Leftist Boddhisatva

Its all in the money quote, baby.

2006-03-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

"I made a dream come true. And I am not a pervert." (via Daily Kos)

On Al Gore

2006-01-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

I believe that Al's experiences after the 2000 election have shaped him into a better man. Why, with nothing to lose and nothing to gain, he has come out swinging, arguing for moderation in our national discourse, trying to return our nation to her senses.

I also believe that those experiences have transformed Al Gore from someone who would have made a good president into someone who could make a fantastic president. For a comparison, look at assessments of FDR from before and after he was afflicted with polio.

That said, I doubt Al Gore will ever run for President again. I take seriously what he says about never wanting to put his family through that experience again. However, should he ever *ever* throw his hat into the ring, he will have my vote.

Gloating

2005-12-20T15:04:00.000-05:00

Pharyngula is gloating. He has reason to be.

My take:

"Intelligent Design" or ID was always too Freudian to be acceptable to any reasonable Republican-appointed judge.

No, clearly, they need something that spells a better acronym. While SAT (for "Suddent Appearance Theory") has merit, it is too close to SAT, the test high school students take to get into college... and with the rise of an anti-testing sentiment among parents and teachers, that is sure to fail too.

Here are two suggestions for the backwards ID at the so-called Discovery Institute (remember, the institute was never 'discovered' so much as 'designed'):

BAD: Beetle-Adoring Designer (hat-tip to JBS Haldane)

GOT: God-Oriented Teleology

Of course, we could turn it around and call it CRAP (for Creationist Rapture-Associated Pseudoscience).

Current mood: more evolved bananas!

breaking...

2005-12-11T11:03:00.000-05:00

Bush calls constitution "a goddamned piece of paper!"

Impeach this sumbitch. Impeach him now.

The War on Christmas, now with more vitamins

2005-12-07T11:12:00.000-05:00

Some Megachurches Closing for Christmas

This Christmas, no prayers will be said in several megachurches around the country. Even though the holiday falls this year on a Sunday, when churches normally host thousands for worship, pastors are canceling services, anticipating low attendance on what they call a family day.

Damn Christians. Won't even celebrate their own holidays.

What's a boddhisatva to do?

Current mood: I want more bananas for Christmas.

Global warming watch: Atlantic current changing

2005-11-30T14:29:00.000-05:00

Key warming ocean current slowing down: scientists:

The Atlantic Conveyor, a life-giving ocean current that keeps northern Europe warm, is slowing down, scientists said on Wednesday.

If the 30 percent slowdown seen over the past 12 years is not just a blip, temperatures in northern Europe could drop significantly, despite global warming, they added.

Scientists have long forecast that the Atlantic Conveyor that carries warm surface water north and cold deep water back to the equator could break down because of global warming.

"This is the first time we have observed a change in the current on a human timescale," oceanographer Harry Bryden said, noting that it had completely shut down during the ice ages.

The Atlantic Conveyor is a complex system of currents which includes the Gulf Stream.

New Slogan

2005-11-30T14:24:00.000-05:00

Hillary Clinton is the Yoko Ono of the Democratic Party.

I stole it. Now you steal it. Pass it on.

Quote of the day

2005-11-30T14:10:00.000-05:00

Advocate for God says:

We're in the kind of economy that conservatives lust for: one that benefits themselves to the detriment of others; i.e., one in which they can parasitize the American work force to support a lifestyle for themselves that they think they deserve because they believe themselves to be a better class of people - in other words, elites.

Wrong then, wrong now

2005-11-30T11:54:00.000-05:00

Sen. Clinton Defends Iraq War Vote

"I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war," the New York senator said in a lengthy letter to thousands of people who have written her about the war.

At the same time, she said the United States must "finish what it started" in Iraq.

Clinton and other hawkish Democrats have come under criticism from liberal anti-war activists, many of whom will hold sway over presidential primary contests. The former first lady, who is up for re-election in 2006, would likely be an early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination should she decide to seek it.

