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Thoughts From the Interface of Science, Religion, Law and Culture
Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(static)
Ed Brayton also blogs at Positive Liberty and The Panda's Thumb
July 29, 2010
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On tonight's Declaring Independence:
My guest will be Jane Zehnder-Merrell of the Michigan League for Human Services, a group that advocates for the poor in Michigan. We'll be talking about poverty, unemployment and the government's responses to those in my home state.
As always, you can listen to the show live from 6-7 pm EST by clicking here.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 12:33 PM • 4 Comments
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A full two days since he was shown that his "quote" from Barack Obama is fake and yet it still remains at the very top of his latest column at the Worldnutdaily. And remember, this is a man who declared in an email to me:
I am not scientist, but a philosopher and an intellectual so the way I approach all bodies of knowledge is from reason and veritas (truth).
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. I also don't think the phrase "intellectual integrity" has any meaning for him at all.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 12:03 PM • 40 Comments
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Monday was the one-year anniversary of the day that Sarah Palin cut and ran from her job as Alaska's governor -- or if you're congenitally insane, the day "the lower 48 needed her and she heeded the call." You might recall that during her resignation speech she declared that "nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska."
She promised to "take a stand" and to effect "positive change outside government at this moment in time, on another scale, and actually make a difference for our priorities - and so we will, for Alaskans" and to "taking my fight for what's right - for Alaska - in a new direction."
Posted by Ed Brayton at 11:03 AM • 26 Comments
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Newsweek has a fascinating report on a plank in the platform of the Iowa Republican Party to reintroduce the "real" 13th amendment -- not that pesky one that outlawed slavery, the one that would strip Barack Obama of his citizenship for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Seriously.
The platform calls for "the reintroduction and ratification of the original 13th Amendment, not the 13th amendment in today's Constitution." And what was the original 13th amendment? Climb into Professor Peabody's Wayback Machine:
Posted by Ed Brayton at 10:33 AM • 58 Comments
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After declaring that he's "all about" the constitution and the bill of rights, Lt. Gov. of Tennessee Ron Ramsey -- also a candidate for governor this year -- tells a resident at a townhall meeting that Islam may not actually be a religion and therefore they may not have the right to build mosques in that state. Seriously. Watch this video. The relevant stuff starts at about 3:10.
"Now, you know, I'm all about freedom of religion. I value the First Amendment as much as I value the Second Amendment as much as I value the Tenth Amendment and on and on and on," he said. "But you cross the line when they try to start bringing Sharia Law here to the state of Tennessee -- to the United States. We live under our Constitution and they live under our Constitution." ..."Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult whatever you want to call it," Ramsey said. "Now certainly we do protect our religions, but at the same time this is something we are going to have to face."
Posted by Ed Brayton at 10:03 AM • 51 Comments
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You surely know by now that Justice Clarence Thomas recently denied a request by Orly Taitz to stay a lower court order fining her $20,000 for filing frivolous claims and violating judicial ethics by attacking judges and calling them traitors. Or did he really? Orly thinks there is a conspiracy afoot -- that someone else signed those orders, not Thomas. And in fact, that the Supreme Court hasn't been considering her petitions at all, only pretending to do so while someone else denies them without the knowledge of the justices.
She's filed a motion to Chief Justice John Roberts demanding that she be allowed to bring a forensic expert to the court to verify the signature of Thomas on that denial of her request, and the signatures of all the justices on earlier denials. You can read it on her website.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 10:03 AM • 36 Comments
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Yet another Louisiana school seems to be lining up to be the next one to get its butt kicked in court for trying to teach creationism.
The Livingston Parish School Board will begin exploring the possibility of incorporating the teaching of "creationism" in the public school system's science classes.During the board's meeting Thursday, several board members expressed an interest in the teaching of creationism, an alternative to the study of the theory of evolution, in Livingston Parish public school classrooms.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:03 AM • 50 Comments
July 28, 2010
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It's been nearly 24 hours since I informed Ellis Washington by email that his most recent Worldnetdaily column contains a fake quote from President Obama. Still no acknowledgment or correction posted.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 12:45 PM • 15 Comments
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As the brouhaha over Shirley Sherrod begins to fade, some corners of the right continue to defend Andrew Breitbart, some of them by attacking Shirley Sherrod. But surely the most bizarre attempt at doing that has to be this article by Jeffrey Lord at conservative mag The American Spectator.
Shirley Sherrod's story in her now famous speech about the lynching of a relative is not true. The veracity and credibility of the onetime Agriculture Department bureaucrat at the center of the explosive controversy between the NAACP and conservative media activist Andrew Breitbart is now directly under challenge. By nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 12:03 PM • 53 Comments
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This comes from the Worldnutdaily, but the video clearly shows what a total asshole this sheriff's deputy from New Mexico is. Two of them, actually. A group of Christians were protesting outside a Rob Zombie concert, telling people to repent or go to hell, etc. You've seen people like this if you've ever gone to many concerts. A bunch of deputies come up and order them to leave because they're on private property (which is disputable, since it's actually public property being leased for the concert).
