Political Songs of the Day

Today, you get a two-fer today of political (in this case environmental) songs. The first one from REM and my college days and the second one from an artist recommended to me when I was on my Sierra Club trip, John Prine:

John Prine photographed by © Marc Marnie of STAGEFRIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
January 20, 2000 by Marc Marnie
taken at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow Scotland

REM -- Fall on Me
There’s a problem, feathers iron
Bargain buildings, weights and pullies
Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air
Buy the sky and sell the sky and tell the sky and tell the sky

(chorus)
Fall on me (what is it up in the air for) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (if it’s there for long) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (it’s over it’s over me) (it’s gonna fall)

There’s the progress we have found (when the rain)
A way to talk around the problem (when the children reign)
Building towered foresight (keep your conscience in the dark)
Isn’t anything at all (melt the statues in the park)
Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky

(repeat chorus)

Fall on me

Well I could keep it above
But then it wouldn’t be sky anymore
So if I send it to you you’ve got to promise to keep it whole

Buy the sky and sell the sky and lift your arms up to the sky
And ask the sky and ask the sky

(repeat chorus 2x)

Fall on me

(repeat chorus)

Fall on me

(repeat chorus)

John Prine -- Paradise
When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

Chorus:
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Repeat Chorus:

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

Repeat Chorus:

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

Repeat Chorus:

We are shitting on this earth and our government rolls blissfully and ignorantly on:

The Big Thaw: Global Disaster Will Follow If the Ice Cap on Greenland Melts

Bush Administration Shuns Conference On Strategies to Build on Kyoto Pact

Thanksgiving

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." -~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds." -- Theodore Roosevelt

7 Shallow Things I am Thankful For

A DVR. Live television is boring.

My digital camera and digital video camera. The revolution will be televised, baby!

Being able to wander around the Valley, goofing around with customers' computers, enjoy doing it, and get paid for it.

Being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt for 11 months of the year.

Air America Radio. It weened me off of my addiction to sports talk radio. I think that's an upgrade?!

2008 is only 3 years away.

Blogging. Never has so much been said about so little. But it sure beats ranting to people on the street ... and safer.

7 Genuine Things I am Thankful For

A son that reminds me daily that I'm at least pretty good at one thing ... being a dad.

A wife that supports me in whatever I do ... no matter how nutty.

Great friends (E & J) that have always been there.

A family that despite our differences would help at the drop of a hat.

I'm in my 8th year of not working for the "man". And doing a great job on my own.

My blog friends. I truly value the discussions we have. I learn something new from you guys every day.

Going on the Sierra Club service trip. One of the best vacations that I've ever had. Learned a lot and made some friendships that hopefully I will have for a long time.

And on a lighter note ...

"Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for - annually, not oftener - if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments." -- Mark Twain

"I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land." -- Jon Stewart

Are we good?

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." -- Alexis de Tocqueville

"I came to America because of the great, great freedom which I heard existed in this country. I made a mistake in selecting America as a land of freedom, a mistake I cannot repair in the balance of my lifetime." -- Albert Einstein

Are we truly a great country any more? Are we doing good? Are these the hallmarks of a great country:

• Encouraging freedom internationally (Iraq) while suppressing it at home (Patriot Act)
• Deposing a leader because he used torture ... then advocating it for our own use
• Citing that same leader's use of chemical weapons as another reason for going to war ... while not being forthright about our use of phosphorus as an incendiary weapon
  
  

When did we stop being good? Has it been a steady decline over decades or a recent development?

Did it start with Reagan and the encouragement of the "ownership society"? Gordon Gekko's character in Wall Street that said, "Greed is good". But it was actually famous insider trader Ivan Boesky that inspired the quote with his own, "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself." It's the trickle down that never actually trickles down.

Making the most money should not be the pinnacle of human achievement. Making sure that everyone can share in the prosperity should be. Call it socialist if you want. That word doesn't scare me. The perfect society is a mixture of styles.

Phoenix New Times 10K

For some unknown reason, I chose to punish myself this last weekend and ran in the Phoenix New Times 10K with no real prep (short of some bike riding). This is the 4th or 5th time I've ran the New Times. It was the 30th annual running of this great race and it benefitted the Big Brother Big Sisters of Central Arizona.


While I was an embarrasment to my gender, family, friends, you name it, our friend Joanie Burley kicked butt, finishing a good 12 minutes ahead of me. My accomplishments were more modest: not stopping to walk, not puking, not coughing up a lung. (I'm #4079 near the center of the picture)

The kids (Alex and Julianna) ran in the Kids Dash and had a blast and were much more entertaining than us old fogeys:

Santorum

"The newspaper reader says: this party will ruin itself if it makes errors like this. My higher politics says: a party which makes errors like this is already finished - it is no longer secure in its instincts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Republican poster boy, Senator Rick Santorum, must have forgotten to read the talking points. He accidentally let slip some wisdom:

From the Beaver County Times: U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Saturday that he doesn't believe that intelligent design belongs in the science classroom.

Santorum's comments to The Times are a shift from his position of several years ago, when he wrote in a Washington Times editorial that intelligent design is a "legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in the classroom."

But on Saturday, the Republican said that, "Science leads you where it leads you."

... Though Santorum said he believes that intelligent design is "a legitimate issue," he doesn't believe it should be taught in the classroom, adding that he had concerns about some parts of the theory.

