Disturbing discrimination, done on people allegedly bringing "freedom" to the un-Enlightened. No atheists in foxholes? Says who?
Freedom is truly on the march. Wave good-bye to it while you still can.
4.30.2007
Beware Liberals Making Jokes
When I was living in Chapel Hill, the local all-liberal radio station broadcast the Stephanie Miller Show in the morning. I came to love it for their irreverent humor. While Stephanie is an unabashed liberal, she is the daughter of Barry Goldwater's VP running mate. She is accompanied by Jim Ward, a nut-job conspiracy-theory leftist who does the BEST voice impersonations EVER (called the "voice deity"), and by Chris Lavoie, her libertarian atheist skeptic producer. The collision of these three is a riot, especially in the Bush era.
Well until Wednesday, Stephanie and her gang are filling the Imus morning time-slot (5-8 am CST) at MSNBC. It's good fun, even if you don't agree with her.
Did I mention she's a gay-loving, wine-soaked, potty-mouthed hussy?
Dear occupant
Please email St. Eugenius (AKA GateTree) with links that you would like to have on our page. There are only 2 rules:
Thank you,
the mgt.
- No ChiComm funny stuff (Yes, this means you, Bromide 1701)
- There is a limit of 20 squid-related links (You know who you are)
Thank you,
the mgt.
"We are all Mustafa Kemal's soldiers"
Democracy In Action: Sea of Flags in Istanbul in Giant Demonstration Against AKP
"Over a million demonstrators from all over Turkey - mostly women and young - flooded Istanbul for the giant demonstration against AKP government, against PM Erdogan and FM Abdullah Gul's presidency. It is reported that the participation in the rally at Caglayan district of Istanbul surpassed the massive rally that took place in Ankara on April 14 - which according to reports was attended by one million people. Ataturk's famous 'speech to the Turkish youth' was read and patriotic songs were sung by Turkey's famous actors and singers accompanied by a massive choir of demonstrators."
Read it all at The MEMRI blog.
"Over a million demonstrators from all over Turkey - mostly women and young - flooded Istanbul for the giant demonstration against AKP government, against PM Erdogan and FM Abdullah Gul's presidency. It is reported that the participation in the rally at Caglayan district of Istanbul surpassed the massive rally that took place in Ankara on April 14 - which according to reports was attended by one million people. Ataturk's famous 'speech to the Turkish youth' was read and patriotic songs were sung by Turkey's famous actors and singers accompanied by a massive choir of demonstrators."
Read it all at The MEMRI blog.
This might help explain the clusterf**k we saw at the border
Lebanon war probe accuses Olmert of 'serious failure,' blasts Halutz, Peretz
'The partial report by a government-appointed committee probing the Second Lebanon War on Monday accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of "severe failure" in exercising judgment, responsibility and caution during the outset of the war.
The report, officially released at a 5 P.M. press conference in Jerusalem on Monday, says Olmert acted hastily in leading the country to war last July 12, without having a comprehensive plan.
The prime minister, the report said, "bears supreme and comprehensive responsibility for the decisions of 'his' government and the operations of the army."'
Read it all at haaretz.com.
"We don't want a covered woman in Ataturk's presidential palace, we want civilized, modern people there."
Turks protest Islamic-rooted government
'Another demonstration against the spread of Sharia in Turkey. This time 700,000 people participated. Apparently Turkish secularism will not go gentle into that good night.
By Benjamin Harvey for Associated Press, with thanks to all who sent this in:
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Some 700,000 Turks waving the red national flag flooded central Istanbul on Sunday to demand the resignation of the government, saying the Islamic roots of Turkey's leaders threatened to destroy the country's modern foundations.
Like the protesters — who gathered for the second large anti-government demonstration in two weeks — Turkey's powerful secular military has accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of tolerating radical Islamic circles.
"They want to drag Turkey to the dark ages," said 63-year-old Ahmet Yurdakul, a retired government employee who attended the protest.'
Read it all at Jihad Watch.
'Another demonstration against the spread of Sharia in Turkey. This time 700,000 people participated. Apparently Turkish secularism will not go gentle into that good night.
By Benjamin Harvey for Associated Press, with thanks to all who sent this in:
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Some 700,000 Turks waving the red national flag flooded central Istanbul on Sunday to demand the resignation of the government, saying the Islamic roots of Turkey's leaders threatened to destroy the country's modern foundations.
Like the protesters — who gathered for the second large anti-government demonstration in two weeks — Turkey's powerful secular military has accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of tolerating radical Islamic circles.
"They want to drag Turkey to the dark ages," said 63-year-old Ahmet Yurdakul, a retired government employee who attended the protest.'
Read it all at Jihad Watch.
4.29.2007
It Reminded Me That I Still Need To Buy The Collected Writings Of Thomas Paine
I watched The Queen last night. It's one of the best movies I've seen for a while, with all-around fantastic acting. And it succeeds in doing something not accomplished since The Madness of King George: it made me feel a tiny bit sorry for the British royalty. Now, don't get me wrong. Most of the movie will leave you flabbergasted and bewildered that such people could still exist in the modern world, and during most of the movie I called the royalty names that would have made Thomas Paine blush.Of course, the best way to end their plight, as it were, is to disband the monarchy. Then NO ONE would have to be born into the trappings of royalty, which is nothing more than an ancient, repugnant system of rule.
To quote The Madness of King George, "Then why not be rid of him? If a few ramshackle colonists in America can send him packing, why can't we?"
The Return Of The Atheists' Worst Nightmare
Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron are two simple-minded Christer apologists who have a morally and intellectually debase show called Way of the Master. If you've never seen their hilarious "bananas are the atheists' worst nightmare" bit, prepare yourself. The argument shows a deliberate misunderstanding of evolution and a total disregard for plant husbandry. Only a moron would ever buy such a ridiculous argument, and only the Emperor of the Kingdom of Morons would ever make it. I guess they'll have to fight for the crown.Well, these two neurologically-chalenged simpletons are so upset about the Blasphemy Challenge that they have set up a debate between them and two members of the Rational Response Squad. It'll take place May 5 on ABC's website, and portions of it will end up on Nightline.
Ray claims that he is going to bring absolute proof for the existence of his god(s). Apparently, this includes a banana. Which kind though: wild-type (shown above) or triploid?
Culture of Deception
We saw this 'Mythbusters' ripoff sign in front of a happening new-age church. It led me to ask if they're really busting myths, including their own, or just criticizing others, making it part of their overall 'culture of deception'. I like the ring of that.
On the same trip Tobermory made the Randallesque observation, "I love humanity, but I hate people."
On the same trip Tobermory made the Randallesque observation, "I love humanity, but I hate people."
4.28.2007
4.27.2007
Include me out on the CFL craze
Light Bulb Lunacy
By Steven Milloy @ JunkScience.com
How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent lightbulb? About $4.28 for the bulb and labor — unless you break the bulb. Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about $2,004.28, which doesn’t include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.
Sound crazy? Perhaps no more than the stampede to ban the incandescent light bulb in favor of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) — a move already either adopted or being considered in California, Canada, the European Union and Australia.
According to an April 12 article in The Ellsworth American, Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter’s bedroom....
The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges’ house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state’s “safe” level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter.
Read it all.
By Steven Milloy @ JunkScience.com
How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent lightbulb? About $4.28 for the bulb and labor — unless you break the bulb. Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about $2,004.28, which doesn’t include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.
Sound crazy? Perhaps no more than the stampede to ban the incandescent light bulb in favor of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) — a move already either adopted or being considered in California, Canada, the European Union and Australia.
According to an April 12 article in The Ellsworth American, Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter’s bedroom....
The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges’ house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state’s “safe” level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter.
Read it all.
