2006 archive

Verrrry in-ter-est-ink:

The tendency to see bias in the news — now the raison d’etre of much of the blogosphere — is such a reliable indicator of partisan thinking that researchers coined a term, “hostile media effect,” to describe the sincere belief among partisans that news reports are painting them in the worst possible light.

(snip)

Ross thinks this is because partisans often feel the news lacks context. Instead of just showing a missile killing civilians, in other words, partisans on both sides want the news to explain the history of events that prompted — and could have justified — the missile. The more knowledgeable people are, the more context they find missing.

Even more curious, the hostile media effect seems to apply only to news sources that strive for balance (this lets Fox News off the hook–Ed). News reports from obviously biased sources usually draw fewer charges of bias. Partisans, it turns out, find it easier to countenance obvious propaganda than news accounts that explore both sides.

Update: 7/20/2006: On the Media interviewed the author of the story this week; here’s the blurb from their website. I’ll post a link to the transcript when it becomes available:

More Middle East coverage this week… more charges of bias. Over the years, most news organizations have become accustomed to complaints from all sides in the conflict. But as Shankar Vedantam wrote this week in the Washington Post, studies show that the partisans who lob most of the criticism are predisposed to see bias, for the simple reason that they care. Vedantam explains to Bob the psychology of the partisan prism.

Does the federal government need to know whether you aced Aristotelian ethics but had to repeat introductory biology? Does it need to know your family’s financial profile, how much aid you received and whether you took off a semester to help out at home?

The Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education thinks so. In its first draft report, released in late June, the commission called for creation of a tracking system to collect sensitive information about our nation’s college students. Its second draft, made public last week, softens the name of the plan, but the essence of the proposal remains unchanged.

What is with the current Federal Administration’s obsession with collecting personal data on Americans? It seems pathological. Indeed, it reminds me of The Butterfly Collector.

One way to jack up the rolls:

In 2001, Jennifer B. Chace heard an insurance broker’s pitch for a new insurance company marketing tax-free medical savings accounts. She jumped at the offer, but first, the broker told her, she would have to sign an application — already filled out — that would entitle her to a low group rate.

With that signature, Chace, a Florida dentist in the market for health insurance, unwittingly joined one of Washington’s most prominent conservative organizations, Citizens for a Sound Economy, she would later testify.

“Before I showed you this form today, did you even realize that you signed a form that was an application for membership in Citizens for a Sound Economy?” her lawyer would ask during a 2004 deposition.

“I don’t know what Citizens for a Sound Economy is,” she replied.

And with that signature, claims the class action suit, she and many other insurance buyers unknowingly became regular dues-paying “members” of a right-wing political group without their knowledge.

Conservative values at work?

I was going to write some clever post about how Tom Tomorrow foretold the future, but, instead, I’ll just point anyone who is interested to Phillybits’s post: here. Scroll down to the 2003 cartoon at the end of the post.

Oh, yeah, the stuff about Santorum is right on target.

I mentioned this earlier. Apparently the judge doesn’t think much more of Mexican cancer clinics than I do:

A judge ruled Friday that a 16-year-old boy fighting to use alternative treatment for his cancer must report to a hospital by Tuesday and accept treatment that doctors deem necessary, the family’s attorney said.

The judge also found Starchild Abraham Cherrix’s parents were neglectful for allowing him to pursue alternative treatment of a sugar-free, organic diet and herbal supplements supervised by a clinic in Mexico, lawyer John Stepanovich said.

Jay and Rose Cherrix of Chincoteague planned to appeal, the lawyer said.

After chemotherapy last year made him nauseated and weak, the teen rejected doctors’ recommendations to go through a second round when he learned his Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes, had recurred.

One of my friends says that 16-year old should be able to make his own health care decisions.

I think that is a defensible position. That may be morally the case, though legally he is still a minor. The decision should, nevertheless, be an informed decision; anyone who chooses Mexican cancer clinics is not making an informed decision (follow the link in the initial post for more information about Mexican cancer clinics).

The judge’s decision may have been wrong; that what appeals are for. The teen’s choice is certainly wrong.

Update, 7/26/2006

A judge ruled Tuesday that a 16-year-old cancer patient who has refused conventional medical treatment does not have to report to a hospital as previously ordered and scheduled a trial to settle the dispute.

This ruling is pending a new trial.

I dropped off two weeks of the local rag at the recycle place this week and could not resist taking this picture:

As always, El Reg has the straight story : Here.

Mr. Bush claims he has vetoed the stem cell legislation because he believes destroying embryos is murder.

