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Source: John Wellington Ennis: Ken Blackwell for RNC Chair

John Ennis knows Ken Blackwell; he’s made a feature-length documentary of our former Secretary of State’s devious (and successful) schemes to deliver Ohio to Dubya in 2004.

J. Kenneth Blackwell, the former Secretary of State of Ohio whose administration of the 2004 election made Katherine Harris look like Mary Tyler Moore, is aggressively pushing to become the next chair of the Republican National Committee when its 168 members convene in 2009 to figure out how to pull their party out of the deep, dank hole they have dug themselves into. And I for one support his selection wholeheartedly.

Ennis’s article details the many ways in which Ken exemplifies those qualities that sunk the GOP in November. He wishes Blackwell success in his drive to skipper that derelict vessel, and he concludes, “I think that most readers of Huffington Post will join me in supporting Ken Blackwell to lead the Republican Party to a dismal future. Indeed, his penchant for election fraud may be their only chance left.”

Source: Pantone Selects Color of the Year for 2009: PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa

“The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation.”

Pantone has a lot of clout. The color in the box above is as close as I can come to Pantone’s “Mimosa”, and it’s is likely to be what you’ll be wearing next year. Assuming, that is, that you still have a job and there are still a few stores open.

A favorite technique of climate change deniers, free market fanatics, and generally cynical grumps is to trot out some factoid, learned long ago when things were different, or improperly understood all along, to refute the possibility of clean (or cleaner) energy: too expensive, impractical, won’t work. In this article from the Guardian, Chris Goodall has taken points from his new book “Ten Technologies to Save the Planet“, and provided simply understood and authoritative refutations of ten of the commonest “that’ll never work” arguments. Here’s something I’d not heard of, presented in the course of refuting the myth that “all proposed solutions to climate change need to be hi-tech”:

Source: The 10 big energy myths | Environment | The Guardian

Biochar is an astonishing idea. Burning agricultural wastes in the absence of air leaves a charcoal composed of almost pure carbon, which can then be crushed and dug into the soil. Biochar is extremely stable and the carbon will stay in the soil unchanged for hundreds of years. The original agricultural wastes had captured CO2 from the air through the photosynthesis process; biochar is a low-tech way of sequestering carbon, effectively for ever. As importantly, biochar improves fertility in a wide variety of tropical soils. Beneficial micro-organisms seem to crowd into the pores of the small pieces of crushed charcoal.

Chris points out that low-cost stoves to produce biochar exist; a few million dollars marshalled in support of the groups making and distributing those stoves could increase the productivity of hundreds of millions of small farmers in desperately needy parts of the world, while extracting statistically significant quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Harry’s blog is the Ragged Trousered Philosopher, and I’d not seen it until today. “A Division by Zero“, one of the blogs comprising Planet Atheism, pointed me to Harry’s tale:

I met god the other day.

I know what you’re thinking. How the hell did you know it was god?

Well, I’ll explain as we go along, but basically he convinced me by having all, and I do mean ALL, the answers. Every question I flung at him he batted back with a plausible and satisfactory answer. In the end, it was easier to accept that he was god than otherwise.

Which is odd, because I’m still an atheist and we even agree on that!

It all started on the 8.20 back from Paddington…

The conversation between Harry and God, who enters the car in the form of a 30-year-old white guy in jeans and a tee shirt, takes a number of totally unexpected turns. It’s moving, and funny, and wise, and enormously thought-provoking. I encourage you to read it.

Santa Jim Kunstler, over at Clusterfuck Nation, takes a broad look today at the euphoria afflicting our national media, its alarming willingness to ignore “the reality of the threats we face, which are 1.) the loss of primary energy resources, 2.) the loss of technological potency, and 3.) the loss of a comfortable standard of living.” Kunstler credits the team behind the Financial Sense Newshour podcast with defining our current paradigm shift, and shows how we are desperately trying to find ways to get back to how it used to be: “even the greenest captains of environmentalism strive to find groovy new ways to run all our cars, while their counterparts on Wall Street strive desperately to salvage a set of ‘innovative’ financial rackets based on getting something for nothing.”

