Tag: Culture

Intelligent Designer Not Necessarily God; Could Be Chanel, But Definitely Not Hilfiger

Buck Banks

Snopes redux: A Lehigh University science professor whose own colleagues have publicly distanced themselves from his unscientific views is trying to convince a Pennsylvania judge that “intelligent design” is not creationism.

”Intelligent design … does not rely on any religious text,” Michael Behe said Tuesday in a federal trial over the teaching of evolution in public schools. ”It relies exclusively on physical information about nature and logical inferences.”

Behe maintains that while creationism is a religious concept, intelligent design — the belief that humankind’s development is too complex to have evolved without an intelligent designer — is a scientific idea. Creationism is a biblical explanation of the origin of life the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled cannot be included in public school science education.

Eight families are suing the Dover Area School District, which requires biology teachers to make a statement in class that there are alternate explanations, including intelligent design, to Darwin’s theory of evolution. The families believe the mandatory statement blends religion and science.

According to the Allentown Morning Call:

Behe testified Tuesday that intelligent design, unlike creationism, does not make references to religion or religious text. Although he said he believes that the intelligent designer is God, he said the intelligent design movement does not identify the designer and that there could be other causes….

But during the cross-examination of Behe, ACLU attorney Eric Rothschild reminded the court that the National Academy of Scientists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and even the biology department at Lehigh University, have denounced the idea of intelligent design.

”So you have not been able to convince your colleagues,” Rothschild said to Behe after reading a statement from Behe’s peers.

The statement, posted on Lehigh’s Web site, reads in part:

”While we respect Prof. Behe’s right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific.”

Lancet: Avian Flu Looms

Buck Banks

Voice of reason: As the mainstream press finally begins to take notice of the imminent danger of a global avian flu pandemic, much of the coverage is alarmist and uninformed. Here’s an article from the British medical publication “The Lancet” that calmly lays out what is being done and suggests what needs to be done to avoid a global health catastrophe. Note that the article understates the number of avian flu-related deaths, which currently stands at more than 160.

The avian influenza virus H5N1 has recently been making headlines, none of them reassuring. On Feb 21, Julie Gerberding, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called avian influenza a “very ominous” threat to human beings. Shigeru Omi, WHO Western Pacific Regional Director, said the world is in “the gravest possible danger of a pandemic”. The disease has killed about 46 people, but if the virus mutates sufficiently to enable sustained human-to-human transmission, that number could rise to levels that would dwarf the millions killed in the influenza pandemics of 1918, 1957, and 1968. A report in the Feb 24 issue of Nature suggested that cases are being under-reported: some Vietnamese patients with influenza-like symptoms, but initially cleared of having avian influenza on testing, were later found to carry the H5N1 virus at reanalysis; and some ill persons without typical influenza symptoms also had the virus. The bad news here is that the disease might be much more widespread than previously thought; but the good news is that if so, the mortality rate, now believed to be about 76%, may actually be lower. […]

Helicopter Ads Offend Moslems, All the Rest of Humanity, and God

Trish


The ad Boeing Co., Bell Helicopter Textron, and the National Journal were forced to apologize for recently isn’t the only one produced by the unholy three. One in particular, so far flying under the radar so to speak, could be worse. AdWeek:

[I]t’s enough to make you anxiously cast your eyes skyward in order to avoid the lightening strike God must surely be sending our way

The image in the Osprey ad is one of several provocative visuals TM has created for print ads that appear in defense industry trade publications. An ad for Bell’s AH-1Z attack helicopter shows the craft rising out of a flaming background heavily armed with missiles. The headline reads: “We made it beautiful. Because it’s the last thing some people will ever see.”

Man. That’s enough to make you anxiously cast your eyes skyward in order to avoid the lightening strike God must surely be sending our way.

The other ad, which was specifically disavowed, was bad enough:

The ad, created by Interpublic Group’s TM Advertising in Irving, Texas, depicted a CV-22 Osprey aircraft delivering troops to the roof of a mosque. The headline read: “It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell.”

…The ad for the CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft depicted soldiers rappelling onto the roof of a building, labeled “Muhammad Mosque” in Arabic. The building has a dome, crescent moon and minaret, all common features of a mosque.

The galling thing is how much the parties involved don’t get it, even as the measured apologies and blame issue forth for a “clerical error” that allowed the ad to run after the proofs were supposedly destroyed.

