God help me, I watched all of the debate tonight. I’m not sure why, but I did, and I’ll say something about it in an overall sense tomorrow. It occurs to me, though, that one moment after the debate sums up everything that has gone wrong with this country over the last N years. I… Continue reading Everything That Is Wrong With American Political Culture
Category: Politics
Getting Through the Debates
At the time of this writing, it’s still not clear whether the scheduled presidential debate will take place this evening. If you’d like to be prepared, just in case, here are a couple of links that might help you get through it: FreePress.net is offering a “Rate the Debates” service, where you can sign up… Continue reading Getting Through the Debates
The Football Factor
Charles Kuffner is the latest to note that people would rather watch football with Obama than McCain. As always, they try to delve into the reasons: “I think he’d be fun to sit back with and hear his experiences, all his stories,” said Kyle Ferguson, 28, a Republican from Santa Rosa, Calif., who picked McCain.… Continue reading The Football Factor
Science21 Highlights: Peer to Patent and Government 2.0
(Over the course of this week, I’m going to post a handful of things about talks that struck me as particularly interesting at last week’s conference. The order will be chosen based on how much time I think I will have to write them up, given SteelyKid’s demands for attention…) On Thursday, the Science in… Continue reading Science21 Highlights: Peer to Patent and Government 2.0
Virtual Science Debate
As you might have guessed from yesterday’s tease, the folks at ScienceDebate 2008 have now managed to get answers from the McCain campaign (to go with Obama’s froma few weeks ago). Which means that while you may never see them answering science questions on a stage together, you can put them head-to-head on the Web,… Continue reading Virtual Science Debate
Fred Clark Explains It All
A while back, at dinner, I made my usual complaint that Slacktivist doesn’t get enough attention. Kate expressed some doubts, because he certainly seems to have a large number of readers and commenters. The problem is, it’s not read by the people who really need to be reading it, and today provides an excellent example.… Continue reading Fred Clark Explains It All
At the Kitchen Table: An Ad in One Act
Fade in on an Old, Balding White Man reading the paper at the breakfast table. OBWM: I don’t know. I’m really worried about the economy. Rising fuel prices, increasing costs of everything… Cut to his Younger Blond Wife, sipping tea YBW: I know. And the mortgage crisis, all these home foreclosures. It’s terrible. Cut to… Continue reading At the Kitchen Table: An Ad in One Act
If You Were a Republican…
We’re in Boston to visit Kate’s parents, and while we wait for SteelyKid to wake up and demand food, we’re watching “Mike and Mike” on ESPN2 (the live simulcast of the radio show). They’ve been talking about how tonight’s NFL kick-off (our long national nightmare is over…) was pushed up so as not to conflict… Continue reading If You Were a Republican…
Colbert, Atheists, and Hermaphrodites
Comedy Central is re-playing Friday’s episodes of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, which includes Stephen Colbert’s interview with Lori Lippman Brown of the Secular Coalition for America. It’s interesting to see that she doesn’t really fare any better than any of the religious nutjobs he’s had on in his various interview segments, in… Continue reading Colbert, Atheists, and Hermaphrodites
Trying to Be Better Than That
Everybody’s favorite local troll left a comment in yesterday’s links dump about the scandal surrounding Sarah Palin’s daughter. It was remarkably coherent for an “Uncle Al” post, and actually bordered on funny. If you look at it now, though, you’ll find it’s undergone lossy compression. I dithered about this for a while, and then decided… Continue reading Trying to Be Better Than That