Hail Dubyus: *Republican Stories*

The excellent Hail Dubyus has scored again!


 


What can we say? Sarah Palin’s life would fill two week’s worth of the Jerry Springer Show. This week’s National Enquirer–remember, they knew about John Edwards’ affair eight months before the NYTimes knew–alleges that Sary darlin’ had an affair ten years ago (at least that’s the scuttlebutt in the Wasilla gossip chain), that the reason young Track is in the army was because he’d lost control of his various drug addictions, and to round things off, provides juicy details about what happened in the Palin household when little Miss Bristol announced she got knocked up by the boyfriend she’s constantly fighting and breaking up with. Oughta be a great marriage.

But we finally get Sarah’s first interview with Charlie Gibson. HOOHAH! Let’s go to war with Russia! From what I could see, Charlie Gibson was leaning over backwards in an effort to not let Sarah make a total fool of herself. But there are just some things you can’t get around. Like, she knows nothing about the world outside the US, nothing about foreign policy in general, nothing about the foreign policies of her hero, Dubya. What’s a Bush Doctrine? She’s not completely certain that the war in Iraq is part of God’s plan, but she sure knows that gas pipeline from Alaska is. After all, National Security is equivalent to Energy Policy, isn’t it? I’d say her handlers need to intensify efforts to bring her up to speed before the next interview.

But the interesting thing is looking at the comments to the various clips floating around–on mainstream sites like Yahoo. You’d think Charlie Gibson was a foaming at the mouth radical the way some of these comments castigated him for asking Sarah questions that were TOO HARD. Too Hard? Playing Gotcha? It seems as if there’s a segment of the population that WANTS a “hockey mom” as Vice President, someone just like them, someone with the same problems and the same outlook. It isn’t fair to expect her to have the kind of knowledge a seasoned politician would have. Well, nuts! If this hockey mom is going to be next in line for the presidency, I want her to have the kind of knowledge a seasoned politician would have–because she needs it. It’s not like we get a do-over if we declare war on Russia over a petty border squabble–

Being president is the ultimate occupation you learn “on the job” since no other office prepares you for the decisions you have to make. But let’s have someone who’s at least got the fundamentals, rather than the fundamentalists.

You can find plenty more of this sort of stuff here.

Corrupted Science in the news

I've been receiving a flurry of blog reviews/plugs/commentaries recently for Corrupted Science, and I'm not entirely sure why; the book was published in the US almost exactly a year ago. Maybe it's just coincidence; perhaps the imminence of the election has set people to thinking about the Republicans' record of suppressing and distorting science. Who knows?

Whatever, I'm really pretty delighted about the latest blog commentary, this time from Banter Blogging, which starts:

I've been reading a book called "Corrupted Science" by John Grant (2007). As a scientist, I read things like this to keep me on my toes, and to remind me to be honest when I interpret the results of experiments. Corrupted science often happens when scientists let their humanity overcome their objectivity. It can happen to any scientist who is not careful.

The last chapter, titled "The political corruption of science", begins with the following paragraph:

"Since the dawn of the 20th century, there has been an upsurge in the ideological corruption of science by those in political power. the three classic cases over the past century are Hitler's Germany, Stalin's USSR, and George W. Bush's America. The third of these is treated in slightly more detail here not just because it is current but because its ideological spread has arguably been on the widest scale, affecting not one or two sciences but many. It is also, because of its assault on climate science, potentially the most globally dangerous in human history. This should not be read as reflective of any political attitude the author might have for or against other activities of the Bush Administration; the deliberate governmental corruption of a nation's science is of such parlous importance that it transcends all political allegiances or antipathies."

Mr. Grant has said what I feel in a most concise way. While some may claim that comparing the US with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union is spurious, when viewed purely from the viewpoint of scientific corruption, the comparison holds. Suppression of real scientific results or promotion of pseudoscience to serve political or ideological ends is the common thread.

In other egobooish news, The Dragons of Manhattan is finally available for sale through Amazon. Tell your friends! And if you really like those friends, tell 'em the book's cheaper through my website . . .

Further exciting news about The Dragons of Manhattan later.

oh, this'll have you howling with laughter

Apparently Repugnican supporters, not content with habitually insulting and sliming Katrina survivors, are now circulating this ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS piece of wit among themselves:

 
So, attention, Texans! If you get smitten by Hurricane Ike as hard as everyone fervently hopes you won't, be prepared for these wags to start trivializing and ridiculing your plight!

The Commandment They Always Forget

I'm not the hugest fan of Andrew Sullivan (he's a US conservative, I'm a moderate progressive -- or a far leftist raving pinko loony, as the average US media pundit might describe me and Jesus Christ both), but every now and then he hits the nail right on the head. Here's the start of one of his most recent posts:

It's sad to be lectured constantly by the Republicans on morality. My marriage, for example, is a sin, according to Republicans. And if you squint hard enough somewhere in the Bible, you can find a couple of verses that will say so. But you don't have to squint hard at all to see the Ten Commandments. And one of them is pretty clear:

Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness

What we are seeing from the pious denizens of the Christianist right - once again - is not just their susceptibility to breaking this commandment, but their zeal and enthusiasm in doing so. They are obsessed with the sex lives of others but see nothing wrong with breaking one of the most fundamental moral instructions in the Bible themselves.

And so we have those "good Christians" McCain and Palin lying most egregiously -- more and more grossly than, I think, any US Presidential campaign has done before. But they're lyin' for Jesus, see?

Tell me. how would Jesus lie?