I posted earlier: shrub, the Idiot Boy-Man Continues.

This is great: CNN: Colin Powell says Iraq in a ‘civil war’.

Bush has avoided using the term “civil war” to describe the situation in Iraq.

Tuesday, he called the latest violence in Iraq “part of a pattern” of attacks by al Qaeda in Iraq to divide Shiites and Sunnis and vowed, again, he won’t support the removal of U.S. troops “before the mission is complete.”

“There’s a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented in my opinion because of the attacks by al Qaeda, causing people to seek reprisal,” he said.

Oh yes, because it takes a terrorist organization to spur two religious factions who have been at war with each other for 1500 years to fight each other in a land that doesn’t need an excuse to become violent (note: Danish cartoons incident.) Surely the fact that we removed a dictator from power who held unrest at bay with an iron fist has nothing to do with it–it’s that Communist al Qaeda specter that’s causing all the problems!

And so the people in their love for democracy are blowing their own cities to pieces…in “reprisal.” Yeah.

This is the guy who days before invading Iraq not only wasn’t aware that Iraq had three different Islamic factions that if given the chance would love to blow the other up, but didn’t even know there were different Islamic factions at all! What a great statesman and diplomat we have leading the free world.

So now evidently radio wires in a backpack on the backs of people at a dance who are dressed up as zombies, are possible weapons of mass destruction: http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/s17817.html

God, when will the security paranoia end?!

First, some possible positive news: Yesterday I blogged about the NSTA’s possible gross influence by oil interests (Corporate Ownership of America–Lies, Education and Anti-Science). Well, it’s possible that the Washington Post op-ed about that story may have been misleading. I hope so. I’ll update as I learn more.

So president shrub was in Estonia yesterday. The President of Estonia made a beautiful welcoming speech about freedom and values and inspiration. And shrubs responding toast starts pretty standard…and then he mentions his surprise and appreciation over the Estonia flat tax. Huh?! OK. Read it on the White House site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061128-3.html.

Reminds me of his trip to Germany when he gave the German Chancellor an inappropriate neck massage that would probably be construed as sexual harassment in a US company, and during a press conference at the same meeting he seemed fixated about a ham and tried making ridiculous and inappropriate jokes about the pig when being asked serious questions about Lebanese and Israel conflict that was raging at the time.

This man has failed at every business he tried running, including a baseball team. He’s needed daddy Bush to bail him out nearly every time. He used daddy Bush’s friends to avoid going to Viet Nam and to get himself out of trouble while in the National Guard. He is an idiot, a fool, a smiling buffoon, a puppet, and not capable of leading or managing or even thinking reasonably and rationally. He has no business pretending to be a statesman and he’s the worst thing to happen to this country since the Depression.

Even now that a new Pentagon memo showing a very bleak picture in Iraq has been leaked, I have no doubt that shrub will continue his ambiguous and undefined rants about “nothing but a victory!”

The terrorists win. Congrats.

Over at BoingBoing I found a couple of items regarding draconian and paranoid security measures:

Blowing Up Scientific Equipment in the Name of Security

And these videos of US soldiers in Iraq making it pretty easy to see why we’re so hated by the world:

Soldiers taunting and tormenting Iraqi children.

Soldiers shooting up and crushing an Iraqi civilian’s car because they can.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-military. My grandfather was a Marine Lieutenant in WWII and I have nothing but respect for that man who taught me a lot about principles and honor. And I know there’s a lot of good people in today’s military. But it’s very hard to see crap like this, read about US soldiers raping young girls and slaughtering their families, Abu Ghraib prison, and not also think about Viet Nam rape and murder charges, Zippoing of villages. It may only be a few bad apples in a bunch, but this is what happens when you have thousands of young testosterone fueled men with weapons in a position of power over people they’re indoctrinated to hate and too much time on their hands because they’re being used as police when they’re trained for combat. And then these punks with guns and monster trucks with 40cal guns and idle hands do more damage to our image and efforts than all the many times more good guys can do to improve it.
We need…to get…the f**k out of Iraq, now!

