Maybe it’s like a zoo lion; they get so used to easy living their once honed reflexes grow dull. Romney, the quintessential political animal, may have suffered a similar fate thanks to kowtowing conservative media that goes out of its way to indulge him and big bucks to paper over any remaining stupidity. Whatever, speaking at the NRA, Mitt Romney dove headlong right back into the ovary wars attacking the President and the ACA: [Read more…]
Carl Sagan standing next to a model of the Viking Lander. Click image for background on Viking.
The question of whether there is life on other planets took a fresh turn this week as new analysis of old data collected by the Viking Landers in 1976 found signs of extant microbes on Mars. Back in the day one test yielded promising results, but another experiment found no organic compounds consistent with life, so mission scientists assumed the former was a simple oxidizing reaction and not a biological one. That’s where the new analysis comes in: [Read more…]
Belly up the blog, comrade unbelievers, I need science content to consider for the Saturday Science round up on Daily Kos tomorrow. I’ll consider anything linked in comments, especially stuff that’s well researched and written with a political angle.
The flap over Hilary Rosen is a reminder of the reality bending power that comes with having your own media dedicated to keeping the ignorant in the dark. In the space of a few minutes a CNN pundit was morphed into a member of the Obama administration, if not Obama himself, and her comment the most vicious attack on America and apple pie since the Haymarket bombing. The ensuing circus shut down the right-wing blogosphere for several hours as they dreamed of having a foil to fend off a recent record of serial attacks on women’s’ rights. If not for a North Korean missile launch and tweet too far by the Catholic League disparaging adoptive parents, it might be going full tilt still.
The details are murky and, considering the source, unlikely to become much clearer. But word is the much vaunted North Korean launch of a Unha-3 rocket from a newly completed Tangachai-ri space center, believed to consist of three stages with at least one heavy liquid fuel stage, failed just after liftoff for reasons unknown. [Read more…]
The Romney gang held a press conference in an attempt to start earning back the votes of millions of women they risked during the Clown Show. So Sam Stein asked a real simple questions and … [Read more…]
It’s true that politicians will twist themselves into supple shapes to appeal to voters. But Romney’s contortions so far have already been unprecedented. In classic baby-eating conservative form, Romney’s best acrobatics may still be ahead, because one of the the biggest challenge he faces concerns Romney’s most effective and humane work as a political animal: the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform package which turned six years-old today. This is only a problem because today’s religious-right dominated conservative movement cannot abide decency and humanity married to good government in any way, shape, or form, and especially when The Enemy might get credit for saving thousands of US lives and sparing thousands more endless misery. [Read more…]
We’re no doubt going to be treated to a full on freak out jamboree in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case over the next few weeks. In case you were stuck inside a wormhole, Zimmerman is in custody and has been charged with 2nd degree murder (and The Twitter is a’hopp’n). Above is one the best example of Dave Chapelle’s subtle and yet acerbic take on racism; as the black White Supremacist Clayton Bigsby.
This just in, George Zimmerman will reportedly be charged in the death of Trayvon Martin:
(Miami Herald) — Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey is expected to charge — as early as today — neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, various media outlets, citing anonymous sources, are reporting. Corey will make an announcement on the case at 6 p.m. Wednesday, her office confirmed. The word came shortly after Trayvon’s parents attended a national conference in Washington, D.C. led by Rev. Al Sharpton. They expressed fear that people will react to the news with violence and urged calm.
Interesting analysis on the Book of Revelations from the New Yorker. I don’t know enough to judge this take, but I bet some readers here do. Longish excerpt below: [Read more…]