So, here’s the latest ad from the Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. It asks, if you believe that corporations are people, and you make a living by acquiring and dismembering corporations, what does that make you?
Category Archives: Politics
Twitter Revolutions, Reformation Style
So, a couple of weeks ago, the Economist ran an interesting article on Martin Luther and the Reformation, arguing that the social media of the day (inexpensive mass production of pamphlets) played a crucial role in fueling the spread of Luther’s ideas. It’s a fun read, full of interesting history, with parallels drawn to the Arab Spring revolutions throughout. It is also interesting how the tone of much of the discussion has not changed so much:
Sylvester Mazzolini defended the pope against Luther in his “Dialogue Against the Presumptuous Theses of Martin Luther”. He called Luther “a leper with a brain of brass and a nose of iron” and dismissed his arguments on the basis of papal infallibility. Luther, who refused to let any challenge go unanswered, took a mere two days to produce his own pamphlet in response, giving as good as he got. “I am sorry now that I despised Tetzel,” he wrote. “Ridiculous as he was, he was more acute than you. You cite no scripture. You give no reasons.”
Snap!
Also circulated at the time was this political cartoon on the origin of monks, created and circulated by the pro-Lutherans. Spoiler alert: they were crapped out by demons.
Over at The Renaissance Mathematicus, Thony Christie has an interesting follow-up post on the topic. He points out that the role of cheap mass production of pamphlets in driving the Reformation is academically well established. He also makes interesting points about the role of the new printing technology in spreading the astronomical ideas of Copernicus and Kepler, as these sort-of hitchhiked on astrological pamphlets.
Also, he calls me a sick warped bastard, but in a good way.
My recommendation: go read both!
Your "Santorum Surge" is finally here
So, if you’re a Republican presidential candidate and former US Senator from Pennsylvania, you may have been feeling a bit plugged up in the polls. You have been hovering irregularly in the low single digits, seemingly obstructed by a gang of competitors.
But, finally, those low polling numbers have been evacuated.
The most recent CNN/Time/ORC poll in Iowa found that Santorum has surged to 16%.
A Santorum Surge straight from God!
Congratulations, Rick!
Unrelated photo:
BTW, I didn’t even know that orcs did polls.
North Korea Party Rock
So, nearly two million of you have already watched this on youtube. The rest of you can watch it here.
Good-night, sweet, psychopathic, strange, little prince.
What if there were Chinese or Russian military bases in Texas
So, it turns out that Ron Paul’s new ad is pretty awesome. I feel pretty ambiguous about many of Paul’s positions, but this is one topic on which I think he is exactly right. Also, everything about the way this video is done, from the graphics, to the modulation of the audio, to the text itself, is just rock-tastic.
That’s the official Ron Paul video, which I think was just released. However, there is another version that was made and posted back in May. I don’t find it quite as compelling overall. The graphics are a little more inventive, but lack the frenetic energy of the new video. Also, the older one actually uses Ron Paul’s voice throughout, which lacks the cinematic, Orwellian overtones of the speaker in the new video.
Like I say, I don’t necessarily agree with Ron Paul on a lot of positions, but I am glad that he is out there making this argument. I wish more people in our government were making it.
No, dumbass, we’re not a high-tax country
So, this is not new information, or a new chart, but it’s new to me! This chart, or collection of charts, comes from the Center for American Progress from back in June. I would go on here about how the politicians have been lying, blah, blah, blah, but you already know that. Don’t you? Please tell me you already know that.
Mitt Romney in his own words
So, you may have heard about Mitt Romney’s first paid campaign ad, in which he quotes Obama as saying “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”
Of course, in context, what Obama actually said was this: “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.'”
Well, here’s an awesome video of Romney quotes whipped up by the folks at Think Progress, noting that this is Romney in his own words, by his own standards:
via The Atlantic Wire.
The first rule of plutocracy is . . .
So, a couple of weeks ago, Eleonora came up with this line, and she asked me to put together a poster to accompany it. Finally, yesterday, I had a chance to take a stab at it. Or, you know, spray it in the face at close range with weaponized capsaicin, as the kids are calling it these days.
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| Best URL for sharing: http://www.darwineatscake.com/?id=75 Permanent image URL for hotlinking or embedding: http://www.darwineatscake.com/img/comic/75.jpg If you have some desired use for this that would require a different format, or a higher resolution image, let me know. |
Katehi responds re: pepper spraying students
So, Chancellor Linda Katehi has released an open letter in response, presumably, to criticism in the wake of the UC Davis police brutality that resulted as a direct consequence of her orders.
If you really want to read the whole thing, you can find it here, but I don’t particularly recommend it, as it is the usual mishmash of bureaucratic double-speak and expressions of regret and sadness that are carefully worded so as to avoid admitting any blame.
She is calling for a task force, though, so, um, yay?
UC Davis Pepper Spraying and Call for Chancellor’s Resignation
So, I’m posting here the astounding 8-minute video of UC Davis police pepper spraying student protesters, and the crowd reaction afterwards. If you follow the Occupy movement at all, you’ve probably already seen it, but if not, watch the whole thing.
And keep in mind, these students are there protesting the police brutality that occurred at previous protests, where UC students were beaten with batons and hospitalized.
[UPDATE (via Mother Jones): Just FYI, the main pepper sprayer is Lieutenant John A. Pike, who received a salary of $110,243.12 in 2010.]
And here’s a shorter video (with the spraying, but without the crowd reaction) taken from a different angle.
Here are a few of the things that I take away from these videos:
- The police are being used to brutalize and intimidate protesters. Note that the cops went out of their way to spray protesters who were way off to the side, who were not actually blocking the path. This is about physically punishing people for dissent.
- A few of the police (here and elsewhere) seem to take an attitude towards inflicting pain on other people that is at best indifferent, and at worst psychopathic. The vast majority of the police, I think, are not like this, but nor do they seem to be doing anything to stop their colleagues from brutalizing the students.
- Peaceful, non-violent confrontation can work. It seems fairly clear in the first video that the protesters won the day. And they did it by taking the high road, while at the same time not backing down.
This morning, Nathan Brown, an Assistant Professor, posted this open letter calling for the resignation of Chancellor Linda Katehi. In the letter, he details the events captured in the video, as well as incidents of police brutality leading up to this particular protest. Here’s an excerpt describing the police dismantling of the tents on the UC David Quad:
Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.
What happened next?
Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.
The whole letter is well worth reading. And if you have any association with UC (e.g., as faculty, staff, student, or alum), add your voice.