Texan Anti-Evolution

Just wanting to maintain a reference to an interesting post on Daily Kos today. More fighting against creationism in Texas schools ahead possibly.

The most damning doc of them all

I just finished watching the new Torturing Democracy documentary online. See it here. I have not seen all the war on terror documentaries, but of what I've seen, this one is the most damning of the Bush administration of them all. I'm alerting folks to this doc (it's not being broadcast in Dallas, no surprise; but I will write to our local PBS station, KERA, urging it to do so).

War crimes, war crimes, war crimes!!!

Also, good post by Scott Horton about how PBS has stifled the broadcast of this documentary is here.

And what got me going on all this is Glenn Greenwald's post and interview of Scott Horton here.

This is the value of the internet.

Iraqi Lives: Do they matter to Americans?

I was reminded again this morning about how myopic the media and in general politicians can be in regards to the casualties of the Iraq war. On MSNBC's Morning Joe part of the political talk touched on Iraq and its costs, and one of the hosts (the woman, can't remember her name) mentioned the loss of American life in the war. True, but what about the much larger loss of Iraqi life in the war? As often happens, it goes unspoken, because I guess media types don't think that it's important to mention.

Why do they not think that it's important? My view is that they and politicians don't think that Americans care about Iraqi lives, and maybe they're right. Right or wrong, there is still the perception that Americans don't care, and I think this more than anything else causes resentment in the world, particularly in non-caucasian areas, towards America. And why shouldn't parts of the world or even the whole world be resentful if it thinks Americans don't care about anything but their own.

Sure, America sends alot of foreign aid to all parts of the world, and I'm sure that that is appreciated. However, on a more personal level, it's got to rub the world the wrong way when all the American media and politicians just talk about the American losses in the Iraq war.

Krugman <-> Nobel?

Lookalikes?

Krugman Wins Nobel

My favorite columnist, Paul Krugman of the New York Times, won the Nobel prize for economics. It was for earlier work on the ways of international trade. The article on winning the award is here.

Way to go Paul!!

VP Debate

Nothing really notable occurred in last night's VP debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Only that Sarah Palin did not implode as some of her recent TV interviews indicated was a possibility. So she didn't damage the McCain-Palin campaign. Of course, everyone set the bar so low for her.

Palin's good at cheerleading and bravado and didn't disappoint her supporters on that front. She also likes to jab. However, she really had little if anything of substance to say. A number of times her responses were cyclical or redundant. She would just go round and round, over and over, describing how McCain and she were sure to change things in Washington. You just had to believe her on this. Haven't we heard something similar out of the White House for the past 7 1/2 years? "Trust me". Palin was even proud of the "Drill, Baby, Drill" mantra.

As expected, Biden did not attack Palin, only mildly rebutting some of Palin's jabs or exagerrations. I felt he could have jumped on some of the this, but instead kept his attacks on McCain. There're all these claims of critics being sexist in their criticisms of Palin, but then there's this self censorship to not criticize Palin because it would look like one is unfairly jumping on her. Now isn't that the most sexist attitude of all?!?!

After watching debates in 2004 and this year so far, it's remarkable that these important events are almost all non-events. Almost all are considered a draw. Why? Because they are not about putting forth winning arguments but are instead about drumming home messages and not committing mistakes. They are almost all lackluster. I don't recall any recent debate that has been significant in a campaign. The most notable thing I remember from 2000 was Gore standing in Bush's face, a confirmation to America that Gore was a little odd, not knowing how to act in a campaign. Unfortunate, because he had the better arguments.

I watch these debates only not to miss anything, but rarely would I have missed anything had I not watched.