One day ago, the unthinkable happened: Congress abandoned all signs of reason and passed an omnibus spending bill that gutted science in this nation. Much is clear, and much is not. What’s clear are the facts. The Office of Science was appropriated $4.05 billion, and then asked to apply a […]
Politics
277 posts
Since the Congress was unable to complete, or get the President to sign, appropriations bills by October 1, the U.S. has been living under what is called a “continuing resolution”. That means that every now and then, the Congress votes to fund the government at last year’s levels while they […]
This Sunday, “Meet the Press” spent the whole hour with Mitt Romney. The opening question was about his statement during his speech on religion and government. He was asked about his assertion that “Freedom requires Religion, and Religion requires Freedom.” I certainly agree with the latter sentiment. As is clearly […]
When voters went to the polls last year, they cast a vote for change. On many issues, said voters have been disappointed. Unable to seek common ground, our elected representatives have time and time again fallen far short of the will of the People. When I cast my vote, I […]
Jodi and I signed up for a weekend NY Times subscription. For years, I’ve heard the lament that my generation doesn’t take the printed word seriously enough. I get this from academics, the media, and my reporter friends. Fine. Now I have a newspaper subscription. Leave me and my generation […]
I’ve largely avoided the political pageantry surrounding the alleged candidates for U.S. president in 2008. This is for several reasons. The first is that I am still a little burned out on the pure doses of politics that came in 2006, during my last round of physical science outreach to […]
After my last freak out, I decided it was time for some R&R. My sister is visiting next week, and that seemed like a pretty good time to just not come into work. Consequently, I’ll be taking my first vacation since Christmas next week. In the meantime, I’ve had a […]
At one of the first Republican Presidential candidate debates, three of the contenders raised their hands when asked if they do not believe in evolution. These were Tom Tancredo, a Congressman from Colorado, Senator Sam Brownback, and former Governor Mike Huckabee. Since then, they’ve been clarifying their position [1]. This […]
I finally had a chance this week to listen to the Senate testimony of Dr. James Holsinger, the President’s choice for Surgeon General. It’s taken me a few days to digest and form some impressions. I’ll try to communicate them here. My most global observation is that Holsinger stands for […]
It wasn’t on C-SPAN, but I found it from capitolhearings.com on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee website: http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2007_07_12/2007_07_12.html More to follow, I assume…
With Surgeon General Carmona’s departure from the Bush administration, it’s time for the President to do what he does best: appoint qualified people for high-ranking positions in our Executive Branch. I’d say that the President has done a heckuva job so far. The current position that is open is the […]
This is going to make me sound like the total nerd that I am, but here we go: I grew up with a deep-seated admiration for Dr. C. Everett Koop. Who is that? He was the only member of the U.S. government that I knew, besides the president, when I […]