Cartoon of the Week

A new idea I had. Here's this week's edition:

The Permanent Democratic Majority

It looks like we really might be headed for a permanent stay in congress. The Hill says (at the bottom of the page) that Republicans are not turning to "self help books" for losers like the Dems did in 2004 (What's the Matter With Kansas, Don't Think of an Elephant, etc.). This could mean (and I hope it does) that republicans are not willing to change, even though their strategy for the past 12 years has fallen apart.

Let the schadenfreude begin!

Anti Gravity At Last

Yes, that's a floating fish.

Frist Won't Run in '08

According to the New York Times. Good for the country, bad for heart patients in Tennessee. A response on the NYT's website:

If this guy is returning to surgery in Tenessee, I hope I don’t have a heart attack when visiting the place. If his memorable diagnosis of Terry Shivo is any indication of his abilities, he might decide I have kidney stones and cut out my appendix.

The Game of Love

Good news for me.

Happy Thanksgiving...

I hope everyone had a better Thanksgiving break than the Willamette debate team.

On Wednesday, one of our team members, Logan Will, died in a car crash on his way home for Thanksgiving. His girlfriend and our coach were some of the first at the hospital where he was airlifted, and our coach sent out an e-mail to all of the debate team.

When I saw this, I think like everybody else on the team, I was in a sort of shock. I had talked to him just a few days before, and now he was gone. Unlike most of the team, though, I was in the odd position of knowing and liking Logan, but not so well that I ever saw him outside of debate class and competitions. And yet, I found myself near tears—and my emotions don't usually get the best of me. "Why?" I started asking myself.

I know why. Logan was the one person in a thousand who was not only incredibly intelligent and funny, but also completely available. I have known many people who, in their senior year, would pay little or no attention to freshmen like me. We don't have anyone like that on our team, but Logan was especially friendly, even though he was quiet (probably the first word anyone used to describe him).

On the forensics retreat earlier this year, Logan was the first person to help me with my debate style. He went out of his way to make me, and the other freshmen, feel comfortable. And again at each tournament we were at, he was always the first to ask how rounds had gone, and to congratulate or commiserate. I wish I could express this better, but for some reason I can't.

Goodbye, Logan.

Holy Holy Holy Shit!

From the Guardian, no less, comes evidence that the CIA killed Bobby Kennedy.

Wait Your Turn, Senator

Sorry for the frivolous post, but this is too funny to pass up. Apparently John Edwards sent an aide to Wal-Mart to buy a PS3. This from the guy who has been so critical of Wal-Mart! It turns out that it was too early to buy one, so they sent his aide home empty handed.

On a slightly more important note, you can plug in your new PS3 to the internet and help Stanford find cures for cancer and Alzheimer's. Sort of like the programs you can download to use your spare processing power to help SETI or Climateprediction.net.

My Kind of Democrat

More on Maryland's Rape Decision

Even over at Feministing, which covered Maryland's rape ruling decision when it came out, the readers seem to think that the decision might be valid. I'm not going to get into the particulars of the case, just the decision.

The case hinges on whether Maryland accepts the old common law definition of rape as a crime against the husband or father, rather than the victim. The Maryland court held that, until Maryland's legislature rejects the common law definition of rape, it stands. Unfortunately for the decision, Maryland has rejected the common law definition. The legislature has made it clear that if a man rapes his wife, it is still a crime. I would say that this rejects the common law definition pretty clearly.

Also, since Maryland's rape law says that it is a crime to "engage in vaginal intercourse with another by force, or the threat of force, without the consent of the other," and both "engaging in vaginal intercourse" and consenting are ongoing acts, the law itself (adopted in 1957) obviously makes continuing the intercourse after the victim withdraws consent a crime.

The only way they could have reached this decision is if they had decided it before they looked at the case law. It's ridiculous.

Maryland: "Go Ahead and Rape"

A Maryland appellate court ruled recently that once a woman has consented to sex, she cannot withdraw her consent. Like Sherry Colb at FindLaw, I can't do their reasoning justice without quoting them.

The concept, undergirding the Battle holding, rooted in ancient laws and adopted by the English common-law, views the initial "deflowering" as the real harm or insult which must be redressed by compensating, in legal contemplation, the injured party - the father or husband. This initial violation of the victim also provided the basis for the criminal proceeding against the offender.

In other words, rape isn't a crime against women, it's a crime against their guardian (read: owner). This is why I want to be an appellate attorney. The decision is morally reprehensible, and their reasoning is insane.

More on this tomorrow. I'm tired and have a chemistry lab in the morning.

Single Sex Education Turns Ugly

There's an article on Slate highlighting some of the problems of single-sex education. Although I think some kids might benefit from the lack of distraction (certain boy-obsessed teenage girls I once knew come to mind), proponents are now pointing to the innate differences in male and female brains and saying that we need to tailor education to each sex.

I'm not an extreme gender feminist, and I do think that there are differences in average male and female brains, but it's dangerous to go from average to individual. These educators are saying that, since the average boy is more mathematical than verbal, and the average girl is more verbal than mathematical, we should play to their instincts. One problem. I'm a guy, and I'm a hell of a lot better with words than with numbers.

They want girls to read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Beloved, etc. and role play; while they have boys read Hemmingway and Lord of the Flies and make maps. This is a horrible idea for young women who are spatial or young men who are predominantly verbal (like me).

And what about the fact that, if girls are so different from boys, they will have different insights and teach each other?

Since When Are We Behind South Africa?

I'm really ashamed of my country right now. South Africa's parliament has just approved same-sex marriages. We're in the process of banning it state by state. Hell, even Spain has same-sex marriage!

