Yet another reason to thank god we're not in Texas

PZ Myers has a great post on a new law that's about to be signed in Texas to force public schools to accept all sorts of timewasting religious commentary to be injected throughout the curriculum. If this is the kind of education available in Texas, make sure not to hire any professionals from there -- especially not a doctor! Imagine heading into surgery and hearing, "I learned all I know about biology from the bible."

The purpose of this bill is to allow students to aggressively state their beliefs about creationism in science and Protestant Christianity in history, health, and other classrooms without fear of contradiction by teachers. The bill states, "Students may express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. Students shall neither be penalized nor rewarded on account of religious content." Thus, a biology teacher may not penalize a student for giving answers on biology homework, classwork, and exams that invoke non-scientific creationist explanations of natural phenomena. Students may hold such pseudoscientific beliefs, learned in their churches and Sunday schools, but it is a perversion of science and education to permit such expressions in a science class without contradiction by a science teacher.

Kevin James Magic

Wow, it took me a while to figure this out (with a little help).

“Strikingly Negative” GAO Iraq Report Leaked To Keep Bush From Watering It Down

It's sad that there's so much "spin" (read outright lies & deception) in the Bush administration that other government officials have to leak reports to ensure that they get the American people. Just who does GW think he's working for anyway -- Halliburton?

On Countdown, Keith Olbermann reveals that the latest, damning GAO report on Iraq was leaked by government officials who were afraid that much like previous negative reports, would be watered down by the Bush administration. As usual, chaos rules the day as Olbermann talks with retired Gen. Wesley Clark about President Bush’s impending $50 billion request for continued operations in Iraq and reports that the Pentagon wants to re-write parts of the GAO report to fit their view of conditions on the ground in Iraq.

Thanks Countdown.

Solutions to our healthcare crisis.

Once again, I like what I hear from Sen. Edwards.

Is Education more important than healthcare?

So we're willing to educate all American children but not willing to provide them basic healthcare?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082707N.shtml

U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world

Wow. Why can't we offer free healthcare and parenting skills training to the low income pregnant women who are losing their babies?

Since I can't say it any better than our friends at OneGoodMove.com, I'll just "borrow" their text here:

It's stories like this one, that the United States is the greatest thing since sliced bread crowd, get their panties in a bunch over. They think pointing out problems proves we hate our country. They are so worried about how we might appear to the rest of the world, that they attack those of us who point to the flaws. We are the ones that love our country and want it to be better. The never criticize never complain crowd is so busy hiding the flaws that they no longer have time to make this a better place to live. How sad.

Fear of comedy

When people self-censor for fear of offending others with their comedy.... then we're screwed. Worse, if the fear is unevenly applied as in the case of those fearful of offending sensitive Muslims who wont get over themselves, then the terrorists really ARE winning.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/08/fear_of_comics.php

See my earlier post on people mistakenly believing that they have a right to NOT be offended.

The real enemies of reason

As much as I like seeing Dawkins expose the obvious enemies of reason (religion, parapsychology, and similar cons), I have to agree with this article that we must also include politics and corporations as they are the some of the biggest conmen of all time.

It is high time that Professor Dawkins stopped larking about with homeopaths and faith healers and put his considerable talents as a phrasemaker and polemicist to better use. I agree with him that science as a human endeavour is threatened as never before, and that the public's ability to understand reality is being systematically undermined. But it is worse than useless to ignore the most serious enemies of reason because they don't sportingly announce what they are up to.

But the most significant threats come from institutions that loudly insist on their enlightened credentials. States and corporations habitually use rational means to promote irrationality in target populations. They exploit the prestige of science to marginalise their critics. They cook up marketing strategies that sound scientific but are no more than mythmaking.

The UK is concerned that "football" is becoming a religion

Even if true, it certainly wouldn't do the harm that religions currently do. I'd take the occasional soccer riot anyday over flying planes into buildings.

