 | Thoughts From Kansas |  Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| A new identity? | | It's odd, people are wrong on the internet, but somehow, I can't work myself up over it. Maybe it's because they're just talking in circles and making things up. Or perhaps my very identity has changed. Read the comments on this post... [..] Read complete article |  | Published 11-Jan-2012 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Stay classy, Cothran | | Martin Cothran ? sometimes contributor to the Disco. 'tute blog, staffer for the Kentucky affiliate of Focus on the Family, general-purpose bigot, purported logic teacher ? doesn't like Michael Shermer. Responding to an op-ed by Shermer, he writes:
Secularist atheists are all about having a "steely-eyed visage." ?The problem is that, while a few secularists like Harris can pul [..] Read complete article | | Published 04-Dec-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Too few people know that they know an atheist, redux | | Last April, I blogged a paper by Will Gervais, that showed you could increase people's trust of atheists by simply telling them about how prevalent atheists are in their community. As I said at the time, the result isn't surprising and I didn't think it had any bearing on the debates over New Atheism per se. There were those who disagreed, and insisted that the study validated New At [..] Read complete article | | Published 30-Nov-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| What's next for the 99% movement? | | This morning, OaklandBecks tweeted:
I just realized that this is the first morning since Oct 10 that there have been no #occupyoakland camps in Oakland.I'm not sure that's an entirely bad thing. The camps were an effective protest for a long time, but it may well be time for the movement to move on.
The first reason is that the camp in Oakland is becomin [..] Read complete article | | Published 21-Nov-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Why we strike | |
Sorting through the 320 photos I took at the Oakland general strike today will take some time, as will getting all my thoughts together for a blog post. Meanwhile, here's a mini-essay I posted on twitter.
Each point was scheduled to go up at half-hour intervals, starting at 8 am, running through 8:30 pm. I also tweeted from my phone throughout the day to give a sense of the atmosph [..] Read complete article | | Published 03-Nov-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Strike | |
Tomorrow, November 2, will be a general strike in Oakland. The move was approved nearly unanimously by the roughly 1600 people voting at last week's Occupy Oakland general assembly, held the night after police from Oakland and several surrounding areas attacked nonviolent protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbags, flashbang grenades, and nightsticks.
The plan is to gather at 9 [..] Read complete article | | Published 02-Nov-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| A report from yesterday's protests | | We've discussed yesterday's peaceful protest on behalf of Occupy Oakland, and the violent police response that dispersed that protest, but I want to quote at length from zunguzungu's excellent report:
You might find it a bit confusing trying to keep track of the different times the Oakland Police department used tear gas on peaceful protesters yesterday. In the morning, they ra [..] Read complete article | | Published 26-Oct-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| (Re)Occupy Oakland | | This morning (as I mentioned) police from Oakland and 15 other local law enforcement agencies sacked and pillaged the Occupy Oakland camp in downtown Oakland. Oakland's mayor was in Washington, DC at the time, trying to secure funding for the Port of Oakland, but insisted that the raid was necessary because of public safety concerns.
This evening, protesters gathered to object to this [..] Read complete article | | Published 26-Oct-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| (Re)Occupy Oakland | | This morning (as I mentioned) police from Oakland and 15 other local law enforcement agencies sacked and pillaged the Occupy Oakland camp in downtown Oakland. Oakland's mayor was in Washington, DC at the time, trying to secure funding for the Port of Oakland, but insisted that the raid was necessary because of public safety concerns.
This evening, protesters gathered to object to this [..] Read complete article | | Published 26-Oct-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
Read 2 times |
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| (Re)Occupy Oakland | | This morning (as I mentioned) police from Oakland and 15 other local law enforcement agencies sacked and pillaged the Occupy Oakland camp in downtown Oakland. Oakland's mayor was in Washington, DC at the time, trying to secure funding for the Port of Oakland, but insisted that the raid was necessary because of public safety concerns.
This evening, protesters gathered to object to this [..] Read complete article | | Published 26-Oct-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
Read 2 times |
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Occupy Oakland | | Like a lot of folks, my first reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests ? which began on September 17th, over a month ago ? was dubious. While I agree [..] Read complete article | | Published 25-Oct-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Occupy Oakland | | Like a lot of folks, my first reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests ? which began on September 17th, over a month ago ? was dubious. While I agree [..] Read complete article | | Published 25-Oct-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
Read 2 times |
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| The Lesser Depression and its environmental silver lining | | Modeled Behavior tells A Tale of Two Recessions, noting a rather shocking statistic:
as of the last few years the auto fleet in the United States has begun to shrink. That is, we are scrapping cars at a faster rate than we are producing them.
