A Dose Of Reality

I'm done bashing Republicans/Conservatives for the moment, and I'm on to re-posting things about how dumb Liberals can be. See here about the ACA as corporate bailout.

Baseball And Medicine

Moneyball and evidence-based medicine have some things in common.

Who Killed Hostess?

Lazy linkage.

Republicans And The Latino Vote

The 2012 Presidential election saw a continuance of a demographic trend that doe not bode well for the GOP at the national level. Latino voters went for Obama at a 71-27 clip, per CNN exit polls.

The GOP seems, for now, to be embracing the reality that they cannot win the White House if they don't close this margin. There has been a lot of preemptive mockery from the Left about this potential switch in tone, but I have a different perspective. I see this as democracy working. Latinos are a significant and growing block of voters, and having one of the two major parties move away from policy stances that are alienating (no pun intended) to such a group is a good thing, in my view. I hope our next President can represent as broad a coalition of voters as possible. If either party is forced to change policy based on election results, that isn't pandering, that's elections, in the context of representative government, working.

On another pretty-much unrelated note, there is anecdotal evidence that the Romney campaign really thought it would win, in the face of substantial evidence to the contrary. I just wonder this does to people who believe in magical "The Secret"-type thinking.

Fatal Fallacy 4

I posted #3 a while back, but wanted to pick up the series again. I'm posting #4 for the sake of completeness, but I would be lying if I told you I really understand this one. Focus on the last, italicized (mine), part.

Fallacy 4

Inflation is called the "cruelest tax." The perception seems to be that if only prices would stop rising, one's income would go further, disregarding the consequences for income.

GMOs And Bad Science

In honor of a friend's dickhead friend, I'm going to post a few articles about the problems with the anti-GMO reactionaries. This does not mean I think GMOs are 100% safe, or that we shouldn't label, or that Monsanto is a commune of angels. It means that I value science, not emotion, in trying to make choices, especially public policy choices.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/antivaccine-versus-anti-gmo-different-goals-same-methods/

http://www.societyofbiology.org/newsandevents/news/view/467

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/06/gmo-bt-pesticides-crops

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/06/frankenfood_debate_over_gmos_in_europe_and_the_united_states_.single.html

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/a-science-based-blog-about-gmo/

This post sponsored by Monsanto. ;-)

An Essay On Assholes

This makes me think of my step-mom (RIP), whose favorite word was "asshole." She had this great Mid-western (Chicago) way of saying it. Anyway, for your consideration and amusement:

How Fox News created a new culture of idiots

People Writing About Things They Patently Do Not Understand

No, this isn't an alternate title for my blog. It's a lazy re-post of an evisceration of David Sirtoa, who is a dummy.

B-Side Thursday

Dedicated to Willard Romney:

Why Reagan Was The Devil Incarnate, Chapter Eleventy Hundred: Destroying Public Higher Education

[via LG&M]

I get frustrated when people can't or won't see that this is not an accident, it is not inevitable, and it is not "just how things are." There is a conscious, coordinated effort to destroy American civil society, in the name of "small government" ideology. This story deals in part with Ronnie Raygun's involvement.

Today's Lesson In Big Government

Telling doctors how to practice medicine. Remember: Nobody actually cares about Big Government (or Federalism or the deficit, for that matter). It is all a smokescreen for an agenda.