And directly countering comments made by Pat Robertson a few days ago that suggested that God would abandon the people of Dover for voting out pro-Intelligent Design board members, Santorum said:

"I disagree. I don't believe God abandons people,"

You have to wonder if Santorum and other Republican congressmen are taking the lesson of Jerry Kilgore to heart. Maybe it's time to throw Bush under the bus. In a sign of some kind of progress (it's debatable how much), the Senate passed a statement calling for a greater accounting of the White House's Iraq policy. Non-binding and significantly weaker than a Democratic-proposed version, it's still a sign that the Right is feeling the heat a bit to not follow lock-step with whatever Bush does.

Survey

On Laura of Sarchasm's cue, I'm doing this silly survey. Feel free to continue the chain if you're up to it.

1. What color are your kitchen plates? White w/ silly flowers (I think)

2. What book(s) are you reading now? The Truth (w/ Jokes)(Al Franken), God's Politics(Jim Wallis)

3. What or who is on your mouse pad? no mousepad

4. What's your favorite board game? Trivial Pursuit

5. Favorite magazine? Mother Jones, Rolling Stone

6. Baked Goods? Brownies, Strawberry/Rhubarb Cobbler

7. Least favorite smell? street tar

8. What's the first thing you think of in the morning? Shit, gotta go to work

9. Favorite color?(s) green, brown

10. Least favorite color? chartreuse

11. How many rings before you answer the phone? Depends on who's calling

12. Future children's names? Haven't thought about

14. What is your sign and birthday? Aries, Apr 2

15. Do you eat the stems of broccoli? yes

16. If you could have any job what would it be? writer

17. If you could have any color hair what would it be? I'm cool with brown

18. Is the glass half full or half empty? half full

19. Favorite movie? La Vita e Bella, Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, This is Spinal Tap

20. Do you type with the right fingers on the keys? Yes

21. What's under your bed? books

22. What is your favorite number? 3

23. What is your single biggest fear? James Dobson

24. Person(s) most likely to respond? GWB, Cyberkitten

25. Who is least likely to respond? nobody, you're all fairly game for these type of things

26. Favorite CD? Police's Synchronicity, Peter Gabriel's So, Jane's Addition's Nothing's Shocking, Faith No More's Angel Dust

27. Favorite TV show? Alias, CSI, any cooking show

28. Ketchup or mustard? ketchup, but I usually take mustard because it has less sugar (sad, I know)

29. Hamburgers or Hot dogs? Hamburger

30. Favorite soft drink? diet Dr. Pepper

31. The best place you have ever been? Monument Valley

32. The most amazing sight? standing at the base of any of the "monuments" in Monument Valley

33. What screen saver is on your computer right now? Windows default

34. FAVORITE BURGER: Blue cheese burger at Island's

35. Favorite pet? Duchess, my pug

Pat Robertson

I'm tired of being politically correct about it. Pat Robertson is a moron ... and a dangerous one:

Robertson warns Pennsylvania voters of God's wrath

Some words of wisdom from Pat:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."

"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.

These statements were in response to the school board members in this town being voted out for supporting teaching of Intelligent Design.

Pat Robertson is living proof that there is not a God. If there was, he surely would have struck Robertson down by now for being so monumentally stupid.

Gay Marriage

Not too big of a surprise, but tonight,Texas Voters Approve Ban on Gay Marriage. During the 2004 election, there were 11 similar ballot initiatives. Many people, myself included, felt this pandering to the religious right helped to swing the election in Bush's favor. But since that time, I've read and heard many arguments that have convinced me otherwise. One of the most compelling is in Al Franken's new book The Truth (with Jokes). He writes:

"... the eleven anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives didn't help Bush at all, and possibly worked against him. Only four of them were in battleground states: Arkansas, Michigan, Ohio, and Oregon. By my calculations, Bush won in precisely one half of those four states. ... Comparing 2000 to 2004, Bush improved less in battleground states with anti-gay marriage referenda than he did in battleground states without them." Looking at all the states with the initiatives, "red counties got redder and blue counties got bluer, with a net advantage of 2.6 for Kerry. Whereas in states without the referenda, Bush gained about 3 percent overall. So the intiatives seemed to polarize people, and actually hurt Bush."

This polarization, I believe, is hurting the Republican party. If tonight is any indication, with Democrats holding both the governorships, the trend is going to continue. They need to figure out that kissing the boot of the Religious Right is not actually getting them any votes.

Religion/Science

Are churches beginning to see the light? Have they realized that to deny science is not only logically wrong but also detrimental to their own faith? We can only hope. A couple of recent stories:

When Cleaner Air Is a Biblical Obligation
Some Evangelicals - always quick to misinterpret or misquote Scripture -- have interpreted Genesis 2:15:

"The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."

to mean that we should be better stewards of the Earth. It has made them strange bedfellows with environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. I'd be encouraged by this if they hadn't already had many dubious positions in the past ... like opposing gay and abortion rights.

Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Science

"A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason." Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996 statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis." "A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."

If the Vatican thinks Intelligent Design is bunk, then Christians that believe in ID are really on the fringe.


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One of the most glaring examples of politicizing religion that I've seen recently occurred when a liberal California church was contacted by the IRS and threatened with losing their tax-exempt status. This happened because they delivered an anti-war sermon two days prior to the 2004 election. The sermon did not endorse either candidate but did criticize the Iraq war. That a liberal church was singled out is an incredible hypocrisy. Practically every Evangelical, conservative Lutheran and Catholic church in the country actively lobbied against Kerry prior to the election. One could argue that it was the single-most important thing that swung the election in Bush's favor.

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning

Prescott

We had a great Saturday. Started off by Alex's kickball game at 9:00, we headed straight from there to Prescott and to the Gurley St. Grill to have lunch with my friends from my Sierra Club trip, Cat and Ralph. Very good food ... I recommend the lettuce wraps.

