Monthly Archives: February 2011

Japan disses diversity

Japan’s slippage from the world’s number two economy to number three will likely unleash more criticism of its highly restrictive immigration policies, especially from the New York Times.  It’s hard to think of a greater repudiation of the American public … Continue reading

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The ever-renewing terror threat

A Congressional hearing last week on terror threats facing the U.S. was covered by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, both of which told the identical story:  the U.S. is at serious danger from domestic, homegrown terrorists.  … Continue reading

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Using the master’s tools….

I have a post up at Discover, The academy is liberal, deal!, where I confirm that yes, academics are liberal, and second, that there’s no profit in changing this situation. A conservative weblog, Kronology, responded: Khan–like many pat-myself-on-the-back liberals–assumes “conservatives … Continue reading

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A trip down Memory Lane: Freedom Agenda 2005

If Obama had given the following speech, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and the rest of the knee-jerk venom squad who are petulantly faulting the Obama Administration’s cautious response to the Egyptian revolution would have frothed at the presumption of such … Continue reading

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The “carceral state:” An unjust drag on Rotarian membership?

I discuss an article by University of Virginia professor Vesla Weaver arguing that contact with the “carceral state” illegitimately depresses civic and political engagement in this Bloggingheads debate.

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Right-wing sour grapes

The Fox News reporter, speaking from Cairo half an hour ago, did not receive the right-wing-media talking points.  Back in the New York studio, a Fox blonde had been skeptically quizzing Alan Colmes about all the downsides to Mubarak’s stepping … Continue reading

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Wikipedia and gender bias

Women are underrepresented in journalism and other public fields, a fact which feminists reflexively attribute to sexism.  Wikipedia’s gender ratio demolishes that Womens Studies bromide, as I discuss here.

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Remember the babes!

I’m old enough to remember the “babe revolution” of 2005. How’d that work out? I know that most of my contemporaries are closely following events in Egypt while I’m busy running genetic analyses. Today a friend started IMing me about … Continue reading

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Egypt and the Right-wing media meltdown

The right-wing punditocracy’s sputtering reaction to the Obama Administration’s Egyptian diplomacy is a new low point in the melt-down of rationality on the right.  I am utterly convinced that had Bush been in power and had gently suggested that Mubarak … Continue reading

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Youth and revolution

The New York Times’ print front page has a photo today of a bunch of scruffy Egyptian youth, sitting around their laptops, that encapsulates for me one puzzle of the Egyptian protests and others like them.  These self-consciously hip youngsters, … Continue reading

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