Waterboarding explained...

This is interesting. The poster describes his experience inflicting waterboarding on himself to decided once and for all whether or not it is torture. And secondly that it wouldn't be effective for getting the truth out of someone. Maybe this process should be required for every member of the federal government who still thinks it's a just an interrogation technique.

I have to admit that as much as I've heard about this issue I've never heard it described like this.

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Huckabee isn't insane enough for Coulter

It's not that I'm worried that people are listening to Ann Coulter. I don't see her as a threat to civil discourse and intellectual honesty like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, or the entire Bush administration. Why? Because she's certifiably bat-shit insane and apparently Huckabee is too tame for her.

50 Worst

Every year in December people start coming out with the year's worst or the year's best in something. Most of them are a bunch of useless lists that aren't worth reading. I'm not sure this one is worth the read either but I did and can't say I was surprised by any of them.

I'm especially in agreement with number's 47, 41 (because he supports 47), 33 (because he supports 47 and he's a grade-A doucebag), 29, 20 (because he's emblematic of a bigger problem), and 13-1 (because they're just the worst). It's kind of long but a humorous read.

12. Michael Vick

Charges: Abusing, strangling, electrocuting and murdering a promising NFL career -- and some dogs. Reinforces noxious stereotypes about both jocks and black men. Inspired Whoopi Goldberg to express an opinion.

Exhibit A: Makes millions for throwing ball, decides to invest in gambling on dog fights. How much dumber do people get than this?

Sentence: Slathered in barbecue sauce and set loose naked in a PETA-operated shelter for vicious dogs.

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Well this is good news...

This sounds like a great idea. I just wonder if anyone will show up to actually debate.
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Sherri Shepherd Needs a History Lesson

This woman's ignorance is astounding. The evolution/flat vs. round earth video happened a few months ago. The second video is from recently when Sherri had trouble grasping the whole 'B.C.' thing about history. During a discussion about Epicurus, Whoopi pointed out that this guy existed before Jesus and apparently Sherri took exception to that. Why don't the rest of the woman just call her a moron and quit parsing their words? I guess they're trying to have civil dialog but you can be civil and still call someone out for complete and willful ignorance. At least it made me laugh.

"Sherri-the-earth-is-flat"


"Sherri-the-christians-came-first"

Official Leaves Post as Texas Prepares to Debate Science Education Standards

Here's a nice summary of all the controversy over what has happened recently in Texas. I blogged about this a few days ago and offered several links to different blogs about the story. The NY Times piece does a good job of pulling it all together including something I had not read yet.

The standards, adopted in 1998, are due for a 10-year review and possible revision after the 15-member elected State Board of Education meets in February, with particular ramifications for the multibillion-dollar textbook industry. The chairman of the panel, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist and Sunday School teacher at Grace Bible Church in College Station, has lectured favorably in the past about intelligent design.

So when they come up for review next year a bible thumping dentist with a creationist agenda is going to be at the helm. This is dangerous. Texas is a huge market for textbooks and anyone who has bought them can tell you they are expensive as hell. It's a huge industry with a lot of money being spent and if they start writing books that are 'Approved for Texas' (assuming McLeroy has his way) then it will have a farther reaching effect on the country. Now would be a good time for school boards and science teachers to sit up and take notice. When approving science books for their class examine them carefully.

Texas should not be allowed to wield this much influence and any publishers who distribute books that would satisfy an id proponent or creationist should quickly be relegated to the fringes of the market place by rational people.

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Op-Ed in Courier Journal criticizes Creation Museum

Titled: "Is creationism museum good for kids?", James Willmot does a great job slamming Answers in Genesis and their ignorant pseudo-science bologna. His real concern is what it's doing to the children. More and more conservative christians are resorting to homeschooling their children. And that's dangerous in this state.

The Kentucky home-school statutes are terribly vague. In fact, science education is not even mentioned in the regulations.

He's right and he doesn't pull many punches. This is a dangerous institution that lures children and parents into a place that does nothing more than serve to dumb down our population. In this day and age we should be moving forward and improving science education. We're going to need it. But AIG would prefer that we regress to biblical times and beliefs. If we allow them to take children on this little journey it hurts us all in the long run.

Some more fun quotes from the editorial.

There is a great educational injustice being inflicted upon thousands of children in this country, a large percentage of whom come from the Kentucky, Ohio and, Indiana areas. The source of this injustice is a sophisticated Christian ministry that uses the hook of dinosaurs, the guarantee of an afterlife, and the horrors of hell to convince children and their families to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. The tax-exempt ministry, Answers in Genesis, and its new $28 million creation museum in Boone County has become the de facto source of science information to thousands of Christians who are throwing away reason and 500 years of scientific inquiry and replacing it with ignorant dogma.

and...

We do not need citizens who are closed-minded, anti-knowledge fundamentalists who want to see the world move closer to the Biblical prophecies of an Armageddon. (AIG also believes in a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation.) Unfortunately, the creation museum in Northern Kentucky has been very successful at encouraging their non-thinking, anti-reasoning philosophy, especially among young, dinosaur-loving children. Inaction in this matter may come back to haunt us in the future.

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