But the true highlight of the day was the opportunity presented to us by Cat's husband, Hal, to go flying. Hal has been flying since he was 14 and owns a couple of his own planes. We took off from the Prescott airport in their Beechcraft:


We flew north to Chino Valley and Paulden and then headed east to Sedona:


Anyone that has been to Sedona realizes how beautiful it is there ... but you do not realize how much you are missing. Flying over the red cliffs at about 1000 feet gives you an even greater appreciation and allows you to see views that you just cannot get driving.

Alex had a blast but all the excitement eventually caught up with him:


Many thanks to Hal and Cat for taking us up.

Cronies

Not a banner day for cronies. First, Brownie's unflattering e-mail comments came to light:

• "I got it at Nordstroms...Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?"
• "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
• advice on ordering at Sonic: "Order a #2, tater tots, large diet cherry limeade."

Then Republican hack, Ken Tomlinson, resigned his post at the Center for Public Broadcasting. As Free Press executive director Josh Silver was quoted: “It’s time to clean house at CPB. We need to get the politics out and put the public back in public broadcasting.” Amen, brother.

And all this after Harriet Miers getting shot down last week. It's time for the ultimate cronies, Cheney and Rove, to be shown the door. Is it too much to ask that people be hired because they are the most qualified and the smartest? And not because they are big fundraisers or because they've been carrying the water for your family since the dawn of time.

Poverty

"Just as Hurricane Katrina destroyed lives and communities, it also demolished the illusion that the challenges facing poor families and neighborhoods are “somebody else’s” problems. ... many Americans may recognize a new reality: poverty must be our entire nation’s concern. Some may even understand in a new way that their own hometowns face similar challenges ..." -- F Barton Harvey of the Enterprise Foundation

We're too used to being able to ignore poverty because it was only something that occurred in other countries. We see people starving in Africa, but only in the abstract. It doesn't affect our daily lives. But when Katrina came, the scenes we saw on our television looked like they could have been Somalia.

Poverty isn't something that's happened over night. So, you can't blame it on one administration. But some administrations are better than others at addressing it. The media largely ignores the problem. When they do say something, it's misleading. For example, famous tool Bill O'Reilly said, "... halfway through President Clinton's tenure in office in 1996, the poverty rate was 13.7 percent. Halfway through President Bush's tenure, the rate is 12.7 percent, a full point lower". Technically correct but misleading. As David Brock of Media Matters shows, "During the Clinton presidency, the poverty rate fell from 15.1 percent in 1993 to a low of 11.3 percent in 2000; it has risen every year that Bush has been in office, from 11.7 percent in 2001 to 12.7 percent in 2004." So, while the mid-term averages would lead you to believe that Bush was doing more than Clinton did, the truth is exactly the opposite. Clinton took office with a high rate given to him by the elder Bush and successfully lowered by almost 4 percentage points. Bush, given a lower poverty rate, does the exact opposite. For more info: Media Matters

"Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope, some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. This administration declares unconditional war on poverty in America." -- Lyndon Johnson

You wonder why Kanye West says that the President doesn't care about black people and then you hear him say, ,"I was disappointed, frankly, in the vote I got in the African-American community. I was. I’ve done my best to elevate people to positions of authority and responsibility — not just positions, but positions where they can actually make a difference in the lives of people. I put people in my Cabinet. I put people in my sub-Cabinet.". He sounds more concerned with getting votes than with helping anyone.

US poverty: chronic ill, little hope for cure

Here are the facts:

• Since 2000, the ranks of the poor have increased year by year by almost 5.5 million in total
• Today, 33% of black children live in families under the poverty level.
• Last year, African American households had the lowest median income of any racial group ($30134), down a full percentage point from the year before.
• The unemployment rate for African-Americans is double the rate for white Americans. Over the past six months, the average unemployment rate for white Americans was 4.39 percent; for black Americans, it was 10.06 percent.
• Poverty is a universal problem, as is inequality. The world's 500 richest people, according to U.N. statistics, have as much income as the world's poorest 416 million.
  
  Statistics and quote from: Think Progress
  

"The federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won." -- Ronald Reagan in 1988

What can we do?

Raise the minimum wage -- From Think Progress:

• 4.3 million: Number of Americans who have fallen into poverty since President Bush took office
• $5.15: Federal minimum wage
• $5,000: Amount below the poverty level working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at minimum wage will leave a family of three
• 7,300,000: Number of workers who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage
• 72%: Percentage of adult workers who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage
• 1,800,000: Number of parents with kids under the age of 18 who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage
• 11 million: Number of jobs added to the economy in the four years after the last minimum wage hike
• 2.5 years: Amount of health care for two children which could be bought by raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25
• 86%: Percentage of Americans who support raising the federal minimum wage
  
  

Mr. Harvey of the Enterprise Foundation in his paper, Ending Concentrated Poverty, goes into some of the causes of US poverty:

What has caused concentrated poverty:

• deindustrialization
• globalization
• suburban development that does not included poor and minority families

The above have all eroded the job base in the heart of cities. But he has several workable, proven solutions:

• enhance access to opportunity for low-income families
  - housing choice vouchers to help with rent in communities they choose or to help with mortgages
• rebuild and reinvest in a smart, sustainable way
  - "private-public partnerships to turn dysfunctional environments into healthier communities"
• ensure meaningful decision-making roles for low-income people

We cannot be considered a civilized society if we continue to leave a larger and larger segment of our population behind. We talk about being proud to be an American because fight wars in foreign lands. We need to be proud to be an American because we're fighting a war here ... against racism and poverty.

