When the West first came in contact with China, the British ambassador Macartney (no relation that I know of to the bass-playing Liverpudlian) refused to kowtow to the Emperor of China. Though the Emperor considered Britain just another potential tributary state, Macartney saw the situation quite differently. A few years later, China was carved up […]
Continue reading →Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking on Face the Nation, had some hard words for Russia on the situation in Crimea and Ukraine: You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped up pre-text. Hmmm. Kind of like the U.S. has done over and […]
Continue reading →Yesterday, which happened to be my ninth wedding anniversary, marked the end of the life of Fred Phelps. Fred Phelps was the founder and patriarch of Westboro Baptist Church. This “church,” a tiny group with a huge voice, was known for picketing the funerals of our soldiers with their “God Hates Fags” message. They represent all […]
Continue reading →The science world was rocked by the recent news that gravitational waves, the ripples in space time predicted by the Big Bang theory, have in fact been detected by scientists: What’s more, researchers discovered direct evidence for the first time of what Albert Einstein predicted in his general theory of relativity: Gravitational waves. These […]
Continue reading →Interesting story: Bill Yosses, the former executive pastry chef at the White House who was hired by Laura Bush in 2007, has decided to resign because, apparently, he can’t take Michelle Obama anymore … or at least, he can’t stand her hare-brained health food schemes anymore. How hilarious is that? This extremely, openly gay dude […]
Continue reading →There was once a rumor going around that Bill Gates stole most of his ideas for the original Windows. I never thought that was true. I didn’t want to believe it. But now he’s going around campaigning for Common Core, and I’m starting to think maybe he is an incompetent moron. It does amaze me […]
Continue reading →“What is it like to be the last black president?” That was probably the best line in a moderately funny faux interview between Zach Galifianakis and President Obama that was featured on Funny or Die’s Between Two Ferns. Between Two Ferns, the mock interview web show created and hosted by Galifianakis, is an awkward, sometimes […]
Continue reading →The guy that many people believe will be Barack Obama’s successor, Senator Cory Booker (D–New Jersey), said from the Congressional floor (during a Congressional hearing about climate change, of course) that his first and only driving trip was from New Jersey … to Hawaii. His first vehicle was apparently the Magic School Bus, or perhaps […]
Continue reading →Curious fact: in 2012, four years after Obama took office the first time, the states that had the absolute highest rates of income inequality voted for Obama (again). Now, before you commit a fallacy of causation, let me remind you that correlation and causation are two different things. So, the fact that states with high […]
Continue reading →An interesting article in the Washington Examiner pointed out that more than 700 new species are likely to be added to the ESA (Ecological Society of America) Endangered Species List. According to the article, the data upon which these decisions is made is often not disclosed to the public (for reasons I can’t understand). Nonetheless, […]
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