“We recognize that some organizations and individuals may have been offended by its content and regret any concerns this advertisement may have raised,” the Bell statement read.

Concerns? These folks don’t seem concerned in the least. Wonder why they aren’t throwing roses at us in Iraq anymore.

Christians: Penguins Evidence of Intelligent Design

Buck Banks

The angels wore tuxedos: According to ChristianToday.com, the documentary “March of the Penguins” proves the doctrine of intelligent design. The film by Luc Jacquet documents the nine-month-long mating cycle of emperor penguins in Antarctica: The birds exit the water at the coast, waddle 70 miles inland to nesting grounds, mate, lay an egg and then take turns waddling the 140-mile round-trip to eat fish.

“The complexity of the penguins’ lifestyle testifies to a Divine Creator,” said one commentator on Christian Answers. “To think that natural selection or even the penguins themselves could come up with the idea to migrate miles and miles multiple times each year without their partner or their offspring is a bit insulting to my intellect. How great is our God!”

I think the best argument against intelligent design is the continued existence of people who believe in it. Instead, the existence of critters like the Christian commentator cited above is better explained by natural selection, since they tend to marry people who share their Christian views and then mate and produce little Christians, thereby perpetuating their kind (and ideology).

The problem with the whole intelligent design debate is that it is not exclusive of evolution, which is pretty intelligent — I give you the duck-billed platypus with its cool hybrid styling and most radical poison barb. How great is our Darwin!

Speech Prediction: Tax Cuts to Build Cajun Disneyland

Trish

I will, regrettably, be unable to experience Bush’s speech tonight but I bet I know what he’ll say:

Tax cuts! Tax cuts! And more tax cuts!

Fareed Zakaria nailed it Sunday on ABC’s This Week. As Newt Gingrich floated the tax cut trial balloon as the only way to rebuild New Orleans, Fareed begged to differ. If you declare open season for private investors to come down and build quick-profit enterprises, he said, you’ll end up with Cajun Disneyland.

Right on, Fareed! Think about it: Katrina has done nothing if not prove there are appropriate roles for government – not just appropriate but vital – and restoration is one of them.

If we subsidize rich investors in building a new, bigger, better New Orleans (with more public rest rooms), we’ll end up with Anytown USA and some red beans thrown in for atmosphere. Not only that, we’ll lose the older, historic, authentic and possibly not immediately profitable places that make New Orleans special.

Save the tax cuts and use that money to do the job only government can.

As you listen to Georgie drone on tonight about how great it’s going to be with tax cuts for all his buds, picture Jackson Square’s tarot card readers replaced with mall kiosks of sunglasses. And just say no.

Florida Marriage Amendment Another Republican Dirty Trick

Trish

Nothing like anti-gay hysteria to get out the vote, said the Daytona News Journal in editorial exposing the real purpose of Florida’s so-called “marriage amendment.”

Florida law already prohibits same-sex couples from marrying. The state doesn’t need a constitutional amendment to do the same — unless, of course, the rationale is to stampede conservatives to the polls.

“The rationale is to stampede conservatives to the polls.”

… the group’s premise: Allowing gay men and lesbians to marry somehow threatens other Floridians. In support of that premise, they offer no data, no factual analysis, no case studies. Just rhetoric, often misleading rhetoric. For example, statements on the site speak to “establishing marriage” as if hundreds of Floridians aren’t already marrying every day.

The proposed amendment doesn’t stop at marriage. It also would prohibit state lawmakers from creating any “substantial equivalent” of marriage. In other words, the state could not pass a law legalizing civil unions…

A wiser, more compassionate move would take the state in the other direction, realizing that gay people — like any other Floridians — deserve the chance to formalize permanent bonds and create their own families.

Floridians may not be ready to go there. But this amendment tricks them, by also banning civil unions…

Unfortunately, it’s likely that Florida voters won’t understand how broad this proposed amendment is unless they realize how cynically they’re being played. Voters — and Florida’s substantial gay population — deserve better.

Mindless Idiots Protest Starbucks’ Treatment of Customers as Grown-ups

Trish

Strike a victory against the inane, “But it’s not fair” whining of a public trained to expect two sides (and only two sides) to every issue. Starbucks, which is printing quotes on its cups to get people thinking, isn’t going for it.

