Submitted to a Candid World

I’ve added the feed for “The Caucus” blog to the sidebar: please let me know what you think.  I think I have about two readers who visit commonly enough to have an opinion as to style.  Could both of you please let me know what you think?

Also, for a while now, I’ve wanted to add sidenotes, a.k.a. “asides,” to the site.  However, there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that in WordPress.com.  Very disappointing.  I’ll be looking into it, and if you have any knowledge, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Maybe I just like hearing myself talk, but I greatly enjoyed being on Indie Talk’s Blog Bunker. Thanks to Joe Salzone and Alexandra DiTrolio for a great experience, and special thanks to Henry Dubb of The Proletariat, who’s provided me with the audio file, below.

I wasn’t feeling well going in - I might be getting sick! - but adrenaline carried the day. We covered the recent news that Obama has, in all polls, overtaken McCain, and wondered aloud where, exactly, Bush went wrong. There was also a random momentary foray into discussing the “9/11 Truthers,” one of the more bizarre conspiracy theorist groups out there, and I got to cite Futurama. All around, a win. Apparently I even came off as a moderate, which is also something to strive for - advocacy with reason and temperance.

My only regret is that we didn’t get to talk about Tim’s adventures in Iraq, but there’s talk of going on the show again when Tim’s back in the USA. Here’s hopin’. Thanks again, Joe and Alex!

I’ve just gotten a list of the topics for our radio debut tonight. They are -

• The threat of war in Iran,
• The upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions (I assume that topic compasses the vice presidential picks), and,
• Reports, including Zogby, that put Obama over the top in electoral votes.

While I think I’m pretty knowledgeable on all of those topics - and I’ve covered them before - if anyone has comments or links to stories on these issues, I’d sure appreciate it. And thanks for all the good luck wishes! I’ll return to more substantive topics tomorrow, I promise.

Today, I’ll be interviewed on “The Blog Bunker,” on Sirius’ Indie Talk 110. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been able to listen to a few earlier broadcasts in preparation, where they interviewed the writers of The Malcontent and the Proletariat, and I’m amazed to hear how seriously they talk about political bloggers - “the new journalists.” Whoa. I have to say that it hasn’t occurred to me - even for a minute - that I’m anywhere near that important (I’m probably not…).

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get an MP3 of the show to put up here, or at least a link, for the all-but-one of you who lack Sirius radio. Otherwise, hint hint, three day free trial.

From what I’m hearing, the host, Joe Salzone, seems like someone I’ll get along with. While we’re not of one mind politically, he’s an independent libertarian, and I expect us to have a lot of common ground.

Anyways, all of this puts me in a reflective mood. Over the past two months and a half months, I’ve tried to hit a few themes on this site, themes that I hope will come up on the air. Recap:

• America is built on a commitment to progress - technological, scientific, and (most importantly) societal - that ought to come before individual biases and fears of the future.
• Our Constitution is a liberal construct, built for a growing nation, upon the promise of growing - rather than static - liberty.
• Democracy requires that facts come before spin, and demands an informed electorate.
• But, sometimes, you have to fight spin with spin.

Hmm. Those might be the big points. Wish me luck. I’m sad that Tim’s not here to do the show too, but apparently we’ll get to do it again, once he’s back from Iraq (just heard from him again - he’s okay!).

And, again on a reflective note, a heartfelt thanks to everyone who reads and enjoys this site.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Fourth of July break! I definitely did.

It turns out that no-one reads the internets over the long weekends (and, in fact, I barely wrote on this site). Nevertheless, the world kept turning, and call it a shameless plug of old entries if you must, but I’d like to revisit some big things that happened:

• Jesse Helms (D-N.C.) died.
• Exciting discoveries in early Christian history were made.
• And, we looked at the subtly suggestive Democratic primary-era color choices of Electoral-Vote.com.

Enjoy the looooooooong Monday!

We may not be post-race in America yet. At a store this past weekend in Manhattan, wearing my Obama t-shirt, I was asked by a black woman if I was, in fact, voting for Obama. When I told her that I was, there was a distinct note of surprise in her voice! It may be that I’m SO stereotypically white - satchel bag, Starbucks in hand, iPhone, fountain pen - that, clearly, I would no sooner vote for someone not my own race than I would socialize with them at the country club.

As you may have imagined, that evaluation is pretty far off, and after explaining to her that I was a big Obama fan, we had a pretty hilarious conversation about how bad McCain would be. Fun was had all around. The point, I think, is that people are sometimes suspicious when the majority takes the minority’s interest. Although Barack Obama surely is not “the black candidate” - to most, I hope, he’s just a candidate who happens to be black - it certainly would have been unheard of fifty years ago for a white man to campaign for a black president, and it surely takes time for some minority interests to trickle up to the majority’s attention. I still get glances for walking around with a Human Rights Campaign bag - apparently only a gay man would support gay rights. But the point of democracy is that the majority ought to care for the minority. Sigh. Some day.

Aside from that anecdote, the big news of the day is, Tim Brady is off to Iraq today to chronicle the country in the name of his organization, the Soulbird Music Project. I wish him the best wherever he is, and he’s missed here in New York.

6:25 - huh.  No-one’s here.  I guess David Kirby chicke…. huh?  Oh, it’s in two weeks.  Oops.  So did anyone else notice that David Kirby’s lecture at NYU is Thursday, June 26th, not 12th? Because I just did.

D’oh.

I’ll be live blogging this without a doubt in two weeks, then. Vaccination debaters: please check back before then, and on that date, and you’ll have more news on the subject. In the meantime, I’m going to engage in a crash course. Thanks to all commenters, present and future, for a lively debate; keep it up!

Dear faithful reader(s), and you itinerant anti-vaccination vagabonds;

First, thanks for all the traffic!  I hope you stick around to read some of the other posts, too.  I’m not a one-trick pony: although the study of politicized science is one of my most-discussed issues, it’s one of many, and the anti-vaccination debate is but one of many iterations of it.

Second, I’ve managed to clear my plate enough, I think, to be able to attend Kirby’s talk.  I plan to either live-blog it or post very thorough notes immediately thereafter.  But, I don’t intend to try to disrupt him or pose nasty questions during Q&A.  That’s not my style.  But I would be greatly indebted for any suggestions, advice, or talking points delivered by a faithful commenter, and I’d try to work that advice into a question or two if I can.  I speak for those who can’t speak for themselves… that is, those of you not in the New York area.

Who’s excited? I am. For those of you who don’t know, “Tangled Bank” is PZ Myers’ biweekly compendium of blog posts on science - especially biology and evolutionary biology - and society. We’ve been featured on it once or twice, and now we’ll be hosting the first Tangled Bank after the election.

Be excited.

Speaking of evolution, science, and politics, our friend at The Big Stick has an excellent post on evangelism & politics.  What he proves - and this ought to be uncontroversial - is that people across the political spectrum can agree that religious zealotry, turned politics, is something to be wary of.

Break out the champagne!

One of my first posts on this site was to say that Ben Stein has destroyed intelligent design, by proving once and for all its indebtedness to religion, permanently undermining the Discovery Institute’s goal in inventing the label “intelligent design” - namely, that of smuggling creationism in under the radar . And PZ Myers agrees! But no shout out, PZ? What am I, chopped tiktaalik?

Update: big things coming to Submitted to a Candid World, I’m sorry I was too busy tonight to write much.  Deposition on Friday, which I actually have real work for (!), and summer events.  But I will say I’m hoping for a Unity ticket.