“If only gay sex caused global warming”
July 4, 2006 at 12:46 am | In politics, psychology | 1 CommentOh my. How did I miss this? And when is Prof. Gilbert going to get a blog? The Freakonomics guys did it to promote their book, and he’s going after the same audience with Stumbling on Happiness, right? (Ooh, looks like Levitt and Dubner are still at it. Cool.)
Go read the whole thing:
If only gay sex caused global warming
Why we’re more scared of gay marriage and terrorism than a much deadlier threat.
NO ONE seems to care about the upcoming attack on the World Trade Center site. Why? Because it won’t involve villains with box cutters. Instead, it will involve melting ice sheets that swell the oceans and turn that particular block of lower Manhattan into an aquarium.
The odds of this happening in the next few decades are better than the odds that a disgruntled Saudi will sneak onto an airplane and detonate a shoe bomb. And yet our government will spend billions of dollars this year to prevent global terrorism and … well, essentially nothing to prevent global warming.
Why are we less worried about the more likely disaster? Because the human brain evolved to respond to threats that have four features — features that terrorism has and that global warming lacks.
Freshman year I e-mailed Prof. Horwitz to encourage him to blog. No answer yet. Maybe Gilbert will be more responsive.
Wow
June 27, 2006 at 11:57 pm | In civil rights, gay bashing | Comments Off on WowFaith in America has more ads here.
Beware the coming North American community
June 27, 2006 at 7:59 pm | In David Dreier, immigration, silly | Comments Off on Beware the coming North American community(Take notice, friends of mine who work at “news” shows: this story is crying out for correspondent coverage.)
I’m glad I’m not the only one concerned by those internationalist Republicans and their plan for a United States of North America.
Dreier for `guests’
Unfortunately, the recent letter from Genevieve Clavreul is factually mistaken when it attempts to conceal a statement made by Rep. David Dreier.
A Los Angeles Times article of Dec. 16, 2005, clearly quotes Dreier stating, “Any final bill that emerges from the House and the Senate, must include a guest-worker program both for future migrants and for illegal immigrants already here.”
Appallingly, Dreier is campaigning to legalize up to 30 million illegal immigrants now in our country, rewarding their lawlessness.
According to La Opinion of May 16, 2004, Dreier even agreed with officials at a meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico to work to legalize the greatest possible number of “migrants without legal documents” in the United States. What blatant betrayal of America!
Even worse, Dreier is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations which is working to merge Canada, Mexico and the United States into a single “North American Community” by 2010 (see www.spp.gov). This would dissolve our borders at the expense of American sovereignty and independence, which we cannot allow to happen.
The only candidate on the Nov. ballot for Congressional District 26 opposing all forms of “guest worker” or “temporary worker” amnesty for illegal immigrants is Elliott Graham of the American Independent party.
Jan Akers
La Cañada Flintridge
Someone should really call Dreier’s office and ask them where he stands on transnational nation-merging.
Real life Seth in CA
June 25, 2006 at 12:52 pm | In Cynthia Rodriguez Matthews, do something, politics | Comments Off on Real life Seth in CAThis is today at 7:30 PM [Map].
For readers in the area, come to the Democratic Club of Claremont meeting:
Do not miss our June 26th meeting!
“The environmental impact of the food we eat”
Global Warming is getting a lot of press these days. The new documentary movie with Al Gore’s slide show, An Inconvenient Truth has won praise from a wide variety of scientists, not just those involved specifically with the environment. (It is now showing locally in Ontario.)
Because of this, Bonnie Yelverton, our June 26th speaker, will be focusing on a different issue of our environment. She will instead talk about the environmental impact of our food production. This involves topics like energy, water, pollution, land use and sprawl, transportation, nutrition – and just plain good taste.
Bonnie Yelverton has long been involved with improving our impact on the environment. In the early 90’s she ran a diaper service in Denmark. Later she studied environmental management for businesses, in particular methods of motivating people to act sustainably. Since moving to California in 2000, she has worked for a windmill company, she drives a hybrid (but commutes by bus) and attempts organic farming in her condo courtyard. She is a member and frequent contributor to many environmental action-based organizations, such as Environmental Defense, the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club. She considers herself an enlightened layperson who reads a lot of books about the environment. If you’d like to read more, download her list of suggested readings on environmental issues.
Bonnie has provided us with a four-page reading list on environment issues. General topics covered are Global Warming, Food, Ecology, Oceans and Fish, and Sustainable design. You can (click on &) check it out at her environmental reading list.
Club business will include a vote on whether the Club will endorse Cynthia Matthews, who won the primary election for the Democratic nomination in the 26th Congressional district. She will oppose David Dreier, the Republican incumbent, in the November general election.
