Monthly Archives: December 2006

McCain and the Straight Bullshit Express

Posted on December 6, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

It seems more and more people are finally paying close attention to Mitt Romney and John McCain. While I’ve talked about Romney’s idiocy before, The Boston Phoenix did a great job of skewering McCain, so I’ll turn it over to them:
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Posted in Conservatives, Fucking Morons, John "Snuggles" McCain, Romney | 3 Comments

Here Comes the Iraq Dolchstosslegende

Posted on December 5, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

Just when you think the Peter Pan Right can’t possibly get any daffier, they just manage to do so. By way of Crooked Timber comes this synopsis of a Michael Novak article in the Standard:
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Posted in Conservatives, Fucking Morons, Iraq, Military | 2 Comments

Focus on the Basics When It Comes to Math

Posted on December 5, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

By way of Majikthise, I found this excellent post by Abbas Raza about the problem of mathematical illiteracy. But to step back a bit, this trail of links began with the release of new teaching guidelines by the National Council of Mathematics Teachers:
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Posted in Education, Mathematics | 6 Comments

The Las Vegas Nurses Strike and Hospital-Acquired Infection

Posted on December 5, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

In Las Vegas, the SEIU nurses have been locked out during contract negotiations. The nurses don’t want pay increases or better benefits, but a lower patient-to-nurse ratio. Universal Health Services, the for-profit hospital chain, claims the nurses are trying to expand the union membership. The nurses claim that they simply want to improve patient care. Regardless of the motives involved, there is one indisputable fact: having fewer patients per nurse decreases the likelihood that a patient will become infected while in the hospital.
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Posted in Antibiotics, Healthcare, Microbiology, Public Health, Unions | Comments Off on The Las Vegas Nurses Strike and Hospital-Acquired Infection

So Why Aren’t Farming Lobbies Trying to Stop Global Warming?

Posted on December 5, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

I don’t have an answer, but the picture asks the question quite nicely:
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Posted in Agriculture, Environment, Global Warming, We're Really Fucked | 11 Comments

A Letter About Cefquinome Use in Agriculture

Posted on December 5, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ve posted before about the possible approval of cefquinome in agriculture, and why this is a stupid thing to even consider. So some colleagues and I got cranky and wrote a letter to the FDA.
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Posted in Agriculture, Antibiotics, Evolution, Microbiology, Public Health, The War on Science | 1 Comment

Really Old Bibles

Posted on December 4, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

I visited the Smithsonian this Thanksgiving, and in the Sackler Museum is an exhibit of very old bibles (both Christian and Jewish).
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Posted in Religion | 14 Comments

Romney: Still Turning Massachusetts Into Mississippi, One Idiocy At a Time

Posted on December 4, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

Massachusetts’ Gov. Mitt Romney’s ongoing effort to turn Massachusetts into Mississippi has entered a new phase: embryonic stem cell research. In Romney’s last-ditch desperate attempt to buff up his Republican credentials, he has appointed a budget planner to be executive director of a board overseeing state funding for stem cell research.
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Posted in Conservatives, Public Health, Religion, The War on Science | 2 Comments

Bloggers and Conflicts of Interest

Posted on December 4, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

The NY Times had a pearl-clutching article by Daniel Glover about supposed conflicts of interest that progressive bloggers have (even though they typically identify those conflicts…), which has been rebutted all over the place, so I won’t waste time doing that. I do have a simple question for Glover, however.
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Posted in Bloggity Blog, Fucking Morons, News Media | 2 Comments

The Tragedy of Kenya’s Anti-Evolutionism

Posted on December 4, 2006 by mikethemadbiologist

The story about Kenyan religious leaders who are attempting to stifle evolutionary biology at the Kenyan National Museum is making the rounds of the progressive political blogs (interesting, how the right-wing blogs aren’t covering this…). Within this story, there is a real tragedy:
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Posted in Antibiotics, Conservatives, Creationism, Evolution, Fucking Morons, Microbiology, Public Health, Religion | 3 Comments