things i think

this weeks Tom the Dancing Bug is just great! why send an obvious sign when you can send a hurricane?

and just for reference, here's a little info on HR-6341

H.R.6341 SPONSOR: Rep Bingham (introduced 01/30/80) A bill to amend title V of the Social Security Act to require States to provide women access to their obstetric medical records and current information on obstetrical procedures, to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the dissemination of information on the effects and risks of drugs and devices on the health of pregnant and parturient women and of prospective and developing children, and to provide for a study on the delayed long-term effect on child development of obstetrical drugs and procedures administered to or used by pregnant and parturient women.

had to go way back for that one, but makes it all the better.

Suggested reading for Karen Hughes. oh how funny it is that BushCo folks say things like this all the time that are just so not even close to being factually correct. it's also a little on the sad side that people don't seem to care too much to point it out (people being the more mainstream media, not just the "left" like salon). oh well.

Showdown over science. i can't believe this is actually happening. enough previous postings elaborate further on my feelings towards the "intelligent design" crowd, but i did like a few choice quotes:

The case for intelligent design was argued by three lawyers from the Thomas More Legal Center, a Christian foundation founded by Thomas Monaghan, a Roman Catholic multimillionaire and founder of the Domino's Pizza chain. In his opening statement yesterday, Pat Gillan, the lead attorney for the defense, argued that the case is "about freedom in education, not about a religious agenda."

first, purely random, comment... interesting that the founder of Domino's Pizza is involved in all this (or at least his foundation anyway). more seriously, the bit about it being for freedom in education is just total bullshit. because if we're just going to allow any crackpot theory to be taught in schools "for freedom," then i can't wait to hear when the Flying Spaghetti Monster is taught.

Secular science has won all the big legal battles since then, but not the struggle for American minds. In an echo of the Scopes trial, some of the Dover parents involved in the case were recently mocked at a local fair by opponents who performed a monkey dance around them.

the people that mocked them with the "monkey dance," in my opinion, just show how closely related we are to monkeys. otherwise, why would they engage in such a foolish action? why not fling poo on them? sometimes it just hurts to find out the level of ignorance in the world...

Pork Pounders. funny and poignant.

POE News: America Has Passed Peak Freedom

This is going to hurt you more than it's going to hurt me. republican plan to fund katrina relief looks like a nice, quick way for them to get rid of many programs they don't want... instead of simply roll back the worthless tax breaks for the rich that started this whole funding mess to begin with.

but really, it's about time. cause we definitely need to "eliminate state grants for safe and drug-free schools because 'studies show that schools are among the safest places in the country and relatively drug free.'" and if you're poor and get pregnant, well you should learn to keep your legs closed missy cause we ain't got no "teen funding [for the] portion of Title X, which provides 'free and reduced-price contraceptives, including the IUD, the injection drug Depo-Provera, and the morning-after pill' to poor teenagers."

hurray for democracy! helping keep the rich rich and the poor even poorer...

Crooks and Liars just great. i love it. don't know how oreilly thought he ccould have donahue, an actual intelligent, informed individual, on his show and think come out even close to even?

BEA feeling open source heat? mentions pressure on BEA from IBM now that they've got Gluecode, but where's the mention of JBoss?

Sex and drugs hit girls harder. to me these findings seem fairly obvious, but i also disagree with Halfors' statement that depression wouldn't lead to drug use. the way i see things, it's a cyclic factor. depression -> drug use -> depression. yes, some jump the first curve and the drug use leads to depression, but i'd wager to guess as many use drugs to "self medicate" as she said.

as for the findings that engaging in these activities increases the likelihood of depression, again i'd say it's pretty apparent to anyone that knows teenagers or remembers their own experiences. it's a tough time to go through, and adding in extra variables like sex and drug use can only complicate matters. not to mention the fact that their bodies are rapidly changing to begin with, the new complicated emotions brought on by sexual activity, as well as the experience of alcohol/drug use (not to mention their physical effects), would obviously impact development.

i'm not trying to belittle these findings any, as they may be able to influence people to provide more sex, drug and alcohol education (not likely in the current administration), but it seems to me to only prove what i'd say most people already know. and that, maybe, the findings shouldn't be written up in such a manor as to seemingly provoke conflict.

Google Earth threatens democracy
Google Earth threatens democracy - again

just a couple funny little displays of technology in use.

Challenged by Creationists, Museums Answer Back. I know it goes against what this article is saying, but I find it very upsetting and even depressing that we need a "cottage industry" to pop up teaching museum docents how to respond to critics of evolution. Maybe I could understand this happening back before Scopes, but certainly not in this "modern" age of science and technology.

Apparently I'm wrong since the NY Times has an entire section devoted to The Evolution Debate. I just don't understand how people can be so willfully ignorant; willing to accept science on some issues, but choosing to debase it in others where it challenges their faith. Just boggles the mind. I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when there is such strong evidence for one side versus another with none I don't see how you can choose the other. Show Me the Science. After reading this wonderfully written refutation of "intelligent design," if one can still support it I'd like to know.

