Things to warm the heart

Baby Pandas: Sixteen baby pandas all in one place. [via]

Impeachment: To be fair, Ron Paul isn't an average Republican toady; more of a libertarian peacenik, actually. But the headline looks good: Republican Congressman Predicts Bush Impeachment: Says US close to dictatorship. [via]

Broaden Your Mind

As near as I can tell, it's a Carnival of Science and/or India. Some of the posts which caught my eye include an analysis and recommendations of the rate of C-section births in India, which covers the tough issues, but is nicely focused on making the situation work for birthing mothers. And, though it's a drop in the bucket statistically, one woman is teaching children to read and transforming lives and communities in the process. Also, India has a Digital Library (with a selection mirrored at CMU), bringing all kinds of classical and historical texts into the view of the online world.

And Blogmandu is back! The Bloggisatva Awards are posted tomorrow; I'll check back for those. The most intriguing sections of the current roundup include the discussion of the commercialization of Buddhism and the implications -- psychological and theological -- of nearly immortal humans.

Speaking of religion, you don't even have to watch the program to find this liveblogging commentary really interesting.

Penny Richards' monthly disability blog roundup has hit the streets, too, with discussions of the Olympics and sports, shopping and accessibility, and the return of an old classic discussion about necessary adaptations for the photon-dependent and tolerating differences.

Update: The first Carnival of Objectivism is up, as well, highlighting some modern disciples of Ayn Rand availing themselves of self-publishing digital technology. [via] That's probably the last time I'm gonna link to this one, because L&P libertarianism is as close to pure Randianism as I can stand most days.

Democrats are the new Conservatives?

Jamie Wolf writes:

Responsibility. Community. Competence. The first and last words aren’t traditionally associated with the Democratic Party—indeed they sound downright Republican—but all the better. Anomalously enough, these days you could say that Democrats have essentially become the new Republicans—in that nearly everything valuable at the core of the traditional Republican message has been trashed by the Bush administration and its leaders in Congress, and it’s now the Democrats who are advocating for fiscal discipline, and lack of government interference in private life; for doing things more effectively and less wastefully; for carefully considering before leaping into foreign adventures.

Responsibility. Community. Competence. Some of us have been advocating this for a long time. Go back to the New Liberal Vision Roundtable, for example, two years ago, and think about what might have happened if Kerry's campaign had been more along these lines....

Via Anne Zook who also has some thoughts on the historical origins of the problem.

Satire, or not? You decide.

The new Carnival of Satire is up. This animation is a well-done, if somewhat obvious, critique of the military-industrial complex.... This is supposed to be a satire on liberal news distortion, but liberals can safely sit back and enjoy the description of how "A whole new division of mathematics has been created just to show what a horrible President Bush is."

This is not satire, but I would dearly love to get a look at some of the outdated laws which they're considering scrapping in Ireland. The article mentions the water test for thieves and robbers....

Take the Pledge?

Michael Tomasky writes:

I’ll make the following promises: If a future Democratic administration takes us into a war of volition, and we later learn that its case was bogus, I will denounce it for lying us into war and urge every liberal writer I know to do so. If a future Democratic administration betrays core liberal principles -- by, say, offering a large tax cut without at least working toward universal health care -- I will deplore it and encourage other liberals to do so. If a future Democratic administration circumvents process and leases our port operations to a nation that boycotts Israel, I will not make hypocritical noises about racism but will instead encourage all liberals to agree it’s a really bad idea. And, if a future Democratic administration lets a major American city die out of malign neglect, I shall calumniate it to the heavens -- and insist that every other liberal writer I know to do the same.

My only problem with this "pledge" is the implication that liberals wouldn't do this without the quid pro quo of conservatives (the real ones, not the Bushland Uber Alles rationalizing loyalists or religious radicals or Fukuyama's former friends) living up to their stated principles. Frankly, looking at the last few decades, the liberal wing has been, I think, consistently much more self-critical and honest about its disagreements and more willing to separate policy from politics. It's what we do.

So, I'll take the pledge, but only because it's who I am. Now, I'd like to see a few more conservatives (like these guys) taking up the call.

It's not you: it's them.

From Expedia

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Air Travel Consumer Report, U.S. airlines experienced a higher rate of flight delays, more reports of mishandled baggage and a higher number of complaints about airline service in 2005 than in 2004.

On-time Performance: According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 20 airlines reporting on-time performance with DOT recorded an on-time arrival rate of 77.4 percent in 2005, down from the 78.1 percent mark of 2004.

Mishandled Baggage: Carriers also recorded a rate of 6.04 reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers last year, up from 2004's rate of 4.91.

Consumer Complaints: The Department received 8,735 complaints from consumers about airline service last year, up 17.2 percent from 2004's total of 7,452 complaints.

The monthly report also includes data on the causes of flight delays, as well as information on flight cancellations and on consumer disability and discrimination complaints received by DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection Division.

This report also includes data on airline reports of oversales ("bumping") during the fourth quarter and January-December 2005, as well as reports required to be filed by U.S. carriers of incidents involving pets traveling by air.

