Sometimes PhD Comics is whimsical and hilarious.  At other times, it can be educational and profound.

This is one of the latter.  As a cancer researcher myself, I have to say, it's the exact truth of the matter.  I'll just add this:  while it appears that after decades of research and billions of dollars spent there is little to show for all the ( Read more... )

One little comment about the whole torture debate.  As much as the liberals (and many conservatives) are right about torture being immoral, unethical, un-American and all kinds of bad, there's one aspect of the matter I think they're being disingenuous about.  And that has to do with torture being ineffective as a means of acquiring intelligence.

I' ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Obama did something weird last week.  He released the infamous torture memos, which painted the Bush administration's sick, bureaucratic approach to torture in lurid detail.  The memos prove beyond any reasonable doubt just how bad it got, just how awful the torture was, just how keen the administration was to retroactively (and proactively) cover ( Read more... )

So, Obama goes to South America and shakes Hugo Chavez's hand.  Predictably, the GOP (this time in the face of Sen. John Ensign of Nevada) shits a brick.  You see, any kind of behavior other than implacable hostility is absolutely unacceptable when the President of the US is dealing with unfriendly foreign leaders.  The very act of not whacking ( Read more... )

"Eight police officers serving with Scotland's largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms, it has emerged." - BBC News

Awesome.

Yeah, I know, I'm a madman with posting today.  This next quote came out of a conversation on how Christmas was frowned upon (and outright banned on some occasions) by the Puritans because back in the day it was an excuse for lots and lots of drinking, sex and debauchery.  Whilst seeking to prove my rash words, I came across this gem:

"The ( Read more... )

"People should remember that while they have the right to their opinion, they are not entitled to be taken seriously." - Bruce Bartlett, formerly of the Bush Treasury Department making a gentle point about the idiocy of the "Tea Party revolt".

I've been struggling to come up with a brief and eloquent rejoinder to those who spout idiotic invective ( Read more... )

Two interesting items from Steve Benen's blog:

* In New York's 20th, Democrat Scott Murphy now leads Republican Jim Tedisco by 264 votes. In the face of increasingly likely defeat, Republicans are now eyeing the courts, and Tedisco's lawyers yesterday asked a state court to declare him the winner, despite having fewer votes.

* Former Sen. Norm ( Read more... )

So, apparently piracy is the hot new national security threat these days, and Ron Paul knows what to do about it: send out a bunch of privateers with letters of marque.  We're supposed to believe that the mere idea of American yachts full of gun-happy enthusiasts on the prowl off the coast of Somalia would strike fear in the hearts of the no-good ( Read more... )