4.26.2007
Via ¡No Pasarán!: Que ce foutu pays de merde aille droit dans le mur ! *
L’élection de Ségolène Royal serait un désastre
by Guy Millière @ Les 4 Vérités
The election of Ségolène Royal would be a disaster
by Guy Millière @ Hugo the Translator
"We have Ségolène, the incompetent, half-witted, and arrogant representative of a party that, along with the entire French Left, has not known how to shift with modern times and remains stuck in a mode of reasoning that seems a throwback to the time of oil lamps. Opposite, we have Sarkozy, a man whose virtues and shortcomings I have already described in these columns.
Among his virtues is an understanding of the extent of the disaster on the brink of which this country finds itself. Among his shortcomings are the elements of interventionism, of state control, and of Bonapartism, which are, alas, very French."
*What this screwed-up country of merde go straight in the wall! (This was the best translation I could get.)
by Guy Millière @ Les 4 Vérités
The election of Ségolène Royal would be a disaster
by Guy Millière @ Hugo the Translator
"We have Ségolène, the incompetent, half-witted, and arrogant representative of a party that, along with the entire French Left, has not known how to shift with modern times and remains stuck in a mode of reasoning that seems a throwback to the time of oil lamps. Opposite, we have Sarkozy, a man whose virtues and shortcomings I have already described in these columns.
Among his virtues is an understanding of the extent of the disaster on the brink of which this country finds itself. Among his shortcomings are the elements of interventionism, of state control, and of Bonapartism, which are, alas, very French."
*What this screwed-up country of merde go straight in the wall! (This was the best translation I could get.)
I love the Devil
Frederick Forsyth admits getting "lost in world of fiction"
The Devil's Kitchen
'Mr Forsyth urged Mr Cameron to "talk softly but carry a big stick" when dealing with Britain's future as a member of the European Union.
The author of the 'Dogs of War' and 'Day of the Jackal' said the Tories could neutralise the threat from the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) by announcing plans to regain key powers which have been ceded to Brussels.
Repatriating powers would please the Right of the Tory party "and it would kill Ukip stone dead".
The problem is, Freddie, is that the reason UKIP exists is because the Tories have never shown any urge to be EUsceptic. And even when they have talked the EUsceptic talk, they have significantly failed to walk the EUsceptic walk. Given Letwin's reponses to me, do you think that this is going to change?'
Read it all.
The Devil's Kitchen
'Mr Forsyth urged Mr Cameron to "talk softly but carry a big stick" when dealing with Britain's future as a member of the European Union.
The author of the 'Dogs of War' and 'Day of the Jackal' said the Tories could neutralise the threat from the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) by announcing plans to regain key powers which have been ceded to Brussels.
Repatriating powers would please the Right of the Tory party "and it would kill Ukip stone dead".
The problem is, Freddie, is that the reason UKIP exists is because the Tories have never shown any urge to be EUsceptic. And even when they have talked the EUsceptic talk, they have significantly failed to walk the EUsceptic walk. Given Letwin's reponses to me, do you think that this is going to change?'
Read it all.
I wonder what Mr. Madison would make of this school?
A Madrasa Grows in Brooklyn
by Daniel Pipes at danielpipes.org
"Specifics about the KGIA confirm these apprehensions, including its roster of sponsors and enthusiasts. The school's key figure, principal-designate Dhabah ("Debbie") Almontaser, has a record of extremist views....
Her intentions for the KGIA should raise alarms. An Associated Press report paraphrases her saying that "the school won't shy away from sensitive topics such as colonialism and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis," and she notes that the school will "incorporate the Arabic language and Islamic culture." Islamic culture? Not what was advertised — but imbuing pan-Arabism and anti-Zionism, proselytizing for Islam, and promoting Islamist sympathies will predictably make up the school's true curriculum."
Read it all.
by Daniel Pipes at danielpipes.org
"Specifics about the KGIA confirm these apprehensions, including its roster of sponsors and enthusiasts. The school's key figure, principal-designate Dhabah ("Debbie") Almontaser, has a record of extremist views....
Her intentions for the KGIA should raise alarms. An Associated Press report paraphrases her saying that "the school won't shy away from sensitive topics such as colonialism and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis," and she notes that the school will "incorporate the Arabic language and Islamic culture." Islamic culture? Not what was advertised — but imbuing pan-Arabism and anti-Zionism, proselytizing for Islam, and promoting Islamist sympathies will predictably make up the school's true curriculum."
Read it all.
Good analysis, although I don't share his optimism about a democratic Iraq
Nuclear Iran?
by Victor Davis Hanson at VDH's Private Papers
"In all his crazed pronouncements, Ahmadinejad reflects an end-of-days view: History is coming to its grand finale under his aegis. In his mind, he entrances even foreign audiences into stupor with his rhetoric. Of his recent United Nations speech he boasted, “I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink.” The name of Ahmadinejad, he supposes, will live for the ages if he takes out the “crusader” interloper in Jerusalem. As the Great Mahdi come back to life, he can do something for the devout not seen since the days of Saladin."
Read it all.
by Victor Davis Hanson at VDH's Private Papers
"In all his crazed pronouncements, Ahmadinejad reflects an end-of-days view: History is coming to its grand finale under his aegis. In his mind, he entrances even foreign audiences into stupor with his rhetoric. Of his recent United Nations speech he boasted, “I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink.” The name of Ahmadinejad, he supposes, will live for the ages if he takes out the “crusader” interloper in Jerusalem. As the Great Mahdi come back to life, he can do something for the devout not seen since the days of Saladin."
Read it all.
Well, It's Hard To Find Here...
From those who brought you our new habitable planet:
Mayor predicted that NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder and the European Space Agency's Darwin satellite would make increasingly significant contributions in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.Link here.
Of course, we all know there are squids living on Europa.
4.25.2007
Shut Up You Stupid Pill-popping Cunt
"No one suffers more" my ass. This is up there with, "Let them eat cake." How fucking callous.
I don't see Jenna and Barbara buried in Arlington. How fucking removed from reality are these assholes?
From the homeland of the Religion of Peace....
From Jihad Watch
"I want bomb, big bomb in London, again. I want make jihad!"
'Ed Hussain, a Muslim from London, found racism, sexual hypocrisy, and widespread jihadist sentiment as a teacher in Saudi Arabia. Read it all -- here are just a few salient excerpts. "How a British jihadi saw the light," from the Times, with thanks to all who sent this in:
...Many of the African women lived in an area of Jeddah known as Karantina, a slum full of poverty, prostitution and disease.
A visit to Karantina, a perversion of the term “quarantine”, was one of the worst of my life. Thousands of people who had been living in Saudi Arabia for decades, but without passports, had been deemed “illegal” by the government and, quite literally, abandoned under a flyover.
A non-Saudi black student I had met at the British Council accompanied me. “Last week a woman gave birth here,” he said, pointing to a ramshackle cardboard shanty. Disturbed, I now realised that the materials I had seen those women carrying were not always for sale but for shelter.
I had never expected to see such naked poverty in Saudi Arabia.
At that moment it dawned on me that Britain, my home, had given refuge to thousands of black Africans from Somalia and Sudan: I had seen them in their droves in Whitechapel. They prayed, had their own mosques, were free and were given government housing.
Many Muslims enjoyed a better lifestyle in non-Muslim Britain than they did in Muslim Saudi Arabia. At that moment I longed to be home again.'
Read it all @ Times Online.
"I want bomb, big bomb in London, again. I want make jihad!"
'Ed Hussain, a Muslim from London, found racism, sexual hypocrisy, and widespread jihadist sentiment as a teacher in Saudi Arabia. Read it all -- here are just a few salient excerpts. "How a British jihadi saw the light," from the Times, with thanks to all who sent this in:
...Many of the African women lived in an area of Jeddah known as Karantina, a slum full of poverty, prostitution and disease.