Without Training Wheels

On Cyberkitten's blog, we've been discussing the meaning of life. Well, I can think of no better one than my son. Alex learned how to ride his bike without training wheels today. The meaning of my life is to try to be a good example for him and to try in whatever way I can to make the world that he grows up in a better one than the one I did.



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Went to the Thunderbird Balloon Classic with Alex Friday night and had a great time. Click the image for a page with more pics:

Gonorrhea Lectim

The Center for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of sexually transmitted disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior.

The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him").

Many victims contracted it in 2004, after having been screwed for the past 4 years, in spite of having taken measures to protect themselves from this especially troublesome disease. Cognitive sequelae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim include, but are not limited to:
. anti-social personality disorder traits;
. delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavor;
. chronic mangling of the English language;
. extreme cognitive dissonance;
. inability to incorporate new information;
. pronounced xenophobia;
. inability to accept responsibility for actions;
. exceptional cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado;
. uncontrolled facial smirking;
. ignorance of geography and history;
. tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies; and
. a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behavior.

The disease is sweeping Washington. Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed and baffled that this malignant disease, which originated only a few years ago from a Bush in Texas.


*** Ed. note -- didn't mean to cheapen the discussion with a joke. But I couldn't resist (dbackdad) ***

Meaning of Life / Free Will

While we're in the religious discussion mood, I highly recommend a couple of current discussions going on at a couple of my favorite bloggers:

• Is The Meaning of Life 42? - a twist on the normal "meaning of life" question

• A simple question... - a discussion about free will

Devolution

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." -- (Albert Einstein, Religion and Science, New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930

51% of Americans do not believe they evolved ... 15% agree (that those 51% didn't evolve) (grin)

Majority of Americans Reject Theory of Evolution

Do these numbers provide affirmation to Creationism? Creationists may think so. I don't.

Other "Christian" countries don't think so either:
Comparing U.S. Religious Beliefs with other "Christian" Countries

Educators don't think so:
National groups won't let Kansas use materials in science standards

What DO these numbers tell us?

• Our science education is not what it should be. Our public education system is being abandoned and more and more kids are going to private Christian schools.
• Other countries better understand what a secular government is (our country once did)
• We value dogma over learning and inquisitiveness. We've become a country of anti-intellectual pride.
  

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." -- (Albert Einstein, 1954)

"I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature." -- (Albert Einstein, The World as I See It)

Rosa Parks

An icon has died:

Rosa Parks: 1913 - 2005

Hypocrite of the Day

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison yesterday on Meet the Press:

Ms. Hutchison said she hoped “that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.”

Ms. Hutchison in 1999 during the Clinton impeachment:

[S]omething needs to be said that is a clear message that our rule of law is intact and the standards for perjury and obstruction of justice are not gray. And I think it is most important that we make that statement and that it be on the record for history.

I very much worry that with the evidence that we have seen that grand juries across America are going to start asking questions about what is obstruction of justice, what is perjury. And I don’t want there to be any lessening of the standard. Because our system of criminal justice depends on people telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That is the lynch pin of our criminal justice system and I don’t want it to be faded in any way.

Apparently it's only perjury if it's the other party in power.

Quirks

Thanks to Sadie and Jewish Atheist for passing this on to me to do ... so here goes. My strange habits and quirks:

1) I'm pretty compulsive about being early for appointments and for never taking sick days. I think it's the residue of a midwestern work ethic inherited from my dad.

2) I will finish every book or movie I start regardless of how wretched it is. I don't know if it's just another ethics thing about finishing what you start or if I feel that their is some redeeming quality in just about anything.

3) I LOVE going to auctions. It's the atmosphere, the competition, the white-trash huckster element. It can be for anything ... antiques, furniture, whatever. I used to work at an auction house when I was a teen and I was fascinated by the behind-the-scene things that went on then and that I can see going on now as a participant.

4) If I have the time and the TV remote, I will watch absolutely any televised sporting event. I find golf entertaining. I'd watch professional lawn darts or competitive tiddlywinks.

5) I love pickles but hate them on hamburgers. I will pick them off, eat them, and then eat the hamburger. I think it's because I don't think that hamburgers should be crunchy.

6) I don't really like mustard but if I'm eating a corn dog, I have to have it with mustard. Ketchup just will not work.

7) I'm compulsive about book, CD, DVD collecting. I have entirely too many of each (800+ books, 300+ CD's, 200+ DVD's). But I can't get rid of any. I always feel that I'll read, watch, listen to it someday. That means I still have a couple of Extreme (you know ... "More than Words" -- gag me) CD's that I just can't bring myself to dispose of.

8) Among my books, I have probably 100 books on chess! And I never play anyone. But if Gary Kasparov ever came to my house, I could probably give him a good game.

9) I've kept the tickets from every concert, sporting event, movie that I've ever went to. I keep saying that I'll put them in topical scrapbooks some day. And exactly who would that ever be interesting to?

OK, not the limits of my weirdness, but the most obvious ones that I can think of right now. Eric, Josh, and Isabella, consider yourselves tagged.

Michael Ledeen

If you want to know about neo-conservatism, and specifically the biggest American proponent of it, check out Shaw's outstanding post at Progressive Eruptions. It's very comprehensive:

The Most Dangerous Man in America, Michael Ledeen

FEMA

If you want to get even more of an idea how out of touch the leadership of FEMA was during Katrina (and a clue to what they really feel is important), check out the following e-mail exchange transcripts provided at a Senate hearing by regional director Marty Bahamonde:

Excerpts from e-mails among Federal Emergency Management officials during Hurricane Katrina: (Note: All times CDT)

_Marty Bahamonde, regional director for New England to David Passey, regional director for the Gulf Coast, Aug. 28, 4:46 p.m.

