Link roundup for 23 May 2008

Jabberwock has a new Chick dissection up, on evolution.

At last -- a high-tech device which accurately forecasts the weather.

Is this where the Christian Right would ultimately take us? Here's an earlier example of religion vs. sex.

Be kind.

William Shatner recalls his meeting with Koko the gorilla.

What is the right punishment for a lie that kills? (Sent by Ranch Chimp.)

Examples of the disgusting misogyny of the anti-Hillary campaign, here and here -- just imagine the justified outrage if Obama had been subjected to a similar outpouring of racism. Some Obama supporters also think this is funny. And I've seen no sign that this has produced any improvement.

Here's a warning for the general election. Bashed-and-insulted Clinton supporters show little interest in supporting Obama as the nominee. This blogger expresses a view that seems widely held.

Clinton keeps making her case. Read this too.

Latest electoral-vote projections: Clinton 315, McCain 206 -- but Obama 242, McCain 272.

More on the likely Republican implosion in the House and Senate.

A letter reveals Einstein's real views on religion (sent by Blurber).

Horror erupts in Kenya and South Africa.

Will we "just get sick of it all and walk away"?

The pro-illegal-immigration crowd is trying to stop construction of the border fence.

Link roundup for 4 May 2008

Sadly No dissects Jonah Goldberg's whitewash of the Tuskegee syphilis atrocity.

Mall-Wart is still stonewalling on the Debbie Shank case (for background, see here and here).

PhillyChief looks at Florida's plan for Christian license plates, and suggests a few of his own.

Republican politician Tony Zirkle might have been wiser to skip this birthday event. British far-right politician Nick Eriksen might have been equally wise to keep his mouth shut.

Democratic superdelegates drift toward Obama even as polls show that voters are moving toward Clinton. Will the pro-Obama party establishment thwart the people's choice? Meanwhile, the North Carolina race is tightening. Keith Olbermann makes a disturbing comment. And I love this cartoon.

Taylor Marsh explains how the Democrats developed their bizarre nomination process.

Do demographic and social changes spell doom for the Republican party?

Heather Mac Donald looks at the cultural forces that undermine the educational prospects of black American children.

Our ongoing crackdown is reducing illegal immigration -- and putting the squeeze on those already here.

Visitors from Britain, with its strict gun laws and pervasive violent crime, are "shocked to the core" by the peacefulness and safety of gun-saturated America.

Daring bloggers defy one of the world's most repressive regimes.

Here's a discussion on religion, atheism, and intolerance.

Some evangelical Christians have produced a manifesto criticizing the entanglement of religion and politics.

In Britain, the "dominant opinion" is that religion is evil.

Sam Harris discusses why non-religious Westerners have trouble understanding the true threat posed by Islam.

Bruce Bawer looks at the West's cultural cowardice.

Muslims in India have adopted the practice of dropping babies from great heights for "health" reasons (found via Ordinary Girl).

It's not only Abrahamic religions that promote and justify evil.

Some once-vanquished epidemic diseases are making a comeback in the United States because of ignorant hostility to vaccination. Here's a reminder of what the pre-vaccination world was like.

A Christian biology student offers some proofs of the truth of evolution.

A new film reveals the surprising intelligence of our cousin species. Read this too (found via Mendip).

Here's evidence of real progress toward limb regeneration. And gene therapy is showing promise against blindness.

This self-reassembling robot seems to me to blur the boundaries between the living and the non-living -- its "behavior" appears comparable in sophistication to that of simple, purely instinct-driven animals such as insects (found via Mendip).

George Dvorsky looks at male contraception and gender power relations.

The Electric Pulse scores a short interview with Aubrey de Grey (found via Fight Aging).

Here's another small step toward a working nano-assembler.

Link roundup for 14 February 2008

Tengrain presents.....Rapture-Ready Republicans!

Will Jesus return? (Link sent by Mendip.)

Move over, Obama Girl.....Here's Huckabee Girl!

Iowahawk imagines how Chaucer might have portrayed Archbishop Williams. Here's a more serious view, and a look at actual practice in Malaysia.

The Danish media stand up for free expression again.

Sleestak has a curious posting about digital censorship.