In his classic book, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that religion and society were deeply bound up with each other. He claimed that religions are potent forces for binding people into communities focused around common values, stories and symbols. But in addition to this, Durkheim claimed that religious experience itself - the sense of getting caught up with something greater than oneself - was generated by a sense of participating in the power of the larger social group rather than by some divine force. The power behind religion is therefore the power people feel from participating in groups. For Durkheim, religion both generates society by binding people into communities, but society also generates religion by providing the emotional intensity and collective symbols that get translated into everyday religious life. Ultimately there is no God - just the power of human belonging in society.

Verizon Can't Count

If you haven't yet seen/heard the Verizon Math bit you can save time by reading the transcript but really, the audio is so much better. Prepare to be frustrated at the innumeracy, illogic, and lack of effort to understand a concept so simple it's amazing these people are able to use a telephone.

You can also get the play by play (and a t-shirt) at this guy's blog.

My favorite part is when one supervisor caught in her own illogic, pauses, then says, "well, I'm not a math major!" What a blowhard move -- as if only a major math geek could tell the difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents. Maybe she got hyp-nO-tized by all those confusing zeros. You see this move whenever someone doesn't want to feel stupid about a topic so they instead immediately go on the offensive stating that only a loser would know anything about such an unimportant subject (like math or science).

It's sad that so many schools teach students self-esteem -- even when they fail --so that as adults these people can learn to feel good about their ignorance. Hey, here's a thought... how about we teach them not to be ignorant and then they'll have the REAL self-esteem that comes from being smart, capable human beings who can better this world? Nah, the government doesn't want people who can think! They want 'em dumb and easily controlled. Well, that's another topic altogether.

Wanna feel smarter?

Marilyn Vos Savant gets so many dumb questions that actually get printed in her weekly column it makes you wonder how many don't even make it into print. She tries to be nice and call them "amazing" or "dumbfounding" questions -- well, she's half-right on the last one.

Here are some whoppers:

1. Does a 10-gallon hat really hold that much? They don’t look big enough.
2. I notice you have the same first name as Marilyn Monroe. Are you two related?
3. Where did all the stars go? In the ‘50s, the sky was loaded with them.
4. Do you think daylight-saving time could be contributing to global warming? The longer we have sunlight, the more it heats the atmosphere.
5. I see falling stars nearly every night. They seem to come out of nowhere. Have stars ever fallen out of any known constellations?
6. Why do birds sometimes pick a single vehicle to make a mess on? Do they have a warped sense of humor, or are they not capable of this kind of thought?
7. Instead of moving our clocks one hour forward every spring, then one hour backward every fall, why couldn’t we just move them one-half hour forward this spring and be done with it?
8. I just observed a flock of geese flying in a “V” formation. Is that the only letter they know?
9. When I dream, why don’t I need my glasses to see?
10. Can you please explain gravity in plain English? I have tried to do some research on the subject, but it always jumps right into mathematics that is way over my head.
11. Can sour cream go bad? If so, how can you tell? Please answer soon, because I have an unopened container in the back of my refrigerator with an expiration date of April 1996.
12. If a new car costs much more than a new tuxedo, how come it costs more to rent a tuxedo?
13. Could leap year be switched from Feb. 29 to June 31? It would give us an extra day of summer and one less day of winter.
14. How did all that sand get in the desert?
15. Why did God make cockroaches?
16. How happy are larks, really?
17. Why is the alphabet in the order it is? Is it because of that song?

Ouch, my brain hurts! More here:
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2003/edition_12-21-2003/ask_marilyn_0
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_07-29-2007/Ask_Marilyn
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2005/edition_05-29-2005/ask_marilyn_0

These folks are just one step away from competing for the Darwin Awards. Too bad we can't choose the contestants because I can think of a few people to volunteer. :)

He got laid...

...we got screwed

Letters Reveal Mother Teresa Lost Her Faith

"What do I labor for?" she asked in one letter. "If there be no God, there can
be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/23/eveningnews/main3199062.shtml

If true, it's sad to think that she predicated the value of her "labor" on the existence of god; as if one cannot otherwise do any good or have any morals.