A visit to Karantina, a perversion of the term “quarantine”, was one of the worst of my life. Thousands of people who had been living in Saudi Arabia for decades, but without passports, had been deemed “illegal” by the government and, quite literally, abandoned under a flyover.
A non-Saudi black student I had met at the British Council accompanied me. “Last week a woman gave birth here,” he said, pointing to a ramshackle cardboard shanty. Disturbed, I now realised that the materials I had seen those women carrying were not always for sale but for shelter.
I had never expected to see such naked poverty in Saudi Arabia.
At that moment it dawned on me that Britain, my home, had given refuge to thousands of black Africans from Somalia and Sudan: I had seen them in their droves in Whitechapel. They prayed, had their own mosques, were free and were given government housing.
Many Muslims enjoyed a better lifestyle in non-Muslim Britain than they did in Muslim Saudi Arabia. At that moment I longed to be home again.'
Read it all @ Times Online.
4.24.2007
Only 120 Trillion Miles To Go
Scientists find a potentially habitable planet not in this solar system.
I hope the people who live there have bumpy things on their face, so we know they are different.
A Fine Day
I spent all day at school working on my AP US History Syllabus we have to submit for some newfangled audit to make sure we can teach (a reasonable concern, admittedly). To this end I'm continuing to ram The Civil War by Ken Burns down my kids' collective throats, with questions to answer, of course. This afternoon we had a low-carb wrap sammich. We went outside to watch Thisbe try to break free from her tie down through any means necessary and to see the turtles frolic. We were treated to a show when a turkey vulture, my favorite carrion bird, feasted on some road kill out on the access road. A fine day indeed.
Am I The Last Person To Know About This?
Barbaric Primitives? In Our Country?
An American Imam named ElBayly has called for the death of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ed Brayton does a good job going over it here.
What an unenlightened, misogynistic dog-blowing pig-fucker. When Mr. ElBayly gets done wiping his ass with his bare hand whilst calling on young girls to have their cooters cut up, how about someone explain to this squirrel-dicked pedophile worshiper how things work in the civilized world, and what government organizations we have set up to ensure that he doesn't have to live in it if he doesn't want to.
What an unenlightened, misogynistic dog-blowing pig-fucker. When Mr. ElBayly gets done wiping his ass with his bare hand whilst calling on young girls to have their cooters cut up, how about someone explain to this squirrel-dicked pedophile worshiper how things work in the civilized world, and what government organizations we have set up to ensure that he doesn't have to live in it if he doesn't want to.
I'll Bet It Kept Them Up At Night
An Arkansas father is suing the city of Bentonvill, AK because his 14- and 16-year-old sons went to the library and found a book on lesbian sex. He's demanding $10,000/teener because of the trauma The Whole Lesbian Sex Book caused. To quote the father, "[We had] many sleepless nights in our house." Yeah I bet.
Can two teenage boys really use up ten-thousand dollars worth of lotion and Kleenex each? And how did the sons "find" this book whilst looking for "material on military academies" anyway?
Once again, it's not the parents' faults for not minding their spawn or for not raising them to know not to read books that clash with their family's values. And it's not the teenagers' faults for being teenagers. It's the library's fault for having books on things that the parents don't like. Next it'll be Barnes and Noble's fault for having books on atheism. Someone call Tipper Gore!
4.22.2007
I think "Simple" is an apt name for the company Mr. Noory describes
The Greens of Wrath
by Joe Noory at ¡No Pasarán!
Earth Day is an “anti-brand” for a lot of things, virtually all of them discredited, including planned societies and economies where industry, consumption, and daily common behavior is regulated,
It is an “anti-brand” for the vehicle with which people can hate the success of others and displace their own individual failures, inabilities to realize personal success using science and reason....
Read it all.
by Joe Noory at ¡No Pasarán!
Earth Day is an “anti-brand” for a lot of things, virtually all of them discredited, including planned societies and economies where industry, consumption, and daily common behavior is regulated,
It is an “anti-brand” for the vehicle with which people can hate the success of others and displace their own individual failures, inabilities to realize personal success using science and reason....
Read it all.
4.20.2007
"Stupidity and obstinacy" indeed
I am currently re-reading Ibn Warraq's Why I Am Not a Muslim, and had just finished a section dealing with the Muslim conquest of non-Arab cultures and the attempted conversion/denial/eradication of pre-Muhammad history when I saw this at Iran Focus:
Iran dam said to threaten ancient sites
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian engineers began filling a new dam Thursday as archaeologists warned that its reservoir will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis.
...
Iranian state-run television said the dam was opened "on the order of the President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the hard-line Iranian leader did not attend the inauguration.
...
Both Persepolis and Pasargadae, only 19 miles and 5 miles away from the dam, are on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.
Iran's Islamic-oriented government has not shown much concern for cultural sites from the Persian era, unlike the country's more recent Muslim monuments.
Read it all.
Pasargadae and Persepolis at Wikipedia.
Run Away And Don't Look Back
One of ID's major advocates, William Dembski, shows us all how to run away from an argument whilst maintaining the illusion that he is addressing it. The question still stands: how does ID explain commonality among species, even to the molecular biological level? If ID is to replace evolution in explaining speciation, and assholes like Dembski claim it can and will, then an evidence-based explanation is needed for these observations. Where is it? Dembski will allow for commonality and then ask where the "original" came from in the first place. But will he provide any ID research proposals to shed light on this very interesting question? Or will he just ignore all of the evidences provided by the commonalities he so casually dismisses and childishly demand more from real scientists?
Meanwhile, O'Leary once again shows she can't get her argument straight. She is now arguing that this materialistic explanation for bacterial resistance indicates that bacteria were designed to resist antibiotics. Do-huh? How far is she going to move that goalpost back before she realizes that she's off the field? Until she gets to neutrons? All she's doing is conceding to atheist, anti-spiritualist arguments and stating that her gods are behind the results. I thought that was wrong. Clearly, O'Leary's understanding of genetics and evolutionary theory is lacking in both knowledge and faith. Way to go with the two-for!
But then again, I'm just a desperate atheist. My arguments can't hold up to faith...
Meanwhile, O'Leary once again shows she can't get her argument straight. She is now arguing that this materialistic explanation for bacterial resistance indicates that bacteria were designed to resist antibiotics. Do-huh? How far is she going to move that goalpost back before she realizes that she's off the field? Until she gets to neutrons? All she's doing is conceding to atheist, anti-spiritualist arguments and stating that her gods are behind the results. I thought that was wrong. Clearly, O'Leary's understanding of genetics and evolutionary theory is lacking in both knowledge and faith. Way to go with the two-for!
But then again, I'm just a desperate atheist. My arguments can't hold up to faith...
4.19.2007
"How do you find direction in the quagmire of soft power multilateralism?"
Via those scamps at ¡No Pasarán!
EU's satellite navigation system loses its way
BRUSSELS: Talk to satellite officials in Brussels and the mood is one of frustration and bitterness. The reason is that the European Union's most ambitious technological project, a satellite navigation system designed to provide users with unprecedented accuracy, faces disaster.
Galileo, as it is called, was supposed to have challenged the Pentagon's Global Positioning System. There were even hopes it would eventually provide a crucial security component for Europe's defense ambitions. Galileo, alas, has become mired in vicious disputes among the eight companies chosen to build and operate the system.
Read it all.
EU's satellite navigation system loses its way
BRUSSELS: Talk to satellite officials in Brussels and the mood is one of frustration and bitterness. The reason is that the European Union's most ambitious technological project, a satellite navigation system designed to provide users with unprecedented accuracy, faces disaster.
Galileo, as it is called, was supposed to have challenged the Pentagon's Global Positioning System. There were even hopes it would eventually provide a crucial security component for Europe's defense ambitions. Galileo, alas, has become mired in vicious disputes among the eight companies chosen to build and operate the system.
Read it all.
So What CAN They Explain?