CNN: Bush: “Nothing less than victory in Iraq”. And the question remains: What the hell is a “victory” in Iraq? When that $1.5 billion US town embassy is completed? When the entire country is ravaged by civil war sectarian violence? What is a victory? It’s a great word the administration is bandying about with absolutely no concrete definition of what it is!

UPDATE: It appears that the proud-of-themselves amoral soldiers who posted these videos are being investigated by the Pentagon: http://dreamsofliberty.blogspot.com/2006/11/u.html

Well, that’s something at least.

Where do I begin. It’s just more evidence of the disgusting, sickening, control and corruption of public opinion and education by corporate interests.

I’d already been thinking about what kind of culture of sociopathic corporate greed and we’re living in when you have a Bank of America event where a performer perverts a U2 song about love and heartbreak and forgiveness and turns it into a callous and pathetic ode to commodification and corporate desire and greed. (See this blog to see the lyrics side-by-side for a rather disturbing display: One Bank… One Love.)

Then I read Phil Plait’s BadAstronomy blog today and I just feel sick. Chilly Climate pt. 1 and Chilly Climate pt. 2. Please read his blogs themselves, but in short: Part 1 deals with the blind, ideological hatred this administration has exhibited against science and reality. And why should they not, when just about every major member of the administration owns, has owned, is a major stock holder, and/or is on the board of an oil company who has a vested interest in refusing to acknowledge global warming. And when the political party they belong to is in office chiefly because of the work of theocratic religious zealots who detest the concepts of evolution, safe-sex, and stem cells, they need to keep them happy in the bed they share.

But that’s all old hat. Part 2 is even worse for its unexpected horror. Phil describes how the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) — “which represents tens of thousands of science teachers in the US” turned down a donation of thousands of copies of “An Inconvenient Truth” because, in short, it would risk the money they receive from such corporate interests as Shell, Exxon Mobile, and the American Petroleum Institute. Organizations that helps also provide “teaching materials” that intentionally white-wash the role of the role of oil companies in the effects upon the environment.

I’m utterly aghast and horrified. Our childrens’ educations are being sold to the highest bidders. Last July I wrote about the deplorable state of school textbooks and how the information in them are co-opted by corporate and political interests: The Depressing State of Public School Textbooks. My wife and I are overworked members of the labor class, enslaved to earn money for shelter, food, and insurance, and can’t make the sacrifice to home-school our daughter. So we’re forced to have to not only supplement the incomplete education she gets already, as we should do anyway as public school only teaches to the lowest common denominator, but also to try to fight against the corruption of her mind and will to corporate and political interests as well. It may be losing battle, and it makes me both angry and weary thinking about it.

“s burgener” over at Debunking Christianity has a fascinating post entitled:

The incredible “smallness” of Jesus’ sacrifice

He investigates the relativity of the “sacrifice” of God. I’d always heard the argument about just how sure, being scourged and buffeted and crucified is pretty bad! But, in the realm of human suffering, it’s actually very short and minor compared to things like people in Africa and Asia who spend years in the process of starving to death. THAT would be a true sacrifice that would understand the human condition. Or the cancer victim who spends weeks, months, even years in agony and pain. Another example of the human condition. A day of being brutally whipped, dragging a beam, and being nailed to a tree is bad, but minuscule comparatively to what millions of humans go through. What is a day of torture to a being that lives for eternity?

And so the article linked above goes into great thoughtful detail about this concept at length.

Now, the Christian response would likely be it’s not the length or severity of the sacrifice, it’s the fact of the sacrifice itself.
But then that leads to questions of, who is God trying to impress or convince? Himself? He set up the original rules of post-life destinations, he can change them without requiring a sado-masochistic human sacrifice.

One might say, this IS his method of changing the rules. And my reply is bullhockey. Here is a god that supposedly created an infinite, exquisite, awesome, beautiful universe that works on orderly and set rules of thermal-dynamics, physics, biochemistry, and he choses to change his rules about salvation and paradise based on an act of brutality and
blood and murder? Come on. Let’s use the brains god supposedly gave us. The a priori argument is god is all-loving, merciful, all-powerful, and we’re his chosen creation. Now, since god obviously understands logic and reason and the conservation of energy since everything non-religious in the universe runs on orderly methods as observed by the efforts of science, here’s an options that would make more sense:

– When anyone dies he simply opens their…minds(?), hearts(?), to the Truth. Since he’s god, he can do this. And since the Truth is supposed to be perfect and obvious, our post-death minds(?) will surely embrace it and exclaim “Oh god how wrong I was! I’m sorry and I accept you!” and then hey! They get to join god in heaven and none of his creation has to suffer un-loving, unmerciful torment for eternity, and there would be no need to a sado-masochistic act of having to convince himself that sins should be washed clean.

