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Intelligent Design a Boondoggle

Intelligent Design a Boondoggle

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In a roundtable interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers President Bush said yesterday that he believes schools should discuss “intelligent design” alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.

No problem. Just don’t ask science teachers to teach it. Teach it in religion classes, not alongside evolutionary theories in biology class. The principle of selection: what lives to reproduce passes on its genes. There are discussions about different theories within the science of evolution – debate about catastrophic events, punctuated and gradual evolution, the big bang. Much of science has latent mysterious content – read up on string theory or strange attractors, for example. However, renaming “creationism” as “intelligent design” doesn’t make it science. What are you going to teach? Bible verses? In any case, there are lots of creation stories – you’d then have to teach them all, not just the Genesis account. Wouldn’t it be better to leave that to families and the worship centers of the different religions? Why would the public school system be teaching Judeo-Christianity?

Intelligent design refers to the theory that “unspecified intelligent causes” (i.e. God the Father) are responsible for the origin of the universe and of life in all its diversity – well anyway, the life we know, which is based on carbon.

Don’t laugh – these pseudochristics are serious! They are already anti-intellectual, anti-science. They want followers, not thinkers.

The House Subcommittee on Basic Education in Pennsylvania heard testimony Monday on a bill that would allow local school boards to mandate that science lessons include intelligent design. The legislation is sponsored by only a dozen lawmakers. A federal judge will consider the issue this fall, when a lawsuit against the Dover Area School District is scheduled to go to trial. The suit alleges that the school board violated the constitutional separation of church and state when it voted in October to require ninth-grade students to hear about intelligent design during biology class.

Of course, here in Georgia, the infamous Cobb Country had big stickers in all the science textbooks proclaiming that evolution is just a theory until a federal judge in Atlanta finally put the nix on it in January saying the disclaimers are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. The stickers were added after more than 2,000 parents complained that the textbooks presented evolution as fact, without mentioning rival ideas about the beginnings of life, such as the biblical story of creation. Six parents and the American Civil Liberties Union then sued, contending the disclaimers violated the separation of church and state and unfairly singled out evolution from thousands of other scientific theories as suspect. The judge ruled that “While evolution is subject to criticism, particularly with respect to the mechanism by which it occurred, the sticker misleads students regarding the significance and value of evolution in the scientific community.” “By denigrating evolution, the school board appears to be endorsing the well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof.” Last year, Georgia’s education chief proposed a science curriculum that dropped the word “evolution” in favor of “changes over time.” The idea was dropped amid protests from teachers.

This focus on the new creationism is very clever. If they get religion taught as science they gain more control over the children (get ’em while they’re young). Such children will be unable to distinguish between science and religion, but as Bush himself shows, many of our kids are impervious to the very best education. We may lose out in the science and technology wars of the future, but hey, we’re going down anyway with the gradual destruction of the public school system that helped us rise. If the fight fails, they still motivate their fearful, hateful base -energizing them with that ole God is on our side bull at a time when people are getting less enthused about Iraq, oil/gas prices, and so on. Now that’s strategic politics.

One question, though – if you believe in creationism (and that’s what this is), then you probably also believe that God placed humans in the position of the stewards of the earth. How is it that the same group of people who advocate for creationism are first in line to let corporations pollute? Where are their environmental concerns? Some stewards.

What possible joint interest could a real Christian have with the death and power policies of this administration? Believers are so easily manipulated – don’t you remember that warning about false prophets?

Jokes for your weekend

Jokes for your weekend

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Some miscellaneous jokes for those of you who are trying to activate or maintain a sense of humor.

Famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his gruff assistant Doctor Watson pitch their tent while on a camping expedition, but in the middle of the night Holmes nudges Watson awake and questions him.

HOLMES: Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce.

WATSON: I see millions of stars, and if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it is quite likely there are some planets like earth, and if there are a few planets like earth out there there might also be life.

HOLMES: Watson, you idiot! Somebody stole our tent.

Two Scottish nuns have just arrived in the USA by boat and one says to the other, ” I hear that the occupants of this country actually eat dogs.”

“Odd,” her companion replies, ” But if we shall live in America, we might as well do as the Americans do.”

Nodding emphatically, the mother superior points to a hot dog vendor and they both walk towards it.

“Two dogs, please.” Says the mother superior. The vendor is only too pleased to oblige and he wraps both hot dogs in foil. Excited, the nuns hurry over to a bench and begin to unwrap their ‘dogs’.

The mother superior is first to open hers, then, staring at it for a moment, leans over to the other nun and whispers cautiously, “What part of the dog did you get?”

