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stcynic | November 10, 2006It seems the Vatican has decided to throw it's 2 cents in on the controversy over a gay pride event in Jerusalem. Naturally, their 2 cents involves destroying the liberty of others:
Meanwhile, the Vatican said it asked its envoy to Israel to convey its regret over the decision to allow the parade to take place.
"The Holy See has reiterated on many occasions that the right to freedom of expression... is subject to just limits, in particular when the exercise of this right would offend the religious sentiments of believers," the Vatican said.
"It is clear that the gay parade scheduled to take…
stcynic | November 10, 2006Remember the case I mentioned last week where a Missouri State student was hauled before a university ethics committee and failed in a class because she refused a mandatory assignment to sign a letter endorsing adoption by homosexuals? The university has settled the suit, as they clearly should. The settlement requires the university to cleanse her record of the grievance filed against her and to pay for all tuition and expenses for 2 years of grad school. And the professor who instigated the situation has stepped down as head of the social work program.
stcynic | November 10, 2006Under increasing threats of violence, all sides have reached an agreement on the Jerusalem gay pride event. They have agreed that in lieu of a parade, they will hold a rally in the Hebrew University Stadium. The wingnuts who have been threatening violence have also agreed, apparently, not to disrupt the event. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the event will certainly be much easier to protect this way. An event in a single place, especially a stadium where you can frisk everyone going in, is a lot easier to keep safe than a moving event with an unlimited number of paths in…
pharyngula | November 10, 2006I can guess what that all means—it's from a description of the Panda's Thumb and Pharyngula in a Polish newspaper. The rest of the article…eh, I don't have a clue.
stcynic | November 9, 2006I am leaving in a couple hours to head down to Grand Rapids. Tomorrow morning I'm flying out of there to San Francisco for the weekend to spend some time with Wes and Nick and my good friends at the NCSE. I also may get to meet fellow ScienceBlogger John Wilkins while I'm there. And I'm going to get to see my cousin David for the first time in some 20 years. I am really looking forward to this trip.
In the meantime, I have a few posts going up tomorrow morning for your enjoyment. I hope everyone has as good a weekend as I'm going to have.
grrlscientist | November 9, 2006I have run across this particular word in every book I've read these past few weeks, so I decided to share it with you here, finally. The book where I found this word today is E. O. Wilson's The Creation. I assume that many of you will find it surprising to find this specialized word in so many non-theological books.
magisterium (maj-uh-STEER-ee-uhm) [Latin, the office of a teacher or other person in authority, from magister, master. Also see magisterial]
-noun Roman Catholic Church
the authority and power of the church to teach religious truth.
The authority to teach religious…
stcynic | November 9, 2006Yet another reason to view Hugh Hewitt as more of a carnival barker than a thinker to be taken seriously:
President Bush will not flag in the pursuit of the war, and Senator Santorum is now available for a seat on the SCOTUS should one become available.
Yikes. And if that's not bad enough, look at this:
Handed a large majority, the GOP frittered it away. The chief fritterer was Senator McCain and his Gang of 14 and Kennedy-McCain immigration bill, supplemented by a last minute throw down that prevented the NSA bill from progressing or the key judicial nominations from receiving a vote. His…
stcynic | November 9, 2006David Boaz had an article on Monday on the Fox News website suggesting that libertarians could be a key voting block in deciding the outcome of the election. Turns out he was right. He wrote:
Libertarians -- people who cringe at intrusive government, high taxes, nation-building and politicians telling them how to behave -- could turn out to be the key swing voters in Tuesday's contentious midterm election.
And, in an unusual development, that might not bode well for Republicans this time around.
A number of political scientists and libertarian pundits say that libertarian voters who sided…
stcynic | November 9, 2006Ultra-Orthodox anti-gay nuts, frustrated with not being able to stone homosexuals to death as the Mosaic law demands, decided instead to try and stone the mayor of Jerusalem:
Mayor Uri Lupolianski had gone to an Orthodox neighborhood for a blessing service at a community hall. Haredi protestors gathered in front of the building and began throwing stones.
The mayor, a local rabbi and others were trapped inside until police came to their rescue.