Bill O'Reilly's continuing obsession with inter-species marriages. why is it the ultra-wacked out have this idea? all i can remember when this comes up is an episode of the short-lived comedy central show Crossballs where one of the fake "experts" was talking about their love for a bowl of soup, and plan to marry. amazingly enough, one of the actual "experts" bought in to this and became very upset... with the usual "sanctity of marriage" and what not.

anyway, the real point is that people need to realize gay marriage isn't going to bring about some crazy marrying your pet spree. and mature and have an open mind, but that's probably asking too much.

US Christian Right misfires again. Sunday's editorial in The Observer smacks the previous bit about the March of Conservatives right back into perspective.

But surely the penguin is only one of God's works. Earth also has Bonobo chimps, whose jaw-dropping sexual athleticism would make Hugh Hefner blush; well-fed cats that cruelly toy with their prey; and praying mantises that eat their spouses. How do we know that these creatures do not point The Way? We don't, therefore we should remember the words of the film company executive responsible for March of the Penguins: 'You know what? They're just birds.'

The NYTimes linking to this on their editorial page seems to be the only good to come out of their new NYT Select program... damn them for taking my beloved Maureen Dowd from me.

Compassionate Conservatism at work. wow. seriously, just wow. why give the katrina victims an additional $500million when you've already raised $500,000 for them? makes sense, right? wrong. those 73 people in alaska need their bridges dammit.

OK, Fine. It's the Apocalypse a long, but good post bringing together most of the current craziness going on. My favorite part (emphasis mine):

Pre-Inquisition Conservatives are proudly hawking the notion that dinosaurs and blue-eyed white guys were holding bake sales together 5,000 years ago. Because it's not enough to merely believe God created the universe -- he also specifically planted an entire false history of the universe to screw with you, you sodomy-loving, DNA-believing-in, post-Newtonian bastards. You just wait, we're only a few months away from digging up an authentic handcrafted dinosaur saddle that will prove that at least one prehistoric Big 5 Sporting Goods Store survived the Biblical flood. Presuming you're among the Pre-Inquisition Conservatives who acknowledge the existence of dinosaurs at all, mind you -- and if you are, the rest of the non-believing-in-dinosaurs movement hereby condemns you for falling for another of God's devious nature-based soul mousetraps: yep, you're going to Hell.

makes me laugh and cry at the same time because i (sadly) know people who honestly believe that fossils are just one, of many, of the devil's tricks... so sad.

today's this modern world is just spectacular

Message: I Care About the Black Folks Frank Rich's editorial from yesterday quite nicely explains the current situtation with BushCo now that Katrina has pulled the curtain aside to reveal the fake stage show that it is.

yes, yes... hurray, bush finally said he'd take responsibility for something. great. and even though i didn't watch the speech last night, i'm sure it was nothing like it should've been, but salon's gone and fixed that problem for us.

my favorite bit is at the end: "I take responsibility for having failed to say 'I take responsibility' for anything until it was politically expedient to do so. I take responsibility for being such an arrogant, cranky, vindictive twit that my loyal aides have to draw straws to see which unlucky one has to bring me a reality check. I take responsibility for putting myself in the position of being elected to the most powerful position in the world knowing full well that I have neither the experience, the imagination nor the human compassion that is a prerequisite for the job."

another insightful piece from salon... apparently it's ok that the republicans are using katrina to pass "relief measures for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf coast to achieve a broad range of conservative economic and social policies, both in the storm zone and beyond," but not if the democrats want to try to "pass more ambitious legislation that normally would not have much chance in the GOP-dominated Congress."

Religious conservatives claim Katrina was God's omen, punishment for the United States
The people that spew this ignorant filth, and those that listen and believe it, have serious problems. To use God's name for such tragic events, implying it is His will for such-and-such to happen because of , is wrong no matter what your beliefs are. To be so close-minded to anything other than who and what they are, in my opinion, shows their true feelings. It pulls back the mask to reveal the monster beneath.

How they can claim that a supposed loving, caring "God" could not only allow, but purposefully target, something like Katrina is beyond me. Yes, the God of the Old Testament is wrathful and vengeful, but that's not what they've been preaching since Christ came. It's all about "love thy neighbor," or at least it should be. But how can you claim to love your neighbor, but hate another for simplying being the wrong race, religion or sexual orientation? To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes from Saved!, "If God made us all, and we're all so different, how can that be wrong?" Something I'll never understand I guess, and why I'm not a big fan of the whole organized religion school of thought. To each their own, I guess, but I hope someday they'll open their eyes, minds and hearts to truly accept others.

# posted by Paul @ 10:05 0 comments

ahh, doonesbury... so good.

like how pundits just go on shows spouting things and nobody on the show reality checks it. (see, Media Matters for America) yes, it happens on both sides. and no, that doesn't make it right. just frustrating.

march of the conservatives interesting how conservatives are latching onto "march of the penguins" as a means of pushing intelligent design and whatever else they want... but it did have this nice gem throwing back at them

Not all conservatives find the movie a rebuke to Darwin's theory. "If an Intelligent Designer designed nature," the columnist George F. Will asked recently, "why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins?"

reporters gone wild some pretty awesome video (~13 min.) of various reporters unable to stay calm at what they're seeing/saw after katrina. something we probably won't see much of now that the gov't has stepped in and people are spinning things back into control

Meet the Fakers, a good nytimes editorial (that apparently we won't have access to anymore thanks to their moving to a subscription service... how wonderful) about the UN's "posturing for the cameras" while "the promise to the world's poor is being broken."