RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/0003


 * A nation of dunces.
 * Christian family starves American teen half to death.
 * Neoconservative founding father William F. Buckley Jr. has died.
 * Two new articles in the creationist Answers Research Journal definitely have nothing to do with science. One is an incoherent rant with a lot of first person that might qualify as philosophy.  Another deals with Louis Pasteur.  No offense, but if your "science" you cite against evolution is over 110 years old, then I think you have some work to do.  While the philosophy and history articles are interesting where's the science?
 * Can religion be progressive? The answer is yes, but we haven't seen it in a while.  Enter Turkey, and a radical rethinking of Islam.
 * Is religion incompatible with technology? Pakistan censorship shuts down YouTube, but cowers before the might of RationalWiki.
 * Two years and 142 cases since Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke in oral arguments on the Supreme Court. Wow.
 * Hard times at the Living Word Christian Center. Please give all you can to help our pastor.
 * Let's see, pander to the Christian base and alienate black voters with amazingly offensive remarks. Looks like Huckabee's been reading his Republican Handbook
 * Ken Ham has a new book out. Need something to do?  Give him a negative review on Amazon.  Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis - piglet raper.  Spread the word.
 * Does gay sex make the earth move for homosexuals in Israel?
 * Ira Flatow of NPR's Science Friday hosts a panel of concerned scientists at the AAAS to discuss doing science in the Bush era, and the subservience of science to politics.
 * The current Republican president seems to think that cutting taxes while spending like a drunken sailor is good fiscal policy. All he has to do is hope that a certain foreign country keeps us solvent until he leaves office.  But when local Republicans, like the Oregon Republican Party, follow his lead, bailouts are harder to come by.
 * Right wing governments may be bad for your psyche. (Can you imagine any recent American study recommending that the government give "greater priority to the effects of class and deprivation" on suicide rates?)  Need more?  Two recent studies show that the U.S. suicide rate is up among adults and teens.
 * Chemotherapy? Bah!  Pray that cancer away!
 * Winnar! Florida steps back from the brink and decides to teach evolution, rather than succumbing to creationist complaints and whining, that it's "just a theory."
 * A substanceless update on the Expelled blog about the "intolerance" of "big science." (Nothing about "big religion...")
 * Oh, the humanity! A creationist "science" fair - editorial commentary here.
 * If St. Mary's Academy near Topeka, Kansas, is going to do something like this, then shouldn't the church change its name to St. Mary's Madrassa?
 * Looks like Singaporean women won't be Lookin' Good for Jesus any time soon.
 * We Brits also have our nutters.
 * It's no secret that the Florida Board of Education is perilously close to adopting intelligent design or creationism as science. However, there's some good news.  Inferring from the recent public meeting, where citizens could put their concerns by video link to the Florida Board of Education, the anti-science side is turning Florida into another Kitzmiller by framing the issue as religious, rather than scientific.  That means that, if the anti-science side tries to teach ID, we'll win the court case.
 * Is abiogenesis (chemicals coming together to make life) impossible? A recent Science article chronicles the synthesis of hydrocarbons -- with evidence -- that generates precursors to life. Still waiting for the creationist evidence...
 * A new article in Answers Research Journal about granite formation with no original data, such as all "creation science" studies. The conclusion "... a large reservoir of granitic melts could have been generated in the lower crust during the 1,650 years between Creation and the Flood, particularly due to residual heat from an episode of accelerated nuclear decay during the first three days of the Creation Week" has no evidence of said residual heat, and the whole article is a rehashing of BS creationist theories.  Do some science!
 * The Boston Globe reports: Creationists carry assault on Darwinism to Europe.
 * Another reason to vote against Huckabee... James Dobson is now officially endorsing him. Focus on the Fear.
 * An Afghan student of journalism, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, was found guilty of blasphemy by an Islamic court and faces the death sentence for downloading a report from the internet about Islamic repression of women. ( You can sign the Independent newspaper's online petition here.)
 * America faces many grave dangers. Leave it to prominent nutjob senator Sam Brownback (R-Jerk) to point out the gravest of them all - the small font used to type "In God We Trust" on the new Washington dollars.  Phew, disaster averted.
 * What. The. Fuck.
 * One of the web's vocal supporters of reason, PZ Myers of Pharyngula, debated, with much success, a c design proponent ists from the Discovery Institute on a Christian radio show. However, his victory, after being commented on, was erased from memory by a popular anti-evolution site.  Conservapedia tactics are spreading!  To hear the MP3 from the Show, wherein a Discovery Institute fellow is pwned, click here.
