Public Enemy #5

Focus on the Family has just come out with their list of the “five media Leftists who distort Americans’ views of the Bush and Obama presidencies”. Ooooh. Guess who is on the list?

Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winner, is #1. #2 is the editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham; #3 is Ezra Klein. #4 is my favorite, Janeane Garofalo; I ♥ Janeane, and any list with her on it must be a collection of winners.

#5? ME! I even got the longest write-up of the bunch…they had to work hard to catalog all of my crimes. Maybe there’s hope I can climb higher next year.

The runners-up — you know, all the people I beat out — are interesting, too: Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, Joy Behar, Joshua Micah Marshall, David Fenton, and Jeffrey Toobin. Better luck next time, people!

Say, is there an awards ceremony? Can I invite Janeane as my platonic date (I’d still be going home with my wife, don’t worry)? Or at least sit next to her?

Obama, cheerleader

The White House has released the text of Obama’s speech to school chidren. It’s nothing deep, just a bit of rah-rah, study hard, you can do great things, yadda yadda yadda. It certainly shouldn’t have freaked out all those schools that were reluctant to expose their kids to the words of our Socialist Foreign President.

There’s nothing specific in it, as you might expect, and science gets a cursory mention.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy. 

Mostly harmless. Maybe a few students will be inspired.

Unfortunately, he chose to end with the standard political platitude. You know, the one that leaves the freethinking students in the cold.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Would it have killed you to simply end with the first two words of that sentence, Obama? Please? You don’t have to be anti-religious, you just have to leave the superstition out of public pronouncements.

Megadittoes!

This is the start of a big film project by Conceptual Guerilla: he’s attending events by acolytes of Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, teabagging (just the name is good for a giggle) parties and such, and simply recording their own words. It’s a weird combination of certainty and ignorance, and as you’ll see, these are ordinary people, Americans just like your neighbors and co-workers, and they’re nuts.

Formally, I suppose this is going to be a documentary, but the effect is somewhere between a bad comedy movie and a psychological horror film.

For all the wrong reasons

Kristin Maguire, chair of the South Carolina State Board of Education, has resigned from her position for all the wrong reasons. She has been a shill for the religious right, and has opposed the teaching of evolution in the public schools; she has also promoted that worthless ‘abstinence only’ sex education. She should have been fired for basic incompetence. But no, that is not sufficient reason to kick someone out of office in America. What gets American politicians in trouble?

You guessed it: sex. There were unverified rumors of inappropriate behavior, but what really got her was that she has a history of publishing hard core erotic porn on the internet, under a pseudonym — ordinary stuff, of the sort you can find on all kinds of sites, like Literotica, all over the place.

I say, good for her. There’s nothing wrong with a healthy sexual outlet, especially since it harmed no one at all. The hypocrisy of fostering a repressive social agenda in her work while indulging in fantasy play in private is a bit bothersome, but that a human being enjoys sex personally and in a way that does not interfere with his or her work should not be a bar to working in government.

Pushing creationism…that ought to be a serious problem. She did not lose her job for that, annoyingly.

At least now she’s free to write more stories!

Missouri’s shame

This is the t-shirt worn by the marching band of Smith-Cotton high school of Sedalia, Missouri.

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The ‘ascent of man’ image is a bit irritating — it is a portrayal of a fallacious idea of directionality in evolution — but the designers had a reasonable goal in mind.

Assistant Band Director Brian Kloppenburg said the shirts were designed by him, Band Director Jordan Summers and Main Street Logo. Kloppenburg said the shirts were intended to portray how brass instruments have evolved in music from the 1960s to modern day. Summers said they chose the evolution of man because it was “recognizable.” The playlist of songs the band is slated to perform revolve around the theme “Brass Evolutions.”

All right, I’ll let ’em pass…but wait! There’s a problem? Parents freaked out over the shirts? Could it be because they’re even fussier about scientific accuracy than I am?

No, I don’t think so. You can guess what people complained about.

Band parent Sherry Melby, who is a teacher in the district, stands behind Pollitt’s decision. Melby said she associated the image on the T-shirt with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

“I was disappointed with the image on the shirt.” Melby said. “I don’t think evolution should be associated with our school.”

“I don’t think evolution should be associated with our school.” That says it all right there — they don’t want science to be a part of their children’s education. Well, either that or it’s a statement about the Ms Melby’s current state: perhaps her knuckles drag on the floor, and she’s teaching courses in flint-knapping and gnawing hides.

It’s a shame, but there will always be a few ignorant cretins yowling about demanding respect for their religious ignorance in every school district. Responsible, intelligent school administrators will put the students’ needs at the highest priority, and recognize that they don’t need to kow-tow to every crank opinion. They should support science, and know that they do want evolution associated with their school.