_Bahamonde to Deborah Wing, FEMA response specialist, Aug 28, 5:28 p.m.

_Passey to group, Aug 28, 7:16 p.m.

_Passey to Bahamonde, Aug. 28, 9:58 p.m.

_Bahamonde to Michael Heath, FEMA official, Aug. 29, 7:33 a.m.

_Bahamonde to Nicole Andrews, FEMA spokeswoman, Aug. 30, 7:02 a.m.

_Bahamonde to FEMA Director Michael Brown, Aug. 31, 11:20 a.m.

Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes.

_Sharon Worthy, Brown‘s press secretary, to Cindy Taylor, FEMA deputy director of public affairs, and others, Aug. 31, 2 p.m.

"Also, it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner. Gievn (sic) that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes. We now have traffic to encounter to get to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc.

_Bahamonde to Taylor and Michael Widomski, public affairs, Aug. 31, 2:44 p.m.

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! No won‘t go any further, too easy of a target. Just tell her that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move my pebbles on the parking garage floor so they don‘t stab me in the back while I try to sleep.

_Bahamonde to Taylor, Sept. 3, 1:06 a.m.

"The leadership from top down in our agency is unprepared and out of touch. ... But while I am horrified at some of the cluelessness and self concern that persists, I try to focus on those that have put their lives on hold to help people that they have never met and never will. And while I sometimes think that I can‘t work in this arena, I can‘t get out of my head the visions of children and babies I saw sitting there, helpless, looking at me and hoping I could make a difference and so I will and you must to."

From the Herald News Daily



This would be funny if it didn't involve people dying. This morally bankrupt group of "Mayberry Machiavellians" makes me want to puke.

Angry White Male

Here's to you .... that unrepresented, descriminated-against minority: the angry, white, middle-aged male. Your heroes are Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. You are angry and you don't even know why. As Thomas Frank describes it in What's the Matter with Kansas:

"Everything seems to piss conservatives off. And they react by documenting and cataloging their disgust. The result is what we will call the plen-T-plaint, a curious amassing of petty, unrelated beefs with the world. Its purpose is not really to evaluate the hated liberal culture that surrounds us; the plen-T-plaint is a horizontal rather than vertical mode of criticism, aiming instead to infuriate us with dozens, hundreds, thousands of stories of the many tiny ways the world around us assaults family values, uses obscenities, disrespects parents[...] It offers no resolution, simply reminding us that we can never win. The plen-T-plaint is the rhetorical device that makes Bill O'Reilly's TV show a hit, as he gets indignant one day about the Insane Clown Posse and gets indignant the next about the Man-Boy Love Association [NAMBLA]."

Your flushed red face and spittle are palpable even on talk radio. I have to wipe my down my radio after you are done. You are unhappy with what you've done with your life and you are going to take it out on everyone else.

You feel you have a God-given right to the 350 years of white supremacy and unearned privilege. Just because you screwed up what you were given doesn't matter. You rail against affirmative action yet you have no problem with our president (who couldn't get into college in Texas) being let into Yale because of his daddy.

Well, I will tell you what. Angry, white, middle-age male ... you don't represent me, and you don't represent my friend, the Great White Bear.

==============================================================

Speaking of Bill O'Reilly, he was the guest on the Daily Show yesterday. And as usual, Stewart killed!!! I have no idea why O'Reilly even agreed to be on the show. While being courteous and funny, Stewart still managed to allow Bill to look like an out-of-touch idiot:


Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart

==============================================================

You want to know why we're screwing up in Iraq? Here's a pretty good analysis, and it's not from some left-wing site. It's from the American Conservative:

Billions of dollars have disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors’ pockets.

Some of the highlights:

• at least $20 billion of the Iraqi people's money and hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer money have been wasted
• young, unqualified Heritage Foundation neo-cons were given high ranking jobs and payed 6 figure salaries
• 363 tons of hundred dollar bills were distributed to contractors and middlemen with virtually no accountability

When the final accounting of the corruption in Iraq comes out, hopefully Americans will take to task those responsible.

Apathy

"Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care; they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exists because of their silent consent." -- Bruno Jasienski

Fear is a big thing now days. Fear of terrorists. Fear of natural disaster. Fear of avian flu. If we're always scared, then we'll look the other way when our freedoms are being taken. But the thing we really need to fear is apathy. We can't become so desensitized to death in Iraq that we don't care about the war any more. We can't become so desensitized to corruption in government that we stop being critical of it.

I've seen it bandied about too much on some of our blogs that because Bush won the election, that must mean he was given tacit approval for the way in which he runs government. He won because of the fear and apathy I've mentioned before. People were afraid of terrorism and they felt that Bush presented the best choice for handling it. They became so blinded by single issues (abortion, gun rights) that they hurt themselves economically. As Thomas Frank says in What's the Matter with Kansas, "By separating class from economics, [those leading the cultural backlash] have built a Republican friendly alternative for the disgruntled blue-collar American." How else could you explain that a Yale/Harvard/Skull and Bones blueblood with a multi-millionaire Washington insider dad could be viewed as a man of the people?

I've also seen it said in many places (TV and otherwise), that because Bush is a "man of God", then all is well. I know personally many people that voted for Bush that practically believe that he can walk on water. Anything short of them personally witnessing the President killing someone is OK and they will rationalize imperialism, corruption, torture, you name it. This mass cognitive dissonance is astounding. They will continually adjust their beliefs to try and match it to the reality around them. And they will deny they are doing it.