John Evo looks at fundamentalists' un-American attitudes.

US drug laws are stupid. Dubai's are worse.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is heading for France.

Darwin, whose 199th birthday was this week, is commemorated by Skepchick, Blurber, and John Evo.

The practice of having sex face-to-face was once thought to be unique to humans, but was later found to be common among orangutans and bonobos -- and has now been observed among gorillas as well. So it is now known to occur among four of the five great-ape species (chimpanzees being the sole abstainers).

Glenn Reynolds looks at anti-aging research. Meanwhile, even now it's easier to live to be 100 than you might think.

Conservative pundit Victor Davis Hanson argues that Clinton would be a tougher opponent for McCain than Obama would be. Jay Cost and Tom Bevan debunk the spin that Obama has the race sewn up. Here's an assessment of the Florida-Michigan problem.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are still plagued by divisions of their own. And conservative essayist George Will takes a gloomy look at Republican corruption.

The Arizona employer-sanctions law has survived another legal challenge.

Link roundup for 2 February 2008

Check out this amazing secret underground temple complex in northern Italy (found via Mendip).

Think you're psychic? Take the Skepchick challenge and win a date!

A uniter, not a divider: Hillary Clinton gets a surprising quasi-endorsement.

Some of the Paulloons want to hijack some hapless piece of land and turn it into an independent country of their own. Uh, guys, I really suggest you forget about using Texas. They don't cotton much to this kind of stuff down there.

Wonkette showcases a lusty new voice of reason on the Paulist phenomenon here and here, while the Ron Paul Survival Report examines the "Ron Paul Democrats". For anyone who still finds the Kool-Aid tempting, here's ten reasons not to vote for Ron Paul.

Sadly No dissects a flagrant right-wing distortion of Bill Clinton's comments on global warming. Keep this in mind the next time one of these nutjobs claims a Democrat said something outrageous.

Sara Robinson has a great posting on the Republican three-ring circus.

This kind of analysis always annoys me -- why do pundits assume that all Hispanic US citizens support illegal aliens? Notice also the inevitable invocation of the name of Cesar Chavez. Chavez was a third-generation US citizen, a Navy veteran, a fighter for the rights of the poorest working Americans, and an opponent of illegal immigration. We could use more like him today.

Think there are no real differences between Obama and Clinton on the issues? Here's one.

Savor the irony -- the Mexican state of Sonora now fears being overwhelmed by illegal aliens returning from Arizona due to that state's tough new employer-sanctions law.

This capsule history of the British Conservative party suggests that the secret of its 200-year success has been -- progressive legislation.

Putin's bullying foreign policy is starting to have consequences at home.

A sedentary lifestyle may speed up aging.

Jacob Bronowski's illustration of the difference between science and dogma is as electrifying as when I first saw it on TV long ago (found via Masterblurber).

This is the enemy.

Link roundup for 1 January 2008

Here's a fun nativity scene (click to enlarge) and holiday greeting.

Christians in the Holy Land celebrate the season in their own way.

Check out these ice sculptures.

Nosferatu!

Sadly No has been doing a whole series of postings about Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism (which sounds preposterous, though I can't say for sure since I haven't read it). Here's the best one, addressing the perennial myth that Nazism was somehow an expression of homosexuality.

Exit Zero presents the wedding photo of the year.

Here's something very rare: an opinion poll of Saudi Arabian citizens. The most prominent result is also the least surprising -- Saudi Arabians really, really don't like Jews. The most surprising -- until you think about it a bit -- is that almost 40% of Saudi citizens favor military action to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Months ago I linked to the great video of the song "Open Season" by Stuck Mojo. Here's an extended remix, with plenty of arresting and didactic visuals added. Stuck Mojo's original video is here.

Christopher Hitchens assesses Benazir Bhutto, and Phyllis Chesler puts her murder in the context of the war on women in Pakistan.

More Hitchens: he's scathing about the undemocratic character of the Iowa caucus process, and he appears with Bill Maher here.

Oderint dum metuant: according to Gallup, Hillary Clinton is the Democrat whom Republicans most fear. E. J. Dionne looks at the looming "civil war" among Republicans.

