I’m not above admitting that my views change — or, more specifically, that I modify them as I learn more — and I seem to be warming more and more to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. When he was first nominated, I called him “a right wing radical” and I argued that his nomination was “clearly for the base” (see here). A day later, having digested the pick and gotten over my wishful thinking that Bush would tap more of a moderate, I admitted that I was “not...

This is nice. As reported by Media Matters, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, one of the leading figures on the evangelical right, recently compared stem-cell research to Nazi experimentation on living human beings: You know, the thing that means so much to me here on this this issue [embryonic stem cell research] is that people talk about the potential for good that can come from destroying these little embryos and how we might be able to solve the problem of juvenile diabetes. There’s...

South Korean researchers have cloned a dog. That’s right, cloned a dog. And the name of the cloned canine is Snuppy. Cloning enthusiasts no doubt see this as a major triumph, a step towards actual human cloning, but ethicists may see it as yet another, well, Sign of the Apocalypse. I’m somewhat ambivalent.

A follow up to Joe’s recent post on Bush’s views on intelligent design as revealed on Monday in a roundtable interview with Texas journalists: In that interview, Bush also addressed Rove and Palmeiro (each a presidential friend, in his own way), stating that he continues to have confidence in the former and that he believes that the latter never took steroids. I’ve got more on this at The Reaction. The complete transcript of the interview is here. Look, I’ll admit that I’m...

I recently mentioned that Iran was set to remove the IAEA seals from one of its uranium-conversion facilities, thereby getting back in the nuclear game. Well, as the Post reports (see here), a new U.S. intelligence report indicates that Iran is still about a decade away from nuclear weaponry. It seems reasonable to keep all options on the table, but there now seems to be adequate time to deal with Iran through non-military means. There’s evidently no need to rush into any sort of ill-advised,...

King Fahd has died. The question is, will Prince Abdullah continue to be the reformer he’s made himself out to be in recent years? Perhaps this is finally Saudi Arabia’s chance to break on through into modernity…

Well, that didn’t last long — nine months, to be precise. Despite ongoing talks with Britain, France, and Germany, Iran has announced that it will remove the IAEA seals at one of its uranium-conversion facilities. Whether Iran’s nuclear program is intended for power (as Iran alleges) or weaponry (as the U.S. alleges), this is terrible news. Stay tuned…

A shocking story to some, more of an “I told you so” to others, Rafael Palmeiro — long held to be one of the good guys of Major League Baseball — has tested positive for steroids and has been suspended for 10 days. Palmeiro has already denied that he took a banned substance, but that emphatic denial before Congress several months ago isn’t looking so good. Nor is his shot at Cooperstown. And that’s a shame, given his otherwise admirable career.

I’ve come across two must-reads on the situation in Iraq, one by Fred Kaplan at Slate and one by David Ignatius at The Washington Post. Check them out. At The Reaction, I highlight key passages and offer some additional commentary.

From the Canada desk: Thes other day, I wrote a post at The Reaction (and a shorter version here at TMV) that suggested that Canada is falling behind its G8 partners and others in terms of investment in R&D — as measured by GERD/GDP (Gross Expenditures on Research and Development as a fraction of GDP). I based my argument on a post by Paul Wells, a leading Canadian journalist who writes for Macleans (our Time or Newsweek), at his wonderful blog Inkless Wells. Well, one of my readers commented...

Terrorism (or “violent extremism”) continues to dominate the news — there was even a bomb scare in Toronto’s subway system yesterday morning — but it’s not all bad news: The promise of lasting peace seems to have taken hold in Northern Ireland. The Times reports here: The Irish Republican Army declared an end on Thursday to a 36-year campaign of violence against Britain that was aimed at unifying Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic. The long-awaited announcement...

Over at The Reaction, I occasionally do blog round-ups — similar to what Joe does here at TMV — and Wednesday evening I was scouring the blogosphere for posts (and the MSM for articles) on Plamegate (as it’s now being called in some circles — I prefer Rovegate). There’s a lot out there in the news at the moment — Roberts, terrorism, Iraq — but there seem to be some new and prominent developments to what is, admittedly, a somewhat tiresome story. Liberal bloggers...

