JABbering Stooge

I’m going to be putting my thoughts together on the horrid situation out in Knoxville, TN during Drinking Liberally tonight. I should have a post up before the night is out.

Senator Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens indicted on seven counts of making false statements in an Alaska-sized corruption scandal that may yet also net Rep. Don Young (R — Scumbag).

One of President Eisenhower’s two signature achievements (the other being the Interstate Highway system), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration turns 50 today.

DaveScot “My IQ is north of 150” Springer seems to be suffering from irony deficiency over at Dembski’s Crib:

Science has left the building once the Nazi card gets played. As far as science is concerned it doesn’t matter if Hitler and Darwin were the same person. The only thing that matters is whether his theories can stand up to scientific scrutiny.

Um, Dave? Did you not see Expelled? That movie was nothing but a 97-minute Darwin = Hitler wankfest!

Oh, wait. What’s that? You have something you wish to add?

It’s a crying shame that people just can’t seem to drop this obsession with Darwin and Nazis.

Yeah, Dave. It’s a crying shame your hero Ben Stein and your coblogger Denyse O’Loony can’t seem to drop this obsession with Darwin and Nazis.

Sidebar: Perhaps more absurd and appalling is that Stein has recently expanded his penchant for lobbing Argumenta ad Hitleram at his foes into the realm of presidential politics. It’s as if swimming in the sewers with amateur ophiologists has turned him into a one-trick pony…

Honestly, Dave. If you want people to take you seriously when you call for a moratorium on Godwin’s Law violations, it’s time you removed the beam from your eye.

• Kick out the cobloggers who freely wield Nazi analogies like Denyse.

• Take a more jaundiced eye toward those among your commentariat with any inclination towards acting like ardent Scientologists, starting with the ever-loathsome For the Kids. After all, if you had a seventeen-year-old daughter, would you want her declared Fair Game™ and subject to the most vile character assassination imaginable for no other reason than the fact that you (her father) pissed off one of your ideological opponents?

If you want to retain what little credibility you have left, you will do these two things, at the bare minimum.

Tags: BPSDB

Although the official schedule called for Day 4 to start with an Interfaith service, I decided to skip it and come in on the closing keynote. And thank goodness for that. The closing keynote speaker, civil rights and environmental activist Van Jones, gave a powerful speech about the need for a green economy, and the crucial role that the netroots can and should help play in making that a reality. In particular, he noted that it was “interesting” that when demand for oil and other fossil fuels increases, the cost rises, whereas when the same happens in the renewable energy market, the cost drops. Towards the end of the speech, Jones “[Compared] the task of unraveling the impact of 50 years of a conservative agenda to ‘cleaning a barn with a straw,’” (in the words of the Austin Chronicle — and I should note that he also pantomimed said cleaning to humorous effect) and that “an Obama victory in November would be the beginning, not the end, of that ongoing battle against reactionary ideologues.”

Indeed.

I should point out at this point that before Van Jones gave his frank words of advice and encouragement to the netroots, the fine folks at the Group News Blog came up to announce the awarding of the first annual Steve Gilliard Grant of Merit to Dr. Michael Shaw of BAGnewsNotes.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I enjoyed Netroots Nation. The panels were very informative, and it was very exciting to meet the people that I’d only known from reading their blogs until now. I can’t wait to attend next year’s convention in Pittsburgh. In a way, it will be like a homecoming for me.

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Nancy, you have some ’splainin to do!

Even if you hadn’t heard the rumors, the fact that there was a schedule change printout laying at every seat denoting the extended Q & A session with Speaker Pelosi practically screamed that something was up. My former representative, Lloyd Doggett, introduced the Speaker of the House, who gave a 10-15 minute speech praising the netroots for our efforts in returning sanity to America. After a little high school theater, that something was revealed: Al Gore had decided to drop in on Netroots Nation. It was definitely something to see.

For a more detailed recap, you might want to check out Paul Hogarth at Calitics and Jill Tubman over at Jack and Jill Politics. Rachel Sklar also has a good overview over at Huffington Post, if you want to start there. My only quibble with Rachel’s recap is her description of a “brief disruption” from the Code Pink protesters, as “several brief disruptions” would be a more accurate depiction.

The Infamous “Fuck Panel”

About to be Rickrolled…

R.I.P. Dr. Randy Pausch (10/23/1960 — 7/25/2008)

Dr. Pausch was a CS professor at Carnegie Mellon University (my alma mater). He became famous for his “Last Lecture” speech at CMU in 2007, shortly after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He also co-founded CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, and will have a cameo appearance in the new Star Trek film.

I didn’t really know him personally, since my interaction with the CS department was limited to the introductory courses, but he will be missed.

* With apologies to Mark Twain.

This is what we call “confirmation bias“…

A new study in the journal Science suggests that when it comes to math and science, anything boys can do, girls can do just as well (if not better, in some cases). This should come as common sense to sane people. Sadly, some will look at this report and say “That’s unpossible!” (Especially a certain presidential candidate…)

Seen in the “Reading Assignments” section of Neal Boortz’s daily program notes:

John McCain just can’t catch a break. He was going to try and get some media coverage by visiting an oil rig, but he had to cancel the trip due to weather.

(Slightly) Shorter Neal Boortz:

Waaaaaaah! Even God is biased against St. John McBush! Waaaaaaaaah!