Overnight Open Thread
Open | Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 11:12:56 pm PDT
Which statement seems more true: (1) I have a brain. (2) I am a brain.
— Douglas Hofstadter
Tuesday Night Lounge
Private | Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 6:51:48 pm PDT
The Lizard Lounge is now open for a crazy Tuesday evening.
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Pat Buchanan vs. Evolution
Politics | Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 6:08:37 pm PDT
As we’ve noted previously, in addition to all his other wonderful attributes, “the great Patrick J. Buchanan” (Sean Hannity’s introduction for him) is a creationist.
And he has one of those “creationism checklist” articles now running at all the conservative websites (TownHall, WorldNetDaily, HumanEvents), in which he blames Charles Darwin for the majority of the world’s ills (evilution caused both Marx and Hitler!): Making a Monkey Out of Darwin.
Get it? Monkey ... Darwin? Haw!
Along the way, we get the standard checklist of creationist tropes: Darwin as liar/thief/atheist, Hitler, Marx, eugenics, Nebraska Man, Piltdown Man, the fossil record, the origin of life, etc., concluding with the ever-popular equation of evolutionary science with religion:
Darwinism is not science. It is faith. Always was.
It’s interesting that paleo-knuckleheads like Buchanan think the most devastating rebuttal of all to the theory of evolution is that it’s ... just like religion.
Tapscott: 'Cap and Traitor' Is Over the Line
Environment | Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 1:23:44 pm PDT
The Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott asks people on the right to dial down the rhetoric a little bit on the cap-and-trade bill.
Could somebody please explain the difference between people on the Right calling the eight GOP congressmen who voted for the Obama-Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade anti-global warming energy bill “cap and traitors” and the far lefties at Moveon.org calling Gen. David Petraeus “General Betrayus”?
Sorry, folks, but, as much as I agree this bill is a disaster for America, calling these eight RINOs “traitors” is beyond the line. Here’s why: The word “traitor” has specific reference to national loyalty. Benedict Arnold was a traitor, as were spies like John Walker, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and Aldrich Hazen Ames. The traditional penalty for treason is death, though in recent decades that sentence has been all but forgotten in the U.S., though not in other nations.
When somebody promises you they will take a certain course of action not involving national loyalty, but then does another, they are a rat, a double-crosser, or a jerk, but they are not a traitor because national security is not jeopardized by their failure to do what they promised to do. The Obama-Waxman-Markey bill will certainly burden the U.S. economy, but it won’t destroy it. Thus, referring to the eight GOP members who voted for the bill is unjustified.
Following the publication of this editorial, Tapscott was promptly attacked by that faction of the right wing who believe it’s their turn to get their rage on and anybody who tries to talk them out of it is just another traitor.
UPDATE: A challenge for my critics
My goodness, I seem to have stuck my head into a hornet’s nest. Rather than attempting to respond to each of the arguments being presented by those who disagree with me (and there is a logical, non-abusive case to be made contrary to my view), I would simply ask my critics to show me one example of Ronald Reagan calling a single one of his opponents traitors.
Pat Boone: Nirther
Weird | Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 12:35:18 pm PDT
Finally, the burgeoning Nirther movement is starting to attract some serious celebrity star power, as the great one, Pat Boone, leverages his considerable gravitas to demand (via Newsmax.com): Mr. Obama, Show Us Your Birth Certificate.
Honduran Troops Detain Journalists
World | Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 10:35:17 am PDT
The Honduran military has been interrupting news broadcasts and clamping down on freedom of the press.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduran troops detained seven international journalists covering the aftermath of a military coup Monday, freeing them unhurt a short time later. The government also took at least two television stations off the air and interrupted the broadcasts of others.
At least 10 soldiers, most with rifles drawn, arrived at the hotel where journalists from The Associated Press and the Venezuela-based television network Telesur were staying and unplugged their editing equipment in an apparent attempt to stop their coverage of protests in support of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.
One of the Telesur journalists was speaking on a telephone at the time of the detention, and AP’s Nicolas Garcia saw a soldier lightly slapping her hand so she would hang up.
Garcia, an Argentine videojournalist, and Esteban Felix, a Peruvian photographer, and two Nicaraguan assistants were loaded into a military Land Cruiser, with another military vehicle following close behind. Also detained were Telesur journalists Adriana Sivori, producer Maria Jose Diaz and cameraman Larry Sanchez.
“They’re taking us prisoner at gunpoint,” Sivori told Telesur by telephone as she was being detained. Telesur is financed by Venezuela’s government and its allies.
Garcia said the four AP journalists were taken to an immigration office where two officials demanded to see their Honduran visas. They were released after explaining they were journalists. Telesur confirmed that its journalists were also released.
Sanford Admits to More Trysts
Politics | Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 10:01:43 am PDT
The saga of Governor Mark Sanford descends into farce, as he admits he lied about how often he saw his Argentinian mistress.
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Tuesday that he saw his Argentine mistress more times than previously disclosed, including what was to be a farewell meeting in New York chaperoned by a spiritual adviser soon after his wife found out about the affair.
In a lengthy and emotional interview with The Associated Press in his Statehouse office, the governor described five meetings with Maria Belen Chapur over the past year, including two romantic, multi-night stays with her in New York before they met there again intending to break up.
He said he met her two other times — their first meeting in 2001 at an open-air dance spot in Uruguay and a coffee date in New York in 2004 during the Republican National Convention. He said neither time was romantic.
