Links 4/20/12

Posted on April 20, 2012 by

Links for you. Science:

Fence Is Behind an Explosion of Life in a Wild Corner of Hawaii (a similar thing happened in Long Island when fences excluded deer, and the endemic flora thrived in those enclosures)
Scientific retractions increasing exponentially
The best peer-reviewed scientific figure ever
Illumina Fends Off Roche’s Hostile Bid
How We Nearly Lost Discovery

Other:

I Used to Have Ann Romney’s Life. I Had it Easy. (must-read. One thing that many people really don’t get is what rich people’s lives are like–not celebrities, but rich, mostly anonymous people)
Evangelical tribalism and the Protestant ethic (Or, Max Weber doesn’t live here anymore)
RUNNING THE NUMBERS: THE LOTTERY, PART 2
Here’s some waste we can cut
Conservatives hating on young people for being young
CSI Centerville
Apple iPhone Will Fail in a Late, Defensive Move: Matthew Lynn (from 2007; jeepers)
US missed state’s bright job growth, report finds: Federal revisions of 2011 data faulted
The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future
Mitt Romney, American Parasite: The Presidential candidate’s years at Bain represent everything you hate about capitalism (my takes here, here, and here)
Neal Stephenson on Science Fiction, Building Towers 20 Kilometers High … and Insurance
Sometimes, When “All the Facts are In,” It’s Worse: The UC-Davis Pepper-Spray Report

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

The Authoritarian Catechism

Posted on April 20, 2012 by

Remember back around 2001 – 2002, there was a whole lot of blather about ‘freedom’, which was largely used to intimidate people into giving up their freedoms. Well, David Bromwich has codified our new regime for us:

1. There are good people and bad people.

2. A designated function of the police and prison officials is to determine who is good and who is bad.

3. If you are arrested, it may safely be assumed that you are one of the bad.

4. If, at the time of arrest or afterward, you protest your innocence loudly, or speak with indocility to an officer of the law, you have committed an offense graver than many crimes on the books.

5. Breaches of politeness toward authorities form a legitimate part of a record stored up for future use regarding the conduct of all Americans.

6. Authorities must keep such a record because Americans, through our tacit consent to laws passed or changed since 2001, have affirmed that we think nothing more important than our safety.

7. The duty to keep America safe, and to “protect” all Americans, outweighs the duty to see that existing laws under the Constitution are faithfully executed. Apparent violation of an existing law by a designated authority, so long as it can be seen as consistent with the higher duty of the maintenance of safety, is itself a sufficient reason for a change of law to accommodate the violation.

8. When not already effected by Congress, such changes will be executed by the Supreme Court.

9. There is a proper trade-off between unalienable rights and collective safety, just as there is a trade-off between the moral commandment not to commit injustice and the human desire to live as long and comfortable a life as we possibly can.

10. Whenever safety and comfort require that injustice be done to individuals, injustice is tolerable and should be supported by other Americans.

11. For an accused person, there is a correct and an incorrect posture.

12. The incorrect posture is to be indignant at things done to you, such as the imposition of unnecessary force or humiliation. The correct posture is to be grateful to authority for the things that have not yet been done.

What’s sad is that too many of our fellow citizens willingly submit to this authority. They want to live like this.

FREEDOM!

Posted in Civil Liberties | 1 Comment

GOP Rep. Eric Cantor and Why Most Jews Don’t Vote Republican: Their Highly Successful Jewish Outreach Program

Posted on April 20, 2012 by

Like clockwork, as we near election time, we will be faced with a spate of Republican operatives claiming that this time American Jews will abandon the Democratic Party. And then, again like clockwork, Jewish voters will vote 75-85% Democratic. If Jews were like most other white people with the same educational and economic background (college-educated, not-poor), we would be overwhelmingly Republican. While there are a lot of reasons why this is not the case, a recent exchange between Republican congressman and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is Jewish, and Politico reporter Mike Allen about Cantor’s opposition to a Republican primary candidate, Rep. Manzullo, highlights one very important reason (boldface mine):

But the story got a little more fraught when it turned out that Manzullo once said Cantor would not be “saved” because he is Jewish.

Today, Cantor, the only Jewish House Republican, nearly affirmed that this was the reason he fought against Manzullo’s re-election, insinuating that anti-Semitism — and racism — are lingering problems among the House GOP generally. He speaking at a breakfast event organized by Politico.

