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    We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for awhile, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
    Carl Sagan

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    New Nationalism Speech – Teddy Roosevelt History Lesson

    Mt. Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt closeup. Image via Wikipedia

    Since the 1980s (when I worked for Eastern Airlines, which no longer exists due to deregulation fever) we as a people have amnesia when it comes to the lessons that history teaches us.  Regulations did not just magically appear one day.  They were derived from the wisdom that came about from the mistakes of the past.  Reagan [...]



    Chomsky on Geithner (and some Colbert Comedy)

    Noam Chomsky on the economy and democracy Pt2

    Noam Chomsky on the economy and democracy Pt3

    Stephen’s Angry Mob Will Crush AIG (click to show/hide Colbert video)

    The government can’t stop AIG but Stephen’s angry mob will crush these punks. He pulls out his pitchfork and gets the audience on his side. [...]



    the know-nothing prize

    Once again, the Templeton prize has been awarded not for new discovery, but for the admission by a scientist that there are mysteries that science cannot penetrate, and therefore the answer is WOO:

    French physicist and philosopher of science Bernard d’Espagnat won the Templeton Prize for religion on Monday for work which acknowledges that science cannot fully explain “the nature of being”.

    He will receive STG1 million [...]



    another crappy week in crapistan

    Sorry for the lack of posts — L. came down with something like the plague and has been coughing up bits of lung for about 5 days now, and yesterday woke up looking like he’d developed full-blown mumps overnight (either his lymph nodes are having a hard time with the virus or it’s a secondary bacterial infection). So, off to the urgent care and [...]



    ratcheting up the pressure

    I assume these recent speeches by Obama are intended to publicly call out Blue Dogs and Senate Republicans to get along and go along once the Economic Plan is presented. From today’s speech at George Mason University:

    This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business cycle, and we won’t get out of it by simply waiting [...]



    making the world a better place

    I am an atheist, but I love Christmas. And, since we discovered the Jews hiding in our family tree (and with it the explanation for why our was the only non-Jewish family in the country, as far as we can tell, with my maiden name: Porges), Chanukkah has added to our holiday fun.

    I was about 12, and having real trouble understanding why there is [...]



    my obama-topia

    I just heard on the radio that that DLC quisling Rahm Emanuel is Obama’s likely choice for Chief of Staff. Crap.

    While my opinion doesn’t mean squat, here’s my dream cabinet, which includes promoting FEMA back to cabinet level (and taking it out of Dept. of Homeland Security):

    Department of Agriculture: Senator Tom Harkin
    Department of Commerce: Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon
    Department of Defense: General Wesley Clark
    Department of [...]



    christian men: do you know if your wife is truly female?

    Today is Write to Marry Day, when like-minded bloggers are speaking out against Proposition 8 in California, and all of the other anti-gay marriage constitutional amendments and legislative initiatives past and present.

    While this may come as a shock to the Mormons and Catholics and Evangelicals behind Prop 8, either their god is completely ignorant of biology, or he’s the biggest practical joker of all time.

    Why?

    Because [...]

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