ID advocates held a conference at Southern Methodist University recently, much to the dismay of its more intelligent students and faculty. Some students protested it with science, with signs asking questions like
Link here.
Why do the ribosomes (protein synthesizing machinery) in our mitochondria match those of bacteria?Micheal Behe decided to address this question posed by the protesters. His answer is as shocking as it is predictable:
His answer was that ID theory does not allow for explanations regarding interspecies commonalities such as those implied in the question.So ID, this revolutionary super-duper-supernatural anti-materialistic paradigm-shifting mega-scientific theory can't explain...shit. And while evolutionary theory explains interspecies commonalities, ID--which its advocates maintain will replace evolutionary theory any minute now--doesn't/can't/won't even attempt to explain them. Sign me up!
Link here.
4.18.2007
Why I have lost confidence in this administration....
Nigeria, Iraq, Europe
by Hugh Fitzgerald at Jihad Watch
What does the attack on Kano, by fanatical Muslims against the local, Muslim-staffed symbol of the Nigerian state run mostly of, by, and for Muslim northerners, have to do with Iraq?
Everything. For the American government is monomaniacally fixated on Iraq, and the Executive branch, in its hallucinatory throes, tells Congress that it will leave "when the Iraqis tell us we can leave" but not when Congress tells Bush that it, as a representative of the American people, wishes to "tell us [that is, the Bush administration] when we can leave."
...
The Administration also does not look outside Iraq, at the larger local examples of Jihad or growing militancy that all contribute to one worldwide effort to keep Islam on the aggressive march. The belief that Iraq can serve as flypaper or as a "honeypot" to which all the "bad guys" -- as American soldiers are reduced to calling them, in an exhibition of the politically-correct infantilism of language that has been imposed -- will accommodatingly flock, there to be mowed down by the Americans and their "loyal" "Iraqi" "allies," (each of those three words deserves its own doubting quotation marks), has been proven wrong in every detail.
Read it all.
by Hugh Fitzgerald at Jihad Watch
What does the attack on Kano, by fanatical Muslims against the local, Muslim-staffed symbol of the Nigerian state run mostly of, by, and for Muslim northerners, have to do with Iraq?
Everything. For the American government is monomaniacally fixated on Iraq, and the Executive branch, in its hallucinatory throes, tells Congress that it will leave "when the Iraqis tell us we can leave" but not when Congress tells Bush that it, as a representative of the American people, wishes to "tell us [that is, the Bush administration] when we can leave."
...
The Administration also does not look outside Iraq, at the larger local examples of Jihad or growing militancy that all contribute to one worldwide effort to keep Islam on the aggressive march. The belief that Iraq can serve as flypaper or as a "honeypot" to which all the "bad guys" -- as American soldiers are reduced to calling them, in an exhibition of the politically-correct infantilism of language that has been imposed -- will accommodatingly flock, there to be mowed down by the Americans and their "loyal" "Iraqi" "allies," (each of those three words deserves its own doubting quotation marks), has been proven wrong in every detail.
Read it all.
Putting The "Lame" in "Blame"
Ken Ham couldn't wait a whole day before blaming the VT massacre on...Darwinists! And Dinesh D'Souza couldn't stop himself from going after atheists.
Sadly, they're not the only ones using the tragedy as lube for their mental masturbations. Liberals are pointing to gun laws, the Tipper Gores out there are blaming music/video games/Hollywood, and the religious right is implicating everything from political correctness to the obligatory godless America chestnut. And on cue, the "God Hates Fags" people are going to protest the funerals and blame the gays.
Meanwhile, the crazy fucker actually responsible is still dead. Only the weakest arguments need a heaping side order of grief to pass as reasonable.
Sadly, they're not the only ones using the tragedy as lube for their mental masturbations. Liberals are pointing to gun laws, the Tipper Gores out there are blaming music/video games/Hollywood, and the religious right is implicating everything from political correctness to the obligatory godless America chestnut. And on cue, the "God Hates Fags" people are going to protest the funerals and blame the gays.
Meanwhile, the crazy fucker actually responsible is still dead. Only the weakest arguments need a heaping side order of grief to pass as reasonable.
4.16.2007
An ID Warning to All Believers: Bury Your Head Further In The Sand
A poster at the pro-ID blog Uncommon Descent wrote a "Letter to Thinking Christians (and other theists)." I found the whole thing so indicative of the "thinking of a believer" that I thought I would share.
The author, O'Leary, starts by throwing all religions together ("Christians/theists/non-materialists"). I suppose it's a sad attempt to cover ID's fundamentalist Christian political origins, but I actually agree with her here. All religions should all be lumped together as "traditions," as they are all fucking stupid, based on no evidence (faith), and none is admirable. Her enemies, all those atheists/materialists like me, she labels "anti-spiritualists." The term is rather hilarious, as it puts O'Leary's gods on the same tier as ghosts, haunts, and specters (or as I call them, parlor tricks).
Anyway, O'Leary argues that atheists like me are acting out of desperation. And why are we doing whatever we're doing desperately?
As for the society bit, I have no idea what she's arguing. I didn't know there was an atheist-only colony somewhere that was collapsing. Google didn't turn up any either.
O'Leary then goes on to chastise any moderate Christian--I mean spiritualist--who maintains that, whatever science finds, it just shows how their gods worked or work. Apparently, accepting any materialist explanation is just giving in to us atheists. She even goes after Christians who break with the "Christian tradition" and accept the gays as ok. I'll leave it to moderate Christians to explain to O'Leary how pathetic her arguments are; I don't have a horse in that race.
I will state that O'Leary never actually addresses the real issue here: what should be "spiritual" people's approach to understanding the world. She promotes "anti-materialism," but I find it hard to believe that she doesn't accept any materialistic arguments (like germ theory). So when is it ok for someone to accept materialist, versus spiritualist, arguments? When should one decide that ghouls, goblins, angels, Baal, or a 2000-year-dead super-zombie is behind a disease, a newly found species, or an unexplained phenomenon, and when should one decide when "anti-spiritualist" evidences point to a better explanation? When, if ever, should one throw away their old spiritualist traditions in favor of materialistic arguments based on new evidences? Or for a different spiritualist explanation that doesn't contradict evidences? And why is holding onto old traditions innately good?
Atheists, like me, don't have these problems. We "believe in" nothing, and accept only that which can be confirmed by multiple lines of reasonable evidences. What we don't have enough evidences for, we simply admit that we can't explain. When new evidences contradict an explanation, new explanations must be examined and the older one tossed out...no matter how much we may have liked them. My question for O'Leary's intended audience is: how is her way better than mine? How does adding supernatural beings and powers to any explanation, or argument, make it inherently better than mine?
The author, O'Leary, starts by throwing all religions together ("Christians/theists/non-materialists"). I suppose it's a sad attempt to cover ID's fundamentalist Christian political origins, but I actually agree with her here. All religions should all be lumped together as "traditions," as they are all fucking stupid, based on no evidence (faith), and none is admirable. Her enemies, all those atheists/materialists like me, she labels "anti-spiritualists." The term is rather hilarious, as it puts O'Leary's gods on the same tier as ghosts, haunts, and specters (or as I call them, parlor tricks).
Anyway, O'Leary argues that atheists like me are acting out of desperation. And why are we doing whatever we're doing desperately?
The materialism they espouse is simply not confirmed by evidence and not working in society either.Apparently, in the battle waging in O'Leary's head, supernaturalism--aka spiritualism--seems to be jumping way ahead of science--aka anti-spiritualism--in the evidence department. Planes are now known to fly because of angels, not lift, engines, or jet fuel; cell phones work by ESP, not radio transmitions; and doctors are forgoing lab testing, electromagnetic and radiation scanning, and "anti-spiritualist" pharmacology and instead diagnosing by crystal balls and prescribing prayer.
