This is how petty election politics have become this year: a Republican denies children Halloween candy if they won’t agree with her choice of McCain for president.
The New Humanist has a yearly anti-award event, the Bad Faith Awards, given to the “most scurrilous enemy of reason” for the year. Last year, Dinesh D’Souza won; so far this year, two have been nominated, with more nominations to come. The two are Ann Coulter and, of course, Sarah Palin. They asked me to nominate someone, and I’m the wicked fellow who thought Palin was deserving…but perhaps they would have gotten a more persuasive nomination if they’d asked Jerry Coyne.
Even when he’s making an attack ad, Obama keeps it clean.
Personally, I found the little vignettes about ordinary Americans a bit off-putting — political sentimentality makes me cynical. I was more interested in hearing Obama simply speak about his policies. I was most impressed with a superficial factor: wouldn’t it be cool to have a president who could open his mouth and say something and not sound like an illiterate hick?
I’ve written a couple of posts decrying the tactics of Elizabeth Dole — who uses the act of talking to atheists as a smear — and favoring her opponent, Kay Hagan. It seems Ms. Hagan doesn’t like us very much, though.
Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan angrily demanded Wednesday that incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole take down a new ad that questions the challenger’s ties to an atheist political group, calling the spot a slanderous and pathetic attempt to maintain political power.
Hagan’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist order to Dole’s campaign, saying the “libelous” ad should come down within 24 hours. The order promised legal action if the ad stays on the air.
So…being called an atheist is “slanderous” and “libelous”, huh? Oh, well, then. Never mind, North Carolina, it doesn’t matter who you vote for in that election, you’re getting a loser. I suppose you should still vote for Hagan, but only for her party and not because she’s on our side.
Big news: the editors of Seed have officially endorsed Barack Obama for President. OK, not surprising, I suppose…any organization that relies on or promotes scientific thinking has absolutely no choice in this election, so Obama is going to get the nod.
I do like one specific statement in the endorsement:
Science is a way of governing, not just something to be governed. Science offers a methodology and philosophy rooted in evidence, kept in check by persistent inquiry, and bounded by the constraints of a self-critical and rigorous method. Science is a lens through which we can and should visualize and solve complex problems, organize government and multilateral bodies, establish international alliances, inspire national pride, restore positive feelings about America around the globe, embolden democracy, and ultimately, lead the world. More than anything, what this lens offers the next administration is a limitless capacity to handle all that comes its way, no matter how complex or unanticipated.
If you have an alternative way of governing, please do tell us about it in the comments.
Do I detect a note of anxiety in my Minnesota readers? Lately I’ve been getting lots of email from concerned locals who are worried about Tim Tingelstad, a candidate for the Minnesota Supreme Court, who is a religious wackaloon.
“Everyone has an opinion or belief as to where absolute truth is and where it comes from, and that’s what I’m telling people where I believe my rock solid foundation is,” Tingelstad says. “I believe that absolute truth exists and that it comes from God.”
And that’s one of his milder statements. I’ve mentioned this guy before, but you all know how it is — judicial elections usually fly under the radar, and most people go into the voting booth with no clue about who these guys are, and they vote for the wrong reasons. In Minnesota, there is a bit of a tendency for candidates with good Scandinavian names to have an edge (Tingelstad doesn’t have an advantage here; his opponent is named Anderson), and there might be a little bit of an anti-incumbent bias this year (Tingelstad is a challenger), so no one knows how it could swing this time around.
It’s simple, though. Don’t vote for crazy Tingelstad; do vote for Anderson.
Unless you really want a deranged theocratic god-babbler on the supreme court, of course.
McCain once again whined about studying bear DNA, and it’s clear that the decrepit old man doesn’t have a clue about the value of biological research. But the other interesting revelation is that while denouncing earmarks for studying bear DNA, overhead projectors, or fruit fly research, the complaint is not about earmarks, but about funding science.
How can we tell? It turns out that Sarah Palin was happy to lobby for earmarks to study recreational halibut fishing, the mating habits of crabs, and harbor seal DNA. Those all sound like legitimate science projects to me, but I doubt that Palin recognized that — all she cares about is diverting money to her bailiwick. This is a different kind of abuse of science, where it’s seen only as a tool for local profit … and you just know that she would not support even local science that interfered with her plans.
Really low. Here’s an anti-Al Franken brochure that’s being mailed around here in Minnesota—that’s aimed at kids, with childish illustrations, while accusing Franken of some contemptible acts.
“Come on in, kids… Senator Franken’s going to tell a few jokes!”
“We shouldn’t have to be ashamed of Minnesota’s senator!”
Al Franked tackled a protestor at a political rally- and bragged about it
“We shouldn’t have to wonder what he will say…”
Al Franken wrote a pornographic column in Playboy- and thought it was funny.
“We shouldn’t have to apologize for his actions…”
Al Franken has written so-called comedy routines about raping women.
Al Franken: A bad example for our kids; completely unfit for public office
Charming. Man, but I hope Coleman sinks into the sewage permanently next week — but apparently this is still a very close race.
The Anchorage Daily News has just endorsed…Barack Obama for president. Say, wasn’t there a favorite daughter of the fine state of Alaska on that ticket?
Bora has several videos of some fruit fly researchers defending their work. Of course, if you really want to get into the details, here’s the progress report of the very same specific research project that Caribou Barbie dissed.
Walker A Jones
EUROPEAN BIOLOGICAL CONTROL RESEARCH
Director
CS90013 MONTFERRIER SUR LEZ
34988 ST. GELY DU FESC CEDEX
MONTPELLIER,Research Project: DISCOVERY, BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF NATURAL ENEMIES OF INSECT PESTS OF CROPS, URBAN AND NATURAL AREAS
2007 Annual Report1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
Explore for natural enemies (pathogens, parasites and predators) in the native range of insect pests identified as high priority targets by the ARS National Program Staff. Identify, colonize and evaluate the most promising natural enemies and ship to U.S. cooperators. Results of laboratory and field studies will be used to improve the ability to predict key factors for application to future programs. Key target pests include the Asian longhorned beetle(Anoplophora glabripennis), emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), wheat stem sawfly (Cephus cinctus), olive fly (Bactrocera oleae), Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus), and plant bugs (several species).NP304, Component V: Pest Control Technologies. A key natural enemy of the olive fruit fly in Africa is discovered and shipped to California. The olive fruit fly threatens olive production in California. Long known in the Old World, it invaded California without its co-evolved natural enemies. Among several parasitic wasps discovered from Eurasia and Africa, one from Kenya, and southern Africa was showed to be specific to olive fruit fly. Extensive collections in Kenya, South Africa and Namibia yielded several thousand olive fruit flies which were shipped to the ARS laboratory in France for processing. Seventeen shipments containing over 13,000 parasitic wasps (Psyttalia lounsburyi) were subsequently shipped to California for evaluation and release. If successfully established, it is highly likely that pesticide use and associated costs will be substantially reduced. This activity was accomplished in cooperation with USDA-APHIS, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the University of California, Berkeley.
But of course the Republican party opposes that project. It’s one that actually worked.