Now, I am not going to take a position on the bill. I listened to the two commentaries on stem cell research on NPR the last two days: pro and con, and I have read much more. I’m not sure what my position is, and I am quite willing to admit my confusion.

What I do have with no confusion is contempt for hypocrites.

If Mr. Bush believes that destruction of embryos is murder, what steps is he taking to end the practice of in vitro fertilization, which produces thousands of embryos which will eventually be destroyed? Or, if not end that practice, demand that all these embryos be implanted in women so they have the opportunity to become fetuses, then babies, then persons?

And why aren’t his female supporters on this issue volunteering to carry these embryos to term?

To the extent that he vetoes this bill, with all his high-sounding statements, but does nothing to end the creation of all the embryos that will eventually be tossed out the back door as red bag waste, he is a hypocrite.

To make an analogy, to take a moral stand against murder with a knife, while taking no stand against murder with a garrotte (or a BFI truck), is to take no moral stand at all.

Mr. Bush’s moral stands are stands of political convenience, not stands of courage.

In other news, US Airways is going to sell advertising on airsick bags. I could use one now.

Update, 7/26/2006

White House press secretary Tony Snow apologized on Monday for suggesting that President Bush believed stem-cell research amounted to “murder,” saying he was “overstating the president’s position.”

“He would not use that term,” Snow told reporters.

Cop out. Their reasons still strains the rules of logic. It’s still better, I guess, for the embryos to be thrown out than put to use? The only logical outcome of the Bushies’ position is to prevent the creation of the embryos in the first place.

Function X, which is designed to work with MS SQL Enterprise Manager, but also works with the free MS SQL Express Manager.

Jesus’ General

Dramatis Personae:
Four Villagers
Campaignus Republicanus, an evangelical political consultant.

Time: Two Months from Now

Scene: In the village square of the American Village. Three Villagers are talking stage middle-of-the-road.

(Up curtain)

Villager One: I’m not sure I’m happy with what’s happening.

Villager Two: About what?

Villager One: Well, the deficit keeps going up, my son’s being redeployed to Iraq for the fourth time, the Taliban is coming back in Afghanistan–it’s like, nothing seems to be changing.

Villager Three: I sort of understand. We keep staying the course and all we seem to end up doing is treading water.

(Enter Villager Four, stage middle-of-the-road)

Villager Two: But isn’t the deficit smaller?

Villager One: No, it’s just smaller than the projection. It’s bigger and bigger. And we know who made the projection . . .

Villager Three: Oh. Yeah, that kind of slipped by, but, you know, you’re right. (pause) And this Medicaid Drug Plan–they finally seem to be getting the bugs out of the enrollment, but, gosh, the Feds are paying top dollar for the drugs.

Villager Two: What a mess it was, though. I spent six hours helping my mother enroll!

Villager One: And the other thing that bothers me is the rich just keep getting richer, while the state just had to raise sales taxes to make ends meet. Gosh, the rich people in this country pay fewer taxes than in any other modern country! Must be nice to reap the benefits without paying anything for them!

Villager Four: I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhearing part of your conversation. May I butt in?

Villagers One, Two, Three: Sure, it’s a free country (or words to that effect).

Villager Four (musingly): That’s what I’m wondering about. How free is it when the government can read your mail and watch your phone calls and all that stuff without even getting a court order? I mean . . . .

(Enter Republicanus Campaignus, excited and panicky, stage rightwing.)

Republicanus Campaignus: Fire, flood, famine, fire, flood, famine!

All Villagers: What is it?

Republicanus Campaignus (pointing stage rightwing): There! There! There!

All Villagers: What? Where? What?

Republicanus Campaignus: Two brown-skinned gay illegal Mexican immigrants getting married under a burning American flag!!!! Let’s get them!

All Villagers: Grab the torches! Form the posse! Get the infidels!

Exeunt stage rightwing.

Fini

Here.

Missiles

and The Button

courtesy of El Reg.

Yeah.

Right.

In all, the Livestock Compensation Program cost taxpayers $1.2 billion during its two years of existence, 2002 and 2003. Of that, $635 million went to ranchers and dairy farmers in areas where there was moderate drought or none at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Washington Post. None of the ranchers were required to prove they suffered an actual loss. The government simply sent each of them a check based on the number of cattle they owned.

At first, livestock owners were required to be in a county officially suffering a drought to collect the money. But ranchers who weren’t eligible complained to their representatives in Washington, and in 2003 Congress dropped that requirement. Ranchers could then get payments for any type of federally declared “disaster.” In some cases, USDA administrators prodded employees in the agency’s county offices to find qualifying disasters, even if they were two years old or had nothing to do with ranching or farming.

