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Jeffrey Shallit
Recurrent thoughts about mathematics, science, politics, music, religion, and
Recurrent thoughts about mathematics, science, politics, music, religion, and
Recurrent thoughts about mathematics, science, politics, music, religion, and
Recurrent thoughts about ....
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Jeffrey Shallit
American mathematician, professor of computer science at a major Canadian university, & skeptic.
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18 comments:
I interpret this as a sign that politics in the UK is still a little healthier than that in the USA. It's not yet socially acceptable for a politician to string that many lies together here.
Oh, one more thing. If you ever wish to make a movie about him, you will be getting in touch with Kevin Spacey, right?
I wrote Huckabee off as a complete moron after his response in the presidential debate to the question of whether or not he believes in evolution,
"I'm running for president, not 8th grade biology teacher."
Call me an elitist, but I want my president to be able to pass an 8th grade biology class.
There are serious problems with Huckabee. But the fact that his son is a bad person isn't terribly relevant to much of anything.
Joshua:
I think you missed the point.
Huckabee's a liar because of the phony claims he made about Obama that were debunked in the article I linked to.
And he's a hypocrite because he implied Obama was morally deficient because his upcoming didn't include the Boy Scouts, while Huckabee's own son was in the boy scouts and nevertheless turned out morally deficient.
Shallit,
And Obama's a hypocrite because he was an ACORN lawyer, began his political career with a fundraiser in a terrorist's (Bill Ayers') living room, cut his political teeth in the most corrupt political machine in the country (Daley's Chicago machine), attended an insane bigot's church for 20 years and reveres the wacked preacher as his spiritual mentor, and kept close financial ties to convicted felon Tony Rezko.
Oh, and Huckabee's son mistreated a dog.
By the way, Huckabee was exactly right about out-of-wedlock births. It is a matter of fact that out of wedlock birth is one of the strongest predictors of difficulty in life (drug use, crime, etc)
You're a jerk, Shallit.
And being an ACORN lawyer makes one a hypocrite how?
Attending a bigot's church makes one a hypocrite how?
Keeping "ties" to a convicted felon makes one a hypocrite how?
You're full of right-wing rage, anonymous, but you're not making much of a coherent argument.
Besides, why do you think I approve of Obama's church? There's lots of things I criticize about Obama, too.
Obama's a hypocrite because he ran for president as a reformer, a symbol of hope and change, a leader who would bring integrity and responsibility to government. Yet he was a life-long practitioner of the most vile far-left and corrupt politics. The media covered for him, and left wing dupes like you bought it wholesale.
By the way, you didn't explain why you believe that Huckabee's pointing out the well-documented risks of out of wedlock parenthood was wrong.
If you weren't duped by Obama, please direct me to all of your posts criticizing him.
Yet he was a life-long practitioner of the most vile far-left and corrupt politics.
That's just rhetoric. Yes, I know for you "far-left" is "vile", but in fact Obama is a centrist (as can be seen, for example, in his support of Bush's Patriot Act) and you haven't supported this claim with a single example of what makes you froth at the mouth.
By the way, you didn't explain why you believe that Huckabee's pointing out the well-documented risks of out of wedlock parenthood was wrong.
Umm, the subject of my posting and the article has little to do with "out of wedlock parenting". But even if it did, surely the risk is not "out of wedlock parenting", but the poverty and low education levels that accompany it, not the "out of wedlock parenting" itself. Divorce is easy these days, so marriage is not much of a commitment.
Oh, and to answer your last question, you can start here.
But I won't be holding my breath waiting for an apology and retraction from you that I know won't come.
Maybe it was a ticking time bomb situation, and the stray dog had crucial information that would save American Lives. Libs didn't think of that, did they?
Also, the Bible says that Christians should take dominion over animals (not to mention everything and everyone else). So what's the big deal?
In fairness, we ought to recognize the relatively progressive nature of this act of violence/justice. Thirty years earlier, it would have been a stray black person hanging from a tree with a slit throat. The substitution of a stray dog represents a huge improvement in moral clarity.
quoting James Cranch: "If you ever wish to make a movie about him, you will be getting in touch with Kevin Spacey, right?"
Randy Quaid is a better fit on looks and ability to portray a hapless mental misfit.
Anon: Oh, and Huckabee's son mistreated a dog.
"Mistreated" = captured it, hanged it by the neck, slit its throat and stoned it to death.
To breezily dismiss this sort of pathological violence is morally degenerate.
James Cranch, I suspect that Murdoch has not directed his full efforts toward shifting the debate in the U.K. as he has in the U.S.
In the U.S., it's pretty clear that Fox News is nothing more than a propaganda outlet for the GOP. In the U.K., there does not seem to be such a clear right-wing party to support. The Conservative Party is too far to the left (being in coalition with the Liberal Dems and generally supportive of taxation, civil unions and other "far left" policies) and the more conservative British National Party is virtually a no-show. Perhaps the parliamentary system itself works against political activism like Fox.
However, the continued presence of Beck on U.K. stations, despite the complete lack of advertisers from 9 Feb 2010 to 7 Feb 2011, speaks to Murdoch's determination to break U.K. politics. Defunding of the BBC will surely work in his favor, even if we assume that he did not have any behind-the-scenes role in that decision.
President Obama is a centrist because he supports the USA PATRIOT Act? Abrogating Americans' Fourth Amendment freedoms doesn't seem very "centrist" to me. President Obama has also ordered the extrajudicial execution of Anwar al-Awlaki. Is it "centrist" for a government to murder its own citizens?
Anonymous:
Supporting the Patriot Act is more popular on the Right than on the Left - look at the voting record.
So, yes, I do think it shows Obama is more centrist than Anonymous claimed.
But there's lots of other evidence, if that doesn't convince you. Take his position on the fiscal stimulus; his hiring Alan Simpson to serve on the deficit redution commission; his support of cap-and-trade (a Republican idea); etc.
Still waiting for that apology, by the way.
"And he's a hypocrite because he implied Obama was morally deficient because his upcoming didn't include the Boy Scouts, while Huckabee's own son was in the boy scouts and nevertheless turned out morally deficient."
As a mathematician of sorts I would have thought you understood the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions.
Anonymous:
Take it up with Huckabee -- he's the one implying the iff. At least, that's how I read his comments. But expecting rigor in the implications of a politicians is probably foolhardy.
Sorry to quibble over definitions; if you define "centrist" as taking right-wing reactionary positions on certain issues, such as the so-called Patriot Act, and taking moderately left-wing positions on other issues, such as extending parents' health insurance coverage to their adult children up to age 26, then yes, I suppose President Obama is a centrist. In his defense, Obama must function under various institutional constraints, which for example preclude a halfway decent healthcare system such as exists in Canada and pretty much every other industrialized country outside the U.S.
On economic policy, as your examples aptly suggest, Obama is quite conservative, and has been roundly criticized for it by Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, et al. Obama surely has the support of much of the business community, which must be terrified by the prospect of the Republican House of Representatives destroying the economy with their lunatic proposals, such as threatening not to raise the U.S. debt ceiling (as Ben Bernanke sternly warned against).
Returning to the original topic: Huckabee's outrageous racist comments seeking to portray President Obama as some sort of African savage are far too contemptible to merit a reply. It's part of the long-standing Republican strategy to win the votes of racists in the Deep South who are stupid enough to vote against their own economic interests.
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