Well, I can’t tell you everything just yet. I can say I’ve joined another blog collective and you’ll be able to read it soon. This group has a focus on all things Albuquerque, with a variety of perspectives and styles. I’ll be looking at local media with a jaded eye. I hope you’ll like it. I’ll tell you more in a few weeks. If you can’t wait, write me. mjh
Here’s what I wrote over there this week…
Continue reading Pssst. Wanna know a secret?
I am shocked, absolutely shocked, to discover that college faculties are overwhelmingly liberal, according to an overwhelmingly conservative study. How can it be that people who devote their lives to studying and teaching would also conspire to exclude that vast collective of conservative scholars?
To become a college professor, you must be prepared to work for years without profit. Sure, professors earn big bucks in the end (I almost made $20K before my pay was cut 3 times in 2 years), but they spend years studying and living off loans and grants. Here’s a free life-altering tip: if you want to get rich, quick or otherwise, don’t become a teacher.
Hmmm. Could there be a connection? Could it be that liberals don’t drive conservatives away from academia, but that corporations draw conservatives away instead? Could it be that someone who pursues personal profit has less interest in pursuing knowledge for its own sake? Should we conduct a survey of CEOs earning more than $10 million per year? Will we be shocked by the results?
Oh, so many ironies. Soon conservatives will be demanding quotas — 51% of your faculty must be conservative — while denying them for any other disadvantaged classes. Soon conservatives will be making the same argument Chairman Mao made, that intellectuals need to toil in the fields to understand the working class — close the universities, they do us no good!
Oh, those Rightwing Whiners, those Radical Handwringers. While we enjoy a good laugh over this nearly self-mocking “problem,” please note the deadly serious undercurrent. This is the fascist end-game, to root out the evil of liberalism wherever they find it. Having conquered commerce and the government, the Radical Right turns to the last small haven for people who think differently. These are the most dangerous liberals who, just like gays, seek to convert children from the one true way. From the womb to no-end-to-life-support, Our Leaders will decide what’s OK to teach, to think, and to say. Your kind can retreat to Manhattan and San Francisco, but liberals will no longer be allowed to gather in groups where they constitute more than 49% of the mob. Majority Rules! Minority Vanishes!
By the way, that same survey had a couple of other tidbits. First, women are grossly underrepresented. So, I question the true liberalism of campuses that can’t correct such a long-standing problem. Second, while just 15% surveyed called themselves conservative, only 11% called themselves Republican. Nearly one in three well-educated conservatives refuses to vote Republican. mjh
This issue flared up locally last year.
Technology News: Health : New Hope for Cat Allergy Sufferers
Scientists have made a breakthrough in efforts to prevent allergies caused by cats, it has emerged.
They have developed a protein [gamma Feline domesticus (GFD)] that could block the allergic response — and the technique could be adapted to other situations such as food allergies.
In the research, reported in the April issue of Nature Medicine, they found that mice treated with a newly developed part-cat, part-human protein did not develop an allergic reaction.
Andrew Saxon, of the University of California in Los Angeles, said in The Guardian newspaper that the technique could be extended to develop cures for potentially deadly allergies to food such as nuts.
The allergic attacks occur when the immune system mistakes cat or pollen allergens for germs, producing large amounts of an antibody which triggers the release of a chemical called histamine. This causes symptoms such as inflammation, rashes and swelling.
Dr. Saxon fused the cat allergen with a human protein that tends to slow down the immune system. The cat part causes the immune system to produce the antibody — but the human part calms the reaction, resetting the immune system.
His cure is still several years — and many clinical trials — away from becoming a mass market treatment, The Guardian noted.
Did you see that: “part-cat, part-human protein.” Yup, Dr. Moreau is hard at work fusing human DNA with whatever strikes his fancy. This tinkering is all for the good of mankind, of course. How many generations will pass before we discover we’ve pissed in the gene pool just enough to really fuck it up? What happens then — a final clash between the “Better Than Humans” and the “Purity or Death” crowds?
I’m allergic to cats. I have two cats. I’m not about to blend my DNA with theirs. mjh
The show went fairly well as judged by many; the hour flew by. It was fun — nice bunch of folks, lively, bright and friendly. Thanks to those of you who listened, those who called in, and to the many folks behind the scenes, like Skip, Angela, Alicia, Kara, et.al..
johnny_mango wins for being the first to blog after our time on the Real Side radio show. He’s got pix & thoughts.
I’m catching up here with my own pix: radio.
