Category: Politics

As previously mentioned, Wesley Clark spoke on campus last night. The speech was pretty much what you’d expect from a once and future (?) Presidential aspirant with his background: he mostly talked about military matters, stressing that George Bush bad, Americ good, puppies and apple pie, yay! OK, not so much the puppies and apple… Continue reading Wesley Clark vs. Rote Protesters

Former general and presidential candidate Wesley Clark is going to be speaking on campus tomorrow night. I don’t expect there to be a lot of question time at this, but I’m fairly good at getting a chance to ask questions at these things, so if anyone has a suggestion of a really good question to… Continue reading Questions for Wesley Clark?

Another way of reading some of what I said last week would be as a statement that I would say something about the Virginia Tech killings, and what I think they mean in policy terms. This is really tough to do, in part because I still think it’s kind of tacky to be making political… Continue reading Virginia Tech

So, back when I was cussing a lot about the premature politicization of the Virginia Tech shootings, I threatened to give my real opinions on the subject of gun control on Monday. It’s Monday, and I try to be good to my word, so, this is that post. Dipping back into my shady past on… Continue reading Gun Control

The other night, while ranting to Kate between my posted rants about Virginia Tech (have I mentioned that she’s way too good to me?), I mentioned in passing that the gun control debate is one of the two great brain-sucking quagmire arguments of American politics, where even a passing mention ends up with all the… Continue reading Quagmire Arguments

Orac is struggling to understand the problem with “framing,” and thinks he has the answer: I’ve concluded that a lot of issues underlying this kerfuffle may be the difference between the “pure” scientists and science teachers (like PZ and Larry Moran, for example), who are not dependent upon selling their science for the continued livelihood… Continue reading The Final Word on Framing

Mike Dunford didn’t like my previous post, and says that it’s important to talk about gun control right now: But we also cannot forget that people are dead. We cannot forget that people have been murdered. We cannot forget that many – too many – lives have been brought to a sudden, random end. We… Continue reading An Indecorous Plea for Perspective

Like everybody else, I’m horrified by the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. It’s the sort of nightmare situation you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Of course, the bodies aren’t even cold yet, and already the blogosphere is a-flutter with people touting this as proof that the US needs to change its gun laws in… Continue reading A Vain Plea for Decorum