Just for fun I looked at the causes of lateness:

Of the flights that arrived late, just over 5% were weather delays, but over a third were "National Aviation System Delays" (which means, I'm guessing, too many planes trying to takeoff and land from too few runways) and a quarter each went to Late Arriving Aircraft (too few planes on hand) and Air Carrier Delays (too few people trying to service the planes). Can we say infrastructure and efficiency, boys and girls? Penny-wise and Pound-foolish, as we used to say...

Poetic Skepticism

This Skeptics Circle
is a series of haiku!
Their hosts are the best.

I will post one here, but you really have to go read the rest

Religious fervour
v. Scientific rigour:
A truce unlikely.

I might consider doing the Carnival of Bad History in limerick form.... it's harder than it looks. I keep meaning to go back to the OEDILF and see if any of their current words inspire me.... here's some successful entries, which are pretty impressive.

Speaking of Japanese culture, did you know that Origami is the top Technorati Search Term at the moment? No, not an outbreak of paperfolding: it's the code word for some top-secret Microsoft product rollout.... bummer.

Also, the Carnival of Comedy is up: always fun to see if your idea of funny has any correlation to the hosts'....

Thursday Lyric: Brown Shirts

Had a John Gorka album on tonight and the last song, after a pretty boppy and sly set, is this underorchestrated, raw, metronomic, quiet ... rant, I guess you could call it.

Subtle? No. But remember, it was written in 1992....

I got the lyrics here (though I've altered the punctuation to clarify) and found a very nice interview here (the Brown Shirts bit is at the end):

It seems like the world has gotten so complicated that people want to be told something to make them feel better because facing the truth is so overwhelming that they don't want to deal with it. So they'll accept something that's an oversimplification or a complete lie just because they can pay attention to their own lives. It's great to see all of the reaction to the JFK movie. I think it's great. I've read a lot of those books and it kind of fits in with some of the things that are going on now with Bush and the CIA. Just that, what kind of people can these men be and call themselves patriots and then lie to the people they are supposed to be representing? I don't understand that. I would like to believe in the President—that if he has to lie he was doing it for national security or for a good reason that's too complicated to go into. But that's not what's happening, they're lying to protect themselves, and to protect their position, and to protect their power. Not for anyone else's good but their own. And that's really frightening. I'd like to have leaders we can believe in. But maybe that's naive.

Remember: 1992.

Brown Shirts
by John Gorka

Brown shirts, here in the white house
Brown shirts, up on top of the hill
Brown shirts, can you hear them marching?
I swear they are marching still

(Brown shirts) for the good of the country
Brown shirts' pride all over the land
Brown shirts, give us law and orders
You’ll know when you raise your hands

Brown shirts. Is this how it all started?
(Brown shirts) oh, no worse than their kids
Brown shirts? sure they’re tough on the bad guy
Though they made him what he is

Brown shirts!

Brown shirts! They’re a little more subtle now
(Brown shirts) than the “house painter” man.
Brown shirts speak of God as their witness,
But they would kill Jesus again

Brown shirts, here in the white house
(Brown shirts) in their black limousines
Brown shirts, over here in the new world
With fresh, red unspeakable schemes



You can find other Thursday Poems here

Could it be that simple?

Could the answer to spyware and adware be anti-trespassing law? That would be cool, but I wonder if it would really work? We haven't managed to wipe out graffitti yet, and there's not even a profit motive....

Speaking of profit motives, companies are trying to make bloggers and other websites pay to be part of the "fast" internet, but so far it's still against the law.

Mardi Gras's Over, Here Come the Carnivals!

It's that time of the month, apparently:

Carnival of the Liberals #7 is hosted by a video blog, so the host has paired each post with a video clip. I'll have to wait until I'm on the ethernet connection, not the dial-up, to get the most out of that one. Looks like they've covered a lot of ground, though.

Carnival of the Vanities #180 is at one of the usual right-wing hosting sites, and the crop looks like the usual conservative overkill. There's a fine line between succinct and taciturn, and I think they've crossed the wrong way this time. Still, could be a few things to pique your interest, if you go look. I haven't clicked through to anything terribly interesting yet, but I've just sampled.

Animalcules is a Carnival of Microorganisms! It's bigger than you think.... Seriously, "Mike the Mad Biologist" has the best posts: comparison of toilet water and ice at fast food restaraunts and a good commentary on anti-biotic resistance and simple solutions (or at least delaying tactics)

Alhamedi isn't a carnival, but he reminds us that today is the anniversary of the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. Anne Zook proposes a new rule: "From now on, no one in the world is allowed to start a fracas over anything that happened more than 50 years ago." On a lighter note, eb found some disturbing public art [NSFW, if you're a librarian]. This is all a teaser: the actual History Carnival should be up here shortly.

And Here it is! Best piece on first skim: when bad science and bad history collide.... The list of Ten Worst New Zealanders is pretty educational, and the Top Ten Lizzie Borden Mysteries is a good introduction to the odd world of real-crime history buffs.

A New Offshoot of the History Carnival is the Biblical Studies Carnival. I doubt I'll be a regular reader, but the archaeological stuff is fascinating: important bible-confirming artifacts, and Chris Heard's excellent review of archaeological finds as listed in various "most important finds" lists (it's a five part series; I've linked to part 5 which includes links to the other four).