Kunstler makes a persuasive case that it’s not going to happen. Our future does not lie in recreating a failed past, but in a society based on the new reality:

Our destination is a far less complex society in a larger, rounder, and less economically-integrated world. We will be leaving a lot of our technological comforts behind, staying closer to home, living in smaller cities and reactivated small towns, working the land more intensively to produce the food we need, and possibly organizing our governance at something less than the continental scale our dwindling riches used to afford. That is, if we’re lucky enough to avoid the real possibility of social disorder and violence that would attend a fullblown economic collapse scenario.

Read Kunstler’s post for a cogent analysis of the realpolitik behind the current Georgia/Russia kerfuffle, and a wonderfully cynical (and realistic) look at the much heralded opening of the billion-customer Chinese marketplace to American manufacturing (GM) and retailing (Big Macs).

Every time I read one of Jim’s posts, I know that I should sell everything and put it into Euros in a Paypal account; if I’d done that the first time I thought I should, I’d be a lot wealthier now. And I probably won’t do it today either.

Source: Orcinus

Sara Robinson tosses out what I think is a great idea: a Liberal Pride Parade, on the model of the Gay Pride Parades that are now held around the world and have become, in many cities, civic events that cut across gender divides, or even, in some cases, significant tourist attractions. She points out the small scale and diffuse sense of purpose with which those parades started, and the much more important purposes they’ve come to serve.

It was a street party; but it also put the community’s growing institutional strength on display each year, established a forum for the sharing of energy and ideas, and educated millions of straight people (who, in turn, educated others). Doing this year after year gave local gay communities a reason to get organized, and stay organized — so when trouble came calling, they could organize to fight it without a moment of confusion or hesitation.

Sara asks whether it’s time to adopt the idea and start holding Liberal Pride celebrations nationally. And she lists a number of benefits—the chance to assert our strength in the marketplace of ideas; the fact that such an event will build a widespread sense of community, even in places where liberals are a minority or have been driven underground by the chest-thumping bullies on the other side; the chance to take back a noble name that our enemies have tried to demean by using it as a pejorative; the opportunity to challenge companies widely supported by liberals, e.g. Whole Foods and REI, to return the favor with event sponsorships; and, most importantly, increasing our security at a time when the right wing is ratcheting its eliminationist rhetoric way past any responsible level. But the benefit that I spark to most is the one that Sara labels “Joy and Hope”.

These events should be massively, wildly, unapologetically fun; and fabulous PR for the cause. Without the Seriousness of Purpose required by a demonstration, a Liberal Pride festival can just loosen up and relax. It’s a celebration of all things progressive — and we do it right, the Biggest Asshole Rule kicks in when everyone in town realizes that compared to us, the conservatives are bunch of uptight, self-righteous stuffed shirts who couldn’t throw a decent party if Reagan’s resurrection depended on it.

And where there’s fun, there’s hope. People, we have gotten pretty dismal over the past 30 years. And I hate to break it to you — but, as desperate as this nation is, nobody follows pessimists. We are not going to get our political mojo back for good until we remember how to find joy in this work again. Pride celebrations could be a place to start rediscovering the lost art of raising hell and having fun.

And she points out that such celebrations, divested of any action agenda, can help restore the balance between work and play.

Having an annual just-for-fun day would enable us to offload this social function from demonstrations and protests. It seems like a lot of people turn out for demonstrations because they enjoy the street party, and the sense of connection with the larger left community. Unfortunately, … this diverse and celebratory atmosphere usually works against the intent of the protest, too often diluting the focus and message into utter incoherence and making any kind of real paradigm-busting direct action damned near impossible.

If we have annual events specifically dedicated [to] diversity and celebration and scratching that street party itch, it might liberate our protests to evolve into other more creative, focused, and effective forms. Like King Bertram, when we work, we’ll really work. And when we play, we’ll really play. Both will be vastly better when we stop trying to conflate the two into the same events.

The comments on Sara’s post are generally supportive. Several comments ask when such an event might be held, and the general sentiment seems to focus on Labor Day. My choice for a Liberal Pride parade would be Sunday, the day before Labor Day. That would associate the celebration with the international labor movement, but it would be on a day that typically has no major civic celebrations associated with it. If you like the idea, hustle on over to the Orcinus post and add your two cents worth.

Source: Welcome to The Barna Group!

