August 2009 archive

There is a lot of attention regarding the topic of trans fats, but hardly anyone outside of chemists and biochemists really understands what a trans fat actually is.  This evening we will discuss what they are, whence they come, and some health aspects of them.

This is a controversial subject (not as controversial as high fructose corn sweetener), in that the medical community is not completely in unison with the interpretation of the data from studies.  However, the case is more clear than with high fructose corn sweetener.

Welcome to the 19th installment of “Considered Forthwith.”

This weekly series looks at the various committees in the House and the Senate. Committees are the workshops of our democracy. This is where bills are considered, revised, and occasionally advance for consideration by the House and Senate. Most committees also have the authority to exercise oversight of related executive branch agencies.

Even though Congress is out of session and the members are back home getting shouted down and physically assaulted by lobbyist-funded mobs of teabaggers, there are still a few things going on in the committees. This week, I will look at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has two field meetings (in Alaska and Colorado) scheduled this month.  

Plains Indian Smallpox

Indian genocide is a controversial subject on the internet and on this site. Genocide and Holocaust are words that are easy to throw around, often to grab a reader’s attention, but proving them is something else. What one group calls genocide, another group may call progress. This statement is used in the same context as the saying…one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

The argument for Indian genocide is based primarily on letters written by General Jeffery Amherst during the French and Indian War.Letters by General Amherst and Colonel Bouquet mentioning spreading smallpox to Indians does not mean that this was ever carried out.
Assumptions derived from letters and oral traditions are not proof of anything.
 

Recently, I speculated on what was behind the recent surge in op-ed articles using slipshod reasoning to attack the policy of the Obama administration to support investment in High Speed Rail travel options for the American Public. And, I stress, it was speculative:

However, just as with our Freakonomist Eric Morris, its a lot easier to adopt the stance of declaring “skepticism” and use that declaration as a magic incantation to dispense with any need to actually find information. Simply paint a specific Sustainable Energy Independence project as receiving “uncritical support”, declare yourself a skeptic, and you are free to spout the a Libertarian anti-HSR talking point without dwelling on such messy things as facts and figures.

However, in searching for specific examples of the “libertarian talking points” that I referred to, I came across this excellent collection at the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, in their High Speed Rail: Fact versus Fiction, where they collect a series of talking points from the three main anti-public-transport think tanks – Cato, Heritage, and the Reason Foundation (just google if you need the links).

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with all the news.

1 Iran Guard wants former president, moderates tried

By Reza Derakhshi, Reuters

2 hrs 1 min ago

Crossposted at [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/9/151935/4860 Daily Kos}

Change Vs NOOOO!!!

    This is my personal account of Saturday’s town hall with Representative Scott Murphy.

    I have met the wingnuts and looked into their eyes, and they are very scared, badly misinformed, angry, and dumb as hell.

    Early on the screamers tried to troll out the event. Representative Scott Murphy (D-NY20) answered back with a line that sums up the whole argument when he said

“When we are done people can tell me what they hate.”

    I have broken this diary up into four sections, including a breakdown of Congressmen Murphy’s conversations with the public and his stance on Health Care reform, as well as pictures from the event, the lobbyists role in all of this, and a statement on the need to throw bipartisanship overboard from now on.

   Having engaged the GOP base firsthand, I can easily state that these are the dumbest people in the country.