Darwin and Lincoln

The 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln (yes, they were born on the same day!) is coming up soon. They both cast long shadows across history. In terms of science, and our understanding of how the world works, Darwin’s is the longer shadow.

I’ll probably have more Darwin-related links as the anniversary of Darwin’s birth, and the 150th of his book being published, approaches. Here’s one from the good Dr. Novella on Dinosaur Fossils and Evolution.

One of the strongest lines of evidence for the fact that life on earth arose through evolution is the fossil record. I do not think this is the strongest line of evidence, not because it is weak but because the genetic evidence is so remarkably strong. Statistically speaking, the genetic evidence speaks to common descent through branching speciation of all life on earth to such a degree that it approaches certainty.

But the fossil evidence is also impressive, and much more visceral – walking into a museum full of gigantic fossil dinosaurs (or at least their casts) has a coolness factor with which a string of base pairs cannot compete.

Scrooged

Lileks rewrites that stupid Christmas story for today’s audience.

What’s the line from Scrooge – better they should die, and decrease the surplus population? I’m surprised that’s not an applause line these days. If Scrooge had forbid Crachet from putting on more coal because it would contribute to global warming, he’d be the hero, and Crachet (sic) would have got the three spirits.

The Next Right

I’ve added a new link to the Honor Roll there on the right: The Next Right.

Just learned about it tonight via Gene Expression, and am impressed enough to link it up. Worth keeping an eye on, especially for posts like this.

It is important that we don’t put the technology cart before the mission horse.  The internet simply changes the scale at which we can productively do things that people already want to do.   As I’ve written previously, the Leftosphere is not effective because they can fundraise and mobilize activists.  They are effective because they can communicate and organize people around a message.  Fundraising and activism is a product of communication and organization.

The End of Journalism

VDH explains why the MSM has shot itself in the foot with a Hellfire.

The media has succeeded in shielding Barack Obama from journalistic scrutiny. It thereby irrevocably destroyed its own reputation and forfeited the trust that generations of others had so carefully acquired. And it will never again be trusted to offer candid and nonpartisan coverage of presidential candidates.

Worse still, the suicide of both print and electronic journalism has ensured that, should Barack Obama be elected president, the public will only then learn what they should have known far earlier about their commander-in-chief — but in circumstances and from sources they may well regret.

It’s a plot

by the Knights Doppler.

Hamas vs. Fatah

in Minnesota.

If we make these savages welcome in this country, the country will not survive.

Mark Steyn says

Time for Garrison Keillor to introduce a cutesie imam to Lake Wobegon.

Does Obama Mean It?

He said:

I am not in favor of concealed weapons. There has not been any evidence that allowing people to carry a concealed weapon is going to make anybody safer.

So let’s have him order the Secret Service to stop carrying concealed weapons. Clearly they don’t make anybody safer.

Brace Yourselves

for the coming tax hikes.

If you run the numbers for that and other income brackets, you’d better sit down. Our spending policies are not digging a hole, they are conjuring up a Stygian abyss.

If your family income in 2006 was between $75,000 and $100,000, the extra taxes that you will have to pay at some point in the future add up to about $14,000.

If your income was between $100,000 and $200,000, your future tax hike will be about $28,000. If your income was between $200,000 and $500,000, then your future tax bill just went up by $90,299.

Behind the Times

Which would be cheaper for the New York Times: Printing and delivering the newspaper or giving each subscriber a brand-new Kindle?

What we’re trying to say is that as a technology for delivering the news, newsprint isn’t just expensive and inefficient; it’s laughably so.

Mac vs. PC

A successfully viral demo.

The Case for Daschle?

Did Rich Lowry just make the Republican case for confirming Daschle?

With Geithner and Daschle in prominent positions in the Obama administration—and Charlie Rangel heading Ways and Means—Democrats will have saddled themselves with three prominent symbols of non-compliance with tax laws at the same time they will eventually have to push for higher taxes. And as any journalist knows, three makes a trend.

Any reason for a healthy backlash seems worth considering.

Update:

Testify, Tom!

Meanwhile, my new plan is this: I’m going to stop paying taxes in hopes of getting an appointment in the Obama administration.