Globally Rational

//The Pew Research Center, which always seems to come up with great surveys and statistics, recently asked people if they think that Barack Obama is Muslim.  10% of people said “yes”, which is obviously wrong.  Do people think that Islam is an ethnicity and not a religion?  Or do they think that anybody who lived […]

Popularity: 26% [?]

//Welcome to the 68th edition of Carnival of the Liberals! It was very difficult to choose a reasonable number of articles from the many submissions that I received, but I think I managed to cut it down to the point where it’s not overcrowded.
I also included some comments about each article. I’ll have […]

Popularity: 37% [?]

//McCain’s top VP prospect, Bobby Jindal, apparently believes that Intelligent Design is “the very best science.” When talking about the subject, he mentioned that “The way we’re going to have smart, intelligent kids is exposing them to the very best science and let them not only decide, but also let them contribute to that […]

Popularity: 32% [?]

//Ralph Nader just publicly accused Barack Obama of trying to “talk white” and not making a big deal out of issues such as “payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, [and] lead”. He went on to say that Obama “wants to show that he is not … another politically threatening African-American”. My favorite is the […]

Popularity: 23% [?]

//We hear politicians talk a lot about “a lady I met who couldn’t afford to pay for xxx” or “a man in Ohio who lost his job”.  I’ll accept that unemployment rates are a little bit higher than last year, but we can find stories like that at any time, even if the economy is […]

Popularity: 25% [?]

//I called in to NPR’s Talk of the Nation today to discuss my opinion on America’s negative image overseas.  I think that the guest, Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins, hit the point perfectly… instead of boring you with an article, I’ll link you to the story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91812972
If you click “listen now” and forward to about 5-6 […]

Popularity: 22% [?]

//We hear a lot of propaganda aimed at convincing the American people that Arabs are evil, the war is justified, and America is the best thing that ever happened to the world. Some people believe it all, and some people (i.e. the people who are probably reading this) believe none of it… but did you […]

Popularity: 24% [?]

//Paul Peterson wrote a great article on his blog a couple of days ago.  I won’t do him an injustice by just repeating the whole post here, so I’ll just link to it (click here) and give you an excerpt:
I mention all of this only because of the phrase “anti-christian propaganda”. Facts are not propaganda. […]

Popularity: 22% [?]

//As I’ve mentioned before, I really don’t mind sacrificing my privacy if it means that the government can keep better tabs on what everybody is doing (and use that information to catch criminals and terrorists).  It seems to me that people can get away with a lot of questionable acts with the excuse that it’s […]

Popularity: 21% [?]

//There’s a fact that I’ve always taken for granted; recently, I learned that it’s not common knowledge. It was always so obvious to me that I started to wonder why most people don’t know this.
Did you know that the Middle East is generally impressed with Western culture? People often think that the anti-American sentiment we […]

Popularity: 22% [?]