And our media, god bless them, are worthless. They are too chicken-shit to do any actual investigative work because of their ties to the corporations that own them. And those outlets that are in bed with the government (FOX) show their indignation with government corruption by lamenting that it is being exposed at all. Bill O'Reilly is a piece of work. He worries that government indictments will hurt the country. William "first family of neo-conservatism" Kristol thinks that the "criminalization of politics that’s really gotten totally out of hand". It does not bother them at all what has created the situation. To them, all is fair in politics. Is that what our representative democracy was supposed to be?

It's not our job to blindly follow everything our government says. There is no reason to believe everything that they tell us when they are proven again and again to be lying to us. There is no reason to believe that they are better informed than we are. And we should not stand by idly and assume that things will be taken care of by someone else. Be informed. Be vigilant.

"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." -- US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

Wag the Dog

Is it just me, or is this just a little too like Wag the Dog:

Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged



What does it say about your democracy when the only way that you can speak to the people is by carefully creating the situation and coaching the response?

**UPDATE** More from Think Progress indicates that even the questions themselves were staged:
Video: Pentagon Aide Admits Having “Drilled Through” Questions For Photo-Op



Speaking of polticial movies, what are some of your faves? Mine in no particular order:

Bob Roberts
Bulworth
Fahrenheit 9/11
Dr. Strangelove
Wag the Dog
Bowling for Columbine
Election
All the President's Men
Primary Colors
JFK
Fog of War

It's a pretty broad definition. Technically, Schindler's List (one of my all-time favorite movies) could be considered political. But I'm trying to confine the list to those directly associated with politicians or the government.

Also, you'll have to forgive me for not including the following ... but I've yet to see them (I know ... shoot me):

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Manchurian Candidate
Candidate
Citizen Kane

John Muir quotes

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

"Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you."

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools." -- I know ... an ironic quote from me. It's still a good quote. It's the thought that counts.

John Muir -- famed conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club

Sierra Club Service Trip -- Elgin, AZ

"Do not ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive". -- Harold Whitman (told to me by new dear friend Cat Hayden)

My vacation/service trip with the Sierra Club was a rousing success. Not only did I have a great time, I feel that we did some good.


During last week, a group of 10 Sierra Club members stayed and volunteered at an Audubon Society Research Ranch in southern Arizona. Our work consisted of upgrading and repairing fences on the property so as to allow the local species (deer and pronghorn) to pass the boundaries without being injured. In addition, we collected native grass seeds and transplanted native grasses into areas where they had been pushed out by exotic plants.


We had several guest speakers that had knowledge that placed them at the top of their fields. But the most impressive thing about them was their enthusiasm and willingness to give us some of that knowledge. The first was Ron Probst of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. He presented a slide show and afterwards we observed firsthand many celestial objects with the telescope that he had brought. I'm a big science/space nut and I was in my element with this speaker.


The next speaker was Homer Hansen, an environmental scientist but whose hobbies (and vast knowledge) extend way beyond that. Besides being on many committees in Southern Arizona concerning environmental issues, he is an expert on bats and birds. He's the chairman of the Wings over Wilcox, an annual bird and nature festival in Wilcox, Arizona. On this day, he spoke to us about Sky Islands."The Sky Islands are forested mountain ranges surrounded by seas of desert and grassland." Southeastern Arizona is one of the preeminent places on Earth for this. It was a very interesting talk and afterwards he led us on a walk where he explained some of the importance of sky islands and their effect on species diversity of plants and animals.

On our off day, we visited Garden Canyon within the Fort Huachuca Army base. We hiked, observed pictograph drawings on the mountainsides and saw several native species.


But don't be fooled into thinking the whole week was just all goody-goody stuff and learning. I had an absolute blast because of the items listed above but also because I met some incredible people. The other members (and leaders) of my group were not only extremely successful in their own careers, but also intelligent, well-traveled (about half the group lived abroad at one time or another), civic minded (most had done service trips before), funny (able to jump between Fellini and Farrelly brothers without skipping a beat) and hard-working. We exceeded both the expectations of Audubon and Sierra Club in how much we got done. Plus, we had great food and propped up the economy of Sonoita, Arizona with our consumption of alcohol. I value the friendships I developed on this trip and will undoubtedly see these people again in the future.

Fog of War / Silver City

Silver City

Here's a crazy premise for a movie:

- a "grammatically-challenged user-friendly" candidate
- a scion of a famous political father/family
- a slick campaign manager that is the true brains of the outfit
- "complex web of influence and corruption, involving high stakes lobbyists, media conglomerates, environmental plunderers"

Not so wild a premise now. And not so coincidental either. John Sayles, the famed American filmmaker of movies such as Matewan and Lone Star, released this movie in 2004 prior to the election. He was not trying to hide his allegiance. The story may have been fictional and the names changed to protect the not-so-innocent, but the subject of the satire was very obvious.

Led by a cast that includes several Sayles regulars like Chris Cooper and Kris Kristoferson, this movie does a great job of showing how the gullibility of the public can be taken advantage of by a well-organized machine.

-------------------------------------------------------------


Fog of War

One would think that a movie that consists of an 90 minute long interview with an 86 year-old man who mainly talked about the Vietnam War would be (1) boring and (2) irrelevant to today's political climate. You would be wrong on both counts. Errol Morris' Oscar winning documentary does a great job of going back and forth between the interview and archive footage to create a suprisingly lively narrative. And the manner in which he is interview allows you to see the pauses and emotion of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as he recounts his experiences. Far from being an apologist for McNamara, Morris does, however, show how well-intentioned people can get themselves into terrible situations (and take a country with them). It is this that makes this movie so relevant now. The documentary focuses on 11 lessons:

• Empathize with your enemy.
• Rationality will not save us.
• There's something beyond one's self.
• Maximize efficiency.
• Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
• Get the data.
• Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
• Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
• In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
• Never say never.
• You can't change human nature.

