Up and Running Again

I am now back, after a considerably longer hiatus than planned.

Unavoidably, today's news (and perhaps tomorrow's, and the next day's) will dwell on the first presidential debate, and particularly on the post-debate spin. My main emotion after the debate was relief -- I guess I had not fully appreciated how much the possibility of a debacle had weighed on my mind before the thing finally came off. But Kerry more than held his own, as the immediate post-debate "unscientific" polls (and even the punditry) seem to acknowledge. (I put the word unscientific in quotes in the preceding sentence, as it's becoming increasingly unclear to me whether many of the ostensibly more "official" opinion polls are really much more firmly rooted in science and statistical rigor than the interactive trash polls. Gallup, of course, is the example par excellence -- and a particularly disturbing example in view of the company's reputation and name recognition.)

Meanwhile, if you want a break from debate coverage, check out the nifty, link-filled Salon piece on Bush's scientific cluelessness. This article includes a cartoon rendering of Bush so perfect that I can't resist pulling it in here (to the right). Hope that counts as "fair use."