I do have a thought I couldn’t get out during air time. Jim opened with the APD evidence scandal. APD dismisses the hub-bub, calling it political. Jim called this “the Guilty Man’s Defense” (ignoring our tradition of innocence until proven guilty). Jim didn’t mention that’s the same defense employed by Tom “The Hammer” Delay (“I am the federal government.“) in brushing aside his own scandals, while crushing the House Ethics Committee under his bloody thumb. mjh
If you’re new to this, let me point out a couple of things. Blogs are organized in reverse chronological order — newest first, oldest last. You will see things that refer to older matters you may not have seen yet. In a sense, you could start your first visit to a blog at the bottom of the page and read up. Some blogs start over at the first of the month, so you should look for references to “archives.” Most blogs also have categories, so if you have a specific area of interest, look for those.
Links are what make the Web the Web, but they pose an interesting challenge. If you follow each link as you encounter it, you’ll never get to the bottom of the blog. Indeed, you might never get back to that blog. You might read through once for content and then pass through again to follow links. Or, what I do is open those links in separate windows as I encounter them, staying with the blog. When I’m done, all those links are open and waiting. In case you’re not familiar with this, if you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can hold the shift key down as you click on a link. Other browsers may use the Control key instead. All of them let you click the right mouse button (Mac: cmd + click) for a menu that includes Open in new window or tab.
Studies indicate people skim Web pages in ways they don’t skim other print. So, you’re not even going to see these words, are you? Find a few blogs to visit a few times over a week — get a sense of how much work it is to keep up with the blog and how much it is worth it. The best blogs are worth your time.
Finally, bloggers want to hear from you. We do this to open discussions; we want to know our efforts are worthwhile. mjh
Senate votes for Arctic drilling
“How high do gas prices have to get, and how over-a-barrel does OPEC have to get us, before we realize what the American people have realized a long time ago: that we have an energy crisis here in America today,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
Thune was one of four Republicans elected to the Senate in November who favor drilling in ANWR; each replaced a Democrat opposed to opening the refuge to exploration.
Do you know when the term “energy crises” was first used? It was in the early 1970’s when Dick Nixon honored the White House. OPEC tightened the spigot and prices skyrocketed above 50 cents (yes, .50!) for the first time in anyone’s lifetime (in the US — it was 4 times more expensive in Europe already). Dazed drivers waited in line for hours, oblivious to the irony of burning gas waiting to buy gas. Gas stations rationed gas, limiting you to so many gallons or dollars. You couldn’t buy gas every day — the last digit of your license determined which day you could buy. I’m not talking about the Great Depression or the Great War, kids — there was real panic in the air. It’s all true; I was there. So were Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney; Duhbya was drunk (rude, I admit, but the truth).
We really learned nothing from that national shock 30+ years ago. OPEC learned to squeeze less harshly, fearing that if they turned the screws too tight we might eventually kick our jones (Opec considers second output hike). At least someone has faith in our intelligence.
Now, people argue we can drill ourselves out of this crisis. We cannot and we will not. We’ll just keep paying the dealer until we’ve used up all the oil in the world. That should take 50 years. Worried about Social Security? Don’t be — you’ll be burning your check for heat. mjh
No, seriously, listen to four of us on Saturday, when “progressive” Republican, While the Radical Right Arrests Them Both” href=”http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/000743.htm”>Jim Scarantino, launches his brand new local talk radio show by having as guests the outrageous Pika Brittlebush (yes, from the BK commercial!), the playful poet Johnny_Mango and the simply outraged Mark Justice Hinton (he’ll be the crazed-looking one). Four Bloggers in Search of a Playwright. We’ll talk a bit about blogging, including how-to’s, and how we all came to the blogosphere. We’ll be answering phone calls from listeners — please, please! Remember, it’s easier to write than to do, and easier to listen than to read. Take it easy with us. Come see if it only takes one “progressive” Republican to outwit 3 unrepentant liberals and save the Republic! All the fun of poking a caged bear with a sharp stick with none of the environmental impact. mjh
The Real Side
KAGM 106.3 FM
11am to 12 noon
Sat, 3/19/05
Registered liberal Martin Heinrich says of Jim Scarantino, fellow WWF fan, “he’ll tear anyone apart whose ideology is stronger than their ideas. In other words chuck the party line crap and intelligently defend what you believe in.” These guys eat at BK every week after their testosterone treatments.
Updated 3/18/05
rebecca blood :: weblogs: a history and perspective
In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997).
Update 3/19/05