At Last, Honest Stained Glass!

This makes me laugh every time I look at it.

I gotta believe that this was created before all of the priest sex abuse scandals came to light. But perhaps there was something subliminally careening around the cranium of the creator of this stained glass window?

Do you think the Jesus light switch is used to light up the room that this window is in?

The Stupidity of Dignity

The title of this blog post is not mine, but is stolen from an article by Steven Pinker as published in the National Review (May 28, 2008), to wit:

This spring, the President's Council on Bioethics released a 555-page report, titled Human Dignity and Bioethics. The Council, created in 2001 by George W. Bush, is a panel of scholars charged with advising the president and exploring policy issues related to the ethics of biomedical innovation, including drugs that would enhance cognition, genetic manipulation of animals or humans, therapies that could extend the lifespan, and embryonic stem cells and so-called "therapeutic cloning" that could furnish replacements for diseased tissue and organs. Advances like these, if translated into freely undertaken treatments, could make millions of people better off and no one worse off. So what's not to like? The advances do not raise the traditional concerns of bioethics, which focuses on potential harm and coercion of patients or research subjects. What, then, are the ethical concerns that call for a presidential council?

If you read the entire article linked above you will learn of this council's desire to define ethics in terms of religion; specifically, judeo-christian religion as literally defined in the bible. How repugnant!

For example: ...the volume finds room for seven essays that align their arguments with Judeo-Christian doctrine. We read passages that assume the divine authorship of the Bible, that accept the literal truth of the miracles narrated in Genesis (such as the notion that the biblical patriarchs lived up to 900 years), that claim that divine revelation is a source of truth, that argue for the existence of an immaterial soul separate from the physiology of the brain, and that assert that the Old Testament is the only grounds for morality (for example, the article by Kass claims that respect for human life is rooted in Genesis 9:6, in which God instructs the survivors of his Flood in the code of vendetta: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God was man made").

Absurd! If people want to believe this nonsense individually then more power to them, but this shit should not be the basis on which our government forms its policies on bioethics... indeed, it should not be the basis for ANY government policies.

Reading further, it becomes evident that the author of the report in question, Leon Kass, is a lunatic. Go to the linked article by Pinker and search for "ice cream cone" and I think you'll agree.

Just another example of fundamentalist christianity run amuck.

Creationists Should be Banned from Teaching Biology

Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in US schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science – and especially evolutionary biology – tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles.

Science classes must teach the science. For biology that means evolution. Anything less robs students of an education.

Allowing a creationist to teach biology is akin to allowing an atheist to teach divinity studies at a religious school.

Various Tidbits of Sad Information from TIME Magazine

From the May 28, 2008 edition of TIME Magazine:

• 75% of all income gains from 2002 to '06 went to the top 1% -- households making more than $382,600 a year
  
• The median American family made $58,407 in 2006. That's $991 less, when you adjust for inflation, than the median in 2000...
  
• ...the top 0.01% now control 5.46% of all income, their highest share on record (the data go back to 1913)
  
• ...for the fiscal year 2008 (which ends in September) the government will probably spend $500 billion more than it takes in, a deficit of 3.5% GDP.
  
• 47 million Americans lack healthcare insurance.

Chris Matthews Skewers An Idiot

I laughed my fucking ass off watching Matthews slam this right wing jackass!

I Am Evolution by Holly Dunsworth

From NPR:

I believe evolution. It's easy. It's my life. I'm a paleoanthropologist. I study fossils of humans, apes and monkeys, and I teach college students about their place in nature.

Of course I believe evolution.

But that is different from believing in evolution.

To believe in something takes faith, trust, effort, strength. I need none of these things to believe evolution. It just is. My health is better because of medical research based on evolution. My genetic code is practically the same as a chimpanzee's. My bipedal feet walk on an earth full of fossil missing links. And when my feet tire, those fossils fuel my car.

To believe in something also implies hope. Hope of happiness, reward, forgiveness, eternal life. There is no hope wrapped up in my belief. Unless you count the hope that one day I'll discover the most beautifully complete fossil human skeleton ever found, with a label attached saying exactly what species it belonged to, what food it ate, how much it hunted, if it could speak, if it could laugh, if it could love and if it could throw a curveball. But this fantasy is not why I believe evolution — as if evolution is something I hope comes true.

After all the backyard bone collecting I did as a child, I managed to carve out a career where I get to ask the ultimate question on a daily basis: "Where did I come from and how?"

If our beliefs are important enough, we live our lives in service to them. That's how I feel about evolution. My role as a female Homo sapiens is to return each summer to Kenya, dig up fossils, and piece together our evolutionary history. Scanning the ground for weeks, hoping to find a single molar, or gouging out the side of a hill, one bucket of dirt at a time, I'm always in search of answers to questions shared by the whole human species. The experience deepens my understanding not just about what drives my life, but all our lives, where we came from. And the deeper I go, the more I understand that everything is connected. A bullfrog to a gorilla, a hummingbird to me, to you.

My belief is not immutable. It is constantly evolving with accumulating evidence, new knowledge and breakthrough discoveries. For example, within my lifetime, our history has expanded from being rooted 3 million years ago with the famous Lucy skeleton, to actually beginning over 6 million years ago with a cranium from Chad. The metamorphic nature of my belief is not at all like a traditional religious one; it's more like seeing is believing.

So I believe evolution.

I feel it. I breathe it. I listen to evolution, I observe it and I do evolution. I write, study, analyze, scrutinize and collect evolution. I am evolution.

Sometimes, like now, additional comments are unnecessary.

The Republican Backdoor Power Grab

I received the following information from Democracy for America and decided to pass it along in the blog today:

Republicans can't win elections based on their failed philosophies, so, they've latched onto a new plan: make it as hard and expensive as possible for people to exercise their constitutionally protected right to vote.

Since the Supreme Court decided two weeks ago to uphold a draconian law in Indiana that requires citizens show a government issued photo ID to vote, Republican legislatures across the country have started moving fast to pass their own version of this horrible law.
And just like the poll taxes and literacy tests of the past, Republicans hide their real purpose under the banner of preventing possible voter fraud. But these laws are really about stopping senior citizen, low income, and newly registered Americans from voting. Why? Because they typically vote for Democrats.

We must stand together and protect every American's right to vote.

SIGN THE PETITION NOW

Smack Her Again, She's Dating Outside Our Religion!

An Iraqi immigrant attacked his daughter for religious reasons, Wellington District Court heard yesterday.

Ishak Ishak, 59, pleaded guilty to assaulting his daughter in April.

Judge Susan Thomas said Ishak, a Syrian Christian, went into his 20-year-old daughter's room and confronted her about going out with a Muslim.

He hit her three to four times which only caused slight bruising to one of her hands, Judge Thomas said.

Ishak immigrated to New Zealand from Iraq in 1995.

His lawyer, Sue Earl, said there were "huge cultural issues" and much shame was brought to a Syrian Christian family if members married a Muslim. Ishak's daughter would have been excommunicated from the family, Ms Earl said.

The shame in the community of his daughter marrying a Muslim would have been worse than a conviction.

Judge Thomas said no matter how shocked or shamed he was it did not excuse assault. She convicted Ishak and ordered him to appear for sentencing if called within nine months.

Yet another example of religion having such a calming and peaceful impact on humanity.