Polling the anti-GM vote

There’s a debate going on in The Economist. Pamela Ronald is defending the proposition that biotechnology and sustainable agriculture are complementary, not contradictory, which is weird: agriculture is biotechnology, and just breaking ground with a sharp stick and throwing some seeds in is an example of an ‘unnatural’ human practice. I don’t understand how the opposition can make a case, especially when this is their opening statement:

Biotechnology is not a system of farming. It reflects no specific philosophy nor is it guided by a set of principles or performance criteria. It is a bag of tools than can be used for good or evil, and lots in between.

Yes? And? It’s a tool, sure, but that can’t possibly be an objection to a tool being unusable for sustainable agriculture. And focusing on genetically modified plants is odd: all of our crops are genetically modified, often beyond recognition. Modern corn looks almost nothing like teosinte, and is the product of thousands of years of human meddling with crops…this argument reduces to a complaint that the very subtle fine-tuning of specific genes with modern molecular techniques is somehow more troubling than the wholesale radical modification of a whole species by extreme artificial selection. I just don’t get it, unless it’s just some crazy Luddite bias. There are legitimate complaints about how agribusiness can use genetic modification to lock up strains for selfish economic reasons, but the topic of the debate isn’t about abuses of the technique — it’s about the potential for genetic engineering to improve sustainability.

Anyway, it’s a debate with an internet poll attached to it, and so far the kneejerk organic anti-GMO side has a slight edge, 54% to 46%. Read, assess the arguments, and vote yourself.

I’m still wondering, Mr Stewart

He’s a funny guy, but I’m still completely baffled by Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity. He supposedly addressed his many critics last night; somebody tell me what it means, other than that it was an amusing self-deprecating schtick.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
MSNBC Suspends Keith Olbermann
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

It still doesn’t answer the question! He is aware that there’s a problem of perception here:

I do think the rally was about something, just not necessarily what they wanted it to be about or what they think it was about…

Excellent, I could have just missed it. I’m sure Jon Stewart will now take this opportunity to clarify. And here it comes, here it is, the ultimate meaning and message of the rally:

“be more judicious in our blanket slandering”

Insert trademark Stewart double-take, followed by disbelieving stare into the camera.

That’s…nice. Who would have thought that that could be a cause that would draw a few hundred thousand people together in a mass event? It really doesn’t address the complaint that it was an exercise in false equivalence, though, since gathering a mob of cheerful liberal/progressive folk and telling them to stop the blanket slandering of the right wing does sound like he’s complaining about the wrong people here.

He does mention that now he and his fellow liberal pundits can spend the next ten years debating the point of the rally, which is probably true if the primary instigator is going to be that reluctant to state his goals.

Speaking of mental illness…

David Hedrick, a failed Teabagger candidate for congress, has written a children’s book that has to be seen to be believed. It’s called The Liberal Claus(e): Socialism on a Sleigh, and it’s a fable about Santa Claus being deposed in a rigged vote by Barack Obama, who installs his evil cronies Pelosi, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, as some kind of head elves. Then all the elves are forced to join an evil labor union, and they ship free candy canes to all the children to get them to accept their evil regime.

Seriously. If you want a glimpse of the delusional world the teabaggers live in, look at this book.

You aren’t really watching this

You can’t. Because the reptoids destroyed our network infrastructure with a massive electromagnetic pulse on the 6th of November, and they’re all going to be down for at least 6 months.

She starts off looking normal, but the first sign that there might be something amiss is the big cheesy Kinkade painting in the background. By the end, when she’s raving about Pleiadeans and Sirians and Bilderbergers, and how she’s the mother of every being in the galaxy, you’ll be feeling sorry for the poor dear.

She’s got a whole youtube channel that is a sad demonstration of an ongoing psychiatric collapse. I hope she’s got family or friends who are going to get her help.

(via Gawker)

The gays in Spain play mainly for their swains

The Pope has been touring Spain for the last few days (I wonder how much that has cost the country), trying to drum up some fervor for Catholicism in a country which was once the devout heartland of the faith, but is now reduced to being only nominally Catholic with just 15% of those calling themselves Catholic actually bothering to go to church. The revenue stream is drying up! Must get the suckers into the pews!

The most amusing episode in the tour is that a mob of gays and lesbians lined one of his parade routes to stage a kiss-in. Those militant radicals! Now they’ve resorted to aggressive smooching!

But not all welcomed the Pope’s message on his weekend visit to Spain, which began on Saturday in the medieval cobbled streets of Santiago de Compostela, a draw for pilgrims for more than 1000 years.

Hundreds of gay men and women couples locked lips for five minutes as the Pope passed by, breaking off to shout “Get out,” and “pedophile”.

“We are here to demonstrate against the Pope’s visit and call for a change in the mentality of the Catholic institution which still opposes our right to different ways of loving,” said one protester, Sergi Diaz.

The Pope, of course, just gave his standard whine about these modern times.

The clash between faith and modernity is happening again, and it is very strong today.

How nice of him to admit that the conflict is between those who look to the future and those who want to turn back the clock. I’m picturing the old guy gnashing his dentures and waving his cane while yelling at those gay kids to get offa his parade route.