Ooops. The assistant superintendent of the schools has yanked the t-shirts and demanded that all of the students turn them in…for a really stupid reason.

“I made the decision to have the band members turn the shirts in after several concerned parents brought the shirts to my attention,” Pollitt said.

Pollitt said the district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned.

“If the shirts had said ‘Brass Resurrections’ and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,” he said.

Evolution is not a religion, no more than sky-is-blueism or gravityism or medicine or mathematics or their shop class. Would they shut down an auto repair class if an Amish family decried their heathen English ways? Pollitt is a pandering moron.

Their school really does need more education in evolutionary biology. They’ve got some quotes from students that reveal they really don’t know much.

High School junior Adam Tilley said he understood why the shirts were repossessed.

“I can see where the parents are coming from,” he said. “Evolution has always been controversial.” The 17-year-old trombone player said his parents “didn’t care” about the shirt because it was the “name of the band’s show.”

Nope. Evolution is not controversial as a science. It is socially controversial, but only because a) people are ignorant of the science (and people like Pollitt contribute to that problem), and b) there are lots of people who profit from perpetuating lies (like, say, Ken Ham).

Here’s the worst:

Senior Drum Major Mike Howard said he was disappointed when he had to return the shirt.

“I liked the shirt because it was unique,” Howard said. “The theory of evolution never even crossed my mind.”

Huh? Adam Tilley says it’s controversial! Students don’t even think of the theory of evolution when they see a t-shirt with the word “evolution” and a picture of evolving apes? There’s a problem.

Shame on Washington state

My home state! In a region with some of the highest percentages of godless people in the country! And they have this awful law on the books.

Washington’s law specifies that a person treated through faith healing “by a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner in lieu of medical care is not considered deprived of medically necessary health care or abandoned.” Other religions are not mentioned.

Christian Science is not science, and it is definitely not medicine. I presume some religious lobby got this evil exemption on the books years ago, but now it’s time to remove it—it’s killing people. The mention of the law comes from a story about a young man, Zachery Swezey, who died a slow, painful death from a ruptured appendix, with his parents looking on.

The day his son died, Greg Swezey told sheriff’s investigators he knew Zakk would die 10 or 15 minutes before the teenager passed away. His condition had gotten much worse about an hour and a half before Zakk died, he told the investigators, and he realized Zakk was exhibiting some of the symptoms of death he’d seen when older church members died.

He did not consider calling an ambulance, he told them.

Who did he call instead? Elders of his church, who showed up to splash oil on the poor kid and pray.

I can only imagine what that was like. I had severe appendicitis as a child, and their description of it is mild: sure, there was vomiting — like an acid geyser firing up your throat. They don’t even mention the agony and the fever and the intermittent loss of consciousness. And I didn’t even get to the point of having a rupture, because my parents did the sensible, reasonable, intelligent thing that any decent human being would do, and rushed me to the doctor, and then to the hospital.

I’m very happy to say that my parents loved me more than some insane primitive dogma, although, you know, that really isn’t saying much.

I’m very sorry that young Zakk isn’t around to say the same.

Change the law, Washingtonians.

By the way, you can find out more about this lunatic cult, The Church of the First Born, on their web page. They’re incoherent and nuts. Warning: the page fires up religious music as soon as it loads. Yeah, one of those.

Wikipedians might want to take a look at their Wikipedia entry, too. It’s pretty clearly written entirely by one of their acolytes — you can tell by all the exclamation points.

Church of the Firstborn – A Phrase/Title found in Scripture! – (Hebrews 12:23).

Not a Denomination! Not an Organization!Founded Much Earlier than any of the groups mentioned below!

The Head of This Church/Assembly is The Very One that you read about in The Holy/Qodesh Scriptures! (Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:15, Colossians 1:18) Members in This Church/Assembly Serve Him & His Father (To Whom we regard as Our Heavenly Father and HIS Son – The Messiah/Our Master & Savior) The First Born from the Dead – Leading the Way for all those that Believe & Follow Him/HIM, Never To Die Again!

It Is Not A Denomination! And It Is Not An Organization In Scripture!

Some things never seem to change

I hadn’t even realized he was still alive, but William Calley has apologized. What a strange thing that is…

There is no doubt that Calley was a bad man and a weak man — he was the lieutenant who led the My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians in 1968 — but at the same time, he was one of the pawns in a game dictated at the highest levels of American policy. Why was he convicted of a war crime, while Nixon and Kissinger were given a free pass? How can we still be in denial that our actions in Viet Nam were a shameful stain on our honor?

We became the bad guys, the villains in black hats, in that disgraceful war, and we’ve done it once again in Iraq. I don’t think Bush and Cheney will ever receive their just reward for that, either.