Calling it the “darker side,” Cantor responded to Politico’s Mike Allen’s question of whether there is anti-semitism in Congress by trying to avoid commenting. But eventually he let up: “I think that all of us know that in this country, we’ve not always gotten it right in terms of racial matters, religious matters, whatever. We continue to strive to provide equal treatment to everybody.”

“We’re talking about the House Republican Caucus, not America,” Allen pushed.

Cantor then sat in silence, grimmacing for several seconds…

This is common. I really don’t go out of my way to keep track of this stuff (after all, I’m quite aware that there are assholes and they walk among us), but, on this blog alone, I’ve covered the supposedly ‘moderate’ Tommy Thompson being an idiot, J.D. Hayworth’s staff claiming he was “is a more observant Jew” than his Jewish audience, and some party officials from South Carolina.

It’s not that most Republicans are anti-Semites, but between the theocrats and the flat-out bigots, even if you thought Republicans were correct on this issue, it would be very hard to be allies with those assholes. This is an existential issue.

It almost makes me feel sorry for Cantor. Then I remember there’s a very simple solution to his dilemna: stop being a Republican politician.

Not feeling sorry anymore!

An aside: Cue some wingnut with references to Hymietown in 3…2…1…

Posted in Conservatives, Jewish Stuff, Voting | 2 Comments

Zoning Out the Poor: The Marin County Edition

Posted on April 20, 2012 by

One of the largely unnoticed but critical causes of poverty in urban areas is the use of zoning codes in surrounding towns and suburbs to essentially make it impossible for low-income people to live outside of urban areas (e.g., preventing the construction of apartment buildings or higher density unattached houses which low income people could afford). These policies result in urban areas disproportionately shouldering the burden of poverty. In other words, affluent areas ‘zone out’ the poor. And these policies affect everything, including perceived educational performance: a school district with lots of poor children will almost inevitably perform worse in an absolute sense, making it that much harder to retain middle class and upper income families. These policies are not an ‘accident’: ‘zoning out’ is an intentional policy of preventing lower-income people from moving in.

Lest you think I’m being too cynical, consider the recent clash between Lucasfilms and Marin County (Marin County is the 24th richest out of 3,141 counties with an average income of over $84,000). Lucasfilms had a large parcel land on which it wanted to build studios in Marin county, but a local homeowner group opposed the plan. Out of frustration, Lucasfilms gave up on the idea, and, instead, decided to give the land to a group that builds low-income housing (though this isn’t final yet).

Here are some of the responses (boldface mine):

San Anselmo contractor Bill Lehrke called the situation “a very sad and dark day for Marin” since the project represented a “brilliant use of the land” that would provide hundreds of jobs and create a low carbon footprint. “This is the worst example of NIMBYism I have ever witnessed. Instead of this wonderful and thoughtfully designed project, let’s develop this space into a few hundred low-income homes,” Lehrke said. “And think of the new shopping center that could be built on the St. Vincent property nearby, with big box stores to service their needs.”

Charles Ballinger, a former chairman of the Strawberry Design review Board, called the saga “one of the most significant Marin planning stories in a long time.” He added: “Lucas Valley Estates will get what they deserve if low-income housing is built in their backyards. … Although I feel this is a great loss for the county of Marin, I can understand why Lucasfilm said “enough is enough.”

Of course, no one would complain about a few hundred (or dozen) high-income homes. And I love the idea of poor people as punishment. There is, of course, no mention of where low-income people are supposed to live–except, it would seem, not in Marin County, if at all possible.

This is a reason why some people can’t have nice things.

Posted in Education, Housing | 1 Comment

Links 4/19/12

Posted on April 19, 2012 by

Links for you. Science:

A rash of scientific retraction
Convicted fraudster of alcohol research, Michael W. Miller, tries re-web-ilitation
How Huffington Post aided a demolition job on climate science
Studying Bioethics at Scandal-Plagued Universities
Who Knows What Bugs Lurk in Imported Plants?

Other:

Stop Blaming Dysfunction on “Both Sides” (nothing driftglass or I haven’t been saying for almost a decade, but nice to see it get mainstreamed)
DSGE vs. Weather Forecasting
THE ONE TRUE WANKER OF THE DECADE
In Schools Cut by the City Ax, Students Bleed
Mitt Romney, a man of falsehoods
Educating David Brooks on the Budget
The Wanker-Wingnut continuum
Four Futures
Five Reasons Why The Very Rich Have NOT Earned Their Money
I am Cassandra

Posted in Lotsa Links | Leave a comment

Here’s a Real Case of Voter Fraud

Posted on April 19, 2012 by

One of the causes célèbres of the right is the ersatz issue of voter fraud. Supposedly, hundreds of thousands of illegally cast votes–on behalf of the Democrats, by those people–are fixing elections for Democrats. Nationally, there are a handful of cases of voter fraud (if that). Nonetheless, this shibboleth has been used to justify strict voter identification laws (to fix a non-existent problem), which have the effect of making it harder for the poor, the elderly, and stay-at-home mothers to vote. That these groups trend Democratic is just a coincidence.

