Porter Rockwell: Interesting Times

Science and Public Policy

Climate Change, Evolution, Flu Shots and lots of other questions are public policy battle grounds, especially in forums like this, where science is invoked by both sides. How do you figure out what the truth is?

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Guns and the United States

A Case Study in National Dementia. Let's get the case you already know all about out of the way first. This column isn't about it. Yes, I think the right-wing five on the Supreme Court are wrong, wrong, wrong in District of Columbia v. Heller.

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"Frustration" - The One Word Description of Politics Today

Headline: Komen retreats in face of outrage (Denver Post) Headline: Ellen DeGeneres ...

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"Clearing the Market" - A study in Republican Doublespeak

On Thursday (Feb 2), the Chief Nay-Sayer of the House, John Boehner, took to the airwaves for his latest condemnation of anything, anything at all that President Obama proposes to help America.

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Why Did Christianity Take Over?

Europe had quite a few perfectly good religions in the fourth century already. As a pure blooded Viking (Yep! As nearly as I can tell.) I have always wondered why my distant ancestors gave up on Thor, Odin, and the rest.

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"Pure" Capitalism's Built In Advantage for the Rich!!

I read a message today on the Vine retelling an old urban legend which supposedly "proves" that socialism doesn't work using the metaphor of a teacher who gives an average grade to a whole class. The story told by the message on the Vine is one I have heard before.

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Minutes of the Military, Banking, and Oil Association Meeting

Sponsored by the Grand Old Party of No Theme: More Power To Us! Location: Grand Ballroom of a six star beachfront hotel in South Carolina Karl Rove: Ladies and Gentlemen, before we offer thanks to the Lord, let us offer thanks to the many fine corporate sponsors that make it poss …

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Missing In Action

What does it tell you about the Republican choice last time around? I just finished watching the talking heads on every channel in Iowa this morning.

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Of the People, By the People, For the People

Corporations are not people. Only people are people. Of all the first principals that America was founded on, this one seems to be the one most in need of being remembered.

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The Top Ten Evils of Bush

I had a blog at another site for a while. At the end of 2008, I wrote this to commemorate the passing of George Bush.

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Korea, China, and the Power Politics of Asia

Newsvine's "Oldefarte" (Hey! I didn't pick that name, he did.) responded to a message about the ongoing power struggle in North Korea with the best analysis of exactly what is going on there that I have ever read.

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The Gravel Pit Theory

Or, why almost all politicians are as crooked as a dogs hind leg ... and why President Obama is different. I subscribe to something I like to call, "The Gravel Pit Theory".

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Is There Such a Thing as a Privacy Right?

The New York Times article has a great article about the testimony of the former editor Paul McMullan of Murdoch's News of the World tabloid before a British enquiry. The Times rais …

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Occupy Whatever

I'm an occasional participant in political events - more "occasional" than "participant" actually - but I still managed to get on mailing lists as a result. I've been getting email asking me to participate in my local "Occupy Whatever" movement. It seems that everybody has one.

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What's Your Prediction?

MSNBC just published an article: Heat waves, floods and storms: Scientists warn world to prepare for extreme weather I've been reading the comments to the article. They're quite predictable. You've probably read them all before.

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Inevitable Romney?

The conventional wisdom right now is that Romney will be the Republican candidate, not because Republicans like him. But because everybody else is fatally flawed in some way. It's a good argument, but it ignores one fact: Romney is fatally flawed too. And the Republicans know it.

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Join or Die

Benjamin Franklin used this slogan to convince the separate American colonies that they had a choice of joining together or continuing to be enslaved by the boot of British rule.

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Bush Trashed America's Name

But President Obama is starting to repair the damage. I like to watch TV shows imported from Britain on the educational channel. Most are light comedy: "Red Dwarf" - a lost spaceship in the distant future, "Last of the Summer Wine" - retired characters in the York countryside.

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Repeating Rome's Decline

It's popular in some circles to say that we're going down the same drain that doomed the Roman Empire.

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The Times, They Are A Changing!

So warbled Bob Dylan, well before he sold out to the man. The times are really changing for education. Some forty odd years ago, the cost was bearable. My working class mom and dad, plus a summer job, was enough to pay the bills when I got my degree.

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Porter Rockwell

Articles Posted: 20
Links Seeded: 7
Member Since: 8/2010Last Seen: 2/22/2012

A life consumed by computers!