Interesting Links

Premium Toilet Paper Hurts the Environment
Calvin and Hobbes Grown Up
Forests in the Sky
Mark Thoma: The Long and Short of the US Economy
Economists in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (There are some big names here. I'll have to look at this.)
Bad Behavior? Bad Smell? We react the same.
Health Care on the Front Burner

Cool 3D sidewalk art

Dailymail.co.uk: Mind the crevasse

Glenn Beck is criminally insane

Wow. Any good will I may have had for Glenn Beck as a fellow Latter-day Saint just ended abruptly. I realize that Fox has to pander to the Sarah Palin people to stay financially viable post Bush administration, but good night. I can't think of anything more irresponsible than to encourage this kind of lunacy during a crisis. There are people who believe this crap.

Shortly after the election, I went with a friend to a sporting goods store to get a holster for his handgun (a right which I respect even though I choose not to exercise it for practical reasons – BYU doesn't allow it and my life is already accident prone without lethal force to back that up).

Anyway, while he was picking one out, I made small talk with the guy at the gun counter. He told me that they couldn't keep ammo and barrels of black powder in stock because people are hoarding it in case they have to rebel against the Obama administration's imagined anti-gun policies (he didn't say it that bluntly, but that was the idea).

Watch the video for yourself. These supposedly serious individuals seem to relish the idea of a militia movement rebelling against the Federal Government. The Republican Party needs to reform and it needs to do it quickly – this country needs responsible conservatives (ie actual conservatives, not rabid rural white Nationalists and the media who pander to them). The sooner these people can be made politically irrelevant the better.



Update: If this doesn't remove any doubt that serving in the military doesn't mean you deserve to be taken seriously regarding national security affairs, I don't know what will.

The Times on Iran

Iran: The friendliest people in the world

Am I a bad person for thinking that stable relations with China are more important than "Free Tibet" activists' priorities?

Activists 'shocked' at Clinton stance on China rights
also: Economic woes trump rights as Clinton visits China

Greenspan backs bank nationalization

Here's the article in the Financial Times

You gotta give Alan Greenspan credit (besides being very smart). He sure has no problem admitting he's wrong and adjusting to the new situation. There aren't many people in his position (or anywhere) who would do the same.

Dani Rodrik: Capitalism will survive

Business Standard: Coming soon - Capitalism 3.0

Then again . . .

DeLong: Scott Horton Keeps Us Up-to-Date on Some of the Bush Administration's Crimes

Next time someone tries to tell you Europe is more progressive than the United States . . .

Italia Ndalon Restorantet Etnike

Translated from a Times Online article.

US tortured prisoners to death . . .

This is bad stuff.

New Scientist: Studies suggest religious belief is innate

Very interesting article. We Mormons would call this phenomenon "the light of Christ." I wonder why the scientists who do these studies never consider the possibility that God actually existing may have something to do with such an innate belief.

Happy Birthday Darwin (and Lincoln)

I already posted on Lincoln a few days ago, so he has not been ignored.

Times and Seasons (blog): Mormons and Evolution

Mormon Times: BYU celebrates Darwin with week of lectures

The Economist: Belief In Evolution

The Onion: Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain

Update: To Soelberg too!

Proud to be a liberal

The Economist: Liberalism, anatomy of an idea

The Prescription Drug and Medical Devices Industries are Pure Evil

Wall Street Journal: Drug Makers Fight Stimulus Provision

WASHINGTON -- The drug and medical-device industries are mobilizing to gut a provision in the stimulus bill that would spend $1.1 billion on research comparing medical treatments, portraying it as the first step to government rationing…

The House version of the stimulus package sent shudders through the drug and medical-device industry. In a staff report describing the bill, the House said treatments found to be less effective and in some cases more expensive "will no longer be prescribed."…

Mr. Obama supported research into comparative effectiveness during his campaign. Administration officials and leading Democrats in Congress say the idea will help government programs direct their dollars to treatments that are worth the money…

Companies "want to control the data, how it is reviewed, evaluated, and whether the public and government find out about it and use it," said Harry Selker, a Tufts University professor who directs its clinical-research program.

That also worries Jerry Avorn of Harvard Medical School, a frequent drug-industry critic. Comparative research "has the potential to tell us which drugs and treatments are safe, and which ones work," he said. "This is not information that the private sector will generate on its own, or that the industry wants to share."

Michael Cannon of the libertarian Cato Institute said comparative effectiveness research "isn't going to do any good because the industry will defund it as soon as it presents a threat."

When the government's Agency for Health Research Quality suggested in 1995 that there were too many unnecessary back surgeries, doctors and industry groups attacked the conclusion. Mr. Cannon noted that Congress at the time slashed the agency's budget and stripped its authority to make medicare-payment recommendations.

Abraham Lincoln in The Economist archives

here

Whoa . . .

Super Clocks: More accurate than time itself

Kindle 2 photos from Gizmodo

Looks pretty cool . . .

A form of my Abbott and Costello law proposed in Colorado

Denver Post: Bill would ease benefit-sharing.

Ok, so they didn't get the idea from me (and now that I look, I haven't posted about it eaither), but I did think of it too. I'd have to read the actual language in the bill to see how close it is, but this seems to be the gist. In particular, I'd like to see how "couple" is defined. I wouldn't have used that word. I like "companionship"or "partnership" or something that doesn't imply any kind of sexual activity. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan

Thank goodness BYU protects me from this . . .

The 5 most popular YouTube Pages

Quote: "If I had to guess, I'd say the average YouTube user was a 14 year old girl with Down's syndrome."