We're only 5% of the universe

...dark matter is another 20% and the other 75% is all dark energy. So we can only see 5% of everything there is and we've never discovered what the other 95% is. Good thing scientists like a mystery.
http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/08/sean-carroll-on.html

Not So Fast, Christian Soldiers

LA Times article listing many instances where our military cannot seem to grasp the separation of church and state. One might get the impression that the military brass somehow benefits by pushing religion upon our service men, perhaps using faith to obfuscate and diminish independent thought. You know, to make them more pliable and willing killing machines who aren't afraid to die for the wrong cause because, hey, at least they're fighting against the infidels for the one, true God and will be rewarded in heaven, right? Nah, they wouldn't be that crass, would they?

American military and political officials must, at the very least, have the foresight not to promote crusade rhetoric in the midst of an already religion-tinged war. Many of our enemies in the Mideast already believe that the world is locked in a contest between Christianity and Islam. Why are our military officials validating this ludicrous claim with their own fiery religious rhetoric? It’s time to actively strip the so-called war on terror of its religious connotations, not add to them. Because religious wars are not just ugly, they are unwinnable. And despite what Operation Straight Up and its supporters in the Pentagon may think is taking place in Iraq, the Rapture is not a viable exit strategy.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/22/3331/

GW is set to break the record!

...and they said it shouldn't be done:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/08/vacation.html

I'm surprised that they haven't already flown the Mission Accomplished banner.

The 11th Hour Trailer

I'm not a big DiCaprio fan but this looks good.

Certainly Hillary isn't a hypocrite, right?

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/08/hillary_a_hypoc.html

She also is allegedly a follower of the BS from Deepak Chopra -- one of our Enemies of Reason.

If you tolerate this...

"Terrorists are nothing like the threat we face from our own government." Only we can destroy our freedom -- by letting the government take it away, step by step.

Doug Stanhope

He couldn't quite pull off the Man Show but he's still funny, in a curmudgeonly, Bill Hicks, in-your-face kind of way:
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/66194/detail/

They have more clips of Doug as does YouTube. Enjoy.

Old-line Republican warns 'something's in the works' to trigger a police state

I've been worried about this for some time and now even some Republicans are sounding the warning. Here are two money quotes:

"Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

"Americans think their danger is terrorists," said Roberts. "They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that."
Roberts pointed out that it's old-line Republicans like himself, former Reagan associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein, and Pat Buchanan who are the diehards in warning of the danger. "It's so obvious to people like us who have long been associated in the corridors of power," he said. "There's no belief in the people or anything like that. They have agendas. The people are in the way. The Constitution is in the way. ... Americans need to comprehend and look at how ruthless Cheney is. ... A person like that would do anything."

More here.
The full audio of Thom Hartmann's interview with Paul Craig Roberts can be found here.

Science of winning checkers solved

It wasn't easy but they figured it out:
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12296-checkers-solved-after-years-of-number-crunching.html

Maybe we are intelligently designed

...except not the way the ID nuts would like:
http://richarddawkins.net/article,1526,Our-Lives-Controlled-From-Some-Guys-Couch,John-Tierney

Beliefs - a comic by xkcd

http://xkcd.com/154/

Wow, Cheney sounded so smart in '94

What happened?
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/08/cheney_1.html

Curse you!

It must be nice to have a group of minions able (?) and willing to curse your enemies -- especially when you've been busted violating federal tax law. It doesn't however, seem like the morally upright behavior you'd typically expect from the head of a Baptist church.

I don't think curses work on IRS agents though, they're somehow protected by an even more sinister force.

http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=9327&JServSessionIdr005=a5ratz61s1.app13a

Are we entering an age of endarkenment?

Quote

The past 30 years or so have been an age of endarkenment. It has been a period in which truth ceased to matter very much, and dogma and irrationality became once more respectable. This matters when people delude themselves into believing that we could be endangered at 45 minutes' notice by non-existent weapons of mass destruction. It matters when reputable accountants delude themselves into thinking that Enron-style accounting is acceptable. It matters when people are deluded into thinking that they will be rewarded in paradise for killing themselves and others. It matters when bishops attribute floods to a deity whose evident vengefulness and malevolence leave one reeling. And it matters when science teachers start to believe that the Earth was created 6,000 years ago.