 * The modern followers of Jesus Christ are so full of love. Wouldn't Jesus be proud of one of his followers making a fake hate eulogy about Richard Dawkins?
 * Ben Stein's "movie" Expelled is pushed back until April; originally, it was set to air on Darwin Day, and we can only hope that this delay is the first step toward a complete and utter flop when it does open.
 * Schlafly's spawn supports Huckabee. Quelle surprise.  At least the first 3 sentences are amusing.
 * If people you know repeatedly spout the right wing's mantra of "privatization, good; government, bad," give them this article from the February 2008 edition of Car and Driver.
 * Liar, liar, pants on fire.
 * Rationalwikians should submit to the new, peer- creationist-"reviewed" creation "science" journal Answers Research Journal (by AiG), or agree to be a reviewer. (Nature reports.)  Paper authors apparently can just make up what days microbes were created, and publish a paper.
 * An update on the Expelled fiasco in which Ben Stein links evolution to the Holocaust and Nazism.
 * As religion struggles to remain relevant in modern society, the answer, apparently, is to return to the 1100s. Yes, exorcism is back.  With a vengeance.
 * "The U.S. has suffered recessions only twice in the past quarter century and both were short and mild. There are good reasons to fear that the looming recession, if it arrives, could be worse." UPDATE: World turmoil on markets leads to a interest rate cut... but "it is a big risk. If this doesn't work, then people will say [the Fed has] nothing left in [its] locker." UPDATE 2: And stocks fall anyway...  UPDATE 3: But since they "only" fell 128 points, that's a "victory."
 * Although one Creation Museum appears to be doing OK, another is selling its soul skull to help cover the bills.
 * Yes, indeed, "The analogy above certainly is not perfect." Ah, intelligent design.  The only "scientific theory" where someone with a "B.A. with academic concentrations in Bible and Biology from Bob Jones University" is a qualified expert.
 *  RED ALERT!!!  Florida school boards inch closer to passing resolutions in favor of "teaching the controversy": creationist code for intelligent design.  What controversy?  Don't we all agree it's wrong?  Oh... I guess we don't.
 * According to Mike Huckabee, at a campaign rally, the Constitution must be amended to institute the Word of God. In his own words, "I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family."
 * In Texas, UFO sightings are a sign of the end times.
 * Concerned about the climate of learned ignorance wrought by the Bush years? Make sure we don't repeat the mistake: call for a Presidential Science debate here.
 * Oh, great! Now superstitious idiots will believe that you can use divining rods to find wells and dead bodies.  (For his next trick, Sheriff Brown will locate Britney Spears' lost virginity and Jimmy Buffett's lost shaker of salt.)
 * Another story you won't see at CP - a former creationist now spreading the gospel of evolution.
 * What could the US have done to prevent death and destruction during WWII? We should have bombed the camps How long till the election again?
 * More news that won't be posted at the other place: scientists believe they have pinpointed a genetic cause for autism.
 * The perils of Biblical Literalism. Ouch!
 * The percentage of people who believe in creationism depends on how the question is asked.
 * Peace on Earth and good will to all men. Especially those who share the church of the nativity. (Bet this one doesn't make Conservapedia's breaking news.)
 * Merry Christmas! A Florida school board, which had been considering  teaching Intelligent Design, has backed off, citing a deluge of satirical letters to the school board.
 * If Osama bin Laden was murdered, as Benazir Bhutto claimed in November, then who is that guy that keeps making all those videotapes, and why does the CIA keep saying he's legit?
 * If you want to lose faith in humanity, democracy, and especially the media, click here.
 * Ron Paul joins the ranks of the overtly uneducated.
 * This little screed can only be described as a rant, but just look at the book by the article's "author"... it's towards the end. For real hilarity, note that the author is quoted for the truth of his statements on Conservapedia's main page.
 * Rise and fall - serious business.
 * I-35 - a prophecy by God, and a call for Christian action with the power to stop homosexuality! Seriously, this "purity siege" stuff is... disturbing.
 * Thought Gonzales was bad? Thank God J. Edgar Hoover is dead.
 * The New York Times recently noted this article in discussing Mike Huckabee, whose religion apparently causes him to spuriously object to bills that circumstantially go against his beliefs.
 * Next time some Canadian gets all smug on you about how Canada doesn't have the same problems with right-wing Christian fundamentalism as the USA does, punch him in the nose.*Creationism soars to dizzying new academic heights - online masters degrees! But seriously, folks, they're degrees in science education, and Texas thinks it's okay.  Jesus Christ.
