Tag Archives: political-ish

Paying for Bad News: Funding the Keeling Curve

Here’s one of the most frightening charts in all of science: CO2 has risen by a quarter just in my lifetime, and we all know the consequences. The chart comes from a remarkably sustained effort by Charles David Keeling: and … Continue reading

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Thomas the Tank Corporatist

Last Sunday the Boston Globe ran a piece on the rise of right-wing  books for children,  “Bedtime for Little Patriots” by Tom Scocca, an author and blogger for Slate.  His funniest case is shown to the right, where the National … Continue reading

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Political Stagnation

One hears little besides politics on the news, of course, but one thing that strikes me is how little the US political system has actually changed in the last several decades.   The last new state was Hawaii in 1959.  The … Continue reading

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How Nice To Have a President Who Can Speak

So even when he’s had a pretty serious political defeat, even when he looks really depressed, Obama still has the presence of mind to use an obscure term like “shellacking” in his post-midterm-election press conference. You know this is something … Continue reading

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Rejected by the American Legal System

… for jury duty.  Geez.  I got a series of ominous notices over the last couple of months telling me to appear at the district courthouse: So I appear at 8 AM per request.  This being an important civic duty, … Continue reading

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Disasters vs Development

Here in the Northeast US it’s been a damn hot summer.   In Boston  last month the average maximum was 85.8 deg F, 3.5 deg higher than the average from 1971 to 2000, and we had several heat records. We dealt … Continue reading

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