As for the society bit, I have no idea what she's arguing. I didn't know there was an atheist-only colony somewhere that was collapsing. Google didn't turn up any either.
O'Leary then goes on to chastise any moderate Christian--I mean spiritualist--who maintains that, whatever science finds, it just shows how their gods worked or work. Apparently, accepting any materialist explanation is just giving in to us atheists. She even goes after Christians who break with the "Christian tradition" and accept the gays as ok. I'll leave it to moderate Christians to explain to O'Leary how pathetic her arguments are; I don't have a horse in that race.
I will state that O'Leary never actually addresses the real issue here: what should be "spiritual" people's approach to understanding the world. She promotes "anti-materialism," but I find it hard to believe that she doesn't accept any materialistic arguments (like germ theory). So when is it ok for someone to accept materialist, versus spiritualist, arguments? When should one decide that ghouls, goblins, angels, Baal, or a 2000-year-dead super-zombie is behind a disease, a newly found species, or an unexplained phenomenon, and when should one decide when "anti-spiritualist" evidences point to a better explanation? When, if ever, should one throw away their old spiritualist traditions in favor of materialistic arguments based on new evidences? Or for a different spiritualist explanation that doesn't contradict evidences? And why is holding onto old traditions innately good?
Atheists, like me, don't have these problems. We "believe in" nothing, and accept only that which can be confirmed by multiple lines of reasonable evidences. What we don't have enough evidences for, we simply admit that we can't explain. When new evidences contradict an explanation, new explanations must be examined and the older one tossed out...no matter how much we may have liked them. My question for O'Leary's intended audience is: how is her way better than mine? How does adding supernatural beings and powers to any explanation, or argument, make it inherently better than mine?
If Dr. McDonald endorses a book, we must get it
“This is a stunning achievement. Few people know the Founders well enough and contemporary issues well enough to have put together such a book, and even fewer have Brookhiser’s skill at telling the story in so fascinating a way.”
—Forrest McDonald, author of The American Presidency and Alexander Hamilton
—Forrest McDonald, author of The American Presidency and Alexander Hamilton
B5 goes DTV
Skipping the networks entirely, JMS has decided to make a direct-to-video B5 movie-type thing. It comes out this summer.
In order to guarantee sales, Galen is in it. Because really, boil it all down, and all B5 fans really want are more technomage stories.
In order to guarantee sales, Galen is in it. Because really, boil it all down, and all B5 fans really want are more technomage stories.
4.15.2007
Yes
Fitzgerald: Learning about Islam should be part of essential military training
Hugh Fitzgerald, Dhimmi Watch
Part of the essential training of soldiers, those going to Iraq, and those going elsewhere or remaining at home, ought to be about Islam. Not fake Islam. Not the Islam of the Muslim apologists whom too many in the government think are just the people to teach about Islam. Remember that nice Egyptian man, who joined the U. S. Army and was put in charge of teaching about Islam and cultural sensitivity to soldiers, and then turned out to have been involved in the first attack on the World Trade Center?
There should be lectures for this audience, this captive audience of hundreds of thousands, on how non-Muslims are regarded in Islam, how they were treated under the Shari'a, what the Muslim worldview is, and why this belief-system has such a hold on its adherents, why Believers are not allowed to get out but treated, if they dare to question or leave Islam, as traitors.
The Army has not done this. No doubt it fears suits by CAIR, and the reaction of those few Muslim troops (almost entirely black Muslims). But it has somehow to overcome its timidity, just as the C.I.A. and F.B.I. and local police forces need to stop being so protective -- fearful, rather -- of Muslim sensibilities that they dare not speak truthfully about Islam.
Read it all.
Hugh Fitzgerald, Dhimmi Watch
Part of the essential training of soldiers, those going to Iraq, and those going elsewhere or remaining at home, ought to be about Islam. Not fake Islam. Not the Islam of the Muslim apologists whom too many in the government think are just the people to teach about Islam. Remember that nice Egyptian man, who joined the U. S. Army and was put in charge of teaching about Islam and cultural sensitivity to soldiers, and then turned out to have been involved in the first attack on the World Trade Center?
There should be lectures for this audience, this captive audience of hundreds of thousands, on how non-Muslims are regarded in Islam, how they were treated under the Shari'a, what the Muslim worldview is, and why this belief-system has such a hold on its adherents, why Believers are not allowed to get out but treated, if they dare to question or leave Islam, as traitors.
The Army has not done this. No doubt it fears suits by CAIR, and the reaction of those few Muslim troops (almost entirely black Muslims). But it has somehow to overcome its timidity, just as the C.I.A. and F.B.I. and local police forces need to stop being so protective -- fearful, rather -- of Muslim sensibilities that they dare not speak truthfully about Islam.
Read it all.
4.14.2007
Tobermory's Green Thumb Secret
Ingredient #1: Urea - and the other ingredients in Wired, of all places.
My kind of debate.
"Arch-enemies Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson will battle for the right to be called “master debater,” thanks to a bold trio of students from Hamilton College who have successfully goaded debaters from the University of Virginia to face off in the Hamilton-Jefferson Public Speaking Competition" - Link.
Too busy for art.
"No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the (Washington) Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world (Joshua Bell), playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made (a 1711 Stradivarius)" and almost no one paid attention. Context matters. Article. Audio. Joshua Bell at Wikipedia.
4.13.2007
Marriage Threatened By Activist Legislature and Governor
Washington State is going to allow the gays to be domestic partners. Oh, the horror!
Cue the "marriage is under attack" music please...Hope your marriages make it through the weekend!
Cue the "marriage is under attack" music please...Hope your marriages make it through the weekend!
In response to C. Squid's earlier post:
That Would Be One Big 12-Piece Bucket
Hooray! I knew it would only be a matter of time before DNA would prove what Oliver Butterworth taught me long ago....
Hooray! I knew it would only be a matter of time before DNA would prove what Oliver Butterworth taught me long ago....
Hmmm...What Does This Sound Like To You?
In the UK, a familiar argument comes up, but from a different source. From the Daily Mail:
It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.Maybe they should "teach the controversy." Or perhaps just teach the "gaps" and "problems" in the Holocaust record.
That Would Be One Big 12-Piece Bucket
The gods of the creationists' gaps gets smaller and smaller: more evidence birds came from dinosaurs.
4.12.2007
Tautologysaurus Rex
Very soon, Ken Ham's Creation Museum will open in Kentucky and convince millions of "believers" that anything they want to believe about science is true. The few rational people who show up will probably be escorted out due to uncontrolled, raucous laughter.
Here's a great quote from the astronomer who is in charge of the "museum's" planetarium: “We don’t try to prove the Bible from outside evidence. We accept the Bible as presupposition.” So everyone should believe the bible based on no "outside" evidence (IOW, the bible is right because it says so). And if you go in convinced that the bible is right, it doesn't matter what contradictory evidences are found: they're wrong. Will the museum have a tautology exhibit?
So how do we see light from stars millions of light years away if the earth is only 10,000 years old? God. Why are there 2 contradictory creation myths in genesis? Jesus told me there isn't. Why does no evidence support the genesis mythologies? Satanic homosexual atheist humanist UN antichrist Clinton secular New World Order Dawkins unmarked helicopters NASA Catholic--did I say atheist?--conspiracy.
Here's a great quote from the astronomer who is in charge of the "museum's" planetarium: “We don’t try to prove the Bible from outside evidence. We accept the Bible as presupposition.” So everyone should believe the bible based on no "outside" evidence (IOW, the bible is right because it says so). And if you go in convinced that the bible is right, it doesn't matter what contradictory evidences are found: they're wrong. Will the museum have a tautology exhibit?
So how do we see light from stars millions of light years away if the earth is only 10,000 years old? God. Why are there 2 contradictory creation myths in genesis? Jesus told me there isn't. Why does no evidence support the genesis mythologies? Satanic homosexual atheist humanist UN antichrist Clinton secular New World Order Dawkins unmarked helicopters NASA Catholic--did I say atheist?--conspiracy.
