Mostly Harmless

Is there a liberal war on free speech?

This article originally appeared at Heartless and Brainless Last week, I wrote about Andrew McCarthy's shoddy National Review piece about liberals and free speech. McCarthy distorted the truth, cherrypicked his facts, and got it all wrong.

Continue reading this entry ...

Is a Lockheed Martin Department of Justice contract crossing the line?

Lockheed Martin does excellent defense work for the Pentagon. They are one of the engines of our military-industrial complex, and they are a trustworthy, essential American defense contractor.

Continue reading this entry ...

Forget 2008: A look ahead to the 2009 Election Cycle

With everyone worked up over the 2008 election (which pretty much began the day after the 2006 election), we thought we'd take a break from the presidential horserace and give you a preview of what you can expect in the 2009 cycle.

Continue reading this entry ...

Is someone making large, real-money bets that Obama's candidacy will end prematurely?

This post originally appeared at Heartless and Brainless Nate Silver warned us against being alarmist in his analysis, but I can't help but look at these numbers with some measure of suspicion and just outright confusion.

Continue reading this entry ...

Old man Rangel can't seem to remember to pay his taxes; not accept illegal gifts

This article was originally posted at Heartless and Brainless There's an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry catches his uncle Leo stealing books from a bookstore. He's got plenty of money. So why the thieving? His excuse? That's he's a confused old man!

Continue reading this entry ...

Does the Washington Post Have an Improper Financial Relationship with the Federal Government?

The obituary of the newspaper industry has been written a hundred times -- ironically often in the same pages of these supposedly doomed publications.

Continue reading this entry ...

The Butcher of Broadway Bloodies McCain

I have to say, I really enjoyed today's column by Frank Rich, which basically just teared McCain a new one.

Continue reading this entry ...

Meet the Real Sarah Palin -- New opposition research by the 2006 Alaskan Democrats

The McCain campaign's ineptitude in vetting Palin is rapidly becoming the stuff of political legend. Between BristolGate, TrooperGate, and Let's-Fire-The-Town-Librarian-For-Not-Banning-Books-Gate, Palin is a walking closet full of political and personal skeletons.

Continue reading this entry ...

Why is the New York Sun blindly advocating teen pregnancy? Because we need to catch up to China and India, apparently. So Bristol, have that baby.

I was following Ezra's link about the demise of the New York Sun (a journalistic loss akin to having an ingrown toenail removed), when I came across this editorial about Palin's daughter's pregnancy. There seems to be a view that teenage births are somehow a bad thing.

Continue reading this entry ...

Is Trig Palin REALLY Sarah Palin's child? Notes on an explosive scandal...

Over at Daily Kos, a contributor has built a relatively compelling case that young Trig Palin is not the child of Sarah Palin, but is in fact her daughter's child (Read more details and revelations here). Another motivation began making its rounds in the Alaskan legislature, wher …

Continue reading this entry ...

Reflections on women and the glass ceiling

With Sarah Palin's selection as McCain's veep, combined with the PUMAs and Hillary's swan song at the Democratic convention, the progress that women have made in the past few decades is back in the national conversation.

Continue reading this entry ...

Fear of 'Asian Invasion' on campuses leads to discrimination

Once upon a time, elite Ivy-League institutions feared a tide of Jewish students overwhelming their student body and took steps not to admit too many of them at the expense of good Anglo-Saxon Protestant boys, even though Jewish applicants outscored, out-tested and out-GPA-ed the …

Continue reading this entry ...

10 questions to ask your dogmatic pastor, youth group leader, priest, rabbi or imam who doesn't believe in evolution

I was enjoying my day off and reading this New York Times piece on the teaching of evolution to devoutly Christian kids in the public schools when I came across a passing mention of a list called "Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution."

Continue reading this entry ...

Is Barack Obama Better in Small Sips or Whole Cans?

Yesterday, Slate offered an article examining how Barack Obama is a bit like Pepsi -- young, fresh, hipper, sweeter. But Pepsi never wins the market share cola wars against the behemoth Coke. Moreover, Pepsi does not lose out to Coke because its product is inferior.

Continue reading this entry ...

Obama is just Biden his time

Tim Kaine. Katherine Sebelius. Evan Bayh. Al Gore. Hillary Clinton. Political journalists are whimps. Even David Brooks, who was only brave enough to write a column "hoping" that Obama would pick Biden, instead of coming right out and saying it.

Continue reading this entry ...

Georgia on my mind

I know I've made it a habit recently to disagree with Natch, but I also have to go after him over his Georgia post.

Continue reading this entry ...

What high gas prices crisis?

From Natch: Let's put things in perspective. I think we can all agree that there is bipartisan agreement that oil prices are too high.

Continue reading this entry ...

The New Criterion on Libel Tourism and 'Free Speech an Age of Jihad'

Today, I had the pleasure of reading a special New Criterion pamphlet entitled 'Free Speech in the Age of Jihad'.

Continue reading this entry ...

The Looming Threat of Libel Tourism

Yesterday, I was in the good Congressman's office and we happened to receive a letter concerning H.R. 5814, the Free Speech Protection Act of 2008.

Continue reading this entry ...

Edwards Love Child Revisited

Woland and Kaus have a pretty good summary of the issues surrounding the Edwards controversy right now.

Continue reading this entry ...

Stick it the AARP -- Time to Raise the Retirement Age

Even among knowledgeable individuals, there is a false perception of the gun lobby.

Continue reading this entry ...

Rethinking War: The Fallacy of Civilian Casulties

Recently, I've become aware of a false dichotomy – and that's the dichotomy between civilian deaths and military deaths.

Continue reading this entry ...

Are the Democrats Communists?: Giuliani's Curious Red Baiting

There's a curious theme running through Rudy Giuliani's campaign that goes far beyond anti-big government conservativism. In campaign stop after campaign stop, Giuliani has been raising the specter of communism and socialism against the Democratic Party.

Continue reading this entry ...

Rethinking Drinking: The Changing Nature of Youth, and Our Foolish Alcohol Policy

There's a notion in American society that all premature death and tragedy is ultimately preventable, and that it is a desirable to pursue any public policy to those ends.

Continue reading this entry ...

About B.Tau

Articles Posted: 39
Links Seeded: 36
Member Since: 6/2007Last Seen: 12/11/2008

Mostly Harmless

Latest Comments

Recent Votes

B.Tau has not voted for any articles yet.

B.Tau's Feeds

Subscribe to B.Tau's content using the feeds below. Use RSS for your newsreader and JSS to insert onto your own blog:
  • Articles
  • Seeds