11 lessons that were obviously not learned by our current administration. I highly recommend this film.

On Vacation

Sorry, but I won't be able to bore you guys with my posts for a few days. I'm leaving Sunday for my Sierra Club "vacation" and will be there through Saturday.

Heeeeere's Johnny ... and God

This is a pretty funny spoof of the Shining that a guy did for a contest among assistant editors in New York. The assignment: "Take any movie and cut a new trailer for it — but in an entirely different genre. Only the sound and dialogue could be modified, not the visuals". Robert Ryang won the contest by recutting it so that it sounded like a comedy about a writer. Here's his submission:

The Shining



The submission got so much internet buzz that some real producers actually contacted Mr. Ryang.

***********************************************************

A recent study published in the Journal of Religion and Society brings doubt to the view that a godly society is necessarily a safe and healthy society:

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

"Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion," the article says. But the results of the study show a quite different trend.

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

What's the matter with Kansas ... errrr, I mean Pennsylvania?

I keep trying to stop talking about this but reality keeps pushing it back in my face:

'Of Pandas and People'

It's not so hard to imagine those people a few hundred years ago who criticized Copernicus for saying that the earth rotated around the Sun. I'm sure they said there were "gaps" in his theory. Unfortunately, there will always be an "earth is flat" crowd.

==================================================



You'll have to forgive my schadenfreude if anything comes to pass from the DeLay investigation:

DeLay Probe Winds Down; Charges May Loom

I must resist the urge to dance and begin singing, "Ding-dong, the witch is dead, the witch is dead!"

And his buddies are close behind (Frist, Abramoff, Safavian, Rove, Bolton):

Frist Faces Heat as SEC Orders Formal Inquiry Into Stock Sale

The School Safavian and Abramoff Built

Will Safavian Knock Down The Right-Wing House of Cards?

Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration

Plamegate: The John Bolton Connection

So how's that Republican Revolution working out for you, Newt?

• Smaller government? ============>Nope, screwed that up.
• Less government spending? ============> Fucked that way up.
• Less intrusion into people's lives? ========> Can you say Patriot Act?
• Better ethics and more accountability? ============> Pleaaase!
  
  
  
  

1984 Revisited

See what I'm talking about? This is getting just a little bit scary:

Fresh From Iraq, Private Security Forces Roam the Streets of an American City With Impunity



People are losing every possession they have, yet private security forces are making $350 a day? And we're footing that bill kids. And they are working under their own supervision.

And how about the issue of radio tags?

Being a computer professional, I subscribe to quite a few trade magazines. Usually, I just skim through them. But an article on a new technology caught my eye. That technology being RFID:

RFID -- radio frequency identification. Refers to the technology that uses devices attached to objects that transmit data to an RFID receiver. These devices can be large pieces of hardware the size of a small book like those attached to ocean containers or very small devices inserted into a label on a package. RFID has advantages over bar codes such as the ability to hold more data, the ability to change the stored data as processing occurs, does not require line-of-sight to transfer data and is very effective in harsh environments where bar code labels won't work.

One company is thinking of having the RFID's attached to armbands or uniforms of workers. I'm sorry, but it's just a little too like having Big Brother watching my every move. Evidently some workers in the UK agree:

Tracked Workers Outraged Over RFID Tagging

"Gay Problem"

Recently, Superintendent Leonard Stob of Ontario Christian School expelled student Shay Clark for having lesbian parents:

School Expels Girl for Having Gay Parents

Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship."

Evidently having committed parents that have been together for 22 years doesn't count as a "positive Christian life style".

This is not Leonard Stob's first brush with homosexual issues and how they relate to Christian schools. I googled his name and turned up this article from when he was a superintendent in Florida:

Gay Problem at Christian Schools

In that article, he states how the school would not hire any staff who were openly gay.



Evidently, Christian warrior Leonard is going around the country purging Christian schools of gays. Too bad, there isn't someone to go around the country purging of it of narrow-minded bigots.

Hodge Podge

You gotta give it to the Republicans. Only they would use something like Katrina to justify huge spending cuts in essential programs ... rather than eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest, eliminating subsidies for big oil or getting the hell out of Iraq. The House Republican Study Committee outlines many cuts including:

• cuts or increases in premiums for medicare/medicaid
• freezing of aid to Global AIDS Initiative, Peace Corps
• eliminate state grants for Safe and Drug-Free school programs
• eliminate Even Start

Without any sense of irony, they list items such as the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and the Applied Research for Renewable Energy Sources Programs as "corporate welfare" that can be eliminated and are better served by the private sector. I'm so sick of all this "free market" crap they spout. It was the "free market" people in the 60's that didn't want civil rights legislation to go through. They said that the market would eventually see that they shouldn't descriminate. Capitalism is the answer to every problem to them. Do you know what capitalism and real corporate welfare are doing? They're creating a have and have-not society. And these moronic cuts they are recommending will hit the have-nots the worse, especially the elderly.

In addition, they suggest eliminating the National Endowment for Arts and publicly funded TV. This is not a shocker because these programs represent culture and the Republicans in power right now (not all Republicans, mind you) wouldn't know culture if it hit them between the eyes. Larry the Cable Guy is not culture, you hayseeds.

============================================================

Former President Jimmy Carter told a panel at American University this week something that most of us already know, but that is suprising coming from a former president, Gore won 2000 election.



