“US, UK research: Thick kids more likely to become bigots“. Ouch. I’ve often thought that today’s conservatives weren’t the brightest bulbs on the whole, and wondered whether there was some causal link there, but to have it bluntly spelled out like that is pretty damning. Maybe these studies should be publicized a lot more. Nobody [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Politics category.
“MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren’t Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought”
Remember the SOPA drama last week? It has given MPAA not-quite-lobbyist Chris Dodd a bad case of foot-in-mouth: he publicly threatened politicians who’d taken MPAA money for not doing what the MPAA wanted. On national television, no less. Un-freakin’-believable. And just this side of actually criminal. Dodd is a former senator — he should know [...]
SOPA and PIPA stopped — for now
Wow. I didn’t expect anything like what happened, and apparently neither did anyone else — including the MPAA. From the e-mail I received from FightForTheFuture.org: The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA [...]
Stop SOPA/PIPA!
As you may have noticed, this site — along with thousands of others — was blacked out today, to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills. If you’re an American Internet user and haven’t heard of them before, what rock have you been hiding under? Go find out what it’s all about (this page might help), [...]
“Religious Expressions Are Rooted in Fear-Based Politics”
A “National Day of Prayer”? “One Nation Under God”? “In God We Trust”? I’ve heard people claim that they’re proof that America was founded on Christian principles. If the speaker acknowledges freedom of religion at all, he invariably means that everyone must be free to practice his religion. Thing is, all three of those were [...]
“The cure for US job woes: More immigrants”
I’ve been baffled by this for the last couple days. I’m not sure I follow their numbers, but I’ll accept them on faith for the moment. The thing that baffles me is the source: a very conservative think-tank. Political conservatives have railed against anyone who was different practically since the ink was dry on the [...]
“Paul Krugman: save the economy by staging an alien invasion hoax”
A nice idea, but I suspect the execution would be pretty difficult. Hollywood special effects are a lot better now than in 1938, but there are many more science-educated people who would be a lot harder to fool too. All it would take is one slip-up, caught and pointed out by some bright teenager, and [...]
“Superhero oil-burping algae will save the world”
As much as this sounds like pure fantasy right now, I suspect it’s all but inevitable. Too many people are looking too hard at the problem — somebody is going to crack it sooner or later, and likely sooner. I also suspect that the consequences listed in the article are only the tip of the [...]
“The DHS Partners with Major League Soccer to Promote Fear”
As reported here. Why? Simple enough: fear shuts off the brain. It’s easier to control people who are afraid, something that dictators, politicians, and televangelists know very well.
“Tumblr users fight SOPA with 87,834 calls to Congress”
It wasn’t just Tumblr users, either. Demand Progress delivered over seven hundred thousand e-mails as well, including mine. Sorry, music and movie industries. The people won’t stand for such draconian and heavy-handed attempts at censorship to protect your outdated business models. You’re going to have to do what every industry eventually does: adapt or die. [...]