 * The reason why it is wrong when the left calls for death and destruction is because they are doing it for their own selfish ends; to create some theoretical secularist socialist “utopia”. When we conservatives call for death and destruction we do it for the selfless reasons of making the world a better place by removing wickedness.
 * Does God love the Creation Museum? Well, He works in mysterious ways: just ask Ken Ham how the budget is doing.
 * I think the courts should have final say over all children's names.
 * What's wrong with having some good news here?
 * Mike Huckabee's rise to fame - would he lock the election for the Democrats, or offer up a fresh new Hell? We report, you decide.
 * This is your captain, State, speaking. Please brace for impact with Church, in 3... 2... 1...
 * The war on Iran has just begun.
 * Stuff you'll never see at that other place: biomedical scientist killed by Christian backpacker because of an argument over evolution
 * In the "Secular War On Christmas", the conservatives just sustained some friendly fire, in the form of a truly awful parody carol produced as a GOP ad.
 * Religious traditions are great, ain't they?
 * An investigation (disputed, of course) of the global warming policies of the Bush administration indicates a lot of meddling. This on the same day as a scientist tells us the "The Arctic is screaming."
 * The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments on the habeas corpus rights on Guantanamo Bay detainees. Here's a surprise: the detainees' lawyer        off Scalia (if you listen to the oral arguments, you can actually hear the blood vein throb).
 * Gay? Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
 * Stop me if you've heard this one before: A black, Jewish, homosexual, handicapped Mexican AIDS patient walks into a bar in Dacono Colorado and...
 * And this is why they love Mike Huckabee so much over at Conservapedia.
 * Former science director of the Texas Education Authority is asked to resign for not being "neutral" on evolution. Where is this country going?  More here.* Hey, how's that abstinence-only education working?  Not so good, huh?  What a, errr, surprise
 * When commercialism, religious holidays and guns collide. What does it say about the world when "Holiday Mall Shootings" have become a news category of their own?
 * Happy Hanukkah!


 * Hooray! Springer, the Opera not blasphemy. UK court decision.
 * So Iran isn't producing nuclear weapons, but whatevs, let's invade anyway...
 * Well could you ever imagine ... George Bush finally sees the light.
 * Scientists have found evidence that dinosaurs must have died out yesterday, not millions of years ago! That is, if you don't understand fossilization, and think the only way that soft tissue is ever preserved is in the short-term... which is empirically disproven... anyways, we report, you decide.
 * For an... errr... "interesting" take on Hanukkah, read this article in MSNBC's Slate.
 * A British teacher working in Sudan allowed her second graders to vote on the name of a teddy bear. First danger signal:  She had to explain to them the alien concept of voting.  Second danger signal:  They named the bear "Muhammed."  Now the 54-year-old teacher faces three months in prison for blasphemy.  Third danger signal:  Possible lynch mobs have formed outside the jail where she is being held... UPDATE! It looks like she is going to be released within hours (of 08:37 GMT), after a presidential pardon.
 * In a horrifying miscarriage of justice, an Activist Judge breaks up a American Christian family. (The "miscarriage" part is the fact that the child-raping sonofabitch only got 14 years in prison.)
 * A new Talking Jesus Doll, just in time for the holidays! (The video on the page is especially sacrilegious).
 * Oh noes! A football game was actually played without the National Anthem being sung! Has anything so un-American ever occurred? Have the terrorists finally won? NOTE: One commentator claimed "I'm moving to Saudi Arabia".
 * Pat Robertson says that yoga is "spooky".
 * Another scary unsubstantiated quote: "While there is certainly enough paranoia on the right about 9/11 and 'The New World Order,' black helicopter conspiracies, the driving force behind 9/11 Truthers, Kennedy conspiracists, and Area 51 nutcases has been the far Left of American politics."
 * ChristianAnswers.net helpfully lists the top ten CULTS in the United States.... Unfortunately, most of them are ESTABLISHED RELIGIONS and many are the same freaking religion
 * A New York Times article about creation "scientists". Quote: "If all the evidence in the universe turned against creationism, ... I would still be a creationist because that is what the Word of God seems to indicate". Does that sound objective or what?
 * Tony Blair - self-admitted "religious nutter."
 * Teens who lose their virginity early are less likely to end up delinquent than their abstaining peers (subscribers only, emphasis in the original; The Nation, 12/3/07, under "Noted").
 * Breaking News!!! Former Bush Press secretary accuses the President and Cheney of teh DECEIT!!!!!