4.11.2007
Camille is back.
Although we don't agree on every point, I love reading Camille Paglia. She's back at Salon. A recent column unleashes a soon to be published book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein which argues that Percy Bysshe Shelley, not Mary Shelly, wrote Frankenstein. The author also points to "instance after instance of homoerotic imagery and encoded social commentary" in the work. It may be mad doctor time around here soon.
In a country with, as GateTree puts it,"brains awash in text-messaging & booty-dancing", comes a voice from its past....
Dear Sarah,
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow and lest I shall not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.
I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind that binds me irresistibly with all those cables to the battlefield.
The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me and I feel most deeply grateful to God, and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is to give them up and burn to ashes the future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our boys grow up to honorable man-hood around us.
If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor when my last breath escapes me it will whisper your name. Forgive me my many faults and the many pains I have caused you, how thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been.
But, oh Sarah, if the dead can come back and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you on the brightest day and the darkest night. Always. ALWAYS.
And when the soft breeze fans your cheek it shall be my breath. Or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my sprit passing by.
Sarah, do not mourn me dead. Think I am gone and wait for me. For we shall meet again.
According to Ken Burns' PBS documentary, The Civil War, Sullivan Bellew was killed one week later on July 21, 1861 at the First Battle of Bull Run.
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow and lest I shall not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.
I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind that binds me irresistibly with all those cables to the battlefield.
The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me and I feel most deeply grateful to God, and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is to give them up and burn to ashes the future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our boys grow up to honorable man-hood around us.
If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor when my last breath escapes me it will whisper your name. Forgive me my many faults and the many pains I have caused you, how thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been.
But, oh Sarah, if the dead can come back and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you on the brightest day and the darkest night. Always. ALWAYS.
And when the soft breeze fans your cheek it shall be my breath. Or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my sprit passing by.
Sarah, do not mourn me dead. Think I am gone and wait for me. For we shall meet again.
According to Ken Burns' PBS documentary, The Civil War, Sullivan Bellew was killed one week later on July 21, 1861 at the First Battle of Bull Run.
Al-Qaida in the Mahgreb
Text: Al-Qaida Claims Suicide Attacks in Algeria, Possible Links in Morocco
By Evan Kohlmann @ Counterterrorism Blog
"We bring good news to the larger Islamic nation and, in particular, to our mujahideen brothers concerning the execution of special type of an operation for the very first time... We say to the apostates and their lords among the crusaders: behold the young Muslim men who are coming to you, behold those who cherish death more than life itself, and cherish martyrdom the same way that you cherish your corrupt lifestyle. We shall not put away our swords and we shall never live in peace until every last Muslim land is set free from the crusaders, the apostates, and the collaborators... O’ Allah, attack the Jews and Christians and their apostate collaborators and bring victory to the mujahideen everywhere."
Read it all, especially the link from: If accurate, this would be the first official indication that the GSPC is actively seeking targets outside the borders of Algeria.
By Evan Kohlmann @ Counterterrorism Blog
"We bring good news to the larger Islamic nation and, in particular, to our mujahideen brothers concerning the execution of special type of an operation for the very first time... We say to the apostates and their lords among the crusaders: behold the young Muslim men who are coming to you, behold those who cherish death more than life itself, and cherish martyrdom the same way that you cherish your corrupt lifestyle. We shall not put away our swords and we shall never live in peace until every last Muslim land is set free from the crusaders, the apostates, and the collaborators... O’ Allah, attack the Jews and Christians and their apostate collaborators and bring victory to the mujahideen everywhere."
Read it all, especially the link from: If accurate, this would be the first official indication that the GSPC is actively seeking targets outside the borders of Algeria.
Two Great Books on Evolution
I've been reading a lot lately, enjoying the fruits of not having to work 2 jobs and having a library card. Here are 2 must-reads:
Sean Carroll's Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo. For those of you not familiar with the term, evo devo is short for evolutionary developmental biology. It's the study of the changes in the genetic switches in development in order to understand how different species evolved. It is the "hot" growing field in biology, and it is providing some of the most robust research into not just when, but how speciation has occured.
This book is split into 2 parts. The first explains the history and science of developmental biology. I admittedly did not care much for the developmental biology course I took at U of A, but the author keeps it interesting. The subject matter is complicated; and even though Sean tries to simplify it, in the end those without biology degrees will probably end up slightly confused by it. But learning it is essential for understanding part 2: evo devo. And that part will blow your mind. Once you know the current understanding of how organisms are constructed, understanding how minor genetic changes can result in selectable differences in offspring is obvious. And the accumulation of those successful changes over millions of years...
The second book is Monkey Girl by Edward Humes. I actually bought this one, so it's available on loan. The topic: Dover, PA, and the Kitzmiller trial. The shenanigans that went on in the Dover Board of Education were so shameful, disgusting, and anti-American (yeah, I said it), that you will not be able to put the damn book down. Split into 3 parts, it covers Dover pre-trial, the history of evolution and creationism, and the Dover trial and aftermath. The detailed descriptions of the "characters" behind the decision to include ID in the science curriculum, and of the appalled teachers, parents, and students who stood against them, is excellent. Your mouth will fall to the floor many times, like when one of the school board members, Angie Yingling, described her understanding of ID (nonexistent) and why she didn't listen to the science teachers on the subject (when she was in school, board-member Yingling didn't like the head of the science teachers, so she didn't listen to that teacher decades later when she explained why ID wasn't science to the board. The teacher "bitched" too much.).
But the book has a major shortcomings. The editor was crap and the book should have been vetted more. All kinds of major and minor errors from spelling and grammar ("H" instead of "He" and "Robert" rather than "Richard Dawkins" stand out), to layout (I despise it when editors needlessly squinch words up [called kerning], causing sentences to end like this: end.Beginning. Move a word down a line, jackass.), to some rather silly technical mistakes (Bill O'Reilly is on Fox News, not CNN as the book states). They take away from the real power of the book by making its author look amateurish and the publication look like it's from some 3rd-rate Christer schlock mill (instead of from HarperCollins).
Still, most of the information is trustworthy (I followed the trial pretty closely as it unfolded, so I remember much of it). The science is dead-on, as is the description of ID. But the trial part...oh my, how tasty. It's a veritable religious nut pate, with layer after rich layer of creationist lies, obfuscations, and humiliating public refutations. Those ID advocates that could ran away, fast. That any of them thought they would make it out of that trial vindicated shows the true power of religion to delude its believers.
Other books on the trial are coming out. I'll be reading them as well, as it will be fun to compare and contrast.
Sean Carroll's Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo. For those of you not familiar with the term, evo devo is short for evolutionary developmental biology. It's the study of the changes in the genetic switches in development in order to understand how different species evolved. It is the "hot" growing field in biology, and it is providing some of the most robust research into not just when, but how speciation has occured.
This book is split into 2 parts. The first explains the history and science of developmental biology. I admittedly did not care much for the developmental biology course I took at U of A, but the author keeps it interesting. The subject matter is complicated; and even though Sean tries to simplify it, in the end those without biology degrees will probably end up slightly confused by it. But learning it is essential for understanding part 2: evo devo. And that part will blow your mind. Once you know the current understanding of how organisms are constructed, understanding how minor genetic changes can result in selectable differences in offspring is obvious. And the accumulation of those successful changes over millions of years...