“Dear Lord,” he began with arms extended and a rapturous look on his upturned face, “without you we are but dust…”

He would have continued, but at that moment one little girl leaned over to her mother and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice, “Mommy, what is ‘butt dust’?”

An Alabama State Trooper stopped a pickup truck. He asked the driver, “Got any ID?” The driver said, “Bout what?”

A blonde went to an appliance store sale and found a bargain. “I would like to buy this TV,” she told the salesman.

“Sorry, we don’t sell to blondes,” he replied.

She hurried home and dyed her hair, then came back and again told the salesman, “I would like to buy this TV.”

“Sorry, we don’t sell to blondes,” he replied.

“Darn, he recognized me,” she thought.

She went for a complete disguise this time: a brown curly wig, big baggy clothes, and big sunglasses. Then she waited a few days before she approached the salesman again and said, “I would like to buy this TV.”

“Sorry, we don’t sell to blondes,” he replied

Frustrated, she exclaimed, “How do you know I’m a blonde?”

“Because that’s a microwave,” he replied.

“As fighting in Iraq intensifies, President Bush delivered his supplemental war budget to Congress. The money will cover 30 days of fighting, then we’ll be sent one war every other month until we cancel our subscription.” – Craig Kilborn

“Bush the younger has two things going for him that his father never had. One: an easy charm with regular people and two: the power to make them disappear without a trial.” – Bill Maher

“President Bush unveiled his new economic stimulus plan this week. It was reported that if the plan passes the president himself would save $44,000 in taxes, Dick Cheney would save $327,000, and you could afford to take the whole family down to Burger King to pick up job applications.” – Tina Fey, SNL

The White House announced today that next month Vice President Dick Cheney will get a colonoscopy. It’s important that you get these on a regular basis. You know, the last time he had one, they found one polyp and three oil company executives up there. – Jay Leno, July 8, 2005

Energy and Climate Change

Energy and Climate Change

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Did anyone else see Bush speaking at the G8 on climate change? He just kept repeating that we’re doing a lot, we’re spending millions on research, it’s very complicated, we’re spending money on research. Maybe when Florida’s under water, maybe when the new plague is released from polar ice, maybe when …. it’s too late. Meanwhile, they simply edit and delete the results of the research if such disagrees with their ideology – you know, a bit like the doctored evidence to go to war in Iraq, a bit like the way Bolton bullied people who didn’t come up with the results he wanted to see.

I think the other superpower -“the rest of the world” (see the piece, was it yesterday? in the New York Times) – should go ahead and do what they can. States and cities here should do what they can – some mayors have already started. Kudos!

America should not be equated with its current president. The tide will change – get things going now. Every little bit will help. Meanwhile – American reader? Sell the SUV, make your house or apartment or modular home (mobile or immobile) more energy-efficient. One dollar spent on efficiency is worth $7 spent on new energy.

Nukes are coming back – but they won’t be protected from terrorist attacks or from breakdown disasters. The Republicans want to drill a new oil well in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area – and there’s a guy in California with a bill to strike down the Endangered Species Act.

Oil supply is dwindling, and competition for carbon-based energy is growing, but there’s still so much money for them to make in the short-term.

Wanna make money? Start figuring out new energy sources now. YOU could be the big winner!

Ratcheting Up the Terror

Ratcheting Up the Terror

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Well, I guess they needed something for the polls. It was good timing for terrorism… London wins the Olympics, the G8 is going on – everyone is celebrating, then POW! Multiple bombings on the London Metro, something like 40 people dead and 1000 injured, railway cars smashed, a bus exploded.

Blair links it to the G8. The “Secret Al Qaeda Jihad Organization in Europe” that claimed responsibility for the London attacks says that they did so as retaliation for Britain’s involvement in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan – which actually makes more sense. They include “Denmark, Italy and all of the Crusader governments” in future attacks. Horrible, brutal, desperate and wrong – but there is a logic to the claim. Bush says, “The contrast couldn’t be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill, those who’ve got such evil in their hearts that they will take the lives of innocent folks. The war on terror goes on.” I’ll bet it does. If it turns out (as many people are arguing, with more evidence than you’d think) that Bush allowed 9/11 to happen, those words will be good to requote. I’m almost cynical enough at this point to begin to suspect that Bush is simply ordering these events to happen. So the US/UK and the terrorists support one another’s darkness – a bit like evangelists and titty bars.

Sometimes humor has a grain too much truth.

Unconfirmed sources report that British Prime Minister Tony Blair is taking full responsibility for the bombing attacks in London today. In a tearful press conference this morning Blair spoke to the nation and asked to be forgiven for involving Britain in the misguided American military adventure in Iraq. – Unconfirmed Sources

After the explosions, the pound dropped to a 19-month low ( but it’s still worth $1.74 or so).