Is the Bush Administration fixing science around politics? On issues like stem-cell research and climate change, both of which Bush seems to be against (that is, he doesn’t believe in them), have accepted scientific research and the public’s trust in scientific inquiry been the casualties of Bush’s faith-based understanding of reality? Click here for more. For more on climate change, see here and here.

This is another story that’s been drowned out by Roberts and Rove. Or perhaps we’re all just used to this sort of thing by now. Last week, Hewlett-Packard announced that it was planning to lay off 14,500 employees, or 10% of its workforce, over the next 18 months. This is on top of 17,800 layoffs in the wake of HP’s failed merger with Compag. Meanwhile, in case you missed it, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina walked away with about $51.5 million. HP’s current CEO, Mark Hurd, said...

From the Canada desk: According to Macleans blogger Paul Wells, Canada is falling behind both its G8 partners and up-and-coming economic powerhouses like China, India, and Brazil in terms of R&D. A country’s commitment to R&D may be determined by calculating its GERD (Gross Expenditure on Research and Development, measured as a fraction of GDP). Canada’s GERD, it seems, has been declining since 2002. For more on this, see my recent post at The Reaction. This is one of those below-the-radar...

I recently asked that question, but after seeing him on The Daily Show last night I must admit — gulp! — that I actually respect the man. He was intelligent and articulate, and not nearly as insane as much of his ideological rhetoric makes him out to be. I hardly agree with him on anything, but in sparring amicably with our favourite late-night host he proved that he’s a worthy adversary on the right. See my (delayed) liveblogging of Santorum’s appearance on The Daily Show,...

Over at The Reaction, I’ve just posted on the Democratic Leadership Council’s meeting in Columbus, and I begin to address the big-tent theory of party politics that seems to elude Democrats. I tend to side with the DLCers against, say, the Deaniacs (hey, I’m a moderate!), but I worry that Democrats are engaging in yet another victory-preventing civil war. You know, the usual squabbles over ideological purity at the expense of electoral success. Republicans are so good at the unity...

This story is huge, and it’s quite incredible that the media, at least on this side of the pond, have largely ignored it: According to British Defence Secretary John Reid, British forces will be withdrawn from Iraq over the next 12 months. There are currently only 8,500 British troops in Iraq, mostly in the more peaceful south, but Britain is clearly the #2 allied presence there (and America’s #1 ally, period), and one wonders what a withdrawal will mean for America’s Iraq policy...

It’s obviously too little too late, but Bill Clinton has apologized for not doing enough to stop the genocide in Rwanda. But at least his heart’s in the right place and he’s now working to alleviate the scourge of AIDS in Africa. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait a decade for a Hotel Darfur or a Hotel Bukavu to show us what we could have stopped.

A word of caution. This is for adults only. I recently found a curious story in Der Spiegel, Germany’s leading newsmagazine. It has to do with a young Norwegian couple that has taken a new approach, shall we say, to environmentalism, specifically to saving the rainforests. For more on this, see my full post at The Reaction. I link there to this young Norwegian couple’s website, “F— for Forest,” which, as the name suggests, links pornography to environmentalism. If you...

From the Canada desk: A few weeks ago, the House of Commons passed Bill C-38, the bill to sanction same-sex marriage, 158-133. Late Tuesday night, the more heavily Liberal Senate, our appointed upper house, passed it 47-21. And late Wednesday afternoon, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, standing in for Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, gave the bill royal assent. Canada thus becomes the fourth country — after Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain — to sanction same-sex marriage. For more...

It’s been almost a day, and with that time comes perspective. So what do we know about Roberts today? Last night, at The Reaction, as well as here at TMV, I argued that Roberts is something of a “right-wing radical”. On issues like abortion, the separation of church and state, criminal law, and habeas corpus, he is certainly on the right, though of course how you label him is very much a matter of perception. (See Slate’s review of his background here.) In this sense, I must...

It might be too early to judge John Roberts, but he is, as Wolf Blitzer just said, “a rock-solid conservative”. I’d call him a right-wing radical (see Slate’s evaluation here). Bush could have gone a number of different ways, but this one’s clearly for the base. Still, he’ll be confirmed (quite easily, I’d imagine). For weeks, we’ve all been throwing names around, but now at least we can do more than speculate idly (and, at times, wildly). For more...