So we read recent news of a substantiated case of voter fraud. Except that it seems to involve conservatives of the honkysoid persuasion (boldface mine):

Seven tea partiers were indicted by a grand jury for voter fraud last week, and one of them was even a candidate for county judge.

More than a year since a state district judge ruled 10 Montgomery County residents voted fraudulently in a Woodlands election, a grand jury last week indicted seven of those individuals for illegal voting.

The indictments stem from the May 8, 2010, election of The Woodlands Road Utility District No. 1. Ten individuals listed their voter registration address as that of a hotel in order to take control of the RUD board.

And why did these criminals want to fix the election? Fear of taxes:

He had been curious about the operations and taxing authority of the road district for some time, wondering just who called the shots and how a resident could get on the district board. The five-member board meets monthly in open meetings. The district taxes only commercial businesses, at a rate of 47 cents per $100 property valuation. Heath feared that the debt issuance and the ability to tax might eventually trickle down to residents if a financial crisis were to strike the well-heeled planned community 35 miles north of Houston.

But ACORN!!! Or something. The self-projection combined with cognitive dissonance is incredible: movement conservatives think most of us will behave like they do.

Fortunately, many of us are better than that.

Posted in Conservatives, The Rule of Law, Voting | Leave a comment

Why Is There Less Hassle to Opt Out of Vaccination Than to Get a Safe and Legal Abortion?

Posted on April 19, 2012 by

There has been a spate of bills, introduced by conservatives, designed to make getting abortions more difficult. One feature of these bill is that healthcare providers are forced to tell women about the consequences of the abortion (and, in some cases, factually incorrect information). This is after a mandatory ultrasound. Keep in mind, abortion is a legal and safe procedure.

Meanwhile, opting out of vaccination–which endangers not only the unvaccinated child but others as well–is incredibly easy (boldface mine):

…all but two states let parents with religious objections skip immunizing their children.

An additional 20 states allow exemptions based on parents’ philosophical or personal beliefs. Requirements for securing personal-belief exemptions vary by state but are often as easy as signing a form.

Signing a form at the child’s school is all it takes to obtain a personal-belief exemption in California, which researchers say has some of the loosest opt-out rules in the country. A California Assembly bill proposed in February would change that, requiring parents to obtain the signature of a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant affirming that the health professional provided “information regarding the benefits and risks of the immunization and the health risks of the communicable diseases” covered by the state’s vaccine mandates. A similar requirement — the first of its kind in the nation — took effect for personal-belief exemptions in Washington state in July 2011. The Washington State Medical Assn. supported the measure. Despite Washington’s action to encourage immunization, the state’s health department said in April that pertussis has reached “epidemic” levels there, with 640 cases of whooping cough reported in 23 counties so far in 2012.

The California bill would help reduce the risk of disease outbreaks by requiring parents to become informed before opting out, said Rep. Richard Pan, MD, MPH, the state Assembly member who proposed the legislation, AB 2109….

“This bill doesn’t take away a parent’s right to exempt [his or her child from] immunizations,” said Paul Phinney, MD, president-elect of the California Medical Assn., which supports the bill. “It just makes sure parents are fully informed and make a good decision.”

…“What gravely concerns me is that some doctors will refuse to sign this form,” Dr. Sears said in a post to his website, AskDrSears.com. “I know how doctors think. Many doctors strongly believe that vaccines should be mandatory, and that parents should not have the right to decline vaccines. Some doctors are willing to provide care to unvaccinated kids, despite this difference in philosophy. But now the power over this decision will be put directly into doctors’ hands. He or she can simply refuse to sign the form. Doctors who oppose vaccine freedom of choice have been frustrated for years over this issue. Finally, they will have the power to impose their beliefs on their patients. Patients will be forced to find another doctor, submit to vaccines or get kicked out of school.”

It shouldn’t be easier to endanger living, breathing children than it is to terminate a pregnancy.

Posted in Blastocyst Liberation, Conservatives, Vaccination | Leave a comment