From “Mandate” to “Mess”

Guest post by Ed Stephan Bush’s approval ratings have been dropping fairly steadily ever since 9/11. They were in the mid-50s during his first half year in office, then shot up to the high 80s with 9/11 (in spite of his “My Pet Goat” performance). They returned to the 50s by March 2003, then spiked […]

Bushism is a sect; Bushites are nuts

Guest post by Ed Stephan Many of us here have said that the “uniter not a divider” split our families into hostile, hardly-speak-to-each-other pro-Bush and anti-Bush factions. I grew up in a New Deal household; my twin sister and I are still there in spirit, but my younger brother and sister are as rabid a […]

Historical US Mortality Rates

Guest post by Ed Stephan Last Thursday we here at TCR began some discussion of possible (probable?) future pandemics. In one comment I mentioned that the U.S. long-term mortality rates are represented by a gradually declining straight line, reflecting slight improvements in mortality throughout the 20th century. I couldn’t add the graph to that comment, […]

Do We Really Care About Deaths?

Guest post by Ed Stephan When 3,030 of our people were killed in attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, we retaliated with war against Afghanistan and a peculiar “War on Terror” which, somehow, morphed into an invasion and attempted conquest of Iraq (planned back in 1997 by Cheney and his neo-cons), at a […]

Is it time to take on intelligent design?

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings We’ll get to that, but let’s begin with John McCain: This isn’t much of a surprise, but it looks like the maverick senator from Arizona is already on the pre-campaign trail in preparation for a run at the White House in 2008. Now, don’t hate me because I’ve always […]

Not Thinking is Bad for You

Guest Post by Zoe Kentucky Great. I am so screwed. Scientists have scanned the brains of young people when they are doing, well, nothing, and they found that a region active during this daydreaming state is the one hard-hit by the scourge of old age: Alzheimer’s. “We never expected to see this,” said Randy L. […]

Running on Empty

Guest Post by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver Here’s another dark cloud that’s no longer out on the horizon, but just a few miles away, close enough to smell the rain and both hear and see the lightning simultaneously, as the first stinging droplets hit your face in the rising wind. I’ll start by admitting that, when […]

I’m Tired of Being Patient

Guest Post by Zoe Kentucky The LA Times has a nice play-by-play of the evolving Wilson/Plame/Libby/Rove scandal. Yeah, it’s very nice of them to remind us all why this scandal still matters, but frankly I’m getting a little tired of waiting. When is Fitzgerald going to make his move? When are we going to know […]

The Coming Great Pandemic

Guest Post by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver As a child of the Fifties, I was acutely aware of the flu, since my mother was certain to march me over to Dr. Scott’s office around Halloween to get that sharp prick in my arm as he gave me a flu shot. Back then, it was entirely possible […]

Why Bush is good for Liberal Canada

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings Hello, everyone. It’s an honour (Canadian spelling, sorry) to be guest blogging here at The Carpetbagger Report, one of my favourite spots in the blogosphere. I write a liberal-moderate blog on politics, philosophy, and culture called The Reaction. I’m based in Toronto, where I’m doing my Ph.D. in political […]