I like the fact that Carter and Clinton earlier in the week are not being afraid to tell it like it is ... abandoning this nonexistent unspoken rule forbidding former presidents from criticizing a standing president. The rule is bogus, as George Sr. had no problem savaging Bill while he was office.

============================================================

It's good to see that Homeland Security is doing it's job ... protecting us from those evil vegans:

ACLU sues Homeland Security for arresting, spying on vegans who protested ham




We all know how violent vegans can get. Think of the bedlam that would ensue from a booby-trapped tomato or cauliflower in a crowded area. :-)

Loco en Cabeza

Do you get the feeling that they (Bushes) are all just a few bricks short of a load?


Jeb Bush Reveals His “Mystical Warrior” Friend

I unsheath my mytical warrior quite often ... just never in public. :-)

Somewhere over the Rainbow Trout

Bacon-Wrapped Trout Stuffed with Fresh Sage

Though I don't think my picture or cooking is in the class of The Hungry Blogger or The Church Potluck, I cooked up something pretty damn tasty the other day from the spoils of our fishing trip of a few weeks ago.

4 (10-ounce) trout, head and tail on, gutted
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 large sprigs fresh sage
2 lemons, halved and sliced
1 1/2 pounds sliced bacon
Toothpicks

Drizzle cavity of trout with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Stuff cavity with 4 lemon slices and 1 sprig of sage.
Wrap trout with bacon like a mummy, using toothpicks to hold bacon in place. Each trout will require about 6 strips of bacon.

Grill for approximately 5 minutes per side over direct medium-high heat, or until bacon is crispy and trout is cooked throughout. Trout can also be pan-seared for approximately 5 minutes per side.

The recipe is courtesy of the Food Network.

Big Brother

Have we gotten to the point where it is not hyperbole to say that we've become the society described in 1984? (all block quotes here from 1984)

... loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U.S. soil

Is the Patriot Act protecting us or taking away our freedoms?

Patriot Act library case

We take these changes to our society as an unavoidable cost of maintaining our security. We are led to believe that we are always in danger so that we give up our freedom without complaint:

"... the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival."

Mysticism has replaced logic. Intelligent design is spoken of on equal terms with Evolution:

"In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science.' The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc."

Critical thought and informed dissent have been replaced by talking points. We're told what to think and that if we disagree, it's "unpatriotic":

"She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her."

"... a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting - three hundred million people all with the same face."

Tragedy is used to create blind nationalism. Disparate elements are connected to justify the unjustifiable:

"The proles, normally apathetic about the war, were being lashed into one of their periodical frenzies of patriotism."

We've lost the ability to know or to even care when we're being lied to. When the administration changes the rationale for war from WMD's to spreading democracy to protecting oil, we don't complain:

"... she only questioned the teachings of the Party when they in some way touched upon her own life. Often she was ready to accept the official mythology, simply because the difference between truth and falsehood did not seem important to her."

When they act like there was never a different rationale than the current one they are using, we lap it up:

"'Who controls the past', ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"

And they present it with such perceived sincerity and singlemindedness that we feel guilty for doubting it:

"...the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty."

I cite Senator Tom Coburn as one of the main offenders:

Coburn’s Hypocrisy A Crying Shame

But he's only one of many.

We've become so cowed that we are afraid to raise our voices. But we do have the power. The first step is becoming conscious:

"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

Read every news source that you can get your hands on. Don't trust tradional media sources to give you an unbiased view. They all answer to corporate entities and the almighty dollar. Unwittingly or otherwise, the stories they pick and the slant they present reflect that.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

Creationism: God's Gift to the Ignorant

I know this one will surely rile JC up ... and that is not my intent. So bear with me. An article written by Richard Dawkins earlier this year does a really good job of exposing the obvious problems with Creationism and with how those that believe it seek to justify it.

Creationism: God's Gift to the Ignorant

I have no problem with people that believe in God. I understand that it's a matter of faith and as such you do not need to have proof. My problem is with people that use intellectual dishonesty to justify their belief. Especially, Intelligent Design believers. That dishonesty is distinctly non-Christian. An example from Dawkins' article:

It isn’t even safe for a scientist to express temporary doubt as a rhetorical device before going on to dispel it.

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” You will find this sentence of Charles Darwin quoted again and again by creationists. They never quote what follows. Darwin immediately went on to confound his initial incredulity. Others have built on his foundation, and the eye is today a showpiece of the gradual, cumulative evolution of an almost perfect illusion of design. The relevant chapter of my Climbing Mount Improbable is called “The fortyfold Path to Enlightenment” in honour of the fact that, far from being difficult to evolve, the eye has evolved at least 40 times independently around the animal kingdom.

Most scientists will readily admit what they do not know. That "ignorance" is what feeds science. They are always seeking new answers. Creationists are the opposite. Wherever there is a so-called "gap", they will insinuate God into it's place.

Intelligent Designers would have you believe that that by teaching it in school, children are being given more choices. But what they are getting is the exact opposite. Where once there was the thirst for knowledge, there is now encouragement to stop looking if you don't find the answer. Where once there was awe of the wonder of nature, there is now a blind acceptance of the unknown. Again, from Dawkins:

The creationists’ fondness for “gaps” in the fossil record is a metaphor for their love of gaps in knowledge generally. Gaps, by default, are filled by God. You don’t know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don’t understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don’t go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God. Dear scientist, don’t work on your mysteries. Bring us your mysteries for we can use them. Don’t squander precious ignorance by researching it away. Ignorance is God’s gift to Kansas.