This article says that the Anglican Church has lost its dominant position in Britain to the Catholic Church, in the sense that the average attendance at Anglican religious services has now fallen slightly lower than at Catholic ones. But clearly the real story here is how low the figures are in absolute terms. Average attendance at Catholic Sunday Mass was 861,000, while that at Anglican services was 852,000 -- in a nation of sixty million. (The figures may be for England rather than the whole of Britain, but even England has over fifty million people.) I don't know how many British people are self-acknowledged atheists, but true believers are clearly a small minority now.

You Made Me Say It blog has plenty to say about this "creepy archbishop" and about some Christians' Christmas spirit.

Deeply Blasphemous debunks the delusion that science and religion are not in conflict.

Orcinus views the poisoned fruits of "free-trade fundamentalism".

Arizona's tough new employer-sanctions law to discourage illegal immigration has been upheld. And it's working.

Scientists at MIT have taken an important step toward artificial capillaries.

Link roundup for 19 December 2007

I know, postings have been sparse lately -- I was stressed out
with various issues last week and busy this week. But the wacky world of the internet never rests.....Just to start with, check out Edinburgh's latest tourist attraction.

Everyone likes to share a good laugh -- even orangutans (yes, apes have a sense of humor).

This must be the world's classiest-looking computer.

Here's a review of a new book on the absurd sexual paranoia of the Christian Right -- the statistics on abstinence-only sex education are especially interesting.

See some interesting views on the Huckabee phenomenon here and here. Religious issues are now so dominant in the Republican party that it's even starting to bother Charles Krauthammer. Andrew Sullivan points out that the GOP has only itself to blame for what it has become.

"Qatif girl" has received a royal "pardon",which just shows that bleeding-heart-liberal political interference in the justice system is not confined to the West. What's Shariah law coming to, when even the most flagrant rape victims go unpunished? In other Middle Eastern rape news, right-wing bloggers are swinging into action on the Halliburton/KBR case I linked to here. Meanwhile, Islamic justice and blogging are both alive and well in Iran.

Black Sun Journal denounces ridiculous Islamic rationalizations about the Aqsa Parvez murder. And the Toronto Sun isn't afraid to name the real problem.

Evangelical pastors lead the fight against witchcraft in Nigeria (found via Apostate's Chapel).

Iraq's oil output now exceeds pre-invasion levels. There's good news from Afghanistan too.

There's a new paper out on the brain processes which underlie belief -- by Sam Harris, who is planning a similar study on religious faith. That should be interesting.

The struggle against stupid pro-death platitudes goes on.

Here's a German view of America's turn away from globalization.

Pundits keep telling us that the illegal-alien issue won't sway many votes in next year's election. The facts are otherwise.

The poison pill

A link from here (see comments 3 and 4) drew my attention once again to the issue of racism as it relates to the movement to stop illegal immigration. The pro-amnesty side is constantly accusing us of being racists; the worst thing that could possibly happen to the anti-illegal-immigration movement is that it associate itself with people who actually are racists. I've already expressed what I think about the issue here, but it bears repeating.

This is not Europe. We must offer no compromise or opening whatsoever to racism or anti-Semitism. Those things mean the death of our nation.

Link roundup for 25 November 2007

Apparently the Apocalypse is coming again.....yawn.

I love this sign.

Every time I think Chick tracts couldn't possibly get any stupider, Jabberwock finds one that is even stupider. But surely this one must be the absolute rock bottom -- and Jabberwock's dissection is hilarious as usual.

Watch a priest go berserk.

I wonder if the Ron Paul campaign accepts these as donations.

Yet another televangelist sinks out of sight into a tar pit of sleaze. For more Christianity news, check out this megachurch leader and this bullying weirdo in Florida (found via Mendip). On a similar note, Daylight Atheism takes a look at the "prosperity gospel".

Russia is planning to develop nanotechnology-based weapons.

Italians resort to a simple but clever mosque-abatement tactic.

A British hair-salon owner is being sued for refusing to hire a Muslim who insisted on wearing a headscarf.

Bloggasm assesses the impact of Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion.

I'm glad to see this appreciation of Canada, whose contribution to the Afghan campaign should be more recognized in the US.