In other words: I take responsibility, and it's all Bush's fault.

No, Senator Clinton. You just don't get it.

A comment left at Brad DeLong's site

2005-11-30T09:26:00.000-05:00

From this thread, the following comment:

This isn't the dumbest war in the last two thousand years - it's just dumb, probably comparable to the French installing Maximilian in Mexico. Pointless and embarrassing and expensive.

It is not up there with the great nation-breaking mistakes: it's not an Alcazarquivir or a Syracuse expedition. Similar in some ways, sure, but far less important.
The US forces in Iraq don't face any existential threat and they almost certainly never will. We're not going to see a Dunkirk or a Kut: we'll probably leave pretty soon, though, because the whole thing never had any point.

As for impeaching the fools responsible - justified, but it won't happen, unless they redouble their bets and invade another country or two. Then life would get interesting.

...which I quote because of its cogency.

I notice, however, that no one responded to my comment:

Bush and company do deserve jail for what they have done to this country. I'll know when sanity has returned to the US when people stop looking at me funny for saying that.

They still look at me funny.

Sigh.

The bigger picture

2005-11-30T09:21:00.000-05:00

David Neiwert writes:

Have you ever noticed how, when libertarians and right-wingers talk about "threats to our freedoms," the only source of those threats is the government?

It's perhaps useful to remember that, over the course of American history, the greatest threats to the liberty of American citizens have come not from the government, but from our fellow citizens. Particularly, those directed by white citizens against nonwhites.

Keeping abreast of the threat

2005-11-30T09:05:00.000-05:00

Matt Stoller on how Telecom Companies Want Your Internet

One thing that really irritates me is discussions of capitalism that imply right-wingers are capitalists, or that big companies are efficient. Neither is true. Right-wingers are socialists, and big companies are hugely inefficient. If the right-wing cared about capitalism, they wouldn't subsidize large corporations at the expense of free markets (oil depletion tax, anyone?). And in a genuinely free market system, many corporate CEOs would be out on their ass because they get paid a lot to do very little.

Which brings me to the internet, and why telecom companies are trying to shut down what makes it great. I love the internet. In fact I think the internet is the only way to bring back public space to our democracy. It's also under threat.

Steve Greenfield for Senate

2005-11-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

Because, you want a choice: Greenfield For Senate.

Former Police States, now current Police States

2005-11-28T10:52:00.000-05:00

European Union to take action against countries which allowed the CIA to operate secret prisons

Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini also warned that that any of the 25 bloc nations found to have operated secret CIA prisons could have their EU voting rights suspended.

The Council of Europe — the continent's main human rights watchdog — is investigating the allegations, and EU justice official Jonathan Faul last week formally raised the issue with White House and U.S. State Department representatives, Frattini said.

Frattini said suspending EU voting rights would be justified under the EU treaty, which stipulates that the bloc is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, and that a persistent breach of these principles can be punished.

Clandestine detention centers would violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

On the defense stand: Poland and Romania.

Not to get too too excited, but

2005-11-28T10:46:00.000-05:00

we're inching closer to a police state:

The US Defense Department is expanding domestic intelligence collection in ways that could allow it so circumvent barriers to military spying on US citizens, according to a US newspaper report.

However, proposed moves to further expand the military's domestic intelligence activities in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, have sparked worries among politicians and civil liberties advocates that such activities could go out of control, the newspaper said.

"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a (congressional) hearing," Senator Ron Wyden told the daily.

The little-known Counterintelligence Field Activity has a secret budget but is believed to already have 1,000 people on its staff, the paper said.

A recent high-level presidential commission "urged that CIFA be given authority to carry out domestic criminal investigations and clandestine operations against potential threats inside the United States," the Post said.