Why is it so hard for people to accept that this story of human sacrifice is a Bronze Age myth, throwback from ancient beliefs in sacrifice based on very extreme and ignorant views of humanity and beliefs in the supernatural?

Well: a very early essay of mine: “Faith or Delusion?“

SAM ADAMS’ CREAM STOUT

overall: 3.95
appearance: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | mouthfeel: 4.5 | drinkability: 4

A - Beautiful deep, opaque brown to almost black. Slight amber tint; I don’t see any ruby as other mention.
Pours a reasonably thick head. Soft looking, nice tan brown. Dissipates somewhat quickly, but leaves a nice lacing that sticks to the glass as it dissolves and every time you tilt the glass.
S - Interesting chocolaty leather.
T - Only slightly not quite as good as I was expecting, but still quite good. More of a mouthfeel thing, but the bite of carbonation kind of took away from the potential richness of the taste. A little coffee, some sweet that lingers but doesn’t leave a sour aftertaste.
M - As I mentioned, it’s a little bright on the tongue from more carbonation than expected, but otherwise very nice. Just the right balance of creaminess without being cloistering or leaving an odd oily feel like some other stouts.
D - Very drinkable. Rich and full, so probably can’t drink more than one, or two at the most without feeling full, but would otherwise love to just sip on one of these all evening.

[ serving type: bottle ]

Read the online review. (Odd, the image of the bottle art isn’t available when you go to the single review, but it is when you go to the beer’s full page.)

Latest show of “AstronomyCast” podcast discusses dark energy, the expansion of the universe, and its eventual heat death.

“Dark energy,” the reason why the universe expansion rate is increasing, despite the originally expected hypothesis that expansion of the universe was slowing. Proof there’s no great cabal of scientists colluding to fool the world about its origin. Two competing groups of scientists were seeking to find the rate of collapse of the universe when they independently discovered it’s not–to their utter surprise, it’s expanding. And the scientific community sat up in interest at this unusual and unexpected development.

Note that in this podcast, the scientist (physicist Dr. Pamela L. Gay) has no qualms with saying “we don’t know” in regards to things that science can’t yet explain. (Try to find a theologian willing to say “we don’t know”.)

That reminds me, seen this great t-shirt? I’d probably never wear it in public just out of decency, but man do I want one bad!

(click to go to http://xkcd.com/store/ to order the shirt.) 

It’s a reference to the COBE mission, which won a Nobel Award in science this year, for observing and calculating the background radiation of the universe revealing a closer exact age of the universe and just adds the greatest proof of the Big Bang onto an already mountain of evidence.

Also, over on Bad Astronomy blog, Phil Plait discusses the highly unusual and fantastic event of supernovae in general, and the utterly strange but fascinating frequency of novae in a nearby galaxy! Very cool and awe inspiring information.

(Busy blog day, today.)

HUZZAH! I contacted the Point of Inquiry people asking about transcripts for the essay by Lauren Becker in the latest episode, referred to in my post: A Rock and the Battle of Science Over Delusion.

And Lauren sent me a copy of the essay, “Hope Evolves”! It is a fantastic commentary on how important hope is, and should not be taken for granted or lightly. But how fundamental and conservative religious beliefs, ironic to their stated dogma, actually harm the hope we as human need to embrace in order to continue the amazing progress we have made as a species. Questions the notion that one can’t comment on theology if they’re not a “theologian” and the absurdity of being an “expert” of something that may be so subjective that no one can be an expert in something unique to the individual.

Well, I can’t begin to summarize the essay adequately. It must be read (preferably out loud, per the recommendation by the author herself as, after all, it was written to be read.) So, with only another sentence of ado, here with permission is Lauren Becker’s “Hope Evolves.”
(Please, if possible, download and listen to the audio version at http://www.pointofinquiry.org/?p=84 as hearing the tone and emphasis of the author reading the piece is always preferable.)

