The rot at the center

Robert Reich has noticed how the democratic base is demoralized. Who is to blame?

A growing portion of the public, fed by the right, blames our problems on "big government." Much of the reason for the Democrats' astonishing reluctance to place blame where it belongs rests with big business's and Wall Street's generous flows of campaign donations to Democrats, coupled with their implicit promise of high-paying jobs once Democratic officials retire from government. This is the rot at the center of the system. And unless or until it's remedied, it will be difficult for the President to achieve any "change you can believe in.
And if you are looking for America by the numbers, you'll find the sad up to date statistics right here, in this Alternet post by David DeGraw.

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Women should shut up.

According to 1 Timothy 11-12, woman should be silent. They should not teach or lecture to men:

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
I personally think that this is absurd advice, but when I hear female neocons and fundamentalists (e.g., Sarah Palin) lecturing to the country on "family values," morals or anything political, I'm going to be pulling out the above quote from the New Testament. It's a simple two-step to deal with woman who get on the national stage to tell the rest of us that we must continue being an aggressive, war-mongering nation, or that we shouldn't teach real science in biology classes, or that we can't provide instruction and medicine and devices to prevent pregnancies:
A) Do you believe the Bible to be inerrant? B) If so, then you most be silent. It is the Word of your God.
Note further, that braided hair, gold, pearls and expensive clothing are absolutely banned.

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Climate: OJ and the Haystack

Why Climate Change Denial Is Like the O.J. Trial is an interesting article. The essence is that the climate denialists are using the same techniques as the OJ defense team: Find anything resembling a needle in a vast haystack of data, then claim that the presence of the needle casts doubt on the character of the haystack itself. Because there is an overwhelming pile of evidence in support of anthropogenic global warming, there are bound to be occasional pieces of data that can appear to contradict the mass of affirmative information. The pile is overwhelming, especially to non-scientists. Therefore few have the patience to understand the whole thing. Those who want to spin the counter argument claim that, because the two sides are both represented, therefore the issue is in doubt. And, as in the OJ trial, if there is cause for doubt, then no action is to be taken.

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And now it’s Kirk Cameron’s turn . . .

Jenny McCarthy, a famous non-scientist who has toured the country warning that vaccines caused her son's autism, now says that her son doesn't actually have autism and that vaccines might not actually cause autism. You see, real science doesn't make things up. Real science is a self-critical activity . . . Now it's time for Kirk Cameron to see the light.

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What passes for ethics in DC

What do they want in order to make a finding that a politician was politically corrupt? Apparently a signed confession, based on an article in the Washington Post:

The House ethics committee ruled Friday that seven lawmakers who steered hundreds of millions of dollars in largely no-bid contracts to clients of a lobbying firm had not violated any rules or laws by also collecting large campaign donations from those contractors.

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