links: health care and GOP madness; women in physics; OSC in Tokyo

[mindstalk]

Health care news and GOP madness

* Single-payer advocates denied a voice in the Senate
* Spokesman against universal health care is serial fraudster.
* Adam Smith on business conspiracies
* Decline of conservative intellectualism. Links to Richard Posner decrying the GOP sinking into global warming denialism and abortion tunnel vision; comments consist largely of global warming denialism and abortion tunnel vision.
** Texas BOE vs. geology. Remember that Texas and California drive textbook selection in the US.
** Glenn Beck calls government the Devil
** "We have the lowest tax rates in generations, and all we can do is cry for more tax cuts."
** GOP called on to demand Democrats relabel themselves as the Democratic Socialist Party
** Canada's lower teen pregnancy rates

* Palin popularity dropping
* Me elsewhere on Obama not being very liberal, let alone socialist

Mortgages
* 33% of homes with mortgages "underwater"
** Mortgage fix fails, Obama silent

Sociology
* Problems of women in physics
* The myth of Eurabia as demographics change
* (2006) Wage-productivity gap
* British Columbia rejects the siren song of European electoral reform, stands fast by the tried-and-true American system. By which I mean, voters rejected STV and will stick with plurality.
* 2008 election explorer
* New race/income maps at 538.

Misc
* OSC likes Tokyo, doesn't say anything insane.
* 13 year old sentenced to prison, exonerated 16 years later, despite a judge's best efforts
* WHS points out the the judicial system of the US is tasked with hearing cases in law and equity; I'm wondering if that provides constitutional justification for "judicial activism", i.e. judges saying "the law may say that, but the law is unjust".