When is a terrorist not a terrorist? When he's a "counterweight".

More shameful denialism, this time on Iraq.

A California teacher describes how his views on illegal aliens changed due to personal experience (found via Chell's Roost).

The gun is civilization. Reason shows how gun control is wreaking havoc in Uganda, while Of Arms and the Law tells of how gun rights helped protect peaceful citizens from violent mobs in 1906.

Here's more debunking of the myth of US decline -- at The Times, at The Telegraph, at Real Clear Politics, and at The Economist.

Joshua Muravchik clarifies the problem of Iran's nuclear program in stark terms. And anyone who thinks that a nuclear-armed Iran could simply be deterred the way the USSR was needs to read this.

Spitzer gives up

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has abandoned his plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, due to mass public opposition which had driven his approval rating down to Bushian levels. It's a perfect example of what John Derbyshire calls the Great Elite Back-Down Issue:

Same thing with the various congressional attempts at "compre-hensive immigration reform." Our Senators stir themselves from their oak-paneled offices and antique-leather armchairs to cook up a new scheme to amnesty all those polite, nice folk who are doing their yard work for them. Seems like a great idea! Then suddenly they can't hear themselves talk for the roar of phone calls and faxes coming in from their constituents. Elite Back-Down Two. It's all totally baffling to them. Who are these people making such a fuss about a perfectly reasonable, humane proposal? It's us, buddy, the great unwashed. This is still a democracy we have here. Try to keep that in mind, eh?

Do go read the whole thing, it's exquisite (see also this). Spitzer, however, has apparently not given up on the clueless-politician-of-the-year award he seems to be trying for: his latest big idea is taxing internet sales.

Democrats contemplate.....

.....a tougher line on illegal immigration. And about time, too -- the Republicans are sure to exploit this issue like crazy, since it's just about the only winning issue they've got left (at least among those who bizarrely forget that it was Bush who was the biggest amnesty backer in June). Check out, for example, Tom Tancredo's hard-hitting new TV ad.

Link roundup for 10 November 2007

I guess the lead-contamination thing was getting monotonous -- China has now been selling the Australians toys tainted with a substance that turns into GHB (yes, the highly-toxic "date-rape drug") when ingested (link sent by Mendip). They've turned up in the US as well.

Here's a list of the ten American cities that have had the largest percentage population growth since the year 2000. I'm utterly unsurprised that three of them are in Texas and all of them are in the southern third of the country.

Whither the Christian Right? Are they reconciling themselves to a less fanatical politics and a more secular Republican party, or will they yet rise in fiery (and illiterate) revolt? In any case, one of their great moral paragons is back in the news (found via Mendip), as are the good old pro-life pro-murder nutjobs.

Here's a discussion on third-party candidacies.

Susan Faludi has an interesting take on Hillary Clinton's use of the "gender card".

Required reading for Hillary: 77% of Americans oppose driver's licenses for illegal aliens. And blogger Reverse Vampyr has postings here and here on the behavior of illegals during the California wildfires.

Heather Mac Donald has always been one of our best fighters on the illegal-alien issue. Here's a new interview with her. Profile here, along with links to more of her essays on the subject (scroll down to "Immigration").

It's always good news when slime like this get their just desserts. But I have to say, when I saw the phrase "worldwide child sex network", my first thought was: "Which one? The Catholic Church or the UN Peacekeepers?"

There's a new wave of Palestinian refugees -- Arab residents of East Jerusalem are swarming to apply for Israeli citizenship to avoid living under the violent and corrupt "Palestinian Authority".

Meanwhile, anti-Semitism rises in Britain (read this too).

A clever hoax exposes the gullibility and anti-scientific thinking of global-warming denialists.

As atheism raises its profile and Christianity loses ground, some of the religious are growing agitated and angry, and lashing out at us in whatever ways they can. Examples are dissected at Black Sun Journal and Atheist Haven. There's also the tawdry exploitation of Antony Flew. Meanwhile, here's something that may help explain the decline of religion: between 1947 and 2002, the average IQ of Americans rose 18 points.

And I loved this comment by this pastor-turned-atheist: "I swung all the way across, and I dumped out all the bathwater and found there was no baby there." Found via Middle-Aged Vampiress Atheist (if that's not an intriguing blog name, I don't know what is).

