The Obama administration has had shifting explanations for the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of US diplomats. After initially claiming that it was the result of spontaneous anger over the Innocence of Muslims film, it then said that it was a planned attack by al Qaeda that used a demonstration generated by that anger as a cover. It now appears that there was no demonstration at all. [Read more…]
… you recognize the names of pop culture celebrities because they appear frequently in news headlines and accompanying photos (names such as Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban, Amanda Bynes, Taylor Hicks) and you not only do not know what they are famous for (Are they singers? reality show stars? actors? people whose naked photos have appeared on the internet?) but you don’t care enough to read the story or click on the link to find out.
Yep, I’m an old geezer and proud of it. Hey, when’s Matlock on?
Remember my post last month about Ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis protesting a proposed new law in New York City that would require parents to sign a consent form before the rabbis could practice a form of circumcision where the rabbi uses his mouth to suck the blood from the infant’s bleeding penis? [Read more…]
I have been writing about the problems of misconduct in research with academics having to resign as a result of misconduct. [Read more…]
The debate was certainly livelier than the presidential one, with surprisingly quite substantive exchanges between the two participants. I think that this debate showed more clearly the differences between the two candidates, especially on domestic policy. You can watch it and read the transcript here [Read more…]
They provide one of the best examinations of how the entire ‘plan’ is a fraud. There is no plan. All there is is a bunch of words strung together to make people feel that they will get something for nothing. [Read more…]
As regular readers would have guessed by now, I am very fond of Baxter the Wonder Dog. I think it is safe to say that most people either like dogs a lot or are indifferent to them, with only a few actively disliking them. [Read more…]
In the wake of the release of the Pew survey that showed a rapid growth in those who call themselves religiously unaffiliated, the Religion News Service surveyed some religious leaders for their reactions. Many of them focused on the fact that young people are leading the move away from religious institutions. Here are some reactions. [Read more…]
The notable silence by the Republicans on the issue of same-sex marriage during the current election campaign is a sign, if one needed one, of how rapidly sentiment has shifted on this issue. In 2004 opposition to this was very potent and was used to galvanize voters to go to the polls and vote for George W. Bush. Daniel McCarthy argues in The American Conservative that it is one more sign of the retreat of religion in the face of modernity. [Read more…]
The people of Cleveland are huge sports fans. The sports section of the daily paper The Plain Dealer is easily the largest section, not to mention the extra sports supplements that it puts out regularly. Like other newspapers around the nation, the paper has been cutting back on beat reporters and news coverage, except for sports. [Read more…]