Everyone is linking to Ben Domenech’s piece in the WaPo, so I gave it a look, and this graf puzzled me: Any red-blooded American conservative, even those who hold a dim view of Patrick Swayze’s acting “talent,” knows a Red Dawn reference. For all the talk of left wing cultural political correctness, the right has …
Archives for March 2006
Science Bits
Some recent science-related news that you might find interesting: * Is aggression coded in our genes? The protein MOA-A appears to help neurotransmitters return to baseline level after a shock, and higher levels appear to sensitize people to violent behavior after childhood trauma [Science vol. 297, pp851-854]. In that light, a recent MRI study (not …
SPAM E-Mail
I will be back this afternoon with something to say, but for now, what the hell is up with all the spam e-mail I have been getting at my gmail account? It has quadrupled in the past two weeks.
The Good News
More Social Science
Via Susie at Sub-G, a long-term survey in Berkeley finds that whiny babies grow up conservative: In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids’ personalities were rated at the time …
The Republican Message
Democrats will love reading this WaPo piece: Republican efforts to craft a policy and political agenda to carry the party into the midterm elections have stumbled repeatedly as GOP leaders face widespread disaffection and disagreement within the ranks. Anxiety over President Bush’s Iraq policy, internal clashes over such divisive issues as immigration, and rising complaints …
The War Analogy War
Like John I get annoyed when people make ridiculous comparisons between Iraq and other wars. Some examples: The Crusades [T]his crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile. [President George Bush in what one hopes was an unintentional slip, 9/15/01] Just before Boykin was put in charge of the hunt for Osama bin …