Elevated IQs and skeptical thinking were nowhere in evidence among the victims of this religious con-man.

No more hedging

Michael Barone argues that illegal immigration will be a major issue in next year's election:

The reason is that the Democrats -- and Bush -- are out of line with public opinion on the issue. That became clear as the Senate debated a comprehensive immigration bill in May and June. Most Republicans and many Democrats, in the Senate and among the public, turned against the bill. Supporters of the bill tended to ascribe that to something like racism: They just don't like having so many Mexicans around. But if you listened to the opponents, you heard something else. They want the current law to be enforced. It bothers them that we have something like 12 million illegal immigrants in our country. It bothers them that most of the southern border is unfenced and unpatrolled. It bothers them that illegal immigrants routinely use forged documents to get jobs -- or are given jobs with no documents at all. You don't have to be a racist to be bothered by such things. You just have to be a citizen who thinks that massive failure to enforce the law is corrosive to society.

Yelling "racist!" at people who are concerned about this problem doesn't work any more -- it just makes people mad. The Democrats need to get on the right side of the issue. If they don't, it could become their biggest electoral liability next year.

Here's an interesting "political culture clash" from Virginia.

Update (6 November): Read this and this too.

Link roundup for 4 November 2007

"Pastafarians" challenge the Godless Commie atheistic "theory of gravity".

Ukraine's (probable) Prime-Minister-to-be wants to take a radical step toward freedom and modernity: abolishing the draft and establishing a professional military.

Dmitri Simes assesses the chill between Russia and the US from the Russian point of view. While I think he rather overstates his case, especially where Ukraine is concerned, it's a case Americans need to be aware of.

Here's more on the link between obesity and cancer.

The ghastly miscarriage of justice in the Genarlow Wilson case has focused attention on Draconian sex laws.

Racism isn't all that common any more, but it isn't dead.

Muslim men in Malaysia are feeling abused by women. Personally I rather enjoy the form of abuse the author is complaining about. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

As of today there's a year to go until the election, and voters are already angry. Despite the title of the article, the information presented sounds to me like bad news for the Republicans.

David Kirkpatrick reports that the Christian Right is splintering and declining as a political force.

Is the Chinese economic miracle for real?

A majority of Americans favor an airstrike against Iran to prevent that country from building nuclear weapons. I stand by what I said on this issue here.

Here's an argument that an attack on Iran would "destroy the GOP". Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Is the "anti-war" movement fizzling out?

Hard-line Islam continues to advance its cause in Britain, while this courageous Norwegian is condemned by the Islamists and appeasers for speaking out against theocratic oppression. It's all in a day's work for the Religion of Peace.

Here's some straight talk on Saudi Arabia.

Oklahoma has enacted a tough new law to crack down on illegal aliens and on Americans who abet them (found via this posting at Chell's Roost). Mark Steyn has a reminder about the price of laxity. Concern about the issue is growing in Iowa, creating a challenge for Democratic Presidential contenders. Finally, expect to see more articles like this in the mainstream media, bewailing the impact of enforcement upon employers of illegals. My point of view is, if you can't run a profitable business without breaking laws which have good reason to exist, you shouldn't be in business. Are we going to allow people to freely violate any law which prevents them from cutting costs?

The elephant in the Democrats' living room

Hillary Clinton's waffly response on driver's licences for illegal aliens during the recent Democratic debate has drawn attention to the Democrats' greatest vulnerability: their weakness on the illegal-immigration issue.

The problem won't go away:

One poll finding this week that shook Democrats.....asked voters to pick two from a list of seven problems that explained "why the country is going in the wrong direction." The survey found that among independent voters, 40 percent -- by far the largest group -- picked this option: "Our borders have been left unprotected and illegal immigration is growing." By contrast, a lack of action on health care was named by only 24 percent of independents as a core problem, and Iraq by 23 percent.

It's an issue on which the people are prepared to get mad and fight the government -- as they did in June.