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This past October, I had the envious job of representing The Center for Inquiry at two stops on Richard Dawkins’ speaking tour where he discussed evolution and his new book, The God Delusion. I’m happy to report that the reception for him and his ideas was overwhelmingly positive. Picture thousands of people migrating to the University of Kansas to hear a biologist give a talk about evolution! The place was packed – standing room only. In Oregon, so many people showed up, the bookstore had to make a hasty change of venue and moved us all to a hotel ballroom three blocks down the street to accommodate the crowd. I wish you could have seen it: hundreds of atheists walking through downtown Portland, each with that silver mirrored copy of The God Delusion under their arm, hoping they might get an autograph from a biologist.

So, when I returned to Amherst, elevated by such encouraging experiences, I was surprised to discover

Read the rest of this entry »

Contraception, abortion foe to head family-planning office - CNN.com

So, bush appoints someone with absolutely no experience in emergency management as the head of FEMA but was an election campaign manager, an anti-science propagandist to construct the agenda for NASA, and now an enemy of contraception and a member of a group that lies about women’s health to head a federal organization that is in charge of sexual and reproductive health. Nice.

Some months ago I heard an essay on Point of Inquiry that I so wished I could find a transcript for. An essay about the importance of skepticism and the scientific method, and the dangers of religious belief.

When people ask me why I’m so against religion, why it’s so important for me to tell people that religious dogma is dangerous, I think about this essay and I wish I could express the reasoning half as well as she does.

Well, I found the essay online. *glee* http://www.csicop.org/intelligentdesignwatch/rocks.html

A snippet:

Our species has continuously found meaning, purpose and comfort in the idea of god or gods. Unfortunately, if we want to know what is actually going on, and our survival depends on understanding reality, religion is utterly bereft of explanatory power. A belief in god’s existence is a useful and powerful illumination of our own desires for life, but it is not a reflection of what life is.

(Now I just need to find a copy of an even better essay of hers I heard today on hope, Richard Dawkins, and the Lord of the Rings.)

(UPDATE 17 Jan ‘07: I HAVE found that other essay! “Hope Evolves“.)
Reprinted now without permission, is Lauren Becker’s “300 Million Year Old Rock”:
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The summer before my senior year of college I worked as a park ranger guiding hikes in one of the most beautiful state parks in the country. Its central feature was a 256-foot waterfall that plunged down through a gorgeous natural amphitheater, cutting through bands of limestone and sandstone and collecting in a deep pool, the perfect hangout for summer swimming. My favorite program was the hike to the base of the falls. Layers of rock are like chapters in a history book and this canyon, carved so deeply, told an ancient story. Standing at the bottom, calling out over the roar of the falls, I got to teach the exciting conclusion, “The layers of slate and shale beneath our feet tell us that 300 million years ago, this deciduous forest was a tropical jungle.”

“What book d’ya get that out of?” came the reply one day. And thus it began, for this waterfall was not only located in ancient rock, it was also in the heart of the Bible-belt. I had heard there were people who believed the Earth was only 6,000 years old, but I never thought I would actually meet any. That summer, and every other summer I worked teaching science to the public, I met a lot of them. Though most objectors would just walk away from the program, some mothers would cover their children’s ears to protect them from the “blasphemous park ranger.” One man, after I patiently explained how we know the age of rocks, finally just threw up his hands, exclaimed, “The Devil made that rock look that old to turn you away from God,” and led his family back up the trail. Read the rest of this entry »

After most of what few members of the “Coalition of the Willing” that supported the Iraq war to begin with have withdrawn, our largest ally, Britain, is starting to come to their senses: Their top military general advocated a military pull-out as soon as possible, Prime Minister Tony Blair finally admitted Iraq was a disaster*, and ultra-conservative Henry Kissinger who helped architect the lies that got us into Viet Nam has said Iraq is militarily “unwinable.”

But what do the neo-cons want to do? Send in another 20,000 American troops to die for a lie.

*Of course Blair always knew Iraq was a disaster but he’s too much of a U.S. lapdog to say so publicly ’til now:
http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_memo