The second book is Monkey Girl by Edward Humes. I actually bought this one, so it's available on loan. The topic: Dover, PA, and the Kitzmiller trial. The shenanigans that went on in the Dover Board of Education were so shameful, disgusting, and anti-American (yeah, I said it), that you will not be able to put the damn book down. Split into 3 parts, it covers Dover pre-trial, the history of evolution and creationism, and the Dover trial and aftermath. The detailed descriptions of the "characters" behind the decision to include ID in the science curriculum, and of the appalled teachers, parents, and students who stood against them, is excellent. Your mouth will fall to the floor many times, like when one of the school board members, Angie Yingling, described her understanding of ID (nonexistent) and why she didn't listen to the science teachers on the subject (when she was in school, board-member Yingling didn't like the head of the science teachers, so she didn't listen to that teacher decades later when she explained why ID wasn't science to the board. The teacher "bitched" too much.).But the book has a major shortcomings. The editor was crap and the book should have been vetted more. All kinds of major and minor errors from spelling and grammar ("H" instead of "He" and "Robert" rather than "Richard Dawkins" stand out), to layout (I despise it when editors needlessly squinch words up [called kerning], causing sentences to end like this: end.Beginning. Move a word down a line, jackass.), to some rather silly technical mistakes (Bill O'Reilly is on Fox News, not CNN as the book states). They take away from the real power of the book by making its author look amateurish and the publication look like it's from some 3rd-rate Christer schlock mill (instead of from HarperCollins).
Still, most of the information is trustworthy (I followed the trial pretty closely as it unfolded, so I remember much of it). The science is dead-on, as is the description of ID. But the trial part...oh my, how tasty. It's a veritable religious nut pate, with layer after rich layer of creationist lies, obfuscations, and humiliating public refutations. Those ID advocates that could ran away, fast. That any of them thought they would make it out of that trial vindicated shows the true power of religion to delude its believers.
Other books on the trial are coming out. I'll be reading them as well, as it will be fun to compare and contrast.
Drive
Tim Minear's new show "Drive" starts Sunday night on Fox (oh dear). It's about an illegal cross-country race. Nathan Fillion stars. History indicates that if it's really good, we should expect to watch the last of the 13 filmed episodes on DVD next year.
Atheism in North Alabama Schools
I found this post of interest by a Huntsville parent whose 6th-grade daughter was harassed by students because she is an atheist. The details of the taunts are what you might expect (and then some), but the reaction by the faculty should be commended. They acted like grown-ups in charge of children, which is rare in schools these days. I especially liked one administrator's amazingly harsh opinion of the so-called "Christian" kids' parents:
"I believe that it is the responsibility of the home to teach beliefs and values. Unfortunately, these incidents reveal that not every home teaches values.” Amen.
In 6th grade, anyone who does not "fit in" is going to get taunted, based on any number of things (fat/thin, too smart/too dumb, femme/butch, too religious/not religious enough/wrong religion, etc). While no school administrator can stop that, they can stop it from getting out of control (such as it did in this case).
"I believe that it is the responsibility of the home to teach beliefs and values. Unfortunately, these incidents reveal that not every home teaches values.” Amen.
In 6th grade, anyone who does not "fit in" is going to get taunted, based on any number of things (fat/thin, too smart/too dumb, femme/butch, too religious/not religious enough/wrong religion, etc). While no school administrator can stop that, they can stop it from getting out of control (such as it did in this case).
4.09.2007
R2-D2 Goes Postal
The US Postal Service is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars with stamps and some very cool mail boxes.
Jonah Goldberg puts Ms. O'Donnell in her place, & PM explains the science- again
The 'Queen of Nice' has gone nuts, and ABC lets her rant on and on
By Jonah Goldberg, The New Hampshire Union Leader
RENOWNED metallurgist Rosie O'Donnell proclaimed on TV Thursday of last week that Sept. 11, 2001, was a more significant date than most of us realized. It was, in her words, "the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel."
This, of course, came as news to steelworkers, welders, blacksmiths, firefighters, manufacturers of samurai swords and other fools who hadn't realized that steel is forged in magic furnaces using dragon breath and pixie dust.
...
Still, not even the heat of ridicule can weaken O'Donnell's steely resolve to make an idiot of herself.
That's fine. Normally we expect such outbursts from the poor souls who rage against unseen threats at bus stations and public libraries. But even the rich and famous have a right to mutter inanities, shout non sequiturs or shriek possum recipes.
Read It all.
Rosie O'Donnell 9/11 Conspiracy Comments: Popular Mechanics Responds
Recently, Rosie O’Donnell, a co-host of ABC talk show The View, made comments on the show that renewed controversy over the collapse of World Trade Center 7.
While saying she didn’t know what to believe about the U.S. government’s involvement in the attacks of Sept. 11, she said, “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.”
She continued: “To say that we don’t know that it imploded, that it was an implosion and a demolition, is beyond ignorant. Look at the films, get a physics expert here [on the show] from Yale, from Harvard, pick the school—[the collapse] defies reason.” (Watch the clip here)
For those interested in what physics and demolition experts have said regarding WTC 7’s collapse, as detailed in our book Debunking 9/11 Myths, Popular Mechanics offers these notes....
Read it all.
4.08.2007
Chemobiogenesis Gets A Huge Boost, Creationist Denials At 11
Looks like those early chemobiogenesis experiments by Urey and Miller were relevant after all. Details here.
Easter Questions
Why should an omnipotent god have to take the form of man to die for the sins created by the same god? Why not eliminate the sins and its roots from the get-go? Why have sin at all?
Name one reasonable person who would suffer tremendously when he or she doesn't have to, just to pay for something he or she made and didn't have to...and could quite easily cause to not have existed in the first place.
To quote the bible, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" It's a good question: why are we so fucked up as to need an ever-mindful creator to suffer for all of us in order for some of us to be able to die and live eternally with it? Why should any omnipotent being need a son to die wretchedly (but finitely) just to ensure that countless billions suffer horribly in an eternal torture chamber while a scant few go on to worship it in bliss forever?
A woman, a serpent, and a piece of fruit isn't even a BAD answer; it's a stunningly inane reply. The gods of the bible are amoral reprobates who deserve scorn, not obedience, and who certainly deserve no worship. And the tales of their doings are so phenomenally horrifying and absurd that only by abandoning one's intellectual self-respect could one actually believe any of them in part or in full. I would ask of believers: what are the biblical gods that we should be mindful of them?
Today, as with any Easter Sunday, I'll be thankful for the Enlightenment and for the government (democratic republic) and philosophy (science) it promoted. Both have made my life quantifiably better than those of humans who lived before them, though neither has been perfect. But that's just it: neither has ever claimed to be. Both are works in progress, and both have resulted in just that. So while millions of Christians praise a 1st century Jewish rebel and his mythological life/death/life, we 21st century atheists mourn the loss of a beautiful spring weekend to the illogical religions that have--and continue to--cause so much pain, death, and destruction...but no progress.
The same kind of mindset that makes people believe Jesus rose from the dead caused the twin towers to fall: acceptance without evidence. Faith is hardly an admirable trait; it is instead a dangerous delusion.
Name one reasonable person who would suffer tremendously when he or she doesn't have to, just to pay for something he or she made and didn't have to...and could quite easily cause to not have existed in the first place.
To quote the bible, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" It's a good question: why are we so fucked up as to need an ever-mindful creator to suffer for all of us in order for some of us to be able to die and live eternally with it? Why should any omnipotent being need a son to die wretchedly (but finitely) just to ensure that countless billions suffer horribly in an eternal torture chamber while a scant few go on to worship it in bliss forever?
A woman, a serpent, and a piece of fruit isn't even a BAD answer; it's a stunningly inane reply. The gods of the bible are amoral reprobates who deserve scorn, not obedience, and who certainly deserve no worship. And the tales of their doings are so phenomenally horrifying and absurd that only by abandoning one's intellectual self-respect could one actually believe any of them in part or in full. I would ask of believers: what are the biblical gods that we should be mindful of them?
