Open Thread: Sizzle!

Those of us who are science buffs or practicing scientists tend to value data, descriptions based on repeatable, controlled events, and explanations that make testable predictions. But to be heard above the din of pop culture and reach the vast majority of non-scientists on a topic as complex as climate change, we might do better if we resist those rational impulses and engage the lay public in other, more entertaining ways.

Randy Olsen, producer of Flock of Dodos, is back with a new movie that does just that: Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy (Trailer). The first part of the movie follows the frustrating and yet light-hearted, almost slapstick back story about the making of a serious global warming documentary. But a little over half way through the film dramatically veers away from that script and takes viewers on all too real journey through one sobering illustration of the devastating heartbreaks nature may have in store for all mankind in the not so distant future. I don’t think it was quite as good as A Flock of Dodos -- which would be hard to top -- but I don't want to give too much away, so let's just say all in all it's an interesting, non-traditional approach to educating the public about climate change and one I recommend checking out with a non science friend .

This thread is now wide open.

Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

The American Civil Liberties Union pointed out today that the Terrorist Watch List Has Hit One Million Names

"Members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other 'suspicious characters,' with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this list, with little hope of escape," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress needs to fix it, the Terrorist Screening Center needs to fix it, or the next president needs to fix it, but it has to be done soon."

Fredrickson and Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, spoke [Monday] along with two victims of the watch list: Jim Robinson, former assistant attorney general for the Civil Division who flies frequently and is often delayed for hours despite possessing a governmental security clearance and Akif Rahman, an American citizen who has been detained and interrogated extensively at the U.S.-Canada border when traveling for business.

"America's new million record watch list is a perfect symbol for what's wrong with this administration's approach to security: it's unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources, treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought, and is a very real impediment in the lives of millions of travelers in this country," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program. "It must be fixed without delay."

A year ago, when the list was only 755,000 names, Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies, said: "It undermines the authority of the list. There's just no rational, reasonable estimate that there's anywhere close to that many suspected terrorists." In 2004, there were 158,000 names on the list. You can read the Government Accountability Office's October 2007 report on the terrorism watch list here.

The ACLU is calling for controls to be placed on the watch list, including: 1) due process, 2) a right to access and challenge data upon which listing is based, 3) tight criteria for adding names to the list, 4) rigorous procedures for updating and cleansing names from the list.

The organization also called upon the President to issue an executive order requiring a review of the list and the limiting of those on to people "for whom there is credible evidence of terrorist ties or activities. The review should be concluded within 3 months."

One name was removed from the list just this month, that of Nelson Mandela, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former President of post-apartheid South Africa. (He turns 90 on Friday.)

The ACLU has also announced the creation of an online form where victims of the watch list can tell their stories. A link to the form is available online here.

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Total coalition military fatalities in Iraq since March 2003: 4119

Total Iraqi fatalities due to the invasion and occupation: Unknown, but as high as 1.4 million

Total coalition fatalities in Afghanistan since 2001: 891

Total Afghan fatalities because of the war: Unknown, many thousands

Meteor Blades terrorist watch list ACLU Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:38:44 GMT

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Tonight's Diary Rescue crew was Louisiana 1976, ybruti, hhex65, dadanation, srkp23 and Avila.

• The current outrageous action by our current president, himself reckless endangerment personified, is the subject of FishOutofWater's diary Updated w Obama Response: Bush Ends Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling. (dadanation)
• After a day canvassing in Indiana, Markg8 explains why now, not later, you should Get off your ass and get in the game. (ybruti)
• fake consultant serves up a diary both educational and entertaining On The Weird Twists Of History, Part One, Or, Why We Have A Fourth Amendment. (srkp23)
• emptywheel reminds us that Five Years Ago Today Novak Outed Plame, while in Bastille Day, EugeneF takes on another historic event which transpired on the 14th of July. (dadanation)
• World traveler Yours Truly gives us another glimpse inside Iran in Yours Truly goes to Iran, part six: A brief encounter with the Axis of Evil. (hhex65)
• Bendygirl describes the importance of taking employees in crisis seriously and the recent tragedy at a Kentucky plastics plant that might have been averted in WTF? Suicide and Plant Shootings. (Avila)
• AJs Dad is rightly outraged by Republican senators, including John McCain, who are stalling passage of the Conquer Childhood Cancer Act: Compassion?!?! (srkp23)
• allmost liberal European reports the World's oldest blogger dies at the age of 108 in Australia. (ybruti)
• Silent Spring discusses the homeowner's love/hate relationship with lawn upkeep in Growing Grass. (Louisiana 1976)
• Louisiana 1976 provides a very powerful review of noted author Marya Hornbacher's new memoir "Madness: A Bipolar Life"....... (dadanation)
• davej continues excellent work on the reprehensible practices of Atria Senior Living Residences and demands accountability, in Who Is the Corporation? (srkp23)

Please use this as an Open Thread as well as your chance to promote your favorite diaries of the day. Respectful engagement is most welcome here. Please keep in mind that each Diary Rescue's daily purview extends from 3pm PST yesterday to 3pm PST today.

GOP, the Know-Nothing Party

Republicans have been in a lather since Barack Obama commented that American children should learn a foreign language in school. It demonstrates the extent to which they've become the party of ignorance.

Responding to a voter in GA who'd like more bilingual education, Obama said:

"Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], ‘Merci beaucoup.’ Right? You know, no, I’m serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they’re 5, or 6, or 7 than when they’re 46, like me."

Hard to argue with that. It's obvious too that learning a foreign language helps you to understand your own language better. It also brings perspective on how to think, speak, and write. While thinking critically about ideas you learn to communicate them more precisely.

Predictably, right-wingers flew into a rage at Obama's un-American call for better language skills. For example, John McCormack at the Weakly Standard labeled language education as snobbery and elitism. John Derbyshire called Obama's suggestion "idiotic" because "not many human beings can learn another language", as his own failures prove. He combines that with characteristic condescension:

In fact, below some cutoff point, which I'd guess at around minus one standard deviation in IQ (that would encompass sixteen percent of the population), education beyond the three R's is a waste of time, and foreign-language instruction a total waste of time.

Many right-wingers just skipped what Obama actually said and declared that he wants to forcibly indoctrinate their children in Spanish, or make Spanish the official language of the US. Fox News knew what Republicans wanted to hear. Neil Cavuto brought on the Philly-cheese-steak bigot Joey Vento to denounce Obama: "This man is a sick man. He is a scary man."

Even before it embraced creationism and made attacks on science a guiding principle, the Republican Party had proudly turned itself into the party of ignorance and anti-intellectualism. But Obama's call for children to learn more languages (which he stands by) has given the GOP an opportunity to link two of its favorite cudgels, ignorance and bigotry against immigrants. Truly the modern heir to the Know-Nothing Party.

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