I Can't Think of a Title That Will Do This Justice...

The Senate repealed a law passed last month that kept nonnative elk and dear on Santa Rosa Island, near Santa Barbara (and a part of a National Park). Apparently Duncan Hunter slipped a provision into a defense programs bill that overturned a federal court ruling that required the removal of some nonnative species by 2011.

Hunter says he wants the elk kept there so that disabled veterans can hunt there.

Since when do disabled vets have the right to hunt on a national park? If anything, we should open hunting season in Washington D.C. to thin the republican herd a bit.

The Democrats' Permanent Majority

Over at Huffington Post there's an article about Chuck Schumer and the strategy of running moderate Democrats. (Read it, it has some decent points.) The problem with Pachacutec's idea is that it won't push the country back to the left, essential if we're going to save this country. The strategy we need to follow is to run as liberal candidates as can be elected. In Tennessee this means the pro-life, anti-gun control Harold Ford, while in San Fransisco you could probably elect an Hispanic, lesbian Buddhist who smokes pot. Gradually we can increase peoples' tolerance for more liberal candidates, and elect more radical politicians. My two, badly articulated cents.

Allen Concedes!

Allen conceded 6 minutes ago! Dems win the Senate!

Neanderthal... Nephilim?

Apparently, we interbred with Neanderthals at some point in the distant past, giving us a gene for a better brain. Two interesting points not mentioned in any article I've seen so far. First, this means (from what I know of biology) that Neanderthals had the scientific name Homo sapiens neanderthalensis not Homo neanderthalensis since it's impossible to reproduce with an individual outside of your own species.

Second, and more interesting, this lends some credence to the old theory that the Neanderthals were the inspiration for the Biblical Nephilim. (Sorry about the link to the religious nutjob site, but it illustrates the theory pretty well.) The Bible (Genesis 6:1) says that some angels (the Grigori or Watchers) interbred with the "daughters of man," giving birth to a race of giants. The Neanderthals were more robust than H. Sapiens, and so would have been their offspring. Also, since this news appears to imply that Neanderthals were more intelligent, it explains why they would be thought of as angels.

Democrats Win!

You all know that Democrats won the House and, now, one of Allen's aides says that Allen will concede tomorrow afternoon. This means that Bush is now a complete lame duck. He's already bowed to pressure to fire Rummy.

What does this mean? I would love to say that it's a clear mandate for the Democrats to rule how they want and that America is finally turning back toward the left, but I don't think that's the case. I think that America is just fed up with the war and was willing to take a chance on Democrats to kick the bastards out of office (it doesn't hurt that the homophobic gay ministers/ephebophile Republicans/general perverts were outed just a few weeks before).

That said, Democrats do have a mandate for certain things:
1) End the war. Most of the democrats (like Tester and Webb) that could never have been elected in their conservative states won because they made the war a big issue.
2) Stop ultra-conservative judges. If, god forbid, one of the liberal Justices should die or resign, or another spot open up in the lower courts, Democrats now have the ability to stop them without an unpopular filibuster. Plus, on the most important issues like presidential power and abortion, Democrats are most definitely in the mainstream.
3) Investigate the Bush Crime Family. Something very serious was going on behind the scenes before we went to war in Iraq, and we can finally get to the bottom of it, as long as Democrats have the cojones to start a real investigation.

Election Day!

Today's election day! Well, at least everywhere other than Oregon. We've been voting for a couple weeks now. In the great State of the Slug, everyone votes by mail, and we were 6th in the nation for voter turnout in the last midterm (4th in 2004). We've always had huge voter turnout (80% in the '60s), but we saw a huge spike in the 2000 election. What happened? in '98, we passed a ballot measure that has everyone vote by mail. This a) makes it easy to vote and b) reduces voter fraud. We don't have to worry about those Diebold machines, and every vote has a paper trail.

According to Stephen Keller, an employee of a law firm that represented Diebold, there is a program inserted into the machines that allows the results to be changed at the flip of a switch—and only republican administrations have bought the damn things. I guarantee you that if the Democrats lose the House, it was Diebold that stole the election.

One more prediction: if the Republicans keep the house, there will be riots everywhere. If Allen keeps his seat, there will be riots in Virginia's black community. If Ford loses, there will be riots in the rural areas of Tennessee (or at least very angry rednecks with guns). Majoritywatch.com is predicting a landslide victory for the Dems in the House, and Slate is predicting at least significant gains for them in the Senate. People know that we're winning. They will be angry if we lose. Bush crime family, watch out.

I Wonder If This Will Be On CNN...

Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. Is this the October surprise Rove was gloating about? Will it work? Why am I asking you?

Who Needs LSD?

I had an interesting experience this week. I was recovering from a stomach flu, and couldn't sleep, so I was watching old Sherlock Holmes movies on Google Video, and ended up staying awake all night (not a common occurance, I like to sleep). Around 5:00, I started thinking about what would have happened if we had evolved from something other than chimpanzees. Somehow I got the idea of evolving from gazelles, and I figured that if we had, math would be completely different.

If we had evolved from gazelles, we would learn calculus before arithmetic. Think I'm crazy? I don't blame you, but read on. The reason we needed the ability to do simple math is so that we could tell that if three lions go into a cave and two come out, it's not a good idea to go in. Only as a last resort did we calculate how fast we have to run to escape from the lions.

Gazelles, on the other hand, do these sorts of calculations all the time, when they need to figure out if they're fast enough to be able to afford to stot. They don't need to know how many lions there are so much as how fast they are.

This is why I'll never try drugs. I don't need them.