Monthly Archives: April 2012

Why do Republicans always want to regulate things?

A while back, in a land far away, something bad happened at a pair of clinics in Pennsylvania, and some people died there. It was pretty horrible. The clinics did not have qualified staff, charged for procedures that were illegal, made millions of dollars on abusing their patients and the system. Pretty much everything that happened at those clinics that shouldn’t have happened was illegal or against existing regulations. The owner of the clinic and others were arrested and charged with several crimes. The system failed in letting this happen, but succeeded in eventually noticing and doing something about it. The clinics ran in poor areas and for this reason may have been under the radar of the MWJS. Continue reading Why do Republicans always want to regulate things?

An Open Letter to Arianna …

… Huffington, by Shawn Otto:

Dear Arianna,

Congratulations on the Huffington Post’s Pulitzer prize. That is an important feather in the paper’s cap.

I want you to know how much I value your publication, and how I think the dust up over the antiscience HuffPost article “NASA Global Warming Stance Blasted By 49 Astronauts, Scientists Who Once Worked At Agency” is an opportunity for a broader discussion, which you could lead. The story has garnered wide attention in both science and journalism circles. Why is an important discussion.

It is a discussion that I think is critical to our democracy….

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I’m not even going to mention the booby traps

I think it is so funny when I get a death threat (or two or three) from some guy, then later, I get invited to join his network on Linked In.

I suppose my email must have been in his gmail account or something and Linked In sent out a bunch of automatic invitations.

And now, it gets funnier: There is a new thing called “WAYN” for “Where are you now,” which must be a little like Linked In. And, once again, Death Threat Guy is inviting me to be part of his network on WAYN.

Which reminds me of a funny thing that happened the other day. Someone sent me an email he had received, asking for my address (never mind why that email was sent to him, if you knew the details it would make sense). So, after getting the forwarded email, I sent the original sender a note that said “why do you want to know my address?” and the response was a breathless rant about how I must think he’s going to do something bad to me if he has my address, and why am I so paranoid about being contacted by an anonymous stranger who wants my address but won’t say why, who indicates he wants to “send me something” but can’t name the “thing” and on and on.

So, just so everyone knows, I’m heavily armed, I collect automatic weapons, I have four trained attack dogs, and I live across the street from the police station. Oh, and the booby traps. I’m not even going to mention them.

Congratulations Shawn Otto!

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Otto has won the prestigious Minnesota Book Award. The award is very well deserved.

Here’s my writeup of the book, and here’s a radio interview with the author that we did a couple of months back.

Shawn’s book is a critically important analysis of science policy, its potentials and failings, in a world of denialism and politics. As you know, Shawn has been involved with Science Debate (see the big badge on the sidebar?) and the Science Pledge. I’m pleased to announce that in the political campaign that I was recently involved in, both candidates seeking a party endorsement for US Congress made reference to material from Fool Me Twice.

Congratulations, Shawn!