More here:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/08/what_will_you_do_to_oppose_the.php

Full article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/15/endarkenment?gusrc=rss&feed=science

Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason (part 1)

...is now on Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8669488783707640763&hl=en-GB

U.S. falls in life expectancy rankings

A New York Times editorial today writes that the “disturbing truth” is that “by an array of pertinent yardsticks, the United States is a laggard not a leader in providing good medical care.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/12/us-falls-in-life-expectancy-rankings/

The gullible age

I hope the BBC releases this new documentary by Richard Dawkins in the US. If not, then it's up to bittorrent to save the day:

“It belittles our universe. To have astrologers demeaning astronomy by tapping into the spine-tingling wonder of the universe is . . .” he struggles briefly for a word, then finds one and pronounces it with a keen awareness of the irony: “Sacrilegious!”
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2198063.ece

Here are some clips:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/08/enemies_of_reas_1.html
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/08/the_enemies_of.html

Cool video of a lion reunited with his handlers

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/08/friends.html

If you want to get a little less personal with a big cat, I highly recommend Shambala http://www.shambala.org/. Check out Patrick the Liger, he's huge.

D.C. Circuit Protects Terminally Ill Patients ... From Themselves

What happened to our hard won freedoms? Apparently, you're not even allowed to take extreme measures to save your own life!
http://www.afj.org/check-the-facts/cases/abigail-burroughs-fda.html?templateName=template-30435721

Not in my backyard!

You mean that the rich don't want to share?? Shocking:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/08/not_in_my_backy.html
Thanks, Daily Show.

George Bush hates children

...or at least, that appears to be part of his philosophy. What kind of philosophy says that it's O.K. to subsidize insurance companies, but not to provide health care to children?

An Immoral Philosophy
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/58501/

I guess the surge isn't working - LA Times article

The daily length of time that residents have power has dropped. The figure is considered a key indicator of quality of life.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last
week that Baghdad residents could count on only "an hour or two a day" of
electricity. That's down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this
year.

More here http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iraqpower27jul27,1,4590203.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Enemies of Reason

There are two ways of looking at the world – through faith and
superstition or through the rigours of logic, observation and
evidence – in other words, through reason.

Reason and a respect for evidence are precious commodities, the source of human progress and our safeguard against fundamentalists and those who profit from obscuring the truth.

Yet, today, society appears to be retreating from reason. Apparently harmless but utterly irrational belief systems from astrology to New Age mysticism, clairvoyance to alternative health remedies are booming.

Richard Dawkins confronts what he sees as an epidemic of irrational, superstitious thinking... He explains the dangers the pick and mix of knowledge and nonsense poses in the internet age, and passionately re-states the case for reason and science.

I hope that this doesn't just air in Brittain. Here are some factoids showing that irrationality runs rampant in GB and not just here in the US. Then again, I wonder if this series would even air in the US.

• A quarter of the British population claims to believe in astrology
• Half the British population say they believe in paranormal phenomena

More info here http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/E/enemies_of_reason/index.html?intcmp=docpage_box3

No End in Sight

This looks good.

More info here http://noendinsightmovie.com/

The downside of diversity

It has become increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger. But a massive new Harvard study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/

Ricky Gervais is pretty funny

Fair and Balanced

Here's a great response to the ridiculous CNN slander piece against atheists. We don't have to look far to see the complicity of the media in why atheists are thought of as the least trusted minority in the country.

Paula Zahn - discrimination against atheists part 2

After showing how two families were discriminated against, this ridiculous CNN panel of non-expert attack dogs belittle and yes, openly discriminate against the idea that atheists should have equal rights. I guess we don't need an actual atheist there to defend their position since these panelist are so dull they prove the point that they are railing against.

