.
As I’ve noted on Twitter, Walker’s response is exactly right. He can’t know whether Barack Obama is a Christian, though there’s little good evidence that he is, or ever has been. As it says in 1 Corinthians 2:11, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?”
[Update a few minutes later]
Walker himself responds on his refusal to take the media’s bait:
There has been much discussion about a media double standard where Republicans are covered differently than Democrats, asked to weigh in on issues the Democrats don’t face. As a result, when we refuse to take the media’s bait, we suffer.
I felt it this week when I was asked to weigh in on what other people said and did and what others’ beliefs are. If you are looking for answers to those questions, ask those people.
Yes, and it infuriates them that they can’t get a gaffe out of him, and so they have to manufacture one.