Worthy causes of the day: “END BIG OIL'S ENERGY PLAN”, “Protect Our Coasts”, and “Shed Light on McCain's Anti-Choice Record”. That last one I signed with a note that even though I am no fan of abortion, I do not want the government sticking its nose into the decision-making process when it may be necessary, and I detest political hypocrisy.
Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
- “Jews for Jesus (1973)”: General rule about missionaries: Chances of their success are inversely proportional to the knowledge and intellectual sophistication of their would-be victims. I have a lot of fun with door-to-door missionaries who do not expect anyone who knows the Hebrew Bible better than they do. To this day, I have yet to meet a door-to-door missionary who has read the Hebrew Bible or New Testament in the original languages—or to whom it has even occured that this might be a good idea to understand what they actually say. Kudos to Yaakov Kirschen for his accurate portrayal.
- “15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense”
- “Creationism Controversy: State-by-State ”: Having decisively lost the debate in the world of science, creationists are trying to fight a battle they have no business trying to win in the world of politics, illustrated in this interactive map. Questions of where we come from, in so far as they occur in our universe, are fairly addressed by science. Science must ultimately put all its hypotheses and theories to the test by checking them against physical reality. What is physical reality is not a political question. Physical reality does not care what the president, vice president, or anyone in Congress have to say; it is what it is no matter what they think. What is physical reality is also not a popularity question either, e.g., gravity does not grow stronger or weaker in response to how strong people want it to be. As such, trying to shore up a failed hypothesis based on a misinterpretation of esoteric material by appealing to the government and people who do not understand science is inappropriate and illegitimate.
- “9/11 Rumors That Become Conventional Wisdom”: Summary: Many Muslims refuse to admit that Arab Muslims were actually behind 9/11, prefering to blame the US and Israel. Note that disbelief has done nothing to change any actual evidence. Also note the absurdity of the conspiracy claims, which are nothing but claims. Real secrets tend to get revealed, sooner or later. (And I will be happy to tell people where they can find all sorts of secret information that mystics and occultists are not supposed to tell anyone, if they really want to know.) The Bush administration, despite trying to clamp down on embarrasing information ever since Bush took office, has been leaking all sorts of reports of bad behavior, including the latest scandal, reported in “Scandal: Surplus energy? Inspector general faults improper "drilling" (ahem) at Interior Department”. Trying to imagine the entire Jewish people or the State of Israel (both numbering millions of people) sucessfully keeping a secret is beyond credibility.
- “Swiss Primate Legislation Could End Some Brain Research”: This is animal rights gone overboard. Yes, no one wants to cause non-human animals pointless harm, but effective bans on neurological research in primates is uncalled for. What we have here is blatant hypocrisy. Last I heard, no one (making any waves, at least) was calling for bans on killing animals for meat or leather, even though humans strictly do not need either for survival or good health. Harm to animals in scientific research, on the other hand, does benefit humanity, both in terms of knowledge and saving lives, even though the benefits are not always immediate. Why short-term selfishness should be any less offensive is beyond me.
- “Bicycle Safety in Numbers”
- “Lessons from the Amish: We're not doomed to obesity”
- “CAIR Attempts to Sabotage Law Enforcement Terrorism Training”
- “March of the penguins: Court urges decision on protection”
- “How long would it take the LHC to defrost a pizza?”
- “Judge warned Palin in 2005 to back off brother-in-law's job” (Exactly what was McCain thinking when he chose this woman as a running-mate?)
- “National Health Interview Survey 2007 - CAM Use by Adults”
- “Mac OS X localized in Hebrew after long wait” (Thank YHWH!)
- “Pass it On: Children Can Inherit Herpes Via Parental DNA”
- “SPACE.com -- Scream of Black Hole's Birth Detected Halfway Across the Universe”
- “Federal Shortfall To Double This Year”
Enjoy and share the weirdness.
Aaron, enjoying his Hebraicized system software
No comments:
Post a Comment