News and Politics

The death of an icon for Islam in Senegal

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I’m very interested in Senegalese music & culture, so I’m posting this item from MetaFilter.

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Serigne Saliou Mbacké, the leader of the Mourides, a prominent Sufi Islamic brotherhood in Senegal, died a week ago today. One of the most influential people in Senegal, he had been the the last living son of the Mouride founder Chiekh Amadou Bamba. Thousands of peoplehave traveled Touba, the Mouride capital, to pay their respects.

The new leader of the Mourides, Mouhamadou Lamine Bara Mbacke, is the first grandson of Caliph Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke to become leader.

Many of New York City’s street vendors are Mouride followers, and they send much of their money back to Touba. For an interesting article about them, read this. A must read for anyone who doesn’t realize just how bad Giuliani is.

Larry Lessig supports Obama

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Larry Lessig announced his support of Barack Obama for president. I agree with him that Obama truly wants to change how government works and actually believes what he’s saying with conviction rather than just following polls.

Minipundit also points out how Obama could restore the world’s opinion of the US:

When the mere presidential candidacy of Obama can convince a boy in Kenya who hasn’t even traveled as far as Tanzania that he, too, can become a U.S. Senator, that means something. His election – not to mention his policies – would provide America with soft power on levels that Hillary or Edwards simply could not reach. And that’s something voters should really consider.

Although I’ve been feeling pretty bitter about politics in general, with the media predicting that Hilary will win, and disgusted with the Democratic party for stripping Florida of their delegates, I really want to see Obama win.

Clive Thompson: Why Science Will Triumph Only When Theory Becomes Law

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Via Wired:

For truly solid-gold, well-established science, let’s stop using the word theory entirely. Instead, let’s revive much more venerable language and refer to such knowledge as “law.” As with Newton’s law of gravity, people intuitively understand that a law is a rule that holds true and must be obeyed. The word law conveys precisely the same sense of authority with the public as theory does with scientists, but without the linguistic baggage.

Evolution is supersolid. We even base the vaccine industry on it: When we troop into the doctor’s office each winter to get a flu shot — an inoculation against the latest evolved strains of the disease — we’re treating evolution as a law. So why not just say “the law of evolution”?

Best of all, it performs a neat bit of linguistic jujitsu. If someone says, “I don’t believe in the theory of evolution,” they may sound fairly reasonable. But if someone announces, “I don’t believe in the law of evolution,” they sound insane. It’s tantamount to saying, “I don’t believe in the law of gravity.”

Demonizing immigration didn't do the trick

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Via Daily Kos:

Republicans are pinning their 2008 hopes on the same thing they pinned their 2007 hopes — demonizing scary brown people. But as I noted yesterday (despite some disagreement), and as noted by Roll Call’s Morton Kondracke (subscription only) the issue simply didn’t prove electoral gold for the GOP.

I consider immigration a non-issue. I don’t see any problem. Immigrants aren’t taking my job (in fact my job is in Canada). They spend money & pay taxes. They take jobs that citizens won’t touch, like harvesting crops. Without cheap immigrant labor to harvest it, food will be a lot more expensive.

Endangered Species – The Chemistry Set

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I feel sorry for today’s kids who won’t get to experience chemistry sets like we did when I was a kid. I had fun creating spectacular color changes, colored flames, explosions, and filling the room with noxious fumes. Unfortunately those days are gone.

What do Islamofacism, methamphetamine production, tort lawyers, and homemade fireworks have in common? The answer is that they are all part of the seemingly inevitable process of destroying the childhood Chemistry Set. A.C. Gilbert, in 1918 was titled the “Man who Saved Christmasâ€? with his innovative ideas of packaging a few glass tubes and some common chemicals into starter kits that enabled a generation to learn the joy of experimentation, and the basis for the scientific method of thought.

(thanks to kottke.org for linking to this)

High schools always had a well-stocked chemistry lab, usually with hazardous materials like phosphorus, mercury, metallic sodium, and uranium. Now it isn’t possible to buy even tiny amounts of those materials without an extensive background check.

The US is falling further behind in science & technology as it becomes more difficult for kids to get an education in science.

We really need to end our culture of fear and stop overreacting to threats and get back to common sense. The sad part is this won’t change even if Democrats are elected, because they’re all too afraid of being labeled “soft on terrorism” or “soft on crime” to change anything.

Florida Delegate Stripping May Harm Dems

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Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:

The Hill reports that at the Florida Democratic Convention this weekend, several prominent state Dems took the stage to criticize the national party’s decision to strip the state of its delegates for violating party rules when choosing a primary date. Sen. Ben Nelson lamented that it may severely hurt the Democrats during the 2008 election season, and may ultimately cause them to loose the state. A Quinnipiac poll supports Nelson’s argument—it found that 22% of independent voters are less likely to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate because of the loss of delegates. Florida has been a make or break state for candidates in the past two election cycles, presenting the winner with 27 prized electoral votes.

Well, duh! I’m not voting for that very reason and I know a lot of other people who usually vote but aren’t this time. I’m not voting for any Democrat after the way the party screwed Florida, and there’s no way in hell I’d vote for a Republican.

Republicans love Hillary

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I’ve avoided writing about politics because I’m just too angry & bitter. I don’t share the euphoria about a predicted Democratic win. Nothing is assured until the election is over, and even if the Democrats win, nothing will change.

Much as I dislike the Bush administration and how they raped this country, the Democrats are no better. I’m still angry about them abandoning Florida because of the early primary date (which was set by our Republican governor & legislature). I’m not going to bother voting if my vote won’t count. Beyond that, they refuse to oppose any of Bush’s more outrageous actions. They just roll over and play dead on issues such as domestic wiretaps for fear of being labeled “soft on terrorism”.

I’d like to see Obama get elected, but I see very little chance of it happening when everyone is practically anointing Hillary Clinton as the next president.

Interestingly, some of Hillary’s biggest supporters are Republicans, including Drudge. Despite speaking out against her publicly, they secretly want her to win because they know she won’t change anything. She supports the war and has remained silent on Bush’s abuse of power. She’ll continue to go along with their policies if she’s elected.

Although there are a lot of things I dislike about Ron Paul, he’s probably the one who can bring back respect for the constitution and end the war. No Democrat will touch the Patriot Act or do anything about wiretapping & other abuses because they’re so afraid of being labeled “soft on terrorism”.

I’m afraid it makes no difference who gets elected (unless by some miracle Ron Paul does), since they’ll all leave Bush’s policies untouched. Our country has already been damaged beyond repair.

WTF?

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Bush has made plenty of dumb statements, but this one really takes the cake. He should apologize to Nelson Mandela.

Via Democratic National Committee: Blog:

This makes my head hurt:

In a press conference this morning, President Bush tried to assert that Saddam’s brutal rule over Iraq wiped the country clean of potential democratic reformers–individuals who may have possessed leadership skills like former South African President Nelson Mandela. In doing so, Bush inartfully suggested Saddam killed Mandela.

I thought an interesting comment was made–somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, “Now, where’s Mandela?” Well, Mandela’s dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.

Faiz at Think Progress points out that Nelson Mandela (who is alive) is a strong opponent of the war in Iraq. Before the war, he condemned Bush as “a president who can’t think properly.”