Month: May 2011

More difficult than it sounds.

Daniel Larison is shorting Pawlenty stock:

Pawlenty’s candidacy doesn’t have any obvious rationale. In fact, the former Minnesota governor has trouble coming up with a reason why he is running at all. He doesn’t unnerve any major constituency in the party in the way that Huntsman does and Daniels did, but he isn’t that closely identified with any of them. He inspires neither intense loyalty nor especially strong dislike. Pawlenty is a compromise candidate in a party that is largely tired of having to settle for what they can get.

Realtime sound visualisation made with custom software "Partitura". Partitura is a custom software to generate realtime graphics aimed at visualising sound. The term “Partitura” (score) implies a connection with music, and this metaphor is the main focus of the project. Partitura aims to create a new system for translating sound into visual forms.

Ian Murphy, the prankster who called Scott Walker claiming to be David Koch and the Green candidate in NY-26, volunteered for his Republican opponent's campaign:

“Hi, sir, my name’s Steve and I’m a volunteer for the Jane Corwin campaign–”

“Jesus!” a guy screams at me. “You know, I was thinking about voting for Corwin, but this is too much!

You people have called me a dozen times in the last two days! I am sick of it!”

“But Jane Corwin wants to rule over you with an iron fist,” I calmly relay. “Don’t you crave strong leadership?”

(Hat tip: Weigel)

Minneapolis, Minnesota, 5.05 pm, "Post tornado".

P.J. Crowley wants us to pull out on schedule:

The broad policy goal is to build the same kind of relationship with Iraq that we have with other countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Jordan. Diplomats should take the lead, continuing efforts to strengthen Iraqi government, security, and political capabilities. This will require billions in foreign assistance for several more years. At the same time, the Obama administration should continue to push Iraq’s neighbors to resume normal relations with Iraq.

Rather than retaining tens of thousands of troops at permanent bases, at great expense, the military can rotate units into Iraq for regular training exercises. The United States did this routinely in the region while containing Iraq and Iran prior to 2003.

Romney advisers say that Palin entering the race would help their man:

Bachmann would have the same effect, the advisers said. Either of them “gives Romney a bogeyman: ‘Stop this crazy woman.’”

So Romney's advisers think Palin is crazy? Now they tell us. Allahpundit decodes the spin:

In other words, Palin’s entry would transform a race between Romney and Not Romney into a race between Palin and Not Palin. And since being Mitt Romney is a poor position to be in these days, he’d much rather be Not Palin. I get the logic, I just don’t see why they think establishment Republicans would rally around Mitt instead of around Pawlenty.

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron play table tennis at Globe Academy on May 24, 2011 in London, England. Obama and his wife Michelle are in the UK for a two-day State Visit at the invitation of HM Queen Elizabeth II. During the trip they will attend a state banquet at Buckingham Palace and the President will address both houses of parliament at Westminster Hall. By Paul Hackett – WPA Pool/Getty Images.

The former governor vetoed a bill that would have legalized cannabis for terminally ill patients. Scott Morgan notes:

If nothing else, Pawlenty can at least be remembered as having taken a bold stand for what he believed in, which in this case was the right to imprison people with months to live. It's a sickening position to take, but at least he did it for a legitimate reason (some cops told him to). Ok, this is hard to spin, actually.

It's important to understand what freedom means for some on the authoritarian right.

Adam Frank connects the two:

The ability to successfully predict the behavior of the natural world is one reason we accord science such high status. From predicting the date of eclipses to anticipating the trajectory of a disease, science does what no other field of human activity has managed — it gives us a window into time. It allows us to see though time and through the duration we must endure to gain some measured certainty on the succession of future events. Harold Camping thought he had access to the same capacities.

The 89-year-old retired civil engineer who built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire to publicize his apocalyptic predictions was wrong. The spectacular failure of his predictions highlights what is right with science and what is wrong with using religion as a gateway to understanding the natural world.