Here's an intelligent, if perhaps a little too pessimistic, look at the problem. In my view, it may actually be beneficial to have the Democrats' biggest weak point forced out onto the table so early in the campaign season, rather than being left to become a major Republican weapon against them during the general-election campaign. Hillary has toughened her stance on issues like Iran and military response to future terrorist acts, thus inoculating herself against another potential line of attack. She still has time to do the same on illegal immigration — if she understands what’s at stake.

Link roundup for 25 October 2007

Ugh. I guess Giuliani really is Catholic.

Here's another example of the administration distorting science for ideological reasons.

Some encouraging signs from Europe on the Iran problem and on Russia.

"Can you imagine one of our guys talking in a foreign language at that level of sophistication?" An interview with Russian opposition Presidential candidate Garry Kasparov.

The Catholic League is taking umbrage about the upcoming movie version of The Golden Compass. Meanwhile, fundamentalists can now get their usual Christmas chip-on-the-shoulder online.

373 electoral votes for Hillary? Here's a graphic look at what a Christian Right third-party candidate could do. Things don't look so hot for Republicans in Congress either.

ChooseDoubt ponders the injustice of the Christian concept of Hell. Ascendance takes another approach to the same issue.

The Senate has voted down another plan to give "a path to legal status" (that is, amnesty) to some illegal aliens. (Note the biased language of the article -- "again dashing hopes for any meaningful action on immigration reform before 2008 elections", as if "reform" can only mean amnesty and as if this is what all right-thinking people "hope" for.) As with the higher-profile amnesty fight in June, public outrage helped persuade Senators -- including some Democrats -- to squelch the bill. Yeesh, it's almost as if people didn't appreciate how illegal immigration enriches American culture!

Besides illegal immigration, we should take a look at offshoring, which also destroys American jobs -- and while it may make products and services cheaper, the quality also often suffers, as the recent wave of revelations about toxic imports from China shows. Some companies are wising up.

Some more thoughts on that Israeli airstrike on Syria.

Most Russians and Ukrainians have an inherited Eastern Orthodox Christian religious identity and are in practice thoroughly secular. There is, however, a Protestant minority which is anything but. Within this group, there has recently emerged a fanatical and violent anti-homosexual association calling itself "The Watchmen on the Walls". Protestants make up a disproportionate share of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants to the US, where they find a society fast becoming as secular as the one they left behind -- and already far more tolerant of homosexuality. Now the Watchmen are becoming active right here in the Pacific Northwest, where recent Protestant Slavic immigrants are concentrated.

At long last.....

Remember Elvira Arellano and her "campaign of resistance"?

Gone.

Sanctuary-city crackdown

Solid majorities of Americans continue to favor tough measures against illegal aliens -- and against the midguided Americans who abet them.

Slouching toward attrition

The Bush administration is finally taking action against illegal immigration as the people demanded -- but it's gambling that we didn't really mean it.

Moving forward on illegal immigration?

A month and a half after President Bush and pro-amnesty Senators got smacked down by the American people, there are signs that the government is finally starting to take some real action against illegal aliens and the miscreants who employ them. How will we know whether our "leaders" are serious about this or just trying to pull another scam on us? Here's how.

"Techno-populism" awakens

Thomas Sowell offers the plainest and clearest explanation yet of what happened:

The people stopped it. That is what democracy is all about.....This bill was an insult to people's intelligence from start to finish, and the elites are continuing to insult people's intelligence after being defeated.

Talk about investigating illegal immigrants was just window-dressing to fool the gullible public. When the public turned out not to be as gullible as the politicians and other elites thought, the answer has been to insult their intelligence some more.

If the bottomless condescension of politicians doesn't make you mad enough to keep up the pressure on the government for more enforcement, try this:

Hours after the Senate voted against advancing the immigration reform project, the Mexican activist Elvira Arellano announced a campaign of resistance against the U.S. government.

Arellano, who has remained in a Northwest Side church since August 15 to avoid an order of deportation, said this would be the deadline the government will have to "revive and pass a comprehensive immigration reform.” Otherwise, pro-immigrant organizers will begin a campaign “aimed at bringing this government and this economy to a halt.”

Who in the name of the Devil do these people think they are?!

If you observe illegal-alien activity in your area, here's contact information for national immigration enforcement, and here's a list of local offices (found via Chell's Roost).