Unless something changes in the next 18 months, our scrappage rate will begin to exceed new cars sales by the millions of unit [..] Read complete article | | Published 05-Oct-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Being a dick shouldn't be a winning election strategy | | Kevin Drum takes up a repeated theme: GOP to Country: Drop Dead:
We've talked before about the Republican genius for taking advantage of political norms that have traditionally been followed by both parties but have never been actual rules. This has produced a growing list of partisan ambushes like mid-decade redistricting, turning the Senate into a 60-vote body, holding the d [..] Read complete article | | Published 21-Sep-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| On science and liberalism | | John Derbyshire thinks there's a tension between liberalism and science:
liberal scientists, which is to say most scientists?are stuck in an uncomfortable philosophical fork.
Liberalism is optimistic. It is a doctrine of progress and improvement. (Why do you think they call themselves ?progressives??) In this, liberalism has had the support of science, which has made so muc [..] Read complete article | | Published 24-Aug-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Tripoli falls to rebels; Benghazi, capitol of a free Libya, celebrates | | Early last month, I quoted a dispatch from a checkpoint between rebel-controlled Libya and Qaddafi's Tripoli:
The refugees say that Tripoli?s rebels defiantly paint their flags on anything that will spread their message, including pigeons, cats and balloons.Today, the rebel flags are flying from buildings across the city, and rumors of Col. Qaddafi's death or fligh [..] Read complete article | | Published 21-Aug-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Firing bad teachers doesn't create good teachers | | Sara Mead writes at Ed Week about teacher legislation, especially new policies allowing "ineffective" teachers to be canned, or at least to be laid off first:
But what about teachers who are rated "Needs Improvement" [the second lowest category] --but never actually improve? Under many of these laws, a teacher could remain in the "needs improvement" category for his or her ent [..] Read complete article | | Published 16-Aug-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Brad Delong sums up modern politics | | Delong, a former Clinton economist and current econ professor at UC Berkeley, writes:
You Know, I Arrived in Washington in 1993 to Work for Lloyd Bentsen's Treasury as Part of the Sane Technocratic Bipartisan Center...
And it took me only two months--two months!--to conclude that America's best hope for sane technocratic governance required the elimination of the Repub [..] Read complete article | | Published 16-Aug-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Why it's hard to make TV about regular folks | | ThinkProgress's culture blogger Alyssa Rosenberg explores The Myths And Challenges Of Making Working Class Television, writing that the main challenge is:
being working poor isn?t something that you solve once and it?s done.There are plenty of movies that do this, because they can have one crisis and overcome that, and the story's over. In TV, you have to have th [..] Read complete article | | Published 16-Jul-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Poetry from the front lines | | Kareem Fahim reports from a rebel checkpoint outside of Tripoli:
The people fleeing Tripoli on Thursday said that several neighborhoods filled with the sound of gunfire every night. At checkpoints throughout the capital, they said, paramilitaries from the dreaded People?s Guard carried long lists of wanted men. The gas lines were five days long.
The refugees say that T [..] Read complete article | | Published 06-Jul-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| On the divided left | | Sir Charles says he's glad he didn't come to Netroots Nation this year. Reading about a panel on LGBT rights and immigration, he sees too many people claiming the President failed, rather than realism about the political system's current state:
It seems pretty clear to me that Obama is moving toward a pro-marriage equality stance. In the meantime, though, he has done more th [..] Read complete article | | Published 20-Jun-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Science and science policy in unexpected places | | I'm super-excited for the panel I'm organizing at this year's Netroots Nation conference. As you may know, Netroots Nation is an annual gathering of progressive bloggers, policy wonks, policymakers, activists, and groupies. It's an amazing event, featuring senior officials in the Democratic party, and fascinating discussions of the movement's future, not to mention serious partying.
T [..] Read complete article | | Published 07-Jun-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Not the best spokesmen | | I'm incredibly proud of my Cubbies, who are taping a video for the Dan Savage-organized video project targeting anti-LGBT bullying:
The Chicago Cubs will become only the second team in professional sports to produce an "It Gets Better" video, taking a stand against anti-gay bullying and homophobia, supported and led by Cubs owner Laura Ricketts -- who, along with Mr. Cub, Erni [..] Read complete article | | Published 06-Jun-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| How it feels to go without hijab | | Nadia El-Awady, who you'll recall as a science writer in Egypt who helped chronicle the revolution from Tahrir Square (she's also organizing this year's World Conference of Science Journalists in Doha), tried an experiment:
I experimented last week. I took off my hijab - the headscarf many Muslim women wear to cover their hair.
I have been wearing a headscarf when I le [..] Read complete article | | Published 31-May-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Sexism survived the rapture | | I mentioned before that last weekend I was going to a post-Rapture party/conference thrown by local atheists, and I did, and it had its definite moments. I wasn't there on Rapture day itself (I was at Maker Faire then), but the crowd the following Sunday was undiminished, and the talks were generally good (a low point for me was Greta Christina's New Atheist rant about the wonders of getting a [..] Read complete article | | Published 24-May-2011 by Thoughts in policy and politics
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