The Barna Group seems to be a Christian research organization. They’ve done a study of people who identify themselves as “evangelicals”; the demographics and attitudes of that group were compared with those of people who revealed themselves as evangelicals on a nine-point scale that the Barna people developed based on the belief statements of the national’s leading participants in the National Association of Evangelicals. The two groups—self-described evangelicals and “nine-point” evangelicals—were very different:

The most striking differences relate to the beliefs of each group. Compared to the 9-point evangelicals, those who say they are evangelicals are:

60% less likely to believe that Satan is real
53% less likely to believe that salvation is based on grace, not works
46% less likely to say they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others
42% less likely to list their faith in God as the top priority in their life
38% less likely to believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth
27% less likely to contend that the Bible is totally accurate in all of its teachings
23% less likely to say that their life has been greatly transformed by their faith

In fact, the Barna research also noted that one out of every four adults (27%) who say they are evangelicals is not even born again, based upon their beliefs.

The self-defined evangelicals were also less likely than the nine-point believers to be well-off, to have a college education, and to be married. And this one surprised me: the self-defined group was less likely to call themselves conservative on social and political issues and more likely to identify themselves as Democrats.

The most important finding in the Barnes study involves numbers. By the study’s count, the “true” evanglicals, i.e. those who fit the evangelical ideological pattern, number just about 9-10% of the population, compared to the 35-40% who label themselves “evangelical”. It’s the latter number that’s used most often, and it’s misleading. It implies a level of rigidity and dogmatic belief in the U.S. population that just does not exist. Thank God!

Source: Hullabaloo

Tristero has a fine post responding to the media’s attempts to portray the two sides in the debate over re-criminalizing abortion as “equally extreme”. The context is the current attempt by the radical christianists to return South Dakota to a pre-enlightenment culture. Tristero demolishes a NYTimes article which “compare[s] the tactics of the South Dakota pro-coathangers to the pro-choicers, trying to make them out as equally guilty of extreme rhetoric.”

Some of you might point out that my use of the phrase "pro-coathanger" to describe the anti-choice gang is just as extreme as calling pro-choice people "baby-killers." Well, yes, of course it is. And that is the point. I’m using the term deliberately here to shock you into realizing that that is how perverse our rhetoric has to get even to begin to come close to matching the revolting rhetoric of the far-right that we take for granted as normal discourse.

For example, to counter the inaccurate term "pro-life" with the accurate "pro-choice" is to cede the rhetorical advantage to the extreme right by permitting them to lie about their position. There is nothing even remotely pro-life about insisting that poor girls who get pregnant without wanting to must suffer the horrors of an incompetent medical procedure. And yet, every day, this is how the mainstream discussion of abortion is conducted, even by liberals who really ought to know better.

Source: â€œThe First Nazi City in Americaâ€? | No gods, no masters

Where: Hazelton, PA.

Everyone will have to register their nationality with the government. No one will be exempt. People of certain nationalities will be targeted for removal. Those who look like they might be from those nations will be marked as suspects, constantly subject to harassment, official and unofficial.

Certain people, based on their nationality, will not be allowed to work. They will not be allowed to live in this place. They will be denied access to hospitals, to doctors. They will not be allowed to purchase medicine or food. Their children will be driven from the schools.

Every store clerk will become a race cop, compelled by law to check the papers of every customer they find â€œsuspect.â€? Everyone who isnâ€™t white will be challenged at the point of sale for any commodity they might need or want. The official language will be English: only. Those who try to shelter, clothe, feed, or give gainful employment or medical assistance to the targeted population will be punished.

According to the LA Times, when the law passed, white citizens burst into applause. The Times reported the reaction of one white woman to the news: "The only ones who are against it are the Hispanics," she said, "and that’s because it’s against them."

When: now.

Source: Meeting Your Expectations | Cosmic Variance

Here’s how they set it up:

220 women were divided into 4 groups and given math and reading comprehension tests between 2003 and 2006. The women were given a GRE (Graduate Records Exam)-like math test, then asked to read an essay, and then given a second math exam. Four different essays were handed out. These essays argued that gender differences in math performances were due to (i) genetic (G), or (ii) experiential (E) differences between the sexes, or (iii) employed standard sexual sterotypes without mentioning mathematical abilities (S), or (iv) argued that there are no gender related math-differences (ND).

And the results are here.

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Category Archives: clip

Ken Blackwell for RNC Chair

Here Comes the Sun

10 Big Energy Myths

Harry Stoddard talks to God

Sleepwalking

I Love a Parade

Depends on who’s counting

The Uses of Coathangers

The First Nazi City in America

Just Like a Woman