Seattle Times:

A national Christian women’s organization is accusing the Seattle-based coffee maker of promoting a homosexual agenda because of a quote by author Armistead Maupin…

Maupin’s quote — one of several dozen in “The Way I See It” promotion — says his only regret about being gay is that he repressed it for so long…

Concerned Women for America, which promotes itself as the antithesis of the National Organization for Women and boasts 8,700 supporters in Washington, says most of those quoted on the coffee cups are liberal.

The group believes corporations have a responsibility to reflect the diversity of their customers by taking a balanced approach — or staying out of divisive social issues altogether.

It’s not all the morons’ fault of course. The MSM decided a long time ago to stop presenting complex issues in all their complicated nuance and instead boil everything down to an argument between two equally simple and one-sided opponents. Now everyone expects that for any Anti-Defamation League member quoted, there will be some idiot who claims the Holocaust never happened given equal time and respect.

“Corporations have deeper pockets and therefore more influence than individuals do,” said Maureen Richardson, state director of Concerned Women for America of Washington.

“I think it’s wiser for them to stay out of these issues so that they don’t offend conservatives and people of faith.”

Richardson…cites possible support by Starbucks for pro-life clinics and the Boy Scouts of America as ways the company might offset its support of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and gay pride.

Yes, by all means, let’s “offset” support for our stance that the world is round by giving equal time to those who feel pretty darn sure it’s flat.

“The Way I See It” campaign does not set out to take a political stand but rather to encourage discourse, Starbucks spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff said…

Lincoff said the company does not characterize the personalities quoted on its coffee cups as liberal or conservative, but rather as a diverse group of artists, musicians, educators, activists and athletes…

The coffee company won’t be pulling the Maupin quote — or any other — from the campaign, but in fact will expand it to feature quotes from regular customers.

Sex Offender Hysteria Trumps School Safety

Trish

The fallout continues from hastily passed Florida laws to keep “sex offenders” away from children. The Jessica Lunsford Act, passed after the 9-year-old was kidnapped from her home and killed, requires everyone who could come in contact with children at school campuses to be fingerprinted and background checked by Sept. 1.

Everyone.

South Florida Sun Sentinel:

But most of the 10,000 or more construction workers at Broward County schools still have not been fingerprinted and screened, district officials said.

“I anticipate that 75 percent to 80 percent of our [building] projects will stop,” said Michael Garretson, the School District’s deputy superintendent of facilities…

The delay could stretch into November, meaning projects would take longer and cost millions more to finish than originally negotiated, Garretson said. The district already is under pressure to build hundreds of new classrooms to meet the state’s class-size reduction rules.

Construction workers are active at 211 sites, including most of the district’s 262 schools, Garretson said. Mainly they are repairing roofs and air-conditioning systems, renovating restrooms or fixing mold and mildew damage, he said.

Damage from Hurricane Katrina, which left some schools closed, will be left unmended, and kids will just have to wait until the massive investigation can begin. But since when has education taken a front seat to public hysteria?

The district plans to use Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, McFatter Technical Center in Davie and the downtown K.C. Wright administration building as the sites for fingerprinting.

Broward is buying four fingerprinting machines and hiring eight more clerical employees for the fingerprinting of thousands of workers.

The district is charging construction workers $47 for the service, but it is likely that general contractors will pay the fees and add the charges to the final price of each project.

Let’s just hope none of those workers ever got caught having sex with their high school sweethearts. “Sex offenders” include anyone of majority age (say, 18) prosecuted for having sex, consensual or not, with any minor (say, 17).

Finland Reports Possible Bird Flu in Seagulls

Buck Banks

Finland’s Agriculture Ministry said on Friday it had found a possible outbreak of bird flu in seagulls in the northern town of Oulu, but probably not the highly pathogenic strain that has caused deaths in Asia.

A ministry official said laboratory tests had identified the virus among “sick and dead seagulls” found in a park in Oulu, though it was not clear how many of them were carrying the disease or how serious a strain of flu it was.

“Our view a the moment is that if it is bird flu, it is low pathogenic avian influenza, not the high pathogenic which has been found in Asia,” senior ministry official Riitta Heinonen told Reuters. Final test results will be ready in three weeks.

Low-pathogenic bird flu is not uncommon and can be found in as many as 30 percent of wild birds, experts say.

But monitoring is increasing as fears grow of a global outbreak, especially since the avian virus has spread from Asia into Siberia in eastern Russia and Kazakhstan.
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