Oops... one more quote

2005-11-28T10:28:00.000-05:00

"Perhaps the words 'Support President Bush and Our Troops' should come as standard equipment on Explorers, Suburbans Hummers etc etc etc...."--Kamachanda

Quote of the day

2005-11-28T10:12:00.000-05:00

"Marx had the luxury of a philosophy of history that led him to believe that an era of justice was at hand. We don't have that luxury. We have the unsettling intuition that when things get worse- they may very well stay worse."--Dale

The New New Economy

2005-11-28T09:48:00.000-05:00

The consumer model that has been driving the American economy since the 1950s is no longer working. Under the consumer model, consumption is encouraged and savings are discouraged, and as people spend more money than they need to, that money goes into the economy and generates more jobs. There are several factors which are undermining the consumer model.

1) Less discretionary income. Increased housing costs and increased transportation costs, as a percentage of income, have gone up.

2) A greater debt burden, as consumers have increased borrowing in order to maintain their lifestyles. The flip side of this is the greater penalties for bankruptcy.

3) Loss of manufacturing jobs. One of the engines of the consumer model was that by increasing consumption, there was an increase in the amount of manufacturing, resulting in increased number of jobs. Now those manufacturing jobs are all off-shore, which is great if you live in [take your pick], but not so great if you are now unemployed.

4) Unreigned capitalism. The dogma that was pounded into Americans during the cold war was that capitalism was good and anything that wasn't capitalistic was bad... completely ignoring the lesson of the New Deal: which was that capitalism, without any checks and balances, was bad, but that with checks and balances could be good. Well the Great Depression generation is dying off and we have to relearn this lesson anew.

The question I have is this: assuming Democrats win control of Congress in 2006 and the Presidency in 2008 (big assumptions), is there anything that can be done to address these factors in a corrective way? Or do we have to wait for it all to crash?

new rule, #1

2005-11-21T14:28:00.000-05:00

"Parents have the right to question anyone who claims their child's death was good for America."--Southwest Bob

One of the most intelligent comments ever...

2005-11-17T11:13:00.000-05:00

John Emerson says:

The thing that made up my mind for me was Adams' ridicule (in his comments section) of the idea that he should read some books by Gould or Dawkins. He essentially said that he wouldn't trust them because, as biologists, they had a conflict of interest.

His silly little squibs have helped me to crystallize my abhorrence of the cheap cynicism of a whole sector of American society. These are people who believe that everyone is a scam artist, and that no one's reasoning is honest, so that what you need to do is just to figure out the angles and decide which of the players you feel best about, rather than deciding which one is right. (This kind of know-nothingism was a major factor both in Bush-Gore and Bush-Kerry. The media gaggle is full of Scott Adams closes.)

Adams was basically asking for an authority to trust -- someone whom he liked, and who talked his language. He wasn't asking for reasons at all. In this he's oddly like my very nice, anti-intellectual right-wing cousins who get their political opinions ready-made from Pat Robertson and James Dobson, who they think are very nice people and who talk their language.

Adams' credibility wasn't helped when someone pointed out that he was already writing cheesy little anti-evolution squibs more than five years ago.

Here is the context, an open thread on Pharyngula.

How do you feel about this?

2005-11-17T10:55:00.000-05:00

Mom Makes Teen Stand on Street With Sign

Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter's poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.

She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: "I don't do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food."

"This may not work. I'm not a professional," said Henderson, a 34-year-old mother of three. "But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try."

In fact, Henderson has seen a turnaround in her daughter's behavior in the past week and a half. But the punishment prompted letters and calls to talk radio from people either praising the woman or blasting her for publicly humiliating her daughter.

"The parents of that girl need more education than she does if they can't see that the worst scenario in this case is to kill their daughter psychologically," Suzanne Ball said in a letter to The Oklahoman.

Some people feel very strongly that Tasha abused her daughter, Coretha, by making her stand on a street corner with a sign. Others feel that what she did was imaginative and a good idea.

I think one of the greatest challenges that parents face is to wake children up to the world around them. I hope that Coretha will begin to understand that school is not a place to hang out (or avoid), but is in fact a ladder. The higher you climb the greater your choices will be.

