RTA ← realtimeanthropology

Feel Free to Discriminate

Apr

6

2015

So I find myself this Easter morning doing something extraordinary, in the sense that it is extra-ordinary or out of the ordinary, for me; I agree with Rick Santorum on something big and important. Specifically, I agree with him on Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or at least the broad terms of what the Act ...

Doin’ the Cheney

Jun

20

2014

“Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.” Never thought I would hear a Cheney (Dick or Liz) say that about President Bush. Oh. Wait. Silly me. The Collapsing Obama Doctrine: Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so ...

This PRISM Shows Both Blue and Red

Jun

8

2013

The latest kerfuffle to hit the 24hr news networks is how the United States’ NSA (National Security Agency) has been using a system called PRISM to harvest vast amounts of select information sent and received by US citizens through the internet. People are outraged, but except to certify that no laws were broken, the ...

Your DNA Does Not Make You Part of Humanity

May

29

2013

I’ve recently been honing my thoughts on abortion. I know several adamantly forced birth (That’s what it is, so let’s call it that.) advocates, and over the last year or so I’ve heard a number of arguments supporting their position. There’s a certain amount of name-calling, references to atrocities supposedly committed by people using the ...

The Stink of Success

Jan

16

2013

Wow. This is just wrong. The following quote is from the Republican State Leadership Committee, from their report bragging how well their REDMAP gerrymandering program is working. On November 6, 2012, Barack Obama was reelected President of the United States by nearly a three-point margin, winning 332 electoral votes to Mitt Romney’s 206 while garnering ...

A Major Pain of Majorities

Dec

20

2012

Back when President Obama and Speaker Boehner negotiated the sequester clause (Which, I’ll remind everyone, was voted on and accepted by the vast majority of *BOTH* Democrats *AND* Republicans in *BOTH* the House *AND* the Senate.), the idea was that it would be so horrible that the SuperCommittee would find a way to get the ...

Dr. Pearson’s Take on Gun Control 2

Dec

15

2012

OK, time to get a bit geeky. I spent 10 minutes crying this morning because of the tragedy in Connecticut, and people cope in all sorts of ways. This is one of mine. It is almost inevitable now that gun control legislation will become a defining (and probably further dividing) issue in President Obama’s second ...

A Leadership Strategy

Nov

13

2012

Over the next few weeks we are going to hear all sorts of inflammatory nonsense as the US Congress tries to come to a solution about our debt and deficit issues. As we do this, I think that there are some things that we absolutely need to keep in mind. During the last meltdown in ...

Hisashiburina Geekout

Oct

24

2012

I've been suffering the past month — but not from running as some would imagine. I've been suffering because I bought an HTC One X mobile phone, got it up and running and fell in love with the quad core, massive memory, and even more massive 4.7" screen (Told you this was a geekout.). Then ...

Where the Money Is (And it’s not in Big Bird’s Nest)

Oct

11

2012

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously said "Because that's where the money is." We could learn a lot about that as we talk about the budget. Shutting down PBS, cutting funds to the National Endowment for the Arts, or even cutting subsidies to Big Oil isn't going to get us to where ...