Map of 660 Avery Rd, Claremont, CA 91711
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“Connecticut Local Politics: Senate 1970”
June 25, 2006 at 12:57 am | In politics | Comments Off on “Connecticut Local Politics: Senate 1970”Fascinating account of the 1970 Connecticut Senate race:
Liberal Democrats began rallying around the Rev. Joe Duffey, a supporter of Eugene McCarthy’s failed presidential bid and head of the antiwar group Americans for Democratic Action. Duffey also led the progressive, antiwar Caucus of Connecticut Democrats, of which a young attorney named Joe Lieberman was a founding member (Lieberman, 167). Senate Majority Leader Ed Marcus and the more conservative Stamford lawyer Al Donahue, who was backed by the state Democratic machine (Lieberman, 169), were the other Democrats in the race. Secretary of the State Ella Grasso and Mayor Richard Lee of New Haven were also mentioned as possible candidates, but Grasso decided to seek the 6th District Congressional seat and Lee retired from public life (“Dodd”).
(Hat tip: TPMCafe.)
A Terrifying Message from Al Gore: Creative and effective ways to get your message out
June 24, 2006 at 12:07 pm | In climate change | Comments Off on A Terrifying Message from Al Gore: Creative and effective ways to get your message out(cross-posted at Daily Kos)
Atrios remarked a few months back that if the right viral video came along, Lieberman would be toast. (Was Lieberman’s bear ad the unintentional answer?) The PoliticsTV guys enlisted Moby’s help in the fight for Net Neutrality. Now Al Gore and the creators of Futurama enter the fray.When I saw Al Gore’s global warming presentation at Harvard, he quite memorably used a clip from Futurama:
Now Gore appears with Bender in a short animation on YouTube advertising An Inconvenient Truth
This is probably a good time to mention ShareTheTruth, which I found linked from Larry Lessig’s blog.
ShareTheTruth and the Moby and Gore videos are great examples of the ways that politicians and activists are making creative use of the Internet to reach out to people. I know I certainly want to see more of this. And I’ll bet there are lots more celebrities out there willing to lend their star power to a cause in a more compelling way than the press conference. But celebrities aren’t essential: just check out the most popular videos on the front page of YouTube I’m collecting other similar examples of viral videos, creative website and e-mail campaigns, banners, and technological advocacy and messaging etc. Post what you’ve seen works in comments.
Iraq
June 23, 2006 at 12:59 pm | In Iraq | Comments Off on IraqJosh Marshall and Paul Begala are both right. Now there’s got to be some way for the people to get this message to Senate Democrats (and Republicans like Chafee). Hmm…
Go John
June 22, 2006 at 5:35 pm | In politics, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Go JohnRun Edwards, run!
truthout?
June 19, 2006 at 11:39 pm | In national security | Comments Off on truthout?I just don’t know what to make of this chapter of Plamegate.
A SethInCA Project: Help engage Cynthia Rodriguez Matthews with the Netroots
June 19, 2006 at 8:49 pm | In CA-26, Cynthia Rodriguez Matthews, David Dreier | 2 Comments(Cross-posted at Daily Kos, Calitics, and MyDD)
The short version: I’m going to go interview Cynthia Rodriguez Matthews, the Democratic candidate for Congress who’s challenging David Dreier in CA-26. I’d like to encourage her to become involved with the netroots, and as a start I want to reach out to her with your questions. Please post any questions you’d like me to ask her in the comments section.
The long version: Two weeks ago, Cynthia Rodriguez Matthews pulled a major upset and won the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 26th District of California. Her primary opponent and the assumed favorite of the race was Russ Warner, who had made a decent show of fundraising and received the endorsement of Gen. Wesley Clark. But Matthews, who was also the nominee in 2004, pulled an upset and won.
I’ve speculated (dirty tricks?) about the reasons for Warner’s disappointing defeat, but the bottom line is that Matthews is the nominee this year. And if ever there was a year for a turning of the tide in Congress, this is that year. Even if she can’t quite win in this Republican district (46% R to 35% D), she’s still fighting the good fight, not to mention forcing Dreier to spend money defending his seat. Or at least, that’s the hope. In 2004 she came closer than any other challenger in California in her race to unseat closeted Republican David Dreier (54-42). She and two radio hosts gave Dreier hell on immigration, and during the campaign she publicly “came out” and challenged Dreier to do the same. Print media ignored the story, but it got some play on the radio and the web.
I called her office on Friday (guess who answered the phone? Matthews!) to ask for an interview, and her staff agreed. Later this week I hope to head over to campaign headquarters to take some pictures and ask her some questions. My hope isn’t just to ask her some questions, but to try to get her more involved with the netroots. So far, her website is a disaster, but hey, Russ Warner’s spiffy website didn’t win him the nomination.
This is where you come in: please post questions you’d like me to ask her in the comments. (Maybe some advice for her too.) I’ll bring some questions of my own, and we’ll see what happens. Watch SethInCA for the results.
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