Some of us here at S&R follow a non-monotheistic spirituality of some sort, and I for one celebrate tonight as Samhain, Celtic new year, the harvest festival, and the time of the year when the Veil grows thinnest. Tonight I honor my ancestors and bid farewell to those who have died during the last year.

But Samhain isn’t a time of mourning. It’s a time of celebration. The dead have moved beyond pain or sadness, and we have (metaphorically) harvested food enough to last through the long winter. Samhain is a time to celebrate, and in the spirit of all joyous holidays, I’d like to take this moment to wish you all a Happy Samhain.

Now don’t get too blotto on hard cider and Pixy Sticks.

“There’s not one commander I talked to in theater or preparing to go to theatre [who] has any idea what he’s going to do with his waste other than take it to the burn pit.”
– Kurt Kinnevan, division chief of the directorate of environmental integration at the Army Engineer School

What’s a few fumes? It’s all part of war. Unfortunately, reports Kelly Kennedy at the Military Times in an article whose understated title fails to do justice to the severity of the situation. . . Full story »

I got this cartoon today from a Republican friend of mine in bright-red Orange County:

I know, I know, it’s supposed to be a bit of Halloween humor, and I’m not supposed to take it so seriously. But ever since John McCain seized on Barack Obama’s comment about spreading the wealth around, there has been a barrage of such sentiments that I find ugly.

Implicit in this “joke” is the assumption that any income redistribution through progressive taxation gives undeserved benefits to people who don’t work hard or make a contribution to society. The flip side to this pretentious smugness is a suggestion that rich people got that way through greater effort or superior character.  Frankly, I find that offensive.  And usually inaccurate. Full story »

Election Day is nearly upon us. We’ve already noted some of the voter suppression shenanigans out there and there’s been a lot more since that posting. Frankly, I expect Tuesday to be a freakin’ circus on this front.

You can help make Election Day a cleaner experience for all of us. We’ve added a couple badges at the top of the column to your left for the Twitter Vote Report and the Voter Suppression Wiki. Our friend Tracy Viselli is volunteering on these efforts, and here’s what she has to say: Full story »

The mainstream media is reminding me more and more of football announcers struggling to keep viewers from changing channels.

Bud:  Well, the Bumblin’ Bombers are down by 15 with just under two minutes left, Clint, but the game is far from over.

Clint:  That’s right, Bud.  They have no time-outs left, but if they run their two-minute drill effectively, they can certainly move the ball down the field, get the touchdown, make a two-point conversion, then cover an onside kick, drive for another touchdown, and send the game to overtime.

Bud:  Though the Bombers have been held to only 42 yards in total offense in the second half, this is an explosive team, and they’ve come back from situations like this, before, right Clint? Full story »

Science is the domain of logic, of data, of mathematics and argument and proof. Scientists are supposed to be trained to recognize their biases and then to ignore or compensate for them in order to discover reality in all its awful glory. Politics is not usually considered a domain of science as politics is almost definitionally biased. And for that reason, politics almost never enters into the annals of stringently dispassionate and skeptical scientific journals such as the journals Science and Nature. That is what makes the endorsement of a presidential candidate by a premier scientific journal newsworthy here at Scholars & Rogues.

“To the best of the anyone’s knowledge currently here at the magazine, this
is the first time [Nature has endorsed a presidential candidate].” –M. Mitchell Waldrop, editorial page editor

Yesterday’s issue of the journal Nature endorsed Barack Obama for President in its editorial pages. Full story »

After The Cure’s 1989 platinum-selling breakthrough Disintegration, the band chose to get even moodier with their 1992 follow-up, Wish. Had they chosen to get a little poppier, instead, they very well might have created 4:13 Dream.

Following the restrictive Bloodflowers (2000) and the unmemorable hodge-podge that was their self-titled album, The Cure (2004), 4:12 Dream features a lineup of tunes that feels like a direct descendent to the songs of the band’s heyday. Full story »