The lead officer, knowing he's being videotaped, just goes off on a tirade. He turns to the crowd of people waiting in line for the concert and asks them if they want the protesters to stay or go, and of course they say go -- as if that has any relevance at all to the legalities of the situation.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 11:36 AM • 153 Comments
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ThinkProgress notes that Newt Gingrich is due to give what promises to be a rather odd speech about war and honesty in government. Here's the blurb about the speech:
Almost nine years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States has yet to confront the threat posed by the extremist and irreconcilable wing of Islam. Former Speaker of the House and AEI senior fellow Newt Gingrich will warn that now is the time to awaken from self-deception about the nature of our enemies and rebuild a bipartisan commitment, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to defend America. Drawing on the lessons of Camus and Orwell, Gingrich will describe the dangers of a wartime government that uses language and misleading labels to obscure reality.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 11:05 AM • 26 Comments
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As I noted in a comment yesterday, the one big example of Sharia law allegedly coming to the United States that all the wingnuts talk about -- the case in New Jersey where a state judge refused to grant a PPO for an abusive Muslim husband because his religion gave him the right to beat his wife -- has been overturned by the appeals court. There are a couple of important things to note here.
First, this really had nothing to do with Sharia law. The judge did not attempt to apply any such law. It was a very narrow finding on the question of intent, with the judge concluding that because the husband had the expectation that it was okay to beat his wife and force her to have sex, he lacked any specific criminal intent. That's a horrible, horrible ruling -- but it isn't an application of Sharia law.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 10:32 AM • 71 Comments
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Tony Hayward, CEO of British Petroleum, is headed for the exit -- with a $20 million golden parachute to guide him safely and luxuriously to the ground. The wages of sin may be death, as the Bible says, but reckless environmental destruction clearly pays much better.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 10:03 AM • 54 Comments
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It's time for Charles Rangel to be put out to pasture. He has long been regarded as one of the most corrupt legislators in Congress by watchdog organizations like CREW and now he has been found guilty of multiple ethics violations. And as this video makes clear, he has that typical haughty attitude of politicians who know they can't be touched -- "how dare you question me, do you know who I am?"
He should be expelled from the House by his colleagues, but he won't be. The Congressional ethics committees do not exist to actually police wrongdoing by members, they exist to make it appear that they do so.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:33 AM • 24 Comments
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As a member and frequent speaker at Center for Inquiry events, I love their Campaign for Free Expression logo. Remember, International Blasphemy Rights Day is September 30:
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:02 AM • 16 Comments
July 27, 2010
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As those who listen to my radio show may know, I always end the show with a long distance dedication. The idea is to dedicate a song that has an ironic or sarcastic message for someone in politics and a current issue. For example, I dedicated Knock Three Times to Larry Craig after the bathroom incident. And after Palin retired as governor, I dedicated the song How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away.
But it's really quite difficult to come up with a good one every week. So from now on I'm going to ask my readers for help each week and taking suggestions on a good song to dedicate to some hapless politico or organization on my show. So who has a suggestion on a song to dedicate to someone based on this week's news?
Posted by Ed Brayton at 12:33 PM • 60 Comments
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Ted Haggard now says that he "over-repented" for being shame-fisted into a meth coma (thank you, Jamie Kilstein) by a male prostitute. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at his new church and interviews him as he says things like this:
He acknowledged grave lapses of judgment in the episode he refers to as "my crisis." But Mr. Haggard also said that in his sorrow and shame, he accepted too much guilt after the scandal broke."I over-repented," he said...
He portrays his encounter with the prostitute as a massage that went awry and said he doesn't have same-sex attractions. He dismisses as a "witch hunt" the findings of his former church that he engaged in a pattern of misconduct, including sordid talk and inappropriate relationships.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 12:03 PM • 111 Comments
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I'm no fan of Harry Reid, who I regard as an incredibly ineffective leader in the Senate. And I did not make it to this year's Netroots Nation conference this year, despite it being in my favorite city to visit. But I wish I'd been there to see this moment. A bit contrived? Perhaps. But it still moved me. And I anxiously await the time when Choi gets that ring -- and his career -- back.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 11:33 AM • 12 Comments
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From Auntie Tom Star Parker, under this incredible headline from the Worldnutdaily:
Posted by Ed Brayton at 11:03 AM • 21 Comments
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On the website of his organization Renewing American Leadership, Newt Gingrich ups the ante on the Manhattan mosque and makes some breathtakingly idiotic and dangerous arguments. He begins:
There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 10:33 AM • 48 Comments
PZ Myers 07.29.2010
PZ Myers 07.28.2010
Ed Brayton 07.29.2010
Orac 07.29.2010
Ed Brayton 07.29.2010
