Repeatedly, we proclaim that we are tired of the tactics of attack; we say we want civil discourse. Yet those who play to the extreme get rewarded with listeners and ditto-heads. So, who is responsible, those who throw the grenades, or those who cheer the explosions? Read “Can civility make a comeback?” and consider. — Cross-posted to Random Fate.

… especially when CEO bonuses are still being paid in the millions, this definition is more apropos than ever. “Criminal: A person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.”    -Howard Scott

… but we still have more to overcome. There have been many political cartoons, blog posts, news columns, and other statements saying that we have proved that the American Dream has been realized, that anyone can become President of the United States after the victory of Barack Obama, a man of mixed race. Yes, anyone can become President unless they are: gay (see Proposition 8 in California) Muslim (see the campaign tactics from the Republicans in the recent election) atheist (see the tactics...

What mad universe do we live in when satire becomes prescience?

I’ve had problems getting motivated to post lately, not entirely due to exhaustion arising from my busy personal life. There is an emotional drain on me from reading several weblogs whose authors once made rational arguments for their political views that have degenerated into throwing rocks at “the other side”. Sadly, “the other side” is just as interested as they are in throwing rocks. So both sides are busily pointing out the offenses of those they disagree with...

The HIV virus that causes AIDS was first thought to have emerged in the 1930s, but recent research indicates that the virus may be even older: Scientists trace AIDS virus origin to 100 years ago NEW YORK (AP) — The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests. Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908. Previously, scientists had...

This is the first in a planned series of posts on energy policy, arguably one of the most critical, long-term problems facing not only the United States but the world, and an issue that is already being discussed in the current electoral campaigns. Fundamentals – The nature of energy What do we mean when we talk about energy? Most people think of oil, and when they think of oil they think of gasoline prices. Some of the more broad-minded think also of electricity, natural gas, and coal. ...

There is something rather unusual about our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner“. We only sing part of it, and the last words of the part we commonly sing are a question: Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? It makes sense in the context of why it was written by Francis Scott Key, but most national anthems are solely about literally singing the praises of the country. Think about the question asked, though,...

A relatively brief but compelling prediction of the predilections of the current generation of members of our armed forces by Ray Kimball can be found at The Huffington Post. — Cross-posted at Random Fate.

The word “nigger” is bleeped out in television broadcasts (at least it was in a clip shown on a cable news show I saw the other day). The word “bitch” is used routinely in television shows now, often as a laugh line. Not meaning to pull a Ferraro, but does this reflect something about our culture that we refuse to face honestly? — Cross-posted to Random Fate.

It’s a sick world when this is a headline:    Severed fingers raise hope for abductees

During the Hillary Clinton rally in Austin on Monday night, the photographers were on the stage right before she entered the arena. One was getting a crowd shot, and he was captured in the act:

“I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.”    -Will Rogers That disorganization was certainly evident tonight in my precinct Democratic Party caucus. The photo above shows the most organized part of the evening, when people filed into the combination cafeteria/gym. There were questions about party rules regarding whether voters had to remain after signing in for their preferred candidate, and the Obama volunteers were loudly insisting their supporters remain...

Austin, TX – Texas, a whole other country, that’s a slogan used to promote tourism a few years back, and there is more truth to it than most people realize. I live in Austin, which although it is the capital of the state does not really reflect the culture of the state as a whole. The main campus of the University of Texas is located in Austin, and both the students and the professors have a huge impact on the character of the city. Austin is much more liberal than the rest of the state, but...

…explained in 30 seconds by Russ Feingold: I lived in France for just under two years. During that time the current version of FISA (which was just extended by voice vote for another 15 days to allow for more time to negotiate the next version) was in effect, and any of my phone calls home could have been monitored without judicial oversight, despite the fact I am an American citizen for whom no probable cause exists for any type of search. “Trust us” wasn’t good enough...

…and post the following: The people I am most afraid of are those who are the most afraid.    -Robert Frost

Cross-posted to Random Fate. — Let us take at face value the nominal, stated reasons as why various office-holders claim they have for taking their various actions. So, President George W. Bush vetoes the recent renewal/expansion of the S-CHIP bill because he is concerned that it is “creeping socialism” that would ultimately result in publicly funded healthcare, which goes against the libertarian philosophy of self-sufficiency and avoiding governmental interference. Yet, he promises...

…of course, the Republicans would NEVER do such a thing, so that makes it OK to attack the child when the Democrats do it. Oh, wait a minute…

At the weblog City of Brass, Aziz Poonawalla is posting his morning thoughts during Ramadan. I expect the meditations will provide very nutritious food for thought, as evidenced by the concluding lines from the first post: In fact, for the next two years, 9-11 will fall within Ramadan again. It is important for muslims to move beyond 9-11 as a context in which we defend our faith and simply embrace our faith on our own terms. The time for attempting to assuage other Americans’ fears about...

Cross-posted to Random Fate. — Upon becoming a stepdad, I’ve been introduced into the wonderful world of middle-school homework. One of the prevalent tasks (appearing in more than one class in more than one grade) is a “current event” summary. The student is to find a news article related to the class (this year we have two, one for Social Studies and one for Science) from a reliable source, primarily a newspaper or one of the major media websites, read the article, and...

Dr. Steven Taylor at Poliblog has a commentary on the comic book logic being used by some who believe the students at Virginia Tech didn’t act enough like “men”.

Cross-posted to Random Fate. — I’ve always been a big advocate of efficiency in resource use and minimal generation of pollution because it’s not simply poor form to crap in your own bed, in the long term it is deadly, regardless of what those who would like to think otherwise say. On the face of it, increased use of ethanol seems very promising in reducing at least some of the petroleum usage of the United States along with improving some aspects of the pollution generated by cars....

Ordinarily, I would have posted this to my personal weblog, Random Fate, but it is currently down because of some issues related to WordPress and how it needs to be properly configured to not overwhelm system resources with the host computer. Unfortunately, I’m not enough of a guru to tell my hosting service how to fix the issue. For almost two decades, I’ve been searching for the perfect computer. I use both Macintosh and PC programs, and I multitask like mad, frequently overwhelming...

Obviously crime pays, or there’d be no crime.    -G. Gordon Liddy

He’s a total radical, probably the most radical president we’ve ever had in terms of his definition of the power of the presidency. There’s nothing more dangerous than a radical who doesn’t have information, doesn’t learn from information and doesn’t learn from the past.    -Seymour Hersh, in a symposium at Tufts University This statement brings a question to my mind: Is it possible to remain a radical (of whatever stripe) if one does learn from...