Culture Wars
tfk | May 21, 2007Reposted while I unearth myself from a bunch of work I have to get through. From the old TfK, and still relevant.
The editor of the racist VDare.com explains that white nationalists are different from white supremacists becasue:
They brush their teeth.
This has been today's edition of the field guide to racial extremists.
tfk | May 16, 2007The sanctimonious blowhard lived a life of noisy desperation, hunting constantly for a way to divide America and the world. In response to everything from Katrina to the Dover creationism decision to 9/11, he knew that the way to get on television was to declare judgment in God's name. Job's friends – friends who (wrongly) insisted that every ill consequence which befell Job and his family was simply punishment for some offense – had nothing on Falwell.
Falwell is survived by a political movement of tremendous size and influence. There are undoubtedly many reasons that John McCain lost his…
tfk | May 8, 2007In addition to its flawed standards on science education, the previous Board of Education's major achievements involved hired an unqualified Commissioner of Education and imposing abstinence-only standards on sex ed classes. The new Board reversed the science standards debacle, is currently selecting a new Commissioner with an actual background in education policy, and will reverse the sex ed mistake. The old Board had recommended that sex ed only cover abstinence, and suggested that school districts require parents to opt-in to sex ed classes, rather than the more common opt-out system.…
tfk | May 7, 2007Someone turned me on to a new journal – Secular Culture & Ideas – covering cultural (secular) Judaism. There's an interview with science journalist Natalie Angier, an essay on secular thought in American politics, and several articles on Jewish feminism. Douglas Rushkoff's essay on how secular voices can redefine Judaism is especially interesting in light of our previous discussions of the Overton Window. Rushkoff begins:
Can we talk? Why aren’t I surprised that none other than Joan Rivers is responsible for one of the most accurate condensations of the core values of a three thousand…
tfk | May 6, 2007Drew Ryun, Jim Ryun's baby boy and former Evangelical Outreach director for the RNC, thinks Mormonism is weird. He defends that claim by encouraging people bothered by that statement to read up on Mormon theology. He then defends his own views, writing:
if you're weirded out by orthodox Christianity. . . that's your problem.
It's my opinion that any religion looks weird to outsiders. I think it's problematic to suggest that weirdness only belongs to others, or that it is an automatic strike against an idea.
Praying towards Mecca 5 times a day is a little weird, so is washing your hands and…
tfk | May 5, 2007Steve, formerly the Whole Wheat Blogger, is confused. He reads an article about people in Austria trying to get a chimpanzee declared to be a person for legal purposes, and wonders:
On pondering this, I was wondering what possible reason these people could have for doing this. Do they desire something that is taboo unless it's with another person?
Which is to say, "to remove the taboo of bestiality." I don't know why that's what he thinks first. After all, the news account he links explains:
Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations…
tfk | May 3, 2007Less than a third of Republican candidates for President reject evolution. That's how far out of the mainstream those three whackos are.
Only McCain and Giuliani said they'd back stem cell research, despite growing national majorities in favor of it.
I didn't watch it, so I don't know anything but what I read about it on the internets.
tfk | May 3, 2007Slacktivist wonders "is Lou Sheldon dumb enough to believe his own slippery silliness, or is he just being dishonest to further his political agenda? Hard to say. But any question that begins with 'is Lou Sheldon dumb enough ...' I'm inclined to answer yes."
The question of Lou Sheldon's stupidity arises from a flier he, as head of the Traditional Values Coalition, released. The flier is, as slacktivist writes, "a pro-hate crime flier made up to look like a 'wanted' poster of Jesus Christ." He continues
The TVC doesn't explicitly call itself "pro-hate crime," but the flier expresses their…
tfk | May 3, 2007Max Blumenthal reviews Christopher Hitchens and his latest book:
"God Is Not Great" represents little more than the disingenous posturings of a certified fraudmeister who has openly cavorted with the most reactionary elements of the Christian right. If Hitchens had any principles at all -- if he truly feared the cultural and political consequences of the encroachment of religion into public life -- he would have used his still-considerable influence to support organizations and causes that shore up the wall between church and state and which defend the rights of non-believers. Instead,…
tfk | May 2, 2007Yes or No. Do you believe in evolution?
