From today’s New York Times, and article headlined “White House Refused to Open Pollutants Email”: The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said… Continue reading Postcards from the Kindergarchy
Category: Politics
The Self-Justification of Elite Nerds
A bunch of academic bloggers have been talking about the American Scholar essay by William Deresiewicz. The always-perceptive Timothy Burke offers some insightful comments about the general problems of elite education. Burke is also a lot kinder to Deresiewicz than I’m inclined to be. Because, frankly, the piece pisses me off, from the very first… Continue reading The Self-Justification of Elite Nerds
Our Long National Nightmare is Over
I’ve written my last lecture for the first-year E&M class, and will be giving it at 10:30 this morning. (Friday’s class will be given over to exam review). The spring term, which had felt like it would stretch into July, is basically over. Oh, and some guy won an election.
Science Festivals, Science Books, and Science Funding
The World Science Festival happened while I was at DAMOP (I missed getting to talk to Bill Phillips, because he left shortly after his talk to go to NYC), and by all reports it was a success– they claim 120,000 attendees on their web site, and sold more tickets than expected for several events, and… Continue reading Science Festivals, Science Books, and Science Funding
Memorial Day
Today is Memorial Day in the US, the official holiday for remembering the men and women killed in our various wars. It’s also the traditional start of the summer season, which means that it’s always an odd collision of the solemn and the raucous. Growing up, there was always a parade in town, which started… Continue reading Memorial Day
Publish or President?
The pinhead filling in for Colin Cowherd (himself a pinhead of epic proportions) yesterday on ESPN radio was unduly proud of himself for coming up with the following hypothetical (paraphrased from memory): Suppose that you had a choice between having your favorite candidate win the presidential election, or having your favorite sports team win a… Continue reading Publish or President?
Torture Is Wrong
Fred Clark of Slacktivist points to the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and specifically their Banners Across America project: NRCAT is making June the month for Banners Across America! We are asking congregations of all sizes, from every state, and all faiths, to join in a public witness against torture by displaying a banner outside… Continue reading Torture Is Wrong
McCain is Radioactive
Matt Nisbet has a post up talking about McCain’s environment ad, and linking to a Media Curves study tracking people’s reactions to the spot. What’s interesting from the results, is that in the beginning of the ad, Democrats respond positively to the opening pandora’s box frame focusing on hurricanes, all three partisan groups decline in… Continue reading McCain is Radioactive
Cities in Their Old Age
Continuing the morning’s theme of “crushingly depressing stories from the New York Times,” there’s also a downer article about cities where there are more deaths than births: What demographers call a natural decrease has been occurring for years in tiny rural towns and in some retirement meccas in the South. But the phenomenon is relatively… Continue reading Cities in Their Old Age
Heads in the Sand by Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias‘s first book arrives burdened with one of the longest subtitles in memory (“How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats”), which is a little off-putting. Of course, it also features a back-cover blurb from Ezra Klein calling it “A very serious, thoughtful argument that has never been… Continue reading Heads in the Sand by Matthew Yglesias