Today, as with any Easter Sunday, I'll be thankful for the Enlightenment and for the government (democratic republic) and philosophy (science) it promoted. Both have made my life quantifiably better than those of humans who lived before them, though neither has been perfect. But that's just it: neither has ever claimed to be. Both are works in progress, and both have resulted in just that. So while millions of Christians praise a 1st century Jewish rebel and his mythological life/death/life, we 21st century atheists mourn the loss of a beautiful spring weekend to the illogical religions that have--and continue to--cause so much pain, death, and destruction...but no progress.
The same kind of mindset that makes people believe Jesus rose from the dead caused the twin towers to fall: acceptance without evidence. Faith is hardly an admirable trait; it is instead a dangerous delusion.
4.07.2007
Forget Free Speech, You Can't Even Shut Up Anymore
Fellow libertarian Ed Brayton over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a great article about the religious right's criticisms over the National Day of Silence, a student-sponsored protest in which teens who support gay rights do not talk for a day.
I would think that most teachers should be happy some kids are shutting up for a day, as should all the "ignorant, proud, and loud" religious thugs who just can't leave different people alone. But the fundamentalists have gotten so loony that shutting up doesn't even satisfy their lust for theocratic control.
I would think that most teachers should be happy some kids are shutting up for a day, as should all the "ignorant, proud, and loud" religious thugs who just can't leave different people alone. But the fundamentalists have gotten so loony that shutting up doesn't even satisfy their lust for theocratic control.
4.06.2007
Why Americans Don't Trust Bush
From his 2000 campaign:
It's the borders, stupid!
The pot and kettle don't know what to do...except hope that he has finally put a competent general in charge. But after how many years, deaths, and incompetence?"The facts are stark and the facts are real. . . Our men and women in uniform love their country more than their comfort. They have never failed us, and we must not fail them. But the best intentions and the highest morale are undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, and rapidly declining readiness."
". . .these are signs of a military in decline and we must do something about it. The reasons are clear. Lack of equipment and material. Undermaning of units. Overdeployment. Not enough time for family. Soldiers who are on food stamps, and soldiers who are poorly housed. Dick Cheney and I have a simple message today for our men and women in uniform, their parents, their loved ones, their supporters: Help is on the way!"
It's the borders, stupid!
4.05.2007
Too breathtakingly absurd (& hilarious) to ignore, courtesy of The MEMRI Blog
Iranian Minister: 300 Film is an Insult to the Entire Iranian Nation
According to the Iranian news agency Mehr, Iranian Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad-Hossein Saffar Harandi has told his ministry staff that Iranian artists will respond to the film “300,” which he claims does not correctly depict the great civilization of Iran.
Iranian Media: "300" Film "Intentionally Insults Iran's Ancient Culture"; Bootleg DVDs Already Available In Iran
The Iranian news agency Fars is reporting that the film "300" has angered the Iranian people "due to its intentional insults to the country's ancient culture" and is being "viewed by many, even non-Iranians, as overt animosity towards Iran."
IRINN Commentary on The New Film "300"
The following commentary was aired on the Iranian News Channel (IRINN) on March 13, 2007
Reporter: Tonight, IRINN commentary also sheds more light on the conspiracy behind the screening of this anti-culture Hollywood film.
Voiceover: Screening of the movie ‘300’ which has depicted war between the Persians and the Greeks, using an unreal and fabricated story, is facing a wave of protests and criticism by Iranians both inside and outside the country. Warner Bros., which belongs to the famous and rich American Jew, is the company that has made the movie. This movie, which is totally against Persian culture and civilization, could be considered a production by Zionists and a group of American extremists. The film ‘300’ shows the historical war between Persians, at the time of King Xerxes, with the Spartans. The director wrongly depicts the Persians as being violent and warmongers. This film is a complete distortion of history. It shows the Spartans, who were warmongers and racists and violent, as peace lovers, and the Persians as uncivilized- which is nothing but a lie. In addition to distortion of history, the Zionist Warner Company is also pursuing cultural and political objectives by producing such a film which has a very shallow script. From the cultural point of view, the Zionists and the elements affiliated to the U.S. have tried to launch a propaganda front against ancient and historical roots of Iranians, and the hasty production of this film is an indication of its propaganda aspect. But political intentions of Warner have been more important than anything else. This film tries to paint a violent image of Persians who are against peace in today’s world, in order to increase the international political pressure on Iran. This is while films should be made of crimes committed by the Americans, throughout history, all around the world, and it should be shown what the so-called civilized Zionists and Americans are doing today with human rights and humanity.
According to the Iranian news agency Mehr, Iranian Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad-Hossein Saffar Harandi has told his ministry staff that Iranian artists will respond to the film “300,” which he claims does not correctly depict the great civilization of Iran.
Iranian Media: "300" Film "Intentionally Insults Iran's Ancient Culture"; Bootleg DVDs Already Available In Iran
The Iranian news agency Fars is reporting that the film "300" has angered the Iranian people "due to its intentional insults to the country's ancient culture" and is being "viewed by many, even non-Iranians, as overt animosity towards Iran."
Drum roll, please, as we have a winner:
IRINN Commentary on The New Film "300"
The following commentary was aired on the Iranian News Channel (IRINN) on March 13, 2007
Reporter: Tonight, IRINN commentary also sheds more light on the conspiracy behind the screening of this anti-culture Hollywood film.
Voiceover: Screening of the movie ‘300’ which has depicted war between the Persians and the Greeks, using an unreal and fabricated story, is facing a wave of protests and criticism by Iranians both inside and outside the country. Warner Bros., which belongs to the famous and rich American Jew, is the company that has made the movie. This movie, which is totally against Persian culture and civilization, could be considered a production by Zionists and a group of American extremists. The film ‘300’ shows the historical war between Persians, at the time of King Xerxes, with the Spartans. The director wrongly depicts the Persians as being violent and warmongers. This film is a complete distortion of history. It shows the Spartans, who were warmongers and racists and violent, as peace lovers, and the Persians as uncivilized- which is nothing but a lie. In addition to distortion of history, the Zionist Warner Company is also pursuing cultural and political objectives by producing such a film which has a very shallow script. From the cultural point of view, the Zionists and the elements affiliated to the U.S. have tried to launch a propaganda front against ancient and historical roots of Iranians, and the hasty production of this film is an indication of its propaganda aspect. But political intentions of Warner have been more important than anything else. This film tries to paint a violent image of Persians who are against peace in today’s world, in order to increase the international political pressure on Iran. This is while films should be made of crimes committed by the Americans, throughout history, all around the world, and it should be shown what the so-called civilized Zionists and Americans are doing today with human rights and humanity.
I love free, pretty icons
Enlightening analysis from Dr. Phares
Admedinijad's "Plan B" - The Circus Continues
By Walid Phares, Counterterrorism Blog
With the decision to release the 15 British sailors, the Ahmedinijad Circus resumes its tales. Morphing from a “long story” to a “sensational scoop” the powerful Khomeinist propaganda machine has produced a better end to the hostage crisis: release them now and invest heavily in their “merciful liberation.” Hence the new debate worldwide as of the first hours of this day is about the Mullahs “freeing” the British personnel, not anymore about their “abduction”, and certainly not the other crucial stories, from UN sanctions on the nuclear standoff, the Iranian operatives arrested in Iraq, or the domestic opposition to Ahmedinijad. The war of images is on, powerful, and still in the hands of Tehran, or rather in the sophisticated “PR machine” at the service of the regime.
The abrupt change in direction operated by the Khomeinist decision-makers, from long-lasting crisis to blitz-solution is the product of a strong advice given by the “PR machine,” most of it based in the West, realizing how catastrophic would have been a stretching of the hostages’ crisis in time. Ahmedinijad wanted time but his advisors realized that the operation has been exposed in the world court of opinion, and hence had to cease and morph. But why did the “advisors,” mostly (Western-hired) ask the Mullahs to release the British at once and “use” the decision to the advantage of the regime? Here are the very objective and heavy reasons....
Read it all.
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