Denialism

Month: June 2007

  • Tim Blair quote mines me

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    I see that Tim Blair has decided to quote mine me. As part of my analysis of Cockburn’s crankery I made the following statement. Below the fold I’ll summarize Cockburn’s arguments and how they use the denialist tactics, George Monbiot’s responses (including his amazing crank-fu!) and discuss why in the future we may start seeing…

  • The NYT gets it right on No Child Left Behind

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    After yesterdays pathetic article from the WaPo suggesting that scores were “up” (whatever that means under the moronic patchwork that evolved under the law) it was nice to see the NYT get it right. Their article exposes the joke of state standardized testing in response to the law, and further demonstrates how meaningless standardized testing…

  • Denialists’ Deck of Cards: The Ace of Diamonds, “Communism!”

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    by

    Chris
    in

    Suricou Raven guessed it–after calling your opponent “Unamerican,” you call them “Communist.” Here, use loaded phrases, such as “the proposal smacks of the paternalistic ‘command and control’ of Communism.”

  • 62nd Skeptic’s Circle is up

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    At Polite Company. My favorite is Reasic’s late but thorough dissection of Michael Crichton in his “Aliens Cause Global Warming” speech.

  • The death of a wedge issue

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    I hope this time I’m finally right about this. I’ve been hopeful that some strategy of developing stem cells would allow us to bypass the absurd ethical restrictions from those who think one type of destruction of an embryo is worse than another. Particularly promising were spermatogonial stem cells, but they could only be made…

  • A bigot surgeon general nomination?

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    The Human Rights Campaign is concerned, and I would tend to agree, that Bush’s recent nominee for Surgeon General has the earmarks of an homophobe. In a document titled “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality,” Holsinger opined, in his capacity as a physician, that biology and anatomy precluded considering gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality in his…

  • The Testing Myth and NCLB

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    Another credulous article on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law appears today in the Washington Post. As someone who knows many teachers who have had experience with similar stupid laws in Virginia, and the history of the Bush administration pushing for these kinds of laws based on the “Texas Education Miracle”, I’m far more…

  • I can’t believe he’s still alive

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    I’m now convinced Castro will outlive us all. He’s apparently going to give his first interview since he got sick and was hospitalized. I was hoping that a conspiracy theory would evolve that Castro was really dead, and they were just hiding the evidence of his death from the press. It was going to be…

  • Denialists’ Deck of Cards: The Ace of Hearts, “Unamerican!”

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    by

    Chris
    in

    Almost any proposal can be styled as “Un-American.” Typically this is bundled with wild, inaccurate claims about European regulations (i.e., you can’t do business in Europe at all). You’ll wonder if the denialist has even been to Europe! Update: Mark H provides this article as an example of “Unamerican” in today’s Wall Street Journal. It…

  • To Fox News they all look alike

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    Fox news is pathetic. When discussing footage of Congressman Jefferson, the crook with the 90k in his freezer, Fox news chose to show John Conyers. Now could this be a simple mistake of showing the wrong footage? Or did are they really incapable of telling the difference between two black congressmen? Honestly, they couldn’t tell…