On this week’s Speaking of Faith, the guest was Elie Wiesel. The description on the website says

A survivor of the Holocaust, in which he lost most of his family, Wiesel is a seminal chronicler of that event and its meaning. Wiesel shares some of his thoughts on modern-day Israel and Germany, his understanding of God, and his practice of prayer after the Holocaust.

In the course of the interview, the definition of “martyr” came up. Wiesel said something very wise. I do not claim that this is an exact quotatation, but it’s pretty damned close. You can follow the link and hear the show:

“We Jews and you Christians too know something about martyrdom. A martyr is someone who is willing to die for his faith, not kill for his faith.”

Food for thought.

It would cause me to run!

It could be magic for some, but the use of loud Barry Manilow music to drive away late-night revelers from a suburban Sydney park is getting on the nerves of nearby residents.

In a move reminiscent of U.S. efforts to drive former Panama strongman Manuel Noriega from the Vatican Embassy where he took refuge in 1989, the local council in Rockdale, in Sydney’s southern suburbs, started a six-month trial of high-volume hits by Manilow and Doris Day to chase away car enthusiasts who were gathering on weekend nights at Cook Park Reserve.

“Barry’s our secret weapon,” Rockdale Deputy Mayor Bill Saravinovski told The Daily Telegraph newspaper, four weeks after the start of the effort. “It seems to be working.”

But some people living near the park are less than enthralled. They say the barrage of “Copacabana,” “Could It Be Magic” and “Que Sera Sera,” blasting from 9 p.m. to midnight every Friday, Saturday and Sunday is driving them crazy.

Leonard Pitts on the Supreme Court’s Guantanamo decision:

Indeed, for all the blather we’ve suffered these last years about the sins of so-called “activist judges,” the plain fact is that what really endangers us is an activist president, a man who evidently believes he can do what he wants when he wants.

As much as his sycophants like to portray this bullheadedness as evidence of presidential resolve, what it actually illustrates is disdain, the imperial hubris and messianic mind-set of a fellow who believes himself on a mission from the Almighty and, therefore, not to be troubled by such small niceties as what is customary or legal. So the Supreme Court’s ruling is about more than just the fate of the Gitmo detainees. It is a stop sign for a runaway administration, a reminder that this is still a country of laws, not men.

Somebody pass the word to King George: At the end of the day it turns out that he’s just a president after all.

I expect that’s one stop sign that’s going to get run, in some surreptitious, double-speak fashion. I do not expect this leopard to change the spots on his imperial robes.

From the Annenberg Center; follow the link for the full story, a detailed analysis, and links to the ads in question:

Ralph Reed, former national executive director of the Christian Coalition, is making several false and misleading claims about Casey Cagle, his opponent in the race for the Republican nomination to be lieutenant governor of Georgia. Cagle is attacking Reed as well, with tough accusations about Reed’s ties to convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Those we find accurate, save for one made-up newspaper quote.

Reed falsely accuses Cagle of “failure to pay his taxes,” which isn’t so. Reed also accuses him of “unethical banking conflicts” for being both a banker and a state senator working on banking legislation, but that’s common in many state legislatures. Reed also falsely attributes to Cagle a quote – “everybody does it” – which actually came from a newspaper editorial and not Cagle. And Reed’s ads refer snidely to “millionaire Cagle,” even though Reed himself is a multi-millionaire worth more than twice as much as his opponent.

Cagle’s ad accuses Reed of taking millions from Abramoff to help casinos and working with Abramoff to deny legal protections to women and children in garment factories in the Mariana Islands where forced abortions and forced prostitution have been reported, all charges that are well documented. We found only one misstatement in Cagle’s ad, which uses a phony newspaper quote to imply that Reed confirmed acceptance of money from Indian casinos. In fact, Reed still denies that he knew the money he got from Abramoff came from gambling, despite ample evidence to the contrary contained in a recent Senate report.

We had a substitute preacher this week. (He is quite a neat guy, by the way.) In the course of his sermon, he discussed those who wrap themselves in the name of God and, in particular, differentiated between followers of Christ (who try to live a life of Christian virtue) and admirers of Christ (who honor Christ from 11:00 a.m till noon on Sundays, but forget about Him the rest of the week, except maybe occasionally).

I would add yet a third category, and visualize a continuum with followers of Christ on one end, admirers of Christ in the middle, and users of Christ (’nuff said) at the other end.

Where along the continuum would our buddy Ralph fall?

Phillybits.