Mike Huckabee’s official entrance into the Republican race for president this week underscores the importance of a particular segment of the Republican population — highly religious Protestant voters. Often called evangelicals, this segment is clearly the key target for Huckabee’s campaign. Huckabee attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, is a former Baptist minister, and as was the case in 2008, he clearly perceives this religious background to be a particular strength. Huckabee is not the only one vying for the affection of the highly religious Protestant segment, of course. Ted Cruz made his announcement in front of the student body at the evangelical Liberty University in Virginia. Jeb Bush will be making his own trek to Liberty University as the commencement speaker on May 9. Potential presidential candidate Scott Walker has been emphasizing his religious upbringing in Plainfield, Iowa, as the son of a Baptist preacher.
The term “evangelical” is a loose one, and there are a number of different ways to define it, including simply asking respondents if they are “evangelical.” For the purposes of this analysis, I’m looking at Republicans and independents who lean Republican who identify their denomination as Protestant or some other non-Catholic, […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmentalists, beekeepers, farmworkers, farmers, fisheries, and food safety advocates sent a letter to the USDA Inspector General and the co-chairs of the White House Task Force on Pollinator Health today, urging an investigation into recent reports that USDA scientists are being harassed and their research is being censored or suppressed, especially research related to neonicotinoid insecticides — a leading driver of bee declines globally. The White House Task Force on Pollinator Health, co-chaired by the USDA, is expected to release a plan for bee protection in the near future. The more than 25 groups are concerned that the plan will lack meaningful protections for pollinators if the USDA’s research has been compromised.
In March, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, filed a citizen petition requesting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture adopt new policies that would provide stronger protections for government scientists who question the health and safety of agricultural chemicals.
“It is unconscionable for USDA to cover up or politicize any research. The science […]
Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice,
Credit: Reuters
NEW YORK — The most senior Baltimore police officer charged over the death of Freddie Gray used his position to order the arrest of a man as part of a personal dispute just two weeks before the fatal incident, prompting an internal inquiry by Baltimore police department.
During an erratic late-night episode in March, Brian Rice boasted he was a Baltimore police lieutenant and warned “heads will roll” if officers in a nearby city did not “go arrest” his ex-girlfriend’s husband, according to a police report obtained by the Guardian.
Brian Rice
Lieutenant Brian Rice Photograph: Reuters
The incident is the latest in a series revealed by the Guardian that policing experts said raised questions over Rice’s ability to perform his duties as a supervising officer and the Baltimore department’s decision to keep him on front line patrols.
Two weeks later, it was Rice who initiated the arrest of Gray after the 25-year-old “made eye contact” with the lieutenant in a west Baltimore street and ran away. Gray was chased and subjected […]
An American ghetto
Credit: Daphne Wysham and John Talberth.
The urban poor in the United States are experiencing accelerated aging at the cellular level, and chronic stress linked both to income level and racial-ethnic identity is driving this physiological deterioration. (emphasis added)
These are among the findings published this week by a group of prominent biologists and social researchers, including a Nobel laureate. Dr. Arline Geronimus, a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study and the lead author of the study, described it as the most rigorous research of its kind examining how “structurally rooted social processes work through biological mechanisms to impact health.”
What They Found
Researchers analyzed telomeres of poor and lower middle-class black, white, and Mexican residents of Detroit. Telomeres are tiny caps at the ends of DNA strands, akin to the plastic caps at the end of shoelaces, that protect cells from aging prematurely. Telomeres naturally shorten as people age. But various types of intense chronic stress are believed to […]
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
As carbon dioxide levels surpassed 400 parts per million globally, Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma headed to the Senate floor on Wednesday to explain the benefits of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Counter to the doomsday predictions of climate alarmists, increasing observations suggest a much reduced and practically harmless climate response to increased amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide,” he remarked. “Also missing from the climate alarmists’ doomsday scenarios and well-scripted talking points are the benefits from increased carbon that has led to a greening of the planet and contributed to increased agricultural productivity.”
Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, wondered why people didn’t understand that carbon pollution was good for the Earth.
“People do not realize that you cannot grow things without CO2,” he said. “CO2 is a fertilizer. It is something you cannot do without. No one ever talks about the benefits that people are inducing that as a fertilizer on a daily basis.”
“Despite admitted gaps to the scientific understanding of climate change […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