Stand Up for Your Rights

Yet another reason why the US is fast becoming NOT the best place to be:

A story out of Exeter, England shows the difference between the courage of at least one British politician and our own collection of American wusses.
http://nomorehornets.blogspot.com/2007/07/stand-up-for-your-rights-remain-seated.html

Cartooning science misuses

The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest votes are in and the winner is
All 12 winners and more sad info on recent goverment abuses here http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53452/

Why are we so scared of offending Muslims?

Quote:
"Why, then, should we be commanded to "respect" those who insist that they alone know something that is both unknowable and unfalsifiable? Something, furthermore, that can turn in an instant into a license for murder and rape? As one who has occasionally challenged Islamic propaganda in public and been told that I have thereby "insulted 1.5 billion Muslims," I can say what I suspect—which is that there is an unmistakable note of menace behind that claim. No, I do not think for a moment that Mohammed took a "night journey" to Jerusalem on a winged horse. And I do not care if 10 billion people intone the contrary. Nor should I have to. But the plain fact is that the believable threat of violence undergirds the Muslim demand for "respect.""

Read on about an NYU student now charged with a hate crime over leaving a few Koran's in public restrooms. As stated by the author "this has to stop and it has to stop right now."

http://www.slate.com/id/2171371/fr/flyout

CA decertifies virtually all e-voting systems!

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4914

I hope the rest of the country follows suit. That's right, I'm talking to you, Florida!

The Case Against Brigham Young University

Ouch - academic freedom takes another hit from religion. What's to fear from openly discussing ideas in order to discover the truth?
http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&id=764

Jack the cat

Apparently, Jack the cat has treed a bear cub. Jack doesn't like trespassers in his backyard. Remember, "it's not the size of the man in the fight..."
www.flicker.com/photos/grrlscientist/1009291959

The Truth About Denial - Newsweek

Once again, "follow the money" -- see on which side the monied iterests lie and you're virtually guaranteed that it's not in our collective best interest -- just in their interest.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20122975/site/newsweek/page/0/

Quote:
..."Look for the next round of debate to center on what Americans are willing to pay and do to stave off the worst of global warming. So far the answer seems to be, not much. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds less than half in favor of requiring high-mileage cars or energy-efficient appliances and buildings. No amount of white papers, reports and studies is likely to change that. If anything can, it will be the climate itself. This summer, Texas was hit by exactly the kind of downpours and flooding expected in a greenhouse world, and Las Vegas and other cities broiled in record triple-digit temperatures. Just last week the most accurate study to date concluded that the length of heat waves in Europe has doubled, and their frequency nearly tripled, in the past century. The frequency of Atlantic hurricanes has already doubled in the last century. Snowpack whose water is crucial to both cities and farms is diminishing. It's enough to make you wish that climate change were a hoax, rather than the reality it is."

Speak with conviction

by Taylor Mali

Taylor Mali on what teachers make

Fourth grade math genius calculates a high probability of getting beat up

http://www.thegiantnapkin.com/math%20genius.htm

...To put his findings in layman’s terms, Mosley’s pretentiousness and poor conversational skills make him decidedly annoying. Pair that with his propensity to raise his hand for most teacher-posed questions and his past run-ins with more aggressive and popular peers, and one would have to believe Mosley will get his beating sometime soon."

True Religious People™

Well, PZ Meyers has another post responding to a different but very common misconception that most people don't see -- that anytime a religion is wrong, it must be because it's a metaphor.

Everyone should read this clear and articulate post:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/07/all_the_mistakes_of_the_godly.php

... it would go far in opening people's minds to hopefully reflect on what value they truly find in religion and how much of that value is truly contingent upon the truth value of the religion -- ie. other than merely being a cherished family tradition, would it really matter if it were Judaism, Christianity or Buddhism? My guess is that it probably wouldn't. This would explain why so many self-professed religious people don't take it all that seriously -- not to mention the frequency of conversions.

Bush, NOT an expert

So how many unexperts do you think we have in our goverment? Maybe some questions are best left unasked.
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/07/george_w_bush_e.html

Thanks Daily Show

Christopher Hitchens in Seattle

His debate partner was a no-show but he gave a nice speach and good Q&A:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3DBA5424D37A2E76