One might almost miss that Egypt’s ambassador to Iraq has been killed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group – but that’s pretty significant too. We have done nothing, not even Rove-fare, to counteract the impression of us as Crusaders. We’re pretty similar, Crusading Capitalists and Pseudochristians – greedy plunderers of the spoils of war. Like in olden days, the money doesn’t even go to the conquering country as a whole but only to chosen ones, in this case insiders, cronies, CEOs and contracters (like Halliburton, who just won yet another big contract in Iraq!). This administration is hostile to the poor and to the working class of all countries including its own, cowboy swagger notwithstanding.

My heart flies out to everyone in London and all of the British Isles. My deepest sympathies. Don’t let them use this to do to you what they are doing to us. I like what I see so far about the local reaction – they won’t be ruled by fear, unlike us.

Provocative Questions

Provocative Questions

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Dennis Rahkonen (‘The Republican Wile E. Coyote‘, 6-27-05) thinks that Durbin’s apology was unwise. In his view, we should perhaps be making more actual historical comparisions between this administration and that of Hitler’s Germany. Here are some starter questions for eager researchers…

Did German motorists have “Support Our Troops” ribbons on their Volkswagens in 1943?

Did conservatives loyal to Hitler pooh-pooh reports of Jews being abused in concentration camps in the same way neocon Bush backers blithely dismiss documentation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and even the FBI that Muslims are being routinely abused at U.S. detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Cuba?

Did they actually believe the contrived pretext for the Wehrmacht’s assault on Poland? (Nazi provocateurs dressed in Polish military uniforms “attacked” German border posts and a German radio station.)

Was there a German entertainer like Toby Keith who rallied backing for the official cause with jingoistic, xenophobic phonograph recordings?

When news of Guernica, Lidice and the Warsaw Ghetto reached the German masses, were they any less propagandized about what really happened there then we are about Fallujah?

Was the German press as craven in refusing to criticize Hitler’s purpose as the American media are in failing to seriously challenge George Bush?

Finally, will history and humankind accord his despicable war for oil and hegemony any kinder status than they have for the crimes of the Third Reich?

Actions of the Day

Actions of the Day

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Restore Scientific Integrity
Federal government scientific information is being censored, manipulated, and distorted on an unprecedented scale. To prevent these abuses of science, members of Congress have introduced the Restore Scientific Integrity to Federal Research and Policy Making Act. They need to hear from us about the importance of protecting government science and our nation’s health, safetey, and environment. Check out the Union of Concerned Scientists efforts to restore scientific integrity in federal policy making. Click here to take action through the Union of Concerned Scientists – it’s easy and free!

Save the Media
Read the pdf version of “A New Standard,” the recent report from Free Press, Common Cause, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, and Media Access Project. Then read or listen to Bill Moyers’ speech at the close of the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis. More than 60,000 Free Press activists have already joined a call for the resignation of Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson and the creation of town hall meetings nationwide to put the public back into public broadcasting.
Add your support to the petition.

Impeach Bush
President Bush mislead Congress and the people as the Administration prepared to wage unprovoked war against Iraq. The evidence used to justify the war and “sell” it to the public was based on fabrications and lies. A number of recent revelations confirm that the Administration knowingly lied about the war and its causes. Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld’s key aide, was quoted in Vanity Fair magazine as saying, “For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.” Since the Administration was flooded with angry letters, undoubtedly many from families of U.S. soldiers, the Pentagon attempted to do damage control, asserting that Wolfowitz was misquoted. The public now knows, as does every member of Congress, that in April 2002 Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair secretly agreed to wage unprovoked war against Iraq (at a meeting at Bush’s Crawford ranch in Texas). This fact, and other incriminating information about the secret maneuvers to wage unprovoked war, are contained in British government documents. In a letter to Bush earlier this month, 89 House Democrats expressed shock over the documents. They asked whether the papers were authentic and, if so, whether they proved that the White House had agreed to invade Iraq months before seeking Congress’ OK. (Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2005)
“If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war, as well as the integrity of our own administration,” the letter says. “While the president… was telling the citizens and the Congress that they had no intention to start a war with Iraq, they were working very close[ly] with Tony Blair and the British leadership at making this a foregone conclusion,” the letter’s chief author, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, said Wednesday. As Ramsey Clark recently stated: “Impeachment now is the only way we, the American people, can promise ourselves, and the world, that we will not tolerate crimes against peace and humanity by our government. Knowing what we know, to wait longer is to condone what has been done, and risk more.” Use the quick and easy-to-use advocacy mechanism on the ImpeachBush.org website to send personal customized letters to the representatives from your district and state to urge them to support the impeachment of George W. Bush and other high officials for the commission of High Crimes and Misdemeanors.