My irregular update

2005-11-17T10:33:00.000-05:00

Leftist Boddhisatva is a fond player of World of Warcraft. It is much easier to deal with evil when the rules are clear (but just like reality, the bad guys keep spawning, over and over again).

Matt Stoller on Intellectual Property and the mistaken priorities of Democrats in Congress.

Bush's Rewriting of History: a real hatchet job.

Over the last few years, a band called Junkyard Prophet (through its youth outreach organization, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide) has been touring across Middle America, spewing its ultra-conservative message at hundreds of school assemblies along the way. And it’s received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for its efforts. Armstrong Williams, eat your heart out.

Kerry on Cheney: "It is hard to name a government official with less credibility on Iraq than Vice President Cheney."

Wouldn't it have been more effectively, politically and morally, to have said, "Mr. Cheney proves, once again, that when it comes to Iraq, all he can do is lie."

Just asking.

Wow, just wow

2005-11-08T13:36:00.000-05:00

Two Drunken Moose Invade Home for Elderly

The moose — a cow and her calf — had become drunk over the weekend by eating fermented apples they found outside the home in Sibbhult, southern Sweden, said Anna Karlsson, who works there.

If they had eaten fermented bananas, it would have been much more mellow.

Trust me.

Because you can't handle the truth

2005-11-08T13:27:00.000-05:00

Denate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday called for a congressional leak investigation into who told the news media about previously undisclosed U.S. interrogation centers abroad.

"If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," Frist and Hastert said in a letter.

You can't make this shit up.

Azerbaijan Election: No Major Fraud, Just Lots of Minor Fraud

2005-11-08T11:08:00.000-05:00

The West has heaped criticism on Azerbaijan's conduct of parliamentary elections, but authorities in the oil-rich republic dug in their heels and denied major fraud.

"The elections were a step back for democracy in Azerbaijan," Norwegian Ambassador Steinar Gil told journalists in the ex-Soviet state's capital Baku on Tuesday.

However, Aliyev, who two years ago succeeded his dying father Heydar Aliyev in a controversial presidential poll, insisted not only that the elections were free, but that the international community was satisfied.

"All the international reports of the international monitoring missions were fine," Azer Gasimov, spokesman for Aliyev, told journalists.

"It doesn't say in them that the elections did not meet international standards," he said.

This assertion flew in the face of clear condemnations from Western monitors who reported seeing widespread violations.

I see that President Aliyev has been taking lessons from the Bush administration. I would also not be surpised if Azerbaijan used Diebold-paper ballots.

What? Fujimori arrested in Chile?

2005-11-08T10:22:00.000-05:00

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on Tuesday lost a bid to be released from jail while he fights extradition to Peru to face charges of corruption and human rights abuses during his decade-long regime.

Justice Orlando Alvarez said Fujimori, who is being held at an academy for corrections officers, must remain under arrest as Peru pursues his extradition on 21 corruption and human rights charges.

Fujimori, 67, was arrested at his Santiago hotel early Monday, hours after his surprise arrival from Japan, where he had remained in a protected exile for five years after resigning the Peruvian presidency amid a corruption scandal.

How Fujimori was coaxed out of Japan, that is what enquiring minds want to know. Clearly this is going to go down as one of the biggest blunders by a supposedly-intelligent person this year.

US Preparing to Strike Iran, With Faulty Equipment

2005-11-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

Iran sent letters protesting illegal overflights by two unmanned American aircraft that crashed in Iran in recent months, documents circulated at the United Nations on Monday showed.

Iran's deputy U.N. ambassador Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi asked the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 26 to circulate two letters protesting "the violation of the territory and airspace of Iran by two American unmanned aircrafts."

According to the letters, during illegal overflights an American Shadow-200 aircraft crashed on July 4 about 38 miles inside Iranian territory in the province of Ilam, and an American Hermes aircraft crashed 125 miles inside Iranian territory in the Khoram Abad area on Aug. 25.