Should the President have power to imprison U.S. citizens without charging them with a crime and without providing them a judicial forum in which they can contest the accusations against them, as the Bush administration did to American Jose Padilla?
Do you think the process of waterboarding -- where the U.S. takes prisoners, straps them to a chair, and pours water on their face so they are in terror of drowning to death -- is a practice consistent with America's moral credibility in the world?
Luckily, if you and people like you vote for those questions…
tfk | May 1, 2007ThinkProgress reports that a pump bid for New Orleans may have been rigged:
When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, "it copied the specifications — typos and all — from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract."
The coexistence of these typos is strong evidence that the Corps of Engineers specifications were copied verbatim. In other words, like novel forms of genes spreading through a family tree, those specifications were identical by descent. Identifying such novelties is how we identify common descent not…
tfk | April 30, 2007Many moons ago, I presented my theory on Intelligent Falling to the scientific community in the only way recognized as valid: I posted it on the internet without any supporting evidence. Important journals like The Onion picked it up later, but it has taken longer to fulling infiltrate the ID movement.
In a discussion at Bill Dembski's blog, "bornagain77" writes:
I Find it very interesting that materialism had to invent hypothetical particles to keep the equations of Gravity working properly when Theism would of predicted Gravity as a primary cause and would not have seen a need to invent…
tfk | April 26, 2007See Flock of Dodos and talk with the director on May 7 at 7:30:
Randy Olson, the filmmaker behind 'Flock of Dodos,' is the featured Watkins visiting professor, May 7-8 at Wichita State University. A question and answer panel discussion will follow the movie. Panelists will include Olson; Les Anderson, associate professor of communication; Niall Shanks, Curtis D. Gridley Distinguished Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science; and Phil Shull, pastor, University United Methodist Church. Members of the audience may ask questions of the panel.
Be there. Even creationists seem able to…
tfk | April 22, 2007One of the peripheral strands in the ropy debate about framing is the question of how and whether religion ought to be part of the debate. PZ Myers advances an analogy by Larry Moran between atheists now and feminists back at some point in history. He quotes Larry saying:
Do you realize that women used to march in the streets with placards demanding that they be allowed to vote? At the time the suffragettes were criticized for hurting the cause. Their radical stance was driving off the men who might have been sympathetic to women's right to vote if only those women had stayed in their…
tfk | April 21, 2007Brad Delong compels me, as if he had glued my eyes open, to consider Mickey Kaus. What mere words could have this effect on me? Simple:
on Monday Mickey Kaus saddled up and rode to the defense of the Bushie practice of having flacks censor scientists--specifically, of George Deutsch's instructions to NASA scientists never to say Big Bang but always to say Big Bang theory instead.
That's all it took. I had to see it for myself. Kaus cites Krugman discussing:
George Deutsch, the presidential appointee at NASA who told a Web site designer to add the word ''theory'' after every mention of the…
tfk | April 18, 2007
What is this photograph about?
In one setting, this is a story about water. It even says so in the top left corner. In a post about water policy or aquifers in Kansas, you'd have no trouble appreciating this as an illustration.
That isn't what I was thinking when I took the picture though. Framed and hanging on a gallery wall, this is a photograph about circles, and of circles within circles. If I were talking about interpreting art, or using the camera lens to frame the subject, this photograph is still a natural illustration.
The context of the presentation is a frame. You experience…
tfk | April 17, 2007Ohio IDNet's Roddy Bullock has written a novel:
If you ever wished for a fun way to learn about intelligent design, here it is . . . Written for readers of all ages, the updated second edition of The Cave Painting is particularly suitable for high school and college students desiring to understand the truth about evolution and intelligent design.
When scientists describe science, they write nonfiction. When creationists try to describe science, they write fiction. Unlike most of their material, at least this is properly labeled.
tfk | April 15, 2007The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris: Harris would benefit from a sense of nuance. Millions of Buddhists, Sufi Muslims, Reform and Conservative Jews, Unitarians, Catholics and mainline Protestants adhere to religious teachings something like – and often more carefully considered than – the bizarre sort of of "spirituality" he endorses. The book is an extended version of the fallacy of the excluded middle – he devotes a great deal of ink to justifying the claim that moderate religiosity is basically as bad as the religiosity of suicide bombers, and that…