Dispatches
The Burning Season
09.30.2005 14:38 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
I returned to Los Angeles yesterday from Washington, DC, to find that fire season had begun. Those who don't believe Southern California has seasons fail to appreciate the region's nuances. We don't have foliage, but in the fall the hills burn. The Santa...
Is Oil Shale the Answer?
09.30.2005 13:52 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
I don't know much about shale, but James Hamilton spells out a number of problems with one of the much-discussed alternatives to oil. It looks better than nothing. But not much better....
Energy and the Law of Large Proportions
09.27.2005 21:37 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
How do we conserve energy in the United States? That question has become more urgent in light of events in the Middle East, the brief gasoline shocks from Hurricane Katrina, and the new attention being given to Peak Oil...
FBox on the Radio
09.27.2005 11:27 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Yours truly was interviewed last week by Bazooka Joe for his indyradio/podcast show, the Small World. Joe was an excellent interviewer and a kind editor -- he made me sound smarter than I am.
Anyone who wants to listen to the podcast can find it on the...
More Astonishing Stupidity
09.19.2005 12:53 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The religious right has now embraced the movie "March of the Penguins." Penguins, conservatives argue, are symbos of family values, and an argument for Intelligent Design. The Guardian reports:
Film critic Michael Medved was quoted by the New York T...
Hitchens/Galloway
09.19.2005 12:43 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Eric Alterman watched the Hitchens Galloway debate and came away feeling sick:
I was disgusted to watch the Hitchens/Galloway debate on CSPAN yesterday. Both are brilliant debaters without much care whether the points they are making are consistent...
Stopping Abortion Protesters
09.19.2005 12:36 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Steve Levitt reports on a new campaign by Planned Parenthood that will probably work. It will either stop protesters or raise money.
Flying Spaghetti Monsterism
09.14.2005 13:08 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The Intelligent Design movement continues to press ahead, determined to undo the theory of evolution, which is quite simply the greatest intellectual achievement of humankind. The theory of evolution has allowed us not just to explain our own origins and...
The Case Against Rebuilding New Orleans
09.14.2005 12:53 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Jack Shafer makes the case here, at Slate. New Orleans, he points out, was not exactly a shangri-la of beignets and jazz clubs. For most people it was pathos masquerading as a city. A sample:
The police inspire so little trust that witnesses often re...
Failure of FEMA, Part II
09.02.2005 10:39 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Kevin Drum gives the agency's recent history. His summation:
A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country....
The Failure of FEMA
09.01.2005 13:26 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The national government's response to New Orleans has been appalling. I copy here from Brad Delong's web page. He has scanned the blogosphere and assembled the roll call of incompetence:
Laura Rozen is surprised:
War and Piece: My lord, the guy head...
The Future of New Orleans
09.01.2005 09:40 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The situation now is terrible--the Red Cross certainly needs more donations. For a rather horrifying ongoing commentary from the city, see here. But most of the heavy lifting needs to be done by the federal government: the Army Corps of Engineers needs to...
Politics of Intelligent Design
08.31.2005 10:07 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The American Prospect has a nice article on the roots of the Intelligent Design movement, including its connections to a number of evangelical Christian groups, and its to some prominent Republicans. A nice sample:
ID proponents have also teamed up...
Has peak oil arrived already?
08.30.2005 08:46 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
James Hamilton of UCSD offers a slightly technical but enlightening discussion of the recent Cambridge Energy Associates report on oil supply and production. He concludes that wemay have hit the peak, but points out that the "peak" is likely quite differe...
Astonishing Stupidity
08.29.2005 17:49 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
This is quite possible the stupidest thing I have ever read. I can only assume that the new mission of the Washington Post is to make everyone who reads it incrementally dumber. I can think of no other explanation for why such an exercise in illiteracy ma...
Rolling Back the Blowhards
08.29.2005 10:32 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Christopher Hitchens met his match last week when he debated Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. Hitchens trotted out his usual good-vs-evil-liberals-hate-America routine, and Stewart called him on it. The video is here. The most telling part is the end--Hitch...
A New Way to Increase Tolerance
08.26.2005 12:01 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Peter Gordon of USC points us to this item from the Wall Street Journal, which is just one more reason to find Scandinavians earnest and loveable.
"Not a Swedish Joke"
If you find yourself in Malmo, Sweden, and happen to see a homosexual, an ima...
The Evolution Debate
08.26.2005 11:27 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
There is no evolution debate. There is a debate about whether creationism or Intelligent Design (which is Creationism's better-disguised descendant--yes, even Creationism evolves) should be taught in high schools. I say it can be taught in theology class,...
Fox Media Ethics
08.25.2005 17:24 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
This is nice.
LA HABRA, Calif. - A couple whose home was wrongly identified on national television as belonging to an Islamic radical has faced harassment, and police are providing special protection.
After the report ran on Fox News on Aug. 7, p...
The Gasoline Crunch
08.25.2005 10:36 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
From the Center for American Progress.
Yesterday, with gas over $3 a gallon in many areas of the country, the Bush administration unveiled new fuel efficiency standards. The administration proposal squanders an opportunity to reduce demand for fuel -...
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