Reviewed for LibraryThing's Early Reviewers:

The tension between science and society has grown louder (along with everything else) in the Information Age. For those who like to back up their ideas instead of just screaming them at perceived enemies, Jonathan D. Moreno has written The Body Politic. He begins with a concise summary and history of ( Read more... )

In all the furor over Arizona's new immigration law, it seems to me that there is a simple way for the state to prove that the law isn't racist in intent ( Read more... )

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

My take on the eternal debate over Metal Machine Music is that it is both an elaborate prank designed to get its author out of his recording contract, and a brilliant piece of art. Lou Reed, creative genius/asshole that he is, could pull off that mean feat, sure. I figure it was an idea he'd had and played ( Read more... )

My three-year-old niece told me a joke the other day.

Ellie: Knock, knock!

Me: Who's there?

Ellie: Cow!

Me: Cow who?

Ellie: BANANA!

Well, she thought it was the funniest thing ever, and laughter, especially that of children, is contagious, so I was forced to agree.

I'm no religious scholar, so I'll just have to take Pat Robertson's word for it: God is punishing Haiti ( Read more... )

Mark McGwire finally admitted what we all knew: he used steroids. But he wants us to know that he's just a victim. He wishes he didn't play during the Steroid Era, He took steroids for health reasons, they didn't improve his performance (which came from God); admitting what he did was the hardest thing for him. It's the lawyers' fault he wouldn ( Read more... )

Excursion continues to find Noah's ArkReally? So they've already found it? Obviously, it should read "Excursion to find Noah's Ark continues," or "Paid vacation for Liberty employee to continue." I wonder how may people in Falwellandia will skim or skip the article and believe that their local paper reported that the ark is real and has been ( Read more... )

The potential long-term effects of head injuries in football have been in news a lot of late. The NFL is moving forward to change its multi-billion dollar violence-based buiness to protect its employees. It's even conducting a study “expected to be published in several years,” if they can find someone to complete it, that will be the definitive ( Read more... )

In response to a post about Texas' ban on same-sex marriage at Hemant Mehta's Friendly Atheist blog, a commenter called Vas said “Maybe next Texas will decide that gay people are only 3/5ths of a person, or not even human.” That set the wheels in my head to spinning ( Read more... )

Why did they bother to celebrate on the field? The fix was in; the fix is always in. MLB is designed so that once in a while a collection of underpaid young players assembled by a smart team may be competitive, but that the big money teams will always be. I know each spring that my favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, has almost no chance of ( Read more... )