If this keeps up, New Hampshire will be a write off for presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney: President Obama continues to hold a substantial lead over Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, despite the presumptive Republican nominee's heavy campaigning in the state. The WMUR/Granite State Poll shows Obama with a nine-point lead over Romney, pulling more than … [Read more...] about Obama Piling Up Two Digit Lead in New Hampshire
Mitt Romney Picks a Vice President
This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. … [Read more...] about Mitt Romney Picks a Vice President
Justice Will Win in the Zimmerman Trial
I have made it a point not to get involved in the back-and-forth over the February 26 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla. I have done so because, just as the author of what might have been one of the more objective pieces written on this tragedy, I also "[a]m not sure what happened the night [Zimmerman] … [Read more...] about Justice Will Win in the Zimmerman Trial
The Corruption of Wikipedia
I recently appeared on Celia Farber's Radio Free Science talk show, regarding the corruption of Wikipedia: Boy I say "um" a lot. I'm losing my public speaking mojo. But in any case, I think we discuss some important issues regarding what is probably the world's most widely-read and used reference resource. … [Read more...] about The Corruption of Wikipedia
Colombia Rejects U.S. Airline’s Secret Service ‘Sex’ Ad (El Tiempo, Colombia)
Has America's Spirit Airlines overstepped the bounds of propriety by producing an advertisement in which a man appearing to be a U.S. Secret Service agent surrounded by bikini-clad beauties suggests air travel to Cartegena, Colombia? According to this news item from Colombia's El Tiempo, the government of Colombia regards this as inappropriate subliminal advertising, and has … [Read more...] about Colombia Rejects U.S. Airline’s Secret Service ‘Sex’ Ad (El Tiempo, Colombia)
Moral Hazard, Health Care Coverage and the Individual Mandate
Whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA), now before the Supreme Court, will survive in its current form is in some doubt, with the individual mandate particularly in danger of being overturned. Though Congress has the power to regulate interstate commercial activity, opponents of the law believe it can not impose a tax or fee on inactivity, such as the failure of citizens to … [Read more...] about Moral Hazard, Health Care Coverage and the Individual Mandate
Beyond Valley of the Dolls: Psychedelic Drugs, Healing and Dying in the 21st Century
WASHINGTON - It's the 21st century, but enlightenment is a long way away. We were better off and on the launching pad to a higher plain back in the 1960s. Even Richard Nixon believed in national health care and that was over 4 decades ago. “Rick Doblin has done a lot for the field, but he is more of a populist,” Grob says. “We need careful and controlled scientific … [Read more...] about Beyond Valley of the Dolls: Psychedelic Drugs, Healing and Dying in the 21st Century
Zimmerman Released from Jail: Destined for Undisclosed Location
George Zimmerman is now out of jail: George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer charged with second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, was released early on Monday from a Florida county jail on $150,000 bail. Wearing a brown jacket, jeans and carrying a brown paper bag, Zimmerman walked out of the John E. Polk … [Read more...] about Zimmerman Released from Jail: Destined for Undisclosed Location
Even Stomach Cramps Get Higher Poll Ratings
As his trial opens today, a new CBS News poll finds former Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards' approval rating is at 3 percent. Even stomach cramps get higher poll ratings. Does mean he'll be offered a show on Current TV? … [Read more...] about Even Stomach Cramps Get Higher Poll Ratings
Can Hallucinogens Help Depression?
Doctors are asking again: Researchers from around the world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four decades. They plan to discuss studies of psilocybin and other psychedelics for treating depression in cancer patients, obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic … [Read more...] about Can Hallucinogens Help Depression?