Proving, once again, that real life is not like porn...

2005-11-08T09:17:00.000-05:00

Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were charged after their arrest at a bar where witnesses told police the women had sex in a restroom.

Witnesses said the women were having sex in a stall with each other, angering patrons waiting in line to get into the restroom at the club in the Channelside district.

Note to self: do not have sex in a bar bathroom stall if other patrons are waiting to use it in order to relieve themselves...

Bush Declares: 'We Only Torture the English Language'

2005-11-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

Leftist Boddhisatva

Its all in the money quote, baby.

On Al Gore

Gloating

breaking...

The War on Christmas, now with more vitamins

Global warming watch: Atlantic current changing

New Slogan

Quote of the day

Wrong then, wrong now

A comment left at Brad DeLong's site

The bigger picture

Keeping abreast of the threat

Steve Greenfield for Senate

Former Police States, now current Police States

Not to get too too excited, but

Oops... one more quote

Quote of the day

The New New Economy

new rule, #1

One of the most intelligent comments ever...

How do you feel about this?

My irregular update

Wow, just wow

Because you can't handle the truth

Azerbaijan Election: No Major Fraud, Just Lots of Minor Fraud

What? Fujimori arrested in Chile?

US Preparing to Strike Iran, With Faulty Equipment

Proving, once again, that real life is not like porn...

Bush Declares: 'We Only Torture the English Language'

No surprise here: Condi Rice fails

Another forgery: all in the name of promoting the War on Terror

Global warming watch: September hottest in record

A new low in election politics

DeLay still offensive

McClellan lies and a 'spontaneous' event was scripted

DeLay's legal defense: offensive

Grab bag

Bush administration to people who live near nuclear power plants: We want you to die!

The conspiracy is well-known, the executioner is hidden

Its not schadenfreude, its much more carnal

Poll Results: Impeach Bush Now

Three Iraq Special Forces Veterans Commit Suicide on Returning Home

Grab bag

Confirmed: NY Subway Terror Threat a Hoax

More Important Than Enlightenment Special: Yoko disses Paul

Revealed: Rumsfeld a Master of Sexual Humiliation

Quiet Suicide of Urban Liberalism: With Sixty-Nine Stab Wounds in the Back

Grab bag

Harriet Miers is Best Sycophant Ever, letters reveal

More Light on Incident in New Orleans: Victim of Beating Claims He Was Sober

Tragedy in Central America: Guatemala abandons search for victims

Santorum's days in the Senate appear numbered

Turning the Amazon into a desert: global warming a suspect

Department of the obvious: Londoners Blame Iraq War for Bombings

Answering my question: Sen. Russ Feingold says it's time to admit the war was a disaster.

Department of Justice decides not to enforce an unjust law, just this once though

Senator Levin calls for Iraq Pullout, if, if, if...

Fire destroys Wallace and Gromit warehouse

Do sex-crazed extremists give Islam a bad name? An Arab TV show comes under fire.

Grab bag

Don't call it racism, call it something else.

Bush has a plan for the coming flu crisis? Uh-oh, says New York Times.

Perhaps the numbers don't speak the truth? Perhaps they do?

Pandemonium for old people: the new Medicare drug plan?

Coverup at the CIA: speculation as to causes

Clooney to remake Network

Provocation: Sam Harris argues for Atheism

Another war sckeptic is born

Source: Threat to New York Subway System Not Credible

Disaster in the making: Katrina work goes to officials who led Iraq effort

The Rational Underground

IAEA, ElBaradei Share Nobel Peace Prize

'Victims of Communism Memorial' Planned: 'Victims of Democracy' Memorial to be built in Baghdad next year

American Public Starting to Wise-Up to Bush's Handling of the Katrina Aftermath

Follow-up on William Galston and Elaine Kamarck

What's up with Air America Radio?

Perhaps Democratic Candidates Need to Create Myths?

Ross Perot where are you?

Listen to the Aardvark