Surrounded by police the mayor was pelted as he was taken to a waiting car and spirited out of the area. The Haredi believe in the strict observance…
stcynic | November 9, 2006This is really weird timing. I'd love to know what really prompted this. Bush has been adamant that Rumsfeld would not be going anywhere, and you know that "resigned" means "forced out." He's certainly not leaving on intelligent grounds, like on the basis of his utter failure; if that was the case, he would have been gone 2 years ago. His execution of the Iraq war has been perhaps the single worst example of incompetence I've ever seen on that scale. He demanded, and was given by Bush, absolute control over every aspect of the war, including the reconstruction efforts (which usually would…
stcynic | November 8, 2006Arizona became the first state to vote down a referendum to ban gay marriage. And right there in the ADF's backyard (they're headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona). And in a traditionally red state as well. Very, very cool.
grrlscientist | November 8, 2006This is another word that I found in Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion. I am nearly finished with this book, so I will probably have a new word from a new book for you tomorrow.
fillip (FIL-uhp) [Origin: 1425-75; late ME philippe to make a signal or sound with thumb and right forefinger; expressive word of uncertain origin]
verb (used with object)
to strike with the nail of a finger snapped from the end of the thumb.
to tap or strike smartly.
to drive by or as by a fillip: Anticipation filliped his passion.
verb (used without object)
to make a fillip with the…
stcynic | November 8, 2006At Reason's Hit and Run, Jesse Walker nails CNN analysit Jeff Greenfield for this silly statement:
"For weeks Republicans have been saying, 'Do you really want Charlie Rangel of New York running the Ways and Means Committee, which does taxes? Do you really want John Conyers at the Judiciary Committee? Do you want Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco?'--a code word that has a pretty clear meaning of 'extreme liberal.'"
Uh, no, Jeff. That's not what "San Francisco" is a code word for. It's a code word for "gay".
stcynic | November 8, 2006Another Walmart employee has quit over their association with a gay chamber of commerce, saying that it felt like "God hit me" when she saw a report on the matter. And let's just say she seems a bit...dramatic:
"The minute my husband made me aware of this, I started to just cry," she said. "It broke my heart to see them choose to side themselves with what I call such an immoral organization. I just sat and cried."
Why, she hadn't cried like this since Elvis died. And you're gonna love this little snippet:
She had been discussing moral decline in America with her husband just a few days…
stcynic | November 8, 2006You had to figure that the STACLU crowd would have an interesting, if predictably irrational, reaction to the election; they did not disappoint. It started with Glib Fortuna's predictions for the election, which were just a tad bit off:
Everyone is posting their predictions, so I guess I am obligated. My gut tells me that this won't be the big blowout the DemMedia Complex has been banking on. GOP holds Senate easily. The House comes out as a one or two seat majority either way.
You might wanna have that gut checked, the calibration seems to be off. Better yet, you might start thinking with…
stcynic | November 8, 2006Here's the rundown on some of the elections I either wrote about or just took an interest in for one reason or another. In Michigan, Dick DeVos, the pro-ID candidate for governor, was voted down by a wide margin. Proposition 4, which puts strict restrictions on eminent domain in the state, passed by a huge margin. Very good news. And I'm quite surprised to see that Proposition 2, which prohibits preferential treatment based on race, gender, ethnicity and so forth in employment, education and contract decisions by state agencies, passed by a wide margin. Even more interesting is that the vote…
grrlscientist | November 7, 2006Last night, I found this small word with many big meanings in Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion.
sop (sop) [Italian, from sopra, above, from Latin supra.]
n.
a piece of solid food, as bread, for dipping in liquid food.
anything thoroughly soaked.
something given to pacify or quiet, or as a bribe: The political boss gave him some cash as a sop.
a weak-willed or spineless person; milksop. -verb (used with object)
to dip or soak in liquid food: to sop bread in gravy.
to drench.
to take up (liquid) by absorption (usually followed by up): He used bread to sop up the…
stcynic | November 7, 2006Well, cable and internet is installed and working fine, so I'm back online. Got a 5 mbps connection now instead of 3 mbps, so that's cool as well. No phones yet, but they'll be here at some point today. As soon as they get here and get finished, I'll be heading out to vote.
stcynic | November 7, 2006The Asylum Street Spankers are a very unusual band from Austin, Texas that I first heard of many years ago from my friend Gretchen. Another friend from Austin copied me a bunch of their stuff a few years ago and I really liked it. And now they're taking on the Iraq War and the pointless little shows of pseudo-patriotism that always accompany wars in this country. Click here to watch the video of "Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV". And click here to see an inspired live performance of Hick Hop. And here's a classic clip called Winning the War on Drugs.
stcynic | November 7, 2006The New York Times recently published leaked information that showed that, according to the US Central Command - the ones actually running the war in Iraq - that nation is rapidly descending into chaos, contrary to the rosy picture being painted by the administration and their apologists. While Dick Cheney is telling audiences that Iraq is doing "remarkably well", the Pentagon's internal reports show that urban areas of Iraq are "experiencing ethnic cleansing to consolidate control" and that violence is "at an all time high" and "spreading geographically."
Naturally, the right wing…