Someone has again scratched a pet peeve of mine, that old pseudo-literary bugbear “relevance.” As in, SF is losing it, and it better get some quick or else be declared “irrelevant.” This is a bit of an oversimplification of the essay by Jetse de Vries, Should SF Die? But it Read more…
Internet trolls are fascinating creatures. They live in the nooks and crannies of the internet, eager to pounce on any unwary passer-by. I find the psychology fascinating, as trolls almost always advocate a political point of view, and do it exceedingly badly. So badly that one is often left wondering Read more…
Scientific research is based on the idea of review, so others can reproduce your results. Peer review should not be about insuring a pre-determined outcome. It certainly shouldn’t be about intimidation of reporters. Is shouldn’t be about politicians defining what the “real science” is. Especially when they’re repeatedly wrong about Read more…
Michael Wolf decided to make a complete asshat of himself. I’ll let you ponder the following thesis: HarperCollins does not really believe Sarah Palin has written a valuable book—or even that it is really a book, not in the way that HarperCollins has historically understood books, or in the way Read more…
While I was out, it seems we found out the science on Global Warming is a lot less settled than Al Gore would like us to believe. At the risk of being called the moral equivalent of a Holocaust denier, I can’t say that this particularly surprises me. When we Read more…
Short little theory about recent electoral history that no one in the establishment is willing to entertain because it is just too scary. We have the trouncing of democratic governors and it’s announced as a fundamental shift in the electorate, away from the fundamental shift in the electorate back in Read more…
Apparently the GOP felt is was behind the curve when it came to the rape-apologist bandwagon. Hell, if I parse this right, the amendment that these 30 asinine twits voted against wouldn’t make it illegal for a company to make a contract saying you can’t sue if their employees gang-rape Read more…
Democrats should be realizing now that Obama’s dearth of experience, especially executive political experience, was probably not as big an issue in the campaign as it should have been. I’m sure, at the time, everyone who voted for him assured themselves that he was going to be fine, he’d just Read more…
In 1983 Steven King wrote the novel Chistine, about a car that was possessed. A vehicle that was, in essence, evil. I now realize that Mr. King, more than likely, owned at one point a vehicle much like my 96 Ford F-150. Like some people, some vehicles just seem to Read more…
Celebrities belong to a different class of people, they are not subject to normal petty laws short of perhaps murder. Even then, you often see the accused, and the fans of the accused, twist facts to the breaking point to portray any prosecution as persecution. Even when the bastard pleads Read more…