Saturday, May 17, 2008

Michael Medved ... dolt

Over at pharyngula, PZ Meyers has some thoughts on Michael Medved's latest bit of stupidity
As is usual for Medved, a dullard incapable of any kind of thought beyond the superficial, he doesn't think his thesis through. Wouldn't this imply that Moslem immigrants to Europe, with their risk-taking willingness to move to new environments, are their true hope for the future? That the old blue-bloods of this country are less fit than, say, the Nisei? And if the descendants of African slaves are not successful go-getters because their arrival was coerced, what about the immigrants who were fleeing religious persecution, or all the Americans who are descended from indentured servants? Are there no successful entrepreneurs in Europe or Asia or Africa? Should we give extra bonus points to the descendants of nomadic tribes of warriors, like the Germans? It's a very peculiarly narrow view of a kind of simplistic genetic determinism that ignores the complexities and the varieties of ways people got here to promote a ridiculous premise.

It never ceases to amaze me when a wingnut uses scientific style talk to justify some particularly odious point of view. I guess it is only fair, since they do they same thing with religious style talk as well.

Two Views ...





Which is your view?

Friday, May 16, 2008

Kevin James -- Cluelessness in action


In typical wingnut fashion, Kevin James talks out of his ass.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

better than dropping the gas tax

over at fueleconomy.gov there are some handy hints that will save you more than the 18.4 cent gas tax ... and they are permanent ...

My favorite one, because it is easiest, is "dont drive so fast".

sigh .. are we so stupid that actually has to be explained to us? Apparently so.

sigh...

Sunday, May 4, 2008

My Last Horse Race

sigh

I love horse racing .. but I just cannot justify it to myself anymore. This happens far too often

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Working Class Voters

Am I the only person that thinks that this is just code for "bigoted white people that want to pretend they arent bigots"?

Saunders should know. In 2001, he helped guide Mark Warner to the governor's office in Virginia. Five years later, he aided Jim Webb's upset run to the Senate, before signing up as a senior adviser to John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign. The central theme of his work has been fuse Democratic politics with a rural power base.

"The Reagan Democrats want to come home, they are just dying to come home," he said. "All we just got to get a tent big enough to let them in."


Mudcat is a smart fellow but he also was, in my view, responsible for what I saw as wink-nod comments about electibility on behalf of Edwards that seemed very close to saying "vote for me because I am the white guy and the bigots are never going to vote for a woman or a black man".

If the Reagan Democrats are even pondering still voting Republican after the last 7 and a half years of fuckup after fuckup then they are not Democrats. If they need to be pandered to .. fuck them.

Whining by a new "blogger" about lack of feedback

Jeffrey Goldberg whines...

I called up Jack Shafer, the dean of global journalism and the future director of the Newseum, because I needed someone to listen to me bitch, and Andrew certainly wasn't going to. I complained to Shafer about Haber's dishonesty, but Shafer noted that his dishonesty was not relevant; what mattered was his mediocrity. "What these bloggers don't understand is that if you call the target of your post to get a comment, the target's going to say something really interesting," he said.
It seems to me to be a basic point. Haber's post on my blog would have been more interesting if he actually got me to talk about my reporting. I might have even inadvertently offered him ammunition.
It's one of the mysteries of the blogosphere, why more people don't simply pick up the phone once in a while.


I would complain in the comments of Mr Goldberg's blog that he was being a prat .. but alas he has no comments.

My personal opinion, for what it is worth, is that an opinion blog without comments is only half the point. One of the joys of blogging is getting that rush when you see that you have a comment and someone has either agreed with you or given you shit about how stupid they think you are.

Mr Goldberg, in my view, is not a blogger, he is an opinion columnist that happens to post online. There is nothing wrong with that.. but he shouldn't whine about people not reaching out to him if he doesn't understand the medium.