 * Christian Voice, the UK's leading importer of nutcase anti-vaccine, anti-homosexuality fundamentalist Christianity is seeking permission to sue the BBC over Jerry Springer the Opera. It'd be a sad lookout for British justice if the same judges who supported free speech over cartoons of the prophet Mohammed decided to allow prosecutions under the UK's archaic blasphemy laws.
 * President Bush was the first to show America how Rapture politics work: apparently, if you're sure that Jesus is a-comin' any day now, things like global warming, poverty, and intelligent foreign policy are not must-haves for the presidency. Now, Mike Huckabee, with the endorsement of the "author" who made the Rapture "pop culture," seems poised to deliver four more years of the same, if elected!  Super...
 * A school board in Florida moves closer to including ID in its curriculum. A quote from one board member: "If it ever comes to the board for a vote, I will vote against the teaching of evolution as part of the science curriculum."
 * A spoof on global-warming-denial hysteria has the right-wingers, such as the famously meticulous Rush Limbaugh, in an uproar. An interview with the prankster is here.  Thanks to "Top 10 Conservative Idiots" for this one.
 * Further proof that intelligence is not genetic, Martin Luther King's niece makes the claim that the woes of the African American community are the result of abortion. Yes, nothing would end racial inequality in this country like truckloads of unwanted kids.
 * MSNBC article titled "Do-gooders can become the worst cheats -- Study: Sense of moral superiority might lead to rationalizing bad behavior." That just about says it all.
 * Our old friend Heart of Gold has been schoolin' the atheistic evolutionists over at The Panda's Thumb! Or so he seems to think...
 * The Discovery Institute gives a numbered list of "false facts" from the Nova special. Does this remind anyone of another website?
 * There are no good guns. There are no bad guns. There are lots of stupid people with guns, though. Edit: Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Conservapedia was down, so there was no way of telling if an atheist, liberal Darwinist was to blame.
 * Should the government respect individual privacy? Yes, but the citizens need to change their idea of privacy
 * Another "think" tank tries to disprove global warming - the Heartland Institute. But wait - it's another Eagle Forum endorsed group.  I think that should say it all.
 * Whine, whine, whine Ben Stein! It's obvious you--and Bill O'Reilly--have no clue.
 * It looks like a battle of words is brewing between Michael Behe on his Amazon blog and editors at the Panda's thumb. Get your popcorn now!
 * The reason the earth must be flat: if it were round, houses would have to be built with curved lumber. (This is probably parody, but it's too good to pass up) (and teh link doesn't work...)
 * Look at   , get arrested for molestation. That's how it works in Jesusland.
 * Evidence for a zombie attack at Hierakonpolis! Hogwash, you say?  It's no worse than the evidence for dinosaurs and humans coexisting.  (Humor alert!)
 * The governor of Georgia and thousands of orthodox rabbis will pray for rain. (Unfortunately, it looks like the rain dance festival  was a bust!)  Any bets as to whether the state gets any rain?
 * The U.S. House of Representatives approves a bill that would forbid discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace ~ a major gay rights victory! Let's see how quickly Senator Sam Brownback can whip out his charts, and Bush can get his special "veto pen" inked.
 * The salt of the ocean didn't kill plants during the "global flood" because it .blogspot.com/2007/11/creationism-faq-by-paul-abramson.html wasn't stirred enough.
 * Rationalwiki:'A Group Bound Only By Ideology And Hate ... A Model Internet Terror Cell' - an internet hate machine? Yet another example of the stunning ability of True Americanstm to apply the label "terrorist" to anybody that they don't like.
 * A direct quote: "If evolution is true, and we are just more highly developed animals, then violence and rape cannot be condemned on moral grounds." Apart from the fact that evolution doesn't assume humans to be "more highly developed", the argument from (especially nonsensical) adverse consequences and slippery slope in the same sentence are impressive!
 * Liberalism (in the US sense) is a mental disorder. But I doubt your health insurance will cover treatment.
 * Ugly coyote, or mythical monster? Turns out it's... a really, really ugly coyote.  And no goats were harmed in the process of the discovery.
 * Fred Phelps and his loathesome brood may need to cut back on the protesting at funerals, now that they've lost a $2.9 million lawsuit against them. (Update: Did I say $2.9 Million?  Sorry, it's $10.9 Million now.)  Update:  Some Guy With A Website points out that this is unconstitutional, and will probably get overturned on appeal.  And that the ACLU, in their thankless task of protecting the rights of even the worst people, has once again been used as cannon-fodder by hatemongers.
 * It's been only a couple of months since Larry Craig's rise to infamy. You'd think that guys like this would be more careful.  Here's more from his hometown paper.