Polling Shift: Obama Up in Gallup Daily Tracking: Romney Loses Gallup Daily Tracking Poll Lead As Obama’s Numbers Inch Up
Are the signs that the most recent political narrative may be getting ready to shift? One of the big polling stories in recent days has been the decline of President Barack Obama in some polls, particularly the highly respected Gallup Poll. For a while now it had Obama with a negative daily poll tracking number and in recent daily tracking poll matchups with presumptive … [Read more...] about Polling Shift: Obama Up in Gallup Daily Tracking: Romney Loses Gallup Daily Tracking Poll Lead As Obama’s Numbers Inch Up
Secret Service Agent
This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. … [Read more...] about Secret Service Agent
No One Wins in the Zimmerman Trial
My wife is one of the most intelligent people I know, so when she speaks about a topic, I tend to listen. It's only fair because after two decades of marriage I tend to ignore everything else she says. When George Zimmerman appeared at his bail hearing, she walked past the sofa and said, "You don't sympathize with that guy, do you?" I said that I'm not sure what happened the … [Read more...] about No One Wins in the Zimmerman Trial
A Watchable Mess Of A Movie & A Great Remake: Report From 20 Paws Ranch
ROONEY MARA AS LISBETH SALANDERThe Magnificent Seven (1960), a remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic samurai epic Seven Samurai, and King Kong (2005), Peter Jackson's reverential remake of the original. To which can now be added the 2011 American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which hews to Swedish writer Stieg Larsson's posthumous runaway international … [Read more...] about A Watchable Mess Of A Movie & A Great Remake: Report From 20 Paws Ranch
How to Beat Citizens United
WASHINGTON -- We are about to have the worst presidential campaign money can buy. The Supreme Court's dreadful Citizens United decision and a somnolent Federal Election Commission will allow hundreds of millions of dollars from a small number of very wealthy people and interests to inundate our airwaves with often vicious advertisements for which no candidate will be … [Read more...] about How to Beat Citizens United
The Switch Family Robinson
Happy Earth Day. Not to scale or ethnicity or nothing Down in Cave Junction, Oregon, a brave family of castaways makes do without any understanding of the society of the 20th and 21st centuries. Oddly straddling the worlds of legitimate science and the world of crank science; "education reform" and "edumacashun," they eke out a meager existence only backed by the shadowy … [Read more...] about The Switch Family Robinson
Book Review: “Deadline Artists: America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns” by John Avlon, Jesse Angelo & Errol Louis
If you’ve been fruitlessly looking all these years for a big, fat book crammed with a cross section of the very best work of a variety of American newspaper columnists spanning many years: look no more. The book you’ve been fruitlessly looking for is now here. I’ve always loved columns and columnists and one of the hardest things to find was a book of columnists. Not a … [Read more...] about Book Review: “Deadline Artists: America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns” by John Avlon, Jesse Angelo & Errol Louis
FOR [MOTHER] EARTH DAY: FOUR SMALL STORIES OF RAGE AND REPAIR
I rarely ask you to read a long piece all the way through. I hope you will take a few minutes, and take a deep breath and read or pray (or if you'd like to cut to the chase, go to the last two stories at the bottom of the page) through these four stories within stories here with me in honor of MOTHER EARTH DAY. I thought to break these four good stories to you, up into four … [Read more...] about FOR [MOTHER] EARTH DAY: FOUR SMALL STORIES OF RAGE AND REPAIR
Two Looks At One Event
In Utah this week the GOP nominated the daughter of Haitian immigrants for Congress Here is how National Review covered it. Here is how they took it at Daily Kos Now I would hardly expect DK to say much positive about any Republican, or indeed anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders, but some of the comments certainly seem over the line, especially given that they … [Read more...] about Two Looks At One Event
It’s a Fracking Ponzi Scheme
To get the natural gas price, please enable Javascript. Hydraulic Fracking can recover otherwise unrevcoveable natural gas but it's expensive. With natural gas around $2.00 there is simply no way there is any money to be made leading some to refer to it as a ponzi scheme. Chesapeake Energy is a big player in the fracking